Big Brother 28: Everything We Know So Far

[00:00:14] Hello everybody, Mike Bloom here bringing you some breaking Big Brother news. We are just a little over a week away from the highly anticipated premiere of Big Brother 28 and my God I wish I could take a time trip to then and not have to wait the intervening eight days but regardless we're going to be taking a time trip apparently this entire summer as we got a lot of information about Big Brother 28 today.

[00:00:44] Including the theme, the house and maybe some things that might be in store for us this summer. So we'll get into all of it today everything we know about Big Brother 28 so far and of course I would not be able to talk about anything involving Big Brother without this man who quite literally wrote a best-selling book about it. The doors are open. He is slowly coming back into business and if we're talking time travel we're talking a case of days.

[00:01:14] Deja vu. Feels like deja vu every time we get to hear from this guy welcoming us into every Big Brother season. Taran Armstrong, is your body ready for what's about to happen? It's about as ready as it can be. You know, Big Brother they're usually a few years behind on their theming. You know, like they did the AI thing like two or three years into that. They did the traders theming like three seasons deep into the traders.

[00:01:44] However, time travel I actually think is a pretty timely thing because I think we all wish we could go back before the previous election.

[00:02:02] Yeah, 10 years ago Zingbot we could depose him from office. He wouldn't need to flee to planet Zing. I'm exactly on the same page as you Taren. I mean again to feel like we're already flashing back. This is not the first time we've dealt with time travel in theory. Real ones remember the time laser that opened up not only Big Brother 25 but the multiverse as well. So now finally this is coming full circle and we'll get to embrace that theme wholly.

[00:02:30] Yes, they've been toying with this idea for a while. The time later they brought back Frankie last year toward the end. So they've really loved this whole concept it seems.

[00:02:47] Yeah, that's a really good point. And let's start cracking into this because again CBS was able to release a bunch of information today over the course of press releases photos being released.

[00:03:00] I can reveal as well that some media and past house guests were invited to tour the house last week. So you check out the internet social media. There's plenty of stuff that's coming out as well about, you know, perhaps some footage that more looks at things from a more detailed perspective as well because there's a lot of stuff contained within this house.

[00:03:23] There's a lot of stuff contained in this theme of Big Brother time trip. And I believe the way CBS put it, Taryn, in the press release is that they are, quote, turning time into the ultimate twist. Now, it is interesting because, as you mentioned, we have been on a bit of a nostalgia kick over the past couple of years. Now, maybe that's because, you know, we were we had, of course, season 25. Then we had the 25 year anniversary of Big Brother last year.

[00:03:53] And so we had a lot of old school elements being brought in there, whether it was obviously the presence of Rachel Riley or even like a bunch of, you know, alumni making cameos like Casey, Tyler. Of course, you had the three headed dragon of the mastermind that was Frankie and Jesse Godders and Eric Stein. So did this theme take you by surprise at all? And what do you think about it as like the overarching theme? Because this is sort of the era we're in in Big Brother, right?

[00:04:21] Between 25, 26 and 27. We've had more of these macro themes that have kind of encompassed a bunch of twists in a season. Yeah, you know, I think, you know, hearing about the time travel theme, getting the teasers before that were like, you know, little bits of the old logo. There's all this talk about the thousandth episode of the show.

[00:04:47] I had it in my mind that we were doing a little bit of like greatest hits. We're trying to kind of traveling through the eras of the show. I think there was maybe some talk about that. So honestly, I was a little bit surprised in this press drop that so much of the time travel in the house seemed to be like real world.

[00:05:14] Like prehistoric age. It's the Ming Dynasty. Here's a triceratops skull. Remember Y2K? And I was like, okay, this feels more like the corny Big Brother that I know. Yeah, I mean, the aesthetic, we can certainly get into this. Maybe do our own, you know, quick takes on some of the house photos and footage that have been released.

[00:05:39] Is kind of a smattering of like, I don't know, Doctor Who's garage in terms of just really bits and pieces from all eras of human history, including, you know, forward facing history as well. And what we think the future might provide. Though I think, again, perhaps the past 10 years have been any indication we have no idea what the future is going to provide. But yeah, to your point, it is an interesting question as to like, okay, is this just applying in terms of aesthetics?

[00:06:08] And it seems like the answer that they're indicating at the outset right now is not necessarily. Julie Chen Moonves did release a clip of her introducing this house tour. And here's what she had to say. Quote, for season 28, we're throwing out all the rules of time and space and sending our house guests on a journey unlike anything you've ever seen before. From prehistoric times to iconic decades and unforgettable moments from Big Brother history,

[00:06:36] this house is packed with surprises around every single corner. In addition, Taryn, I know that some of the press who were in attendance for this set visit got the chance to talk with Julie, and she was able to elaborate a bit more on what this theme entailed. She said, again, quote, time travel that could go forwards or backwards, and that will play into some of the competitions.

[00:07:00] Does that mean we're going to bring back some competition you haven't seen since season two, three, four, five? I sure hope so. I'm pretty sure you're going to see like, oh, they haven't done that forever. And then with the time travel theme, maybe we'll do this new twist, which is you love that competition in season four, but you have to be, I don't know, surrounded by dinosaurs. Who knows? So, Taran, does that move the needle either way for you in terms of, you know,

[00:07:29] getting to celebrate more of these old school callbacks from a Big Brother perspective as well, not just, you know, some 80s nostalgia on the wall? I mean, listen, I was here last year when we were introduced to Hotel Mystere with all the clues and hidden entrances, and basically none of that did anything. So I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to what Big Brother says about their theme.

