Big Brother Season 28 begins Thursday, July 9 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, and the premiere will run 90 minutes. For viewers who have been searching for when the next chapter starts, the answer is now fixed: the new season opens this week, with Julie Chen Moonves returning to host and Rick Devens among the announced competitors.
The timing matters because CBS is rolling out the season on a tight schedule. New episodes will air three times per week on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET, with Wednesday episodes stretching to 90 minutes and Sunday and Thursday installments running an hour each. Thursday episodes will also feature a live eviction, which gives the week a built-in finish line and makes the first night more than just a reset.
That schedule also tells viewers how to keep up after the premiere. Big Brother airs on CBS and streams the next day on Paramount+, while Big Brother: Unlocked is set for Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET. The live feeds go live on Friday, July 10 at 9 p.m. ET, and fans will be able to watch them on Paramount+ or Pluto TV, with live feed coverage also appearing on the show’s YouTube channel for a limited time after every episode.
There is still one piece CBS has not fully opened up. The network revealed 14 contestants on July 7, but it is still teasing additional surprise houseguests to be announced later during the premiere episode. That leaves the cast list incomplete even as the season start date is locked in, which is exactly the kind of wrinkle Big Brother uses to keep viewers watching past the opening hour.
Big Brother has always worked by sealing competitors inside a house, cutting them off from the outside world and asking them to vote each other out one by one. Season 28 leans into that familiar setup with a time trip theme built around nostalgia from different decades, but the more immediate story is simpler: the season starts Thursday night, the feeds follow on Friday, and the missing names are still waiting to be revealed.
