Rachel Reilly made a surprise return on the Big Brother season 28 premiere on Thursday, July 9, but the visit did not last long. After entering the house for a challenge, she was pushed into a volcano by a velociraptor and posted afterward that she was alive, calling it a crazy experience.
That is why Big Brother tonight is drawing attention now: the season 28 launch packed its biggest shock into the opening hours, and it came with a former winner at the center of it. Reilly, 41, also joked that she had now never been evicted from the Big Brother house for two seasons in a row, a line that fit the show’s habit of turning humiliation into spectacle.
The moment mattered because Reilly is not a casual guest. She won season 13 in 2011, first played on season 12, where she met Brendon Villegas, and later tied the knot with him in 2012. She and Villegas also competed on The Amazing Race in 2012, and she returned again for season 27, where her run ended after she failed to complete the White Locust challenge in time and was sent to the jury house.
Julie Chen Moonves also used the premiere to introduce more movement in the cast, announcing that Survivor’s Rick Devens and Big Brother alum Angela Murray would be joining the show. Moonves later said in an interview published Friday, July 10, that Reilly probably has made the lava her minions, faked her own death, had Brendon in the dinosaur suit, and is coming back for revenge on Angela for celebrating her demise.
That line points to the oddest part of the premiere twist: Reilly’s exit was played for drama, but it was not treated like the end of her role in the season. Moonves said Angela was received like a rock star, and she added that the only person she saw really freaking out about Rick Devens was Angela. She also said the others did not seem to know much about him.
The open question now is not whether the premiere worked for attention. It clearly did. It is who steps into Reilly’s place next, since a new reality TV legend is expected to take her spot in an upcoming episode. That keeps the season’s launch moving and gives the show another chance to reset the shock before the week’s regular episodes continue on CBS Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET, with episodes also streaming on Paramount+.