[00:07:58] I don't doubt that we're going to get some kind of throwback at some point. And, you know, they certainly will do their theming throughout. They did Ainsley for a while. Janky, that whole thing happened. It's just like, did it actually impact the game? Not really. And I am, quite frankly, good. But, yeah, I mean, if they're going to, if they want to bring back, you know, the CD tossing, if they want to bring back like the poison chalice.

[00:08:29] What would be the modern day version of tossing CDs into a pool? Tossing like Spotify subscriptions virtually onto something? Maybe it's like tossing sticks of RAM into a pool. Exactly. Throw hard drives into the room. It would be their most expensive competition. Yeah, you know, I'm more than happy to see old competitions back because old competitions were better balanced.

[00:08:57] My guess would be if they did bring old competitions back, they would change them to be less balanced. So who knows? It's also like what really are the classic competitions that people remember from 2, 3, 4, 5? I doubt there's that many in terms of especially a casual audience's perspective and that they would even particularly care. You know, pressure cooker is what everyone talks about because that's the one that sticks in everyone's mind. They already brought that one back.

[00:09:26] Yeah, or even like night moves. The chess video already brought that back in all stars. Exactly. Or like, you know, the one where they're pressing the button on their faces. We've already kind of done that with swords and stuff. So they've already kind of brought back a lot of this stuff in the past. And it makes me wonder like what what the deal is. But but hey, you know, playing around with competitions is never going to be something I'm that upset with because I don't love current state of them anyway.

[00:09:55] What about twists? Do you think that I don't know if we're going full like X Factor bringing in a strange siblings anymore. But do you think this means that we could also see certain game elements from old school seasons get brought back in as well? I sure hope not. I mean, it's again, it's like, what would we do?

[00:10:19] I mean, maybe like casting twists, we could have like a pair of X's, we could have a secret friendship, we could have, you know, we could have twins, of course. You know, there's plenty that you could do there. With game format stuff, so many of the big brother twists in the past have been fundamental to the way that season played out.

[00:10:46] Like you can't really combine Battle of the Block with Blockbuster. You can't really combine, you know, they didn't really do these big format twists back in the day. And they didn't really do many twists in general for the game back in the day. So if you want to go further, like you can't really do like VIP, you can't really do whack, whack, whack, blah, blah, blah, blah. What about Pandora's box? Oh, you mean producer's choice?

[00:11:16] Like that's not a twist. That's just producers doing things. Mm hmm. I will also say, by the way, you mentioned Blockbuster. Julie has confirmed that the BB Blockbuster will be back for season 28. Now, she did sort of leave things open by being like, who knows how long it will last, how many people it will involve. But I think, you know, this was one of the more obvious confirmations in terms of news, considering how popular this has been. The fact that, you know, it survived an entire rebranding.

[00:11:44] I think even like Alison Grodner and Rich Vianhan said last year, they're not getting rid of it for the foreseeable future. But yeah, we should expect now competition late in Thursday nights for the foreseeable future. Look, it's the one thing AI has done right, apparently, is bring us this arena. So, all right. Yeah, I'm happy to see it back. I think it's a good twist. It just, it did last too long last season. I hope they learned their lesson from that.

[00:12:13] But who knows? Well, one big piece of information about this season that we need to get into, Taryn, is another thing that Julie Chen Moonves told the press. And what she teased in particular about something that would be revealed in the first couple of episodes, which is that, quote, controversial people will be factored into this season. If that gives you pause, it certainly gave the media pause in the moment.

[00:12:42] But she went on to explain, quote, if you're a Big Brother fan, you'll be like, ha ha. And I think a lot of people will be like, yes. And I think some people will be like, what? But it's good TV. And if you love a reality television beyond Big Brother, yes, there are other shows beyond Big Brother. That's her parenthetical, not mine. You'll be excited as well. Now, again, it was said that this information will be revealed a bit more in both the Premiere and Unlocked,

[00:13:11] which we'll get into a little bit in terms of new information revealed there. But Taryn, thoughts? Well, actually, that's an interesting stipulation. It was the more information on Premiere and Unlocked or more information on Cast Drop, because that could be indicative of something. Yeah, I mean, to be fair, we have had, you know, with 25 and 27 in particular with like Serene Rachel, right? Like, even during Cast Drop, it was like, something's coming on Premiere night, and then it got revealed.

[00:13:39] So that could be the case. But there's a lot of things to unpack here. Let's start with, I guess, the entire label of controversial figures. Now, listen, here's a reminder that last year, Julie labeled Rachel Riley a controversial figure. So the barometer, your mileage may absolutely vary. I do not expect, and I certainly hope that the show's like, I'd be like,

[00:14:06] all right, let's wade through the recycling bit of canceled celebrities and bring them in for our Big Brother premiere. But Taryn, what's the first thing that comes to your head when you hear Julie mention this? Big Brother controversial figure that hasn't already been pretty much ruled out. The chat, I think, is already talking about it. I've seen a lot of people talking about it. My first thought was Angela, because I thought about Rachel.

