Release

CBS's SUMMER HIT "BIG BROTHER" RETURNS ON MULTIPLE PLATFORMS, PREMIERING THURSDAY, JULY 9

"BIG BROTHER" TO KEEP VIEWERS' EYES ON-AIR (CBS), ONLINE (CBS.COM, REALNETWORKS® AND THE CBS AUDIENCE NETWORK), ON MOBILE (CBS MOBILE) AND ON CABLE (SHOWTIME)

  

"BIG BROTHER" Premieres Thursday, July 9,

With One-Hour Episodes to Air Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (Live) on CBS

  

For the First Time, "BIG BROTHER" Debuts Two Twitter® Pages,

"BIG BROTHER SCOOP" and "BIG BROTHER HOH"

  

"Inside Dish with Ross Mathews" will Launch His Weekly "BIG BROTHER" Segments at TheInsider.com beginning Friday, July 10

  

Redesigned and Relaunched "BIG BROTHER" Site on CBS.com;

Includes New "Big Brother" Fantasy League

  

CBS and RealNetworks® Join Forces for Another Season of Exclusive 24/7 "BIG BROTHER" Live Internet Feeds, Available Through CBS.com and SuperPass

 

The CBS Audience Network to Offer Full-Length "BIG BROTHER" Episodes and Highlight Clips Online

  

The CBS Mobile Channel Will Simulcast Episodes of "BIG BROTHER" Live And Launch An All-New Mobile Game

  

CBS and Showtime Partner Again to Bring Viewers Three Hours of Live Nightly Action from Inside the "BIG BROTHER" House

 

            The 11th season of BIG BROTHER gets underway with an expanded multi-platform presence which will include presentations of the series on-air (CBS Television), online (RealNetworks, a redesigned CBS.com, the CBS Audience Network, Twitter and "Inside Dish with Ross Mathews at TheInsider.com), on the phone (CBS Mobile) and on cable (SHOWTIME), when BIG BROTHER premieres Thursday, July 9 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT).

            CBS's BIG BROTHER multi-platform initiative includes the following elements:

 

"BIG BROTHER" on THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK:

 

  • BIG BROTHER returns for its 11th installment on Thursday, July 9 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network.  Following the premiere, BIG BROTHER will be broadcast three nights weekly, beginning Sunday, July 12  (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), Tuesday, July 14 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) and the LIVE eviction show, hosted by Julie Chen, beginning Thursday, July 16 (8:00-9:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT).

 

"BIG BROTHER" ONLINE:

 

  • For the first time, CBS has launched a Twitter® experience to keep BIG BROTHER fans and viewers "in the know" with daily updates from a production insider.  "BigBrotherScoop" (www.Twitter.com/BigBrotherScoop) will provide exclusive updates as things happen in real time. 

 

  • On Friday, July 10, a second Twitter page will serve as a perk for each week's Head Of Household.  "BigBrotherHoH" (www.Twitter.com/BigBrotherHoH) will give that week's Head Of Household the opportunity to tweet daily messages directly to viewers and fans.  To obtain instant updates for all your favorite CBS Stars, go to www.CBS.com/Twitter.

 

  • On Friday, July 10, "Inside Dish with Ross Mathews" will launch with weekly BIG BROTHER segments at http://www.theinsider.com/.  Ross Mathews will also conduct weekly chats with the latest evicted House Guest beginning Friday, July 24.

           

 

  • More videos and photos than ever before where fans can catch up on prior episodes and be primed for upcoming shows.

 

  • The new video player is 30% bigger and loads 50% faster and includes an innovative thumbnail navigation for easy access to prior episodes and clips.

 

  • New Interact section where fans can go to find the latest community conversations, participate in the most recent polls, watch and vote for their favorite moments of the season and connect with other BIG BROTHER fans.

 

  • More content, including summaries of all the events that happen during each televised broadcast; descriptions of the week's challenges; voting history pages; photo galleries; and House Guest section with complete profiles.

 

  • New this season is the BIG BROTHER Fantasy League (http://www.cbs.com/bbfantasy), an online contest that lets fans compete for the chance to win the grand prize of $1,000 while they follow the on-air broadcast to see which BIG BROTHER contestant will make it to the end.  Each week, BIG BROTHER fans choose two active BIG BROTHER contestants to be on their team. Players accrue points based on their ability to predict their team members' actions and outcome of events.

 

  • "HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD BLOG AND PHOTO GALLERY" returns for its fourth season, in which fans will be able to hear straight from the Head of Household about life in the BIG BROTHER house, what it's like to be under the constant gaze of dozens of cameras and watched live on the Internet 24/7.  www.CBS.com/bigbrother will also feature photos taken inside the house by the weekly HOH (Head of Household).

