Big Brother 26 is the twenty-sixth season of the American reality television program Big Brother. The program is an adaptation of the franchise created in 1999 by John de Mol Jr. The season features an artificial intelligence theme. It premiered on CBS on July 17, 2024, and concluded on October 13, 2024.
The season ran for ninety days, ending on October 13, 2024, when Chelsie Baham was crowned the winner, defeating Makensy Manbeck by a vote of 7–0. Tucker Des Lauriers was voted America's Favorite HouseGuest, becoming the first pre-jury HouseGuest to claim this prize.
Format
Big Brother follows a group of contestants, known as HouseGuests, who live inside a custom-built house outfitted with cameras and microphones recording their every move 24 hours a day. The HouseGuests are sequestered with no contact with the outside world. During their stay, the HouseGuests share their thoughts on their day-to-day lives inside the house in a private room known as the Diary Room. Each week, the HouseGuests compete in competitions in order to win power and safety inside the house. At the start of each week, the Houseguests compete in a Head of Household (abbreviated as "HOH") competition. The winner of the HoH competition is immune from eviction and selects two HouseGuests to be nominated for eviction.
Six HouseGuests are then selected to compete in the Power of Veto (abbreviated as "PoV") competition: the reigning HoH, the nominees are guaranteed to play with the other slots being assigned by random draw. The winner of the PoV competition has the right to either revoke the nomination of one of the nominated HouseGuests or leave them as is. If the veto winner uses this power, the HoH must immediately nominate another HouseGuest for eviction. The PoV winner is also immune from being named as the replacement nominee. On eviction night, all HouseGuests vote to evict one of the nominees, though the Head of Household and the nominees are not allowed to vote. This vote is conducted in the privacy of the Diary Room. In the event of a tie, the Head of Household casts the tie-breaking vote. The nominee with the most votes is evicted from the house. The last seven evicted HouseGuests comprise the Jury and are sequestered in a separate location following their eviction and ultimately decide the winner of the season. The Jury is only allowed to see the competitions and ceremonies that include all of the remaining HouseGuests; they are not shown any interviews or other footage that might include strategy or details regarding nominations. The viewing public is able to award an additional prize by choosing "America's Favorite HouseGuest." All evicted HouseGuests are eligible to win this award except for those who either voluntarily leave or are forcibly removed for rule violations.
HouseGuests
Online applications for the season were underway by January 2024 while in-person casting sessions occurred in March and April. The cast was revealed on July 15, 2024. At this time it was also revealed that the houseguests would have the power to vote in a seventeenth houseguest by a majority vote. This was later revealed to be a ruse that introduced the season's primary theme. Several Houseguests had made previous appearances on reality television: Angela Murray previously appeared on Dr. Phil's House Calls in 2021, The Price Is Right in 2019, and Let's Make a Deal. In 2019, Brooklyn Rivera appeared on Dr. Phil's titular talk show. In 2023, T'Kor Clottey appeared on Kelly Clarkson's talk show. In 2023, Rubina Bernabe appeared on Don't Forget the Lyrics!, winning $10,000.
Name Age Occupation Residence Result 27 Nonprofit director Rancho Cucamonga, California WinnerDay 90 22 Construction project manager Houston, Texas Day 90 25 Physical therapist Bowie, Maryland 35 Event bartender Los Angeles, California 35 Mattress sales representative Hilo, Hawaii 50 Real estate agent Syracuse, Utah 26 VIP cocktail server Miami, Florida 23 Crochet business owner Atlanta, Georgia 25 Nurse recruiter Omaha, Nebraska 30 Video store clerk Tampa, Florida 30 Marketing/sales executive Brooklyn, New York 34 Business administrator Dallas, Texas 21 Former Marine Boise, Idaho 52 Former undercover cop Boston, Massachusetts 33 Celebrity chef Los Angeles, California 25 Tech sales rep Roswell, Georgia
Future appearances In 2025, Cedric Hodges competed on The Challenge: Vets & New Threats. Later that year, Angela Murray, Chelsie Baham, Rubina Bernabe, and Tucker Des Lauriers also competed on The Amazing Race 38 each partnered with their respective family members. Murray then made a cameo appearance in Big Brother 27 to host the Week 8 Veto Competition. Baham also made appearances on Big Brother: Unlocked.
In 2026, Murray competed on Big Brother 28. Hodges competed on The Challenge: Cutthroat.