[00:14:32] I thought about recent players that could be labeled controversial, that would be, you know, brought back. And Angela, I think, strikes exactly that balance of what Julie might call controversial while not being truly controversial. Big character, recent player. Angela was my go-to. Yeah, I think that if you're thinking about alumni with that particular label, that would make sense. I don't know, maybe even someone like a Keanu.

[00:15:02] I know that he was obviously... I don't think she'd call Keanu controversial. Because from the casual perspective, he was just beloved. What about like a Morgan and Vince? I think they could have been called controversial, but I think they've both been mostly ruled out based on their activity. Yeah, I mean, listen, we'll get into the returning speculation of it all. It should be mentioned that at this media event last week, there were a handful of Big Brother alumni who were in attendance to see the house do interviews.

[00:15:30] And those people in attendance were Taylor, Chelsea, Ashley, Morgan, Vince, Paul, and Quinn from BB26. So listen, certainly weirder things have been done before. But I think if you're talking about like, you know, people who could possibly be involved with this season, maybe these people could make cameos. And that's the other thing as well, right?

[00:15:52] Is that these could, especially the fact that it's being revealed in the premiere, maybe this indicates that like, these people are stopping in to shake up the game and then kind of vamoose rather than being in there the whole summer. Yeah, that's the big thing is, are these cast members or are they guests? And I think that like, the language that's been used so far could theoretically still mean both.

[00:16:19] There was that, you know, Chinese press marketing leak from a little while ago. Mike doesn't know what it is. It might have been something that I imagined. But in that, they mentioned that there was, that they would be competing against some kind of returning players or, or other such things. But that doesn't mean that they're actually in the house, house guests with them.

[00:16:47] It could mean that they're doing like a Casey Clark bringer for a competition kind of thing. We have seen something somewhat similar to that as well back in All Stars. Or maybe it was season eight. I don't remember. But like, when they bring back people for competitions, and they are either competing in them or you're competing against them because of that. That could definitely be a thing. We know that there's some form of fan vote that's happening, specifically with like, what's going on with Unlocked.

[00:17:15] And so, there's a lot of potential things that this could mean that doesn't necessarily mean house guests. That said, it is a lot of like hubbub to be doing all of this for not house guests. Doesn't mean it's impossible. They might think like, oh, people will be so excited to see Boston Rob compete against our house guests in a survivor-themed competition from 2000. But like, you know, keep that in mind.

[00:17:44] But yes, in terms of speculation, if it is just guest hosting, not only does it or even just like competing in a competition, not only is it basically impossible to predict at that point, it doesn't even really matter. Who really cares? So, we kind of have to go off of like, if they were house guests, who might they be? Well, let's turn to the second part of Julie's statement as well, because this indicates that even the people that we're speculating about might not even be related to Big Brother whatsoever.

[00:18:12] And again, she says that, quote, if you love reality television beyond Big Brother, you'll be excited as well. So, you mentioned Boston Rob. This seems to indicate to me that some of the people we might be seeing, either from a guest perspective, perhaps from a house guest perspective, may be people from outside of Big Brother.

[00:18:33] So, when you assign that with sort of the controversial people label, I don't know, in my opinion, like mine initially goes to like the House of Villains style of casting of like a Johnny Bananas, a Johnny Fairplay. Could we finally get Tiffany New York Pollard in the mother effing house? Do you have any thoughts about that? I've actually been thinking that for a little while.

[00:18:55] Typically, in the Big Brother world, if there's multiple returning players, there's pre-gaming happening. There are calls going out and stuff gets out there. And so, if you haven't heard much, it's probably because either it's only a single person coming back or they're like really recluses. Or perhaps it's not all Big Brother players.

[00:19:26] And so, you know, the ears that might be out there in the Big Brother world aren't going to be hearing everything. So, a Survivor player makes a ton of sense. We've heard Sharon Tharp say that she's basically been told from multiple sources to expect to feature personalities from other reality shows, including Survivor specifically.

[00:20:19] And this makes a ton of sense as well. And that's not a fan base. But more importantly, is an established reality personality that has a fan base and will bring good TV for sure. That's one of the biggest strengths of the traders. And the ratings were very good last year. So, Julie saying we have controversial figures, which is the exact same language she used last year, indicates that they are trying to replicate that success to some degree.

[00:20:46] And that could very, very well mean, of course, let's bring in some people from the traders, from Survivor, from wherever. Do I think they should bring in people from the challenge? Not particularly. I don't think that's actually a wide enough audience to pull from. But, you know. To be fair, it'll be on, you know, Paramount Plus imminently. And I don't know if they want to necessarily bring on people that will probably explicitly spoil this season. They have people who are doing that enough out there on the internet. I think there's too much crossover already with the challenge.

[00:21:14] The challenge can pull Big Brother, but I think Big Brother pulling the challenge does nothing for Big Brother. People on the challenge, if it misleens, say Big Brother sucks. I think pulling from Survivor makes a ton of sense. Survivor has an audience that exists sort of in the mainstream more than Big Brother exists in. Pulling from the traders makes even more sense. So, if they can get those people into the house actually playing the game, that would be great for them.

[00:21:43] If they're just trying to borrow some names because, you know, they can't get people to commit to a full stay, but they would love to advertise that, yeah, like Rob from the traders is like going to be on Big Brother for a competition. Then, like, you know, maybe they're doing that as well. But this makes a ton of sense to me that they might be pulling from other shows.