 

Additional BIG BROTHER online elements include:

 

•·        Full-length episodes, highlight clips and other content from BIG BROTHER will be available across the vast CBS Audience Network, allowing a community of fans to watch the programs online and incorporate clips into their blogs, wikis, widgets and interact and discuss BIG BROTHER on message boards.  The CBS Audience Network consists of dozens of distribution partners including AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Fancast, Joost, Bebo, Sling Media, Windows Media Center, IMDb, Sony Bravia, TVGuide and Veoh, as well as websites from CBS's 29 owned television, 144 radio and up to 183 affiliated stations. 

 

  • CBS and RealNetworks®, Inc., join forces for the ninth straight cycle to provide exclusive All Access live streaming video from inside the BIG BROTHER house.  The webcast coverage debuts immediately following the Thursday, July 9 premiere and will be accessible through the official BIG BROTHER Web site at CBS.com and through Real's SuperPass subscription service at www.real.com/bigbrother.

 

  • The entire three-month live All Access Internet feed of BIG BROTHER will be available through SuperPass.  Subscribers to the All Access video stream can watch any one of four live camera feeds from inside the BIG BROTHER house or catch all of the action at once with a new, enhanced quad-cam view which allows fans to see four different video feeds simultaneously. Subscribers will also have access to an exclusive, subscribers-only webchat that will allow fans from across the country to converse about what they see live on the feeds. And, for the first time, subscribers will have full access to the feed archives so they can go back and watch any moment they may have missed. (As in past years, to preserve the drama for BIG BROTHER television viewers, CBS may block or delay the webcast for a limited number of real-time and other events that transpire in the house.)

 

 

 

"BIG BROTHER" MOBILE:

 

  • BIG BROTHER episodes will be simulcast on the CBS Mobile Channel, presented on FloTV's mobile TV service. 

 

  • Viewers will be able to interact and influence the show through SMS text messaging via their mobile phones.

 

  • All-new element this season is BIG BROTHER Mobile Game, which consumers can download and play a simulation game where they compete in the BIG BROTHER house as one of the past houseguests, playing various mini games for Head of Household, Power of Veto and for food. 

 

 

"BIG BROTHER" on CABLE:

 

  • CBS and Showtime will partner again to present "BIG BROTHER: After Dark," a live look inside the Big Brother house during the late-night hours.  "BIG BROTHER: After Dark" will feature a feed from the BIG BROTHER house for three hours (12:00-3:00 AM, live ET/delayed PT), seven days a week, on the cable network's "SHO2" channel beginning Thursday, July 9 .  

 

BIG BROTHER follows a group of people living together in a house outfitted with over 52 cameras and microphones, recording their every move, 24 hours-a-day.  Each week, the House Guests will vote someone out of the house.  At the end, the last remaining House Guest will receive the grand prize of $500,000. 

 

For this installment, we ask the question, "What group did you fit into in high school?"  That is the question 12 strangers will face on the season premiere. 12 strangers will move into the BIG BROTHER house and learn that they'll be 'kickin it old school' this summer - high school to be exact.  The House Guests will be shocked to learn that they will be playing the game in one of four familiar high school cliques - popular, athletes, brainiacs and off-beats.  They will compete for food, safety from eviction and luxury prizes as part of their clique.

 

They will also be surprised to discover that a mystery 13th House Guest is coming to BIG BROTHER to join the game and give an advantage to one of the cliques.

 

In addition, the BIG BROTHER House Guests will live and compete in a house that has been transformed into a mean, green, eco-friendly living machine.  For the first time, the House Guests will be made fully aware of the amount of waste they create, and will be required to sort, recycle and place all food items in an outdoor manual compost center, as well as an indoor automatic composter. 

 

BIG BROTHER is executive produced by Emmy Award winner Allison Grodner, Rich Meehan and Scott Einziger in association with Endemol U.S.A.

 

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CBS Press Contacts:   

Colleen Sullivan            818-655-1590             colleen.sullivan@cbs.com

Amy Miller                    212-975-4757             amy.miller@cbs.com

  

CBS Photo Contacts:  

Kathleen Tanji              818-655-1543             mailto:kathleen.tanji@tvc.cbs.com

Meagan Mclaughlin       212-975-7518             mcmclaughlin@cbs.com

 

CBS Interactive:          

Sarah Cain                   415-344-2218             sarah.cain@cbs.com

 

Showtime:                   

Stuart Zakim                 212-708-159               stuart.zakim@showtime.net

 

 

    Show Contacts