Big Brother Season 28 will premiere July 9 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, and CBS says the competition series will mark its 1,000th episode during the new season. Big Brother: Unlocked returns the following day in the same time slot, as the broadcaster loads the summer run with what it calls the most programming hours ever.
After the premiere, new episodes will air Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, with live evictions set for Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The schedule gives the long-running reality show a heavy weekly footprint as it heads into a season built around a rare milestone for a primetime series.
The network is leaning on a franchise that has held its audience late into the run. The Season 27 finale averaged 4.3 million views on CBS, a 33% jump from the Season 26 premiere, which drew 3.2 million viewers. Ashley Hollis won Season 27 in a 6-1 jury vote and took home $750,000.
Big Brother remains one of CBS’s most durable summer brands. The show, hosted by Julie Chen Moonves, follows strangers living under one roof while under constant watch from 94 HD cameras and 113 microphones. Created by John de Mol and produced by Fly on the Wall Entertainment in association with Banijay Americas, it has built its identity on nonstop surveillance, shifting alliances and the pressure of being watched every second of the day.
The 1,000-episode mark matters because CBS says Big Brother is the first primetime series to reach it. That puts the new season in rare company before a single contestant enters the house. The bigger question now is whether the network’s biggest programming push yet can turn that milestone into another ratings lift, or whether the franchise’s long run becomes the story itself.