[00:22:07] Just based on the way that this has been worded so far, you know, I think a lot of us have been thinking that maybe it's like four people. It sounds like what Julie is saying is if you're a Big Brother fan, you'll be like, aha, meaning there should be at least one Big Brother person. But then we have sources saying at least one Survivor and saying from other reality shows, plural, which indicates to me more than two probably.

[00:22:35] So, you know, maybe it's a Big Brother, a Survivor, a housewife, a traitor. Who knows? I don't know. Captain season. Let's have the reality TV led teams for the foreseeable future. I mean, I'm going to get you on the record here because, listen, it feels like every year there is rampant speculation about is this season a returning season? And obviously we've been the broken clock.

[00:23:01] He's the time travel analogy has been right twice a day in the form of the two full all star seasons. But let's get your thoughts now before, you know, anything gets confirmed in the intervening days. Do you think outside of cameos and appearances and competition hosting, we will have some form of returning house guests on Big Brother 28?

[00:23:24] If I had to make a guess, I'd say at this point, it seems more likely than not that we will have some kind of house guest on the cast. But I'm not it's not a confident guess. It's like a 55 545 kind of thing. I mean, yeah, if I'm going to put forward my very like on, you know, substantiated opinion, let me just make it clear. I know absolutely nothing.

[00:23:52] I feel like I could see it, but I can't imagine it's going to be. It's not a full all star season. That is for sure. I feel like the show has really kind of hit its groove in terms of casting. And I think they realize that and I think they want to continue on that train by bringing a lot of new house guests, especially if you're bringing on people who are fans of the show and have them if they are doing a lot of these like nostalgic callbacks to things, competitions or other to be like, oh, my God, I remember that moment.

[00:24:21] You kind of need, you know, that that that ground beef for the proverbial marketing. I feel like maybe it's a half and half, you know, that's something that we actually have never seen on Big Brother before. I could see something like you're saying, Taryn, where maybe it's like, what if it's like half and half of newbies versus like, you know, it's not an Olympics here, but maybe like a World Cup theme.

[00:24:45] Hey, here's people from all these different reality shows, a representative competing against one another and maybe with one another. It's a little highfalutin, it's a little complicated, but who's to say that's not Big Brother in a nutshell. But I don't know, I just feel like with the streak they've been on and maybe Rachel and all these cameo appearances were an indication that they are more willing than not after 22 to dip their toes back into returning waters. I just I don't necessarily know if they're ready to dive in with full force.

[00:25:13] Yeah, I agree. I think if it is returning houseguests, I do think it would be a small amount of them, certainly more than one. I would doubt more than four. So somewhere in that range makes sense to me from multiple shows, including at least one survivor, maybe one Big Brother. That makes a lot of sense to me. The question then becomes like, when do they join and how many people are on the cast total?

[00:25:43] I think we've counted like 15 seats at the table. Never really means that much. But like, if we're starting with 16, and it's that means are we looking at like four and 12? Are they all coming in together? Are we doing 12 first and then adding four later? Are they all coming in? Or is it going to be a weird number like when Rachel came in?

[00:26:04] You know, and I could see to like tying into the time travel theme of like, oh, we're going back and it's season 26 and it's Angela and oh, we're going back. And it's, you know, season whatever of Survivor. Hardy clung on to the time machine. Now we can't shake them. Hardy and his jump rope are coming back. Yeah, so who knows?

[00:26:31] All right. Well, let's get into before we take a look at the house and these aforementioned seats. One more big piece of information about not what will be coming on premiere night, but the next night. As it was announced a while back, that Big Brother Unlocked will be returning for its second season. It will be starting a little earlier than it has in the past. It'll actually be kicking off on July 10th, the night after the 90 minute premiere.

[00:26:58] And it was announced yesterday that Derek and Taylor will not be alone. Of course, they were joined by a road. Of course. Of course. Yes. Not to be confused with who Derek X. He's a nice guy and a pretty great player. But there will be someone occupying a permanent spot in that third co-host role. I guess maybe we didn't realize it. It was a loose auditioning process in that first season. And they decided on the candidate as Taron first.

[00:27:27] He came for Julie Chen Moonbez's job. And now he'll be sitting alongside Taylor and Derek on Big Brother Unlocked. Jerry O'Connell will be the celebrity panelist on Unlocked this season. Which is wild that they're going with the time trip theme when they really could just do sliders. They literally have him right there now. I guess they've already done multiverse. I was going to say they could have used him a few years back. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:54] Jerry O'Connell permanent co-host on Unlocked, which is returning. And like I said, some kind of vote twist going on in conjunction with it. Yeah. I believe that the quote from the press release is, The premiere episode of Unlocked, not Big Brother proper, launches a new interactive fan vote that will have a major impact on the game. Now, people have brought up in Wikeness News, to be fair, where the last interactive fan vote that was on Unlocked was,

[00:28:24] Who's going to get gooed? And so, game changing. That had a big impact. Yeah, exactly. It had a big impact on the laundry that day. Listen, it's a widespread of a term as controversial figures. So, I would say let's not put the cart before the horse too much to use a relic from years past, that this is going to be like, okay, we're voting for the first twist. It is interesting that, again, it was indicated that this controversial figures nomenclature

[00:28:51] was also going to be kind of teased and revealed on Unlocked as well. People have also noted that in this press release, they basically advertised like an opening weekend of Big Brother 28, where it's the 90-minute premiere on Thursday, 60-minute Unlocked on Friday, and then 90-minute episode on Sunday. So, does that mean that you think we might get, you know, reveals on reveals leading out of the premiere through Unlocked and into the Sunday episode? I'm sure.