Episodes
===Notes===
Voting history Color key:
+ Finale Head of Household Angela Chelsie Cedric Quinn Tucker T'kor Quinn Chelsie Leah Makensy Chelsie Makensy Chelsie Makensy (None) Nominations(initial) KenneyKimoLisa AngelaKenneyLisa AngelaKenneyTucker CedricMakensyTucker BrooklynCamQuinn CamMakensyTucker AngelaKimoRubina AngelaKimo KimoRubina AngelaKimo AngelaKimo KimoRubina CamMakensy (None) Veto winner(s) Lisa Kenney TuckerMakensy Tucker Tucker Cam Leah Makensy AngelaLeah Makensy Kimo Makensy Makensy winner Kimo Tucker Tucker Makensy Chelsie Makensy Rubina (None) Nominations(final) KenneyMatt AngelaLisa KenneyQuinn CedricRubina BrooklynCam AngelaTucker JosephKimo KimoQuinn RubinaT'kor AngelaLeah AngelaRubina KimoRubina CamRubina Cam Chelsie Chelsie Noteligible Head ofHousehold Kenney Rubina Cam Tucker Joseph Head ofHousehold T'kor Leah Head ofHousehold Kimo Head ofHousehold NominatedWinner Makensy Kenney Lisa KenneyCedric BrooklynTucker Joseph Quinn T'kor Head ofHousehold Angela Head ofHousehold Rubina Cam Cam Matt Lisa Kenney Rubina Nominated Tucker Kimo Quinn T'kor Leah Angela Kimo Nominated Chelsie Rubina Matt Lisa Kenney Nominated Brooklyn Angela Joseph Quinn Nominated Leah Nominated Nominated Nominated Chelsie Kimo Matt Lisa Kenney Cedric Brooklyn Angela Nominated Nominated Rubina Leah Angela Nominated Evicted(Day 80) Chelsie Angela Head ofHousehold Nominated KenneyNoteligible Brooklyn Nominated Kimo Kimo T'kor Nominated Nominated Evicted(Day 73) Chelsie Leah Kenney Lisa Kenney Cedric Brooklyn Tucker Kimo Kimo Head ofHousehold Nominated Evicted(Day 73) Chelsie T'kor Matt Lisa Kenney Cedric Brooklyn Head ofHousehold Joseph Quinn Nominated Evicted(Day 66) Chelsie Quinn Matt Lisa Nominated Head ofHousehold Brooklyn Tucker Head ofHousehold Nominated Evicted(Day 59) Chelsie Joseph Matt Lisa Kenney Cedric Brooklyn Angela Nominated Evicted(Day 52) Tucker Matt Lisa Quinn Cedric Head ofHousehold Nominated Evicted(Day 45) Brooklyn Matt Lisa Kenney Rubina Nominated Evicted(Day 38) Cedric Noteligible LisaHead ofHouseholdNominated Evicted(Day 31) Kenney Nominated Angela Nominated Evicted(Day 24) Lisa Kenney Nominated Evicted(Day 17) Matt Nominated Evicted(Day 10) Evicted Matt8 of 11votesto evict Lisa11 of 12votesto evict Kenney10 of 11votesto evict Cedric6 of 9votesto evict Brooklyn8 of 9votesto evict Tucker5 of 8votesto evict Joseph4 of 7votesto evict Quinn4 of 6votesto evict T'kor4 of 5votesto evict Leah4 of 4votesto evict Angela3 of 3votesto evict Kimo2 of 2votesto evict RubinaMakensy'schoiceto evict CamMakensy'schoiceto evictChelsie 7 votesto winMakensy 0 votesto win Notes
Production Development Big Brother 26 was officially confirmed by CBS on May 7, 2024. The primary theme for Big Brother 26 was based around artificial intelligence (AI); the season premiere introduced a character known as AINSLEY (Artificial Intelligence Network Self Learning Entity), a personified AI agent who appeared throughout the season (initially portrayed in-person as a fake 17th HouseGuest, and later as an animated avatar) to introduce themed twists and challenges.
Julie Chen Moonves returned as host. She contracted the COVID-19 virus in September 2024 and was absent from episode 27, marking the first time in the program's history that she missed an eviction episode; Jerry O'Connell hosted in her place.
One of the major twists of the season was the "A.I. Arena": three Houseguests were nominated for possible eviction by the H.O.H. rather than two, who then competed in a challenge in the titular room. Whoever won the challenge would be declared safe, while the remaining two went up for eviction as normal. Production staff stated that the twist was intended to make the Thursday-night eviction episodes more unpredictable, as well as reinstate the presence of a challenge on eviction night (as the HoH competition had been displaced from eviction night in recent seasons of Big Brother). Executive producer Allison Grodner suggested that the twist or a variant of it could return for future seasons, considering it a "success" that the producers had "learned a lot from". The twist later became a permanent part of the game the following year in Big Brother 27, rebranded as the "BB Block Buster".
Filming Filming began on July 16, 2024, and ran for 90 days.
Production design Similar to the season's overall theme, the Big Brother house was designed with an artificial intelligence theme. Bedrooms in the house were designed using AI prompts. The have-not room is described as "only a wireframe skeleton bedroom" because the AI crashed after given the prompt. Throughout the season, housemates interacted with each other and AI characters such as AINSLEY and Jankie via Proto Hologram devices.
Release Broadcast The season premiered on CBS over two nights on July 17 and 18, 2024. New episodes then aired on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. eastern time (ET). It concluded with a live finale on October 13, 2024. Beginning July 25, Wednesday and Thursday episodes moved to 8:00 p.m. ET.
Streaming Following its broadcast, new episodes will stream on Paramount+ and CBS On Demand. As with previous seasons, Paramount+ is also providing access to 24/7 live feeds. The live feeds also stream on Pluto TV in a free advertisement-supported format. In a change from previous seasons, those watching the live feeds will no longer be able to pause or rewind the video.
References