[00:29:18] I'm sure we'll have some kind of cliffhanger kind of ending on the premiere, and then we'll dig into stuff on Unlocked and maybe kick off a vote, and then, you know, Sunday will be the first, like, real episode. The live feeds, of course, are starting after Unlocked airs on Friday. Yeah, which is interesting. So, kind of, who cares what happens with the episodes?

[00:29:47] Because we'll just start watching the real show then. But, yeah, listen, I'm excited for Unlocked. I think that, you know, it wasn't all hits, but there were actually some good parts to it, and it was fun to get extra, like, insight into certain things. So, hopefully they continue to do stuff. I think Jerry was the best guest that they had on, in terms of, like, his presence here.

[00:30:16] Wow, Taron, hasn't James Gunn been through enough slander the past week? Now you have to pile on him. Listen. I didn't see James Gunn shouting out my book. I was going to say, how do you feel that Jerry O'Connell has posted on social media in the wake of this news that he will now be officially watching the Big Brother live feeds? I'll believe it when I see it. Maybe he'll be checking out your recaps instead.

[00:30:44] Genuinely much more likely, and I welcome you, Jerry. But yes, I think it's a good move. I think that it'll be fun to see what happens. The real question to me is, like, again, how important is it to watch this show? Right. Because I think that the tactic they took last season was, it's pure bonus. There was this vote, but it just led to a sliming that didn't even, I think,

[00:31:14] happen in the episode. So, it was pure bonus content. You could have skipped it and not missed a thing. If this is a vote that actually impacts things, what they might be trying to do is saying, you kind of have to watch this show if you want to be up to date. Yeah. You're not watching Unlocked. You're only getting half the story. Right, right. And as somebody who has been reluctantly following along with Love Island this season on my Patreon,

[00:31:44] they have a version of this as well, where one of their episodes is like a side show, and there's footage from that show that is pretty crucial to the entire storyline of the actual show. And I just skip it because... And then I'm like, oh, I didn't even get to see them pick these people and what they said. And there were apparently some things that were said. And so, it's made me think, like, maybe I have to watch that now. And I think that might be what they want to do here, but who knows at this point. Yeah.

[00:32:14] So, what they teased in the press release is featuring new and returning fan-favorite segments, like the Battle of the Block being a fan-favorite, the series will offer exclusive content, inside-the-house footage, behind-the-scenes access, extended interviews, at-home packages, surprise visits from past BB favorites, unparalleled access, and the return of the coveted BB's award show. Maybe that's the interactive fan vote at the end of the day. But, yeah, I feel like that's where Unlock kind of... I feel like it kind of hit its stride towards the end.

[00:32:43] And, like, this is very much a work in progress. Taylor has certainly said about it in the press, how they were, like, trying to workshop things as the season went along. I love the fact that we brought back the, like, at-home packages, obviously checking in with Brendan and the family, with Rachel being in the house, but getting to see Will's chocolate drop and have them react. Like, that's an old-school element that I wish to see back more and more. So, I agree with what you posted before in the wake of this news, is that, like, it's turning into a bit more of, like, a bit on the side

[00:33:10] than, like, an ESPN panel show that maybe it was advertised to be in the first place. And I think that changes for the better. I agree. I think that, at the end of the day, like, a produced show that is produced by the producers of the show it's talking about, like, is just too... It's just people patting themselves on the back.

[00:33:38] What people want when they're getting more access or they're getting commentary especially is something that feels raw, something that feels uncensored and unmanaged by production, meaning they need to kind of be able to poke fun at the show itself. They need to be able to be like, what a dumb twist that was. Oh, I can't believe it played out this way this week. Oh, man. Instead of feeling like they need to

[00:34:09] be kind of, like, towing the line. And I think that the overly produced segments can feel too scripted even when they're not. And so, the more they're able to dive into a sort of... Because I think there were parts of this, too. Obviously, Taylor is somebody that does follow along with what's happening on the feeds and has strong opinions. And so, the more somebody like Taylor is able to express those opinions, whether they're popular ones or unpopular ones, I think the better for the show.

[00:34:38] And the more they give their guests and the evicted players leeway and freedom to say what they want to say, the better. That's, again, what was going on with Love Island is that these people were coming off the show, seeing things that were like getting their phones back in real time, and then spouting off about all kinds of things that were controversial for the audience. And then people are like, oh, did you hear what this person said on the sideshow? And it's like, that's the kind of stuff I think would work well here.

[00:35:07] But either way, like I said, I think it was actually decently fun anyway. Shout out to the late Mickey Lee, who infamously said in her Big Brother Unlocked interview that the first thing she was going to do was block Morgan on social media. I do like that. I guess the downside and something that fans did flag last year was that certainly at that time, it seemed like they were cutting the feeds more, perhaps to like, kind of hold on to some of this exclusive footage to show on Unlocked. I hope they don't do that because, again,

[00:35:36] obviously the idea of live feeds being this like unfettered access has become less and less of the case as the years go on. And yeah, to kind of like withhold some stuff just to make sure we tune in and see it is not a fun look. Yeah, I agree. And that's where like, I don't love the idea that's like, oh, we're requiring this because it's now essential because it's part of a fan vote that will impact the game in a significant way. That's not, I think, what I want and I think is a riskier proposition

[00:36:07] because it might just frustrate the audience and make them feel like they're like, if I don't want to watch this, now I feel like I can't watch the whole show because it's just like, I'm missing too much, but I don't like this particular aspect of it. I think that what you want to do is be a value add, not a value subtract. And that includes cutting feeds. I think that it was probably a little over theorized that the feeds were being cut specifically for Unlocked. I think there were some specific moments

[00:36:36] that it did happen, like obviously with the sliming itself. But like, here's the thing. If you're going to have a show like that and you're going to be cutting feeds a lot, you got to be aware of how it looks and maybe don't cut the feeds as much. I don't know. All right, Taryn. Obviously, again, we went back to talking about the theme and decor of the house, but let's put some visual to the audio medium that we are currently housed on.

[00:37:06] Let's talk through some of the photos that we've seen, point out any sort of fun details that we noticed. Obviously, we are going to take a much closer look at things next week when we are staring at these people and these people are simultaneously staring at this decor 24-7. But I'll go through a few photos that CBS has posted over the past couple of hours. Let's start with the entryway here. So obviously, we are welcomed into the BB time trip theme right from the jump here.

[00:37:34] And it's like Chris Martin exploded all over this house with the amount of clocks that are visible. There's a lot of clocks. The whole table is a clock, which I don't mind. You know, it's a vibe. But yes, here we are. The BB time trip. Everything, like the sign itself seems like it's trying to mirror the bees and the time and the trip. So, you know. What do you make about

[00:38:02] the alliteration of time trip? Do you like that they specifically call it a time trip? Listen, I'm a big fan of alliteration, but I don't love time trip. I mean, time travel is already an alliteration. Changing it to trip just honestly just makes me think that you're on drugs. I'm not gonna lie. I mean, listen, they had that infamous Big Brother 24 veto competition. Maybe that's an old competition they'll be bringing back. Yeah.

[00:38:31] Yeah, maybe. Well, hopefully people won't be tripping on their way to the kitchen. We have a couple photos from there. So here is the dining room table. I believe that you counted as well as other, yeah, like 15 chairs at the moment, though. Is this ever any sort of indicator as to how many people we're starting with? It's not usually. I mean, people will count the chairs. They'll count the beds. But at the end of the day, we're only seeing a certain amount of

[00:39:03] angles and such. I think, if I'm remembering correctly, I think last year we also had 15 chairs and then we had like 17 house guests. So, you know, they'll figure something out. It's not the most indicative thing in the world. But we do see that they have a big, a big block. Lazy Susan-esque thing. Yeah. So Julie did this like house tour for a lot of the media and I was able to post some of it

[00:39:33] over on my social media as well as over on Parade's social media. And Julie does talk about this like lazy Susan, like she ain't lazy. There might be more to her than meets the eye. Stop it. I don't believe a thing you're... And I'll... These lovely people in the chat who are... Who just want the best for this show are already like, oh, the clocks are all pointing to a certain time. It's like, unfortunately, I wish that meant anything. But at the end of the day, when there's a twist,

[00:40:03] it's going to be somebody who is given an oversized remote control with one button on it going, boop! And then like something will happen. Like, and that'll be the one twist. It's just like, it's so frustrating to me that they have a whole house that people are in the whole time and they don't do anything with it. Like, watch the devil's plan when they find a secret passage into like a well somewhere where they need to escape or die. Like, give us something here, big brother. Anyway. Yeah.

[00:40:32] To be fair, you know, people were talking about like, oh, could this be the return of the key wheel? But I believe your friend of mine, Claire Refuse, had a major hot take about how she did not want to see the key wheel return. That, I've always had that take. I, like, listen, the key wheel is, is fine. Uh, my memory at least is that it wasn't a fan favorite until they took it away and made it worse. Uh, and then they were like, bring back the key wheel. At least it's better than what we currently got. And I, and I know there are fans of the key wheel.

[00:41:02] Um, but it took too long. In my opinion, it took too long. It's just a lot better than, and I do this a lot, but my first nominee is... Yeah. My second nominee is... My third nominee because of the blockbuster is... Like, it's just so unbelievably bad television. I still can't believe they're doing it. But yeah, I don't need the key wheel. It takes too long. Just, just have them say the names.

[00:41:32] That's all, that's all I want. That's something I would love to throw, and it'd be way too chaotic, but like, I want this, this nomination process to be fluid. I want them to name their nominees, but I want that, people to have the ability to pull a JC from Big Brother 20 and like, stop the proceedings and be like, no, Phil, you don't want to do this. Don't nominate me. And then they're completely able to reroute things. They don't need to lock in their nominations ahead of time. I agree. And I want them to be able to be like, stand up there and just be like,

[00:42:01] I nominate you, Crazy Eye Matt. Yeah, exactly. Boom. with your girlfriend, Mackenzie. We need that like double eviction energy every single nomination ceremony. Absolutely. The other thing that should be mentioned here, Terran, it's not shown here, but it's shown in the footage that we were able to take of the kitchen proper. There is a giant screen that maybe this will be specifically for the nominees, but people are speculating

[00:42:28] that this might be the new version of the memory wall, which of course in the past, it had these sort of like two vertical screens that have showcased the house guys. It's always been a little awkward when there's been 17 people and people believe this might be an indication that there may be a larger than usual cast that there's not even enough people to fit on these, you know, two vertical screens they've typically utilized. I don't think they changed the screen just because of the cast size. I think that this, if it is changed,

[00:42:58] it's more coincidence. I think that they probably were just like, let's, if there's a new memory wall, I think they were probably just like, let's just, let's just change up the screen because it's old. All right. Well, here's another section of the kitchen here. It's another clock. So this is sort of like a little island, it seems. So again, that's another indicator that like, don't count the chairs and assume what the cast size is because there's also like kind of overflow seating here as well. It, it looks, it looks fine.

[00:43:28] I hate the design from a practical standpoint. I, you, I'm having to like prep and do any kind of like cooking work or you're even just eating off of it on those stools with the, with the little like things jutting out of the clock. Like I'm further away for no reason from the actual table. What are we doing here? Raven would have broken both of her elbows on this thing three days into the game. Yeah. I'm like trying to like tuck in to eat

[00:43:58] or like bend over while cutting some stuff on the island. It's like, well, I'm just using the counter now. I'm not using that. Let's talk about some of the bedrooms here, Taryn. Now, uh, we only got, we got pictures of one and then we got footage of another one. So I think there's still like a third bedroom that they haven't necessarily showcased yet, but here is, uh, one of the first ones, the first one that's adjoining to the living room. So this is a bedroom that has, you know, I think it's like five beds. We have the central hub

[00:44:27] of a few of them facing one another and there's one door to the past and there's one door to the future. Something that I did want to note from this one is that there is a board on the wall that has eight different eras listed on it. Ancient Egypt, Y2K, Medieval Times, Wild West, Jurassic Era, the 1980s, 23rd Century, and Summer of Love. Now, the press release did confirm, you know, the 1980s, Y2K are playing

[00:44:56] into the aesthetic. Jurassic Era, where there's that giant Triceratops head, Julie has made mention of it. Do you think this is going to be an indicator as to like the eras that we're going to go to on this quote unquote time trip? It seems like it. As decoration, this is one of the dumbest things I've seen. What are we doing? Why is there a list like of the, like,

[00:45:26] they're not even, it's just, it's like the, it's like a train board. Like, like, it's not even decorated in any kind of, it's just the names of things all in the same font just listed out as a, as an image on the wall. Like, give, give us something. Back when the, you know, during All Stars, they had like the portraits and the quotes. That was nice on the wall. That was like good and it's just a, you've themed it time travel

[00:45:55] with different elements of different time periods and then one of your elements was just a list of them written out. Well, listen, maybe this was like, hey, you had the clues all along, Mr. Policeman. I'm like, you're going to be quizzed as to what eras we've been to. This is going to be the final HOH competition. Mark my words. Did you know that in, that the pyramid meant ancient Egypt? Well, if you didn't, good free, good, good, good job because, ah, it's written right here. Ancient Egypt. Um, like.

[00:46:24] I do love that they're calling Y2K an entire time period when it represents more so like like the technology fueled paranoia that existed for a brief couple of months window. Like, I don't know. I don't know. I refer to that decade as the 2000s. I don't refer to it as Y2K. That's part of why it's so stupid. No, unless maybe this is like Ainsley's revenge and a Y2K situation ends up happening.

[00:46:55] Yeah, this is a time machine. That's what it looks like. This is the menu, I guess, on the time machine. You just, you just take it. Listen, I just think, uh, this could have looked better. The list of eras, I think we could have done better here. All right, well, let's take a step perhaps into the 23rd century as we move into the back bedroom, which is the future room and the bunk beds are returning, but in a more futuristic fashion. as,

[00:47:24] we're going for a podcaster like you, Taren, we're going full pod inside the house this season. I actually, I like this. I think this is fun. This is like, uh, properly themed. Uh, it all kind of fits together. It looks like, uh, something you'd see from a sci-fi movie in the 80s, which is, you know, pretty standard for what you'd expect from Big Brother. Uh, so, I'm into it. The chairs are, you know, it followed that theme too. Uh, I,

[00:47:54] I kind of liked, I kind of, uh, dug the, the bunk bed thing. Oh, I loved it. I loved the bunk bed. But you got that moment, right? Like, I don't know if you have the moment of Ava overhearing people talking while she's pretending to sleep in a situation where there's no bunk beds. Yeah, I just, uh, I think it works. I was, I was into this and, um, you know, I, I, I think this is a cool, cool, uh, aesthetic. I agree. You can't see the ceiling. I mean, listen, uh, does that,

[00:48:24] does that not show the life? The concept in general of like looks incredibly polished, but if you look behind the curtain, there's always a little bit of messiness right above us. I will say good luck to people getting in and out of those low rise chairs. Those look like an absolute, if there are anything like Adirondack chairs or like low risers that you have on the beach, it's going to be a nightmare to be able to try to storm out of the room if you have a heated conversation. Proud Sam in the chat. It gives Taco Bell in the 90s. Thousand percent. Love it. All right. Let's, uh, go to another

[00:48:53] hallmark of the big brother house. Let's, uh, let's go to the bathroom. There's only like nothing prominent about the bathroom except for the fact Taryn that like maybe Keanu peed on the floor because there's like a noticeable stain on the carpet. Oh, allegedly, allegedly. Oh man. Uh, you know, you'd hope that's part of the design, but then you'd also hope it's not part of the design because if it is, then what are they doing? Um, yeah, it looks like a

[00:49:23] bathroom. Yeah, there's nothing. I mean, listen, I don't think anything will ever beat, uh, was a big brother 18 where they initially cover the entire bathroom floor in sand like that. We really peaked there or bottomed out there depending on your perspective. Yeah. Um, yeah. All right. Let's go to, uh, we have one of the, I, I, I am calling this a lounge. I didn't give like a formal name to it. Uh, but this is like sort of like the downstairs hangout area. So you can see like, uh,

[00:49:53] there's a nice little keytar on the wall. They're a relic of the aides. There's lockers. I don't know why there are lockers. Um, but Julie described this seating contraption as like basically a, a jacuzzi time machine. I don't think they're allowed to say the synonym considering that it's not a paramount picture, but that's kind of the image they're going for right now. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's interesting. Um, I can't say it looks

[00:50:23] particularly comfortable. Um, that's a pretty low back. Uh, if you're trying to sit around it, uh, I, I feel like you'd have to kind of be laying in it, but not many people would fit. Uh, I don't know. I don't know. There is some footage of like Julie and a bunch of the media who went and it was like eight people, I think sitting on that at one portion in time comfortably. That's always a matter of opinion. I don't know. I'm skeptical. This I'm skeptical

[00:50:53] if this is going to be a hangout spot for more than just a couple people, but we'll, we'll see. Maybe, maybe it's just a weird angle. Yeah. Is there a formal room for this, a name for this room Taryn? Like people, I know there was like the infamous like big brother 19. It was like the Austin power sex room. Like it was, it was, I believe it was the wine room last year. Uh, so it tends to be named based on like what's in there. It has been a gym before. It also hasn't always been closed off with a door. Um, it's same with the bathroom. It used to just kind of,

[00:51:23] there were times when it was just kind of open. Um, so they might just call it the prototype room if that's what the big word says, uh, or they might call it the, uh, the hot tub room or the locker room. Are the people, the prototypes in this case? Don't listen. I mean, I guess, I guess, I guess the sounding word, the jacuzzi time machine, I guess is the prototype for the time machine proper, but, but it's types plural. That's true. Uh, we did not get a lot

[00:51:52] of look into the upstairs. Makes sense because they never show the HOH room, at least initially during these house reveals. We did get a look though at the upstairs lounge, the one that overlooks the living room. Uh, and so we've got, of course, our typical chef set and we've got a bunch of like random appliances like, uh, like Mr. Hooper's store from Sesame Street. Yeah. It's, it's, I mean, it's, it's less things than last time, I think. Fewer, fewer things than last time. Uh, but,

[00:52:22] uh, but that, this is like a couch area. You could actually see people hanging out in. I am always, the thing that I'm most concerned about when it comes to this area is how much noise bleed will come from the kitchen when, cause this is a place where people can whisper and if people are being loud downstairs, uh, the noise transfers pretty easily. If it's not blocked off well, we do see some windows here. Uh, I don't know how many, I, I doubt it's like

[00:52:51] triple paned there. So, uh, who knows, but hopefully my, my hope is that we have some good sound isolation up there. That's, that's the only thing I care about. The only downside though, is that you won't have like the Rachel Zay moments from last season where like someone can stay on sharp haste style lording over the living room. It seems like even here, they've like got a little bit of infringement in the windows to impede people from doing that. Listen, you can still stand in the window to watch, which I think is actually better. So yeah, it might set up for more, uh,

[00:53:21] cinematic shots from, uh, from Skippy's perspective. aren't like formal photos of, I do have a video that I can play that might showcase because really when we talk about like the litany of random things that exist in this house, uh, the living room is perhaps the most pertinent example. So let me see if I can, whoop, got rid of you, Taryn. Uh, instead you disappeared in the time machine. Let me see if I can get this up here. Okay, here we go.

[00:53:50] So this is Julie introducing the living room. We are, um, traveling time. So maybe house guests will have to have a competition with dinosaurs. I don't know. Maybe they're going to go to whenever the crown jewels were taken from Don't Tell King Charles. Okay. Or I'm Chinese. Anyone speak Mandarin? No,

[00:54:20] I didn't think so. Expect it, expected this season is going to be in Mandarin. Right. Okay. And then, um, more Ming dynasty looking things. I'm not even sure. It's probably from, you know, I can't say brands, but it's probably from the place on the corner of Beverly and Robertson. Oh, maybe we're going to travel back to any Vikings here. Anyone? Oh, me. Yes, I can tell. I can tell. Yes. So we borrowed this

[00:54:49] from your ancestors. You know what? You can keep it. Ruins the hairdo. All right. Uh, so yeah, it seems like there's a bunch of just random stuff thrown about something that should be noted from this video though, is that if we didn't get another confirmation of the blockbuster, I believe there was a middle three seated couch in that room. There you go. Yeah. I mean, it's like, uh, she's talking about all of like the props, like the time machine, like, oh, look,

[00:55:19] it's the Ming dynasty. It's the crown jewels. It's a triceratops. It's dinosaurs. Um, I just, I thought the windows were cool. Yeah. I, I think that's a cool vibe, like vibe, like the props or whatever. We're just going to ignore them, but like the windows impact how the room feels. They're obviously not real windows. If you weren't able to watch along, they have like these fake cityscape windows akin to what you might see in like a late night talk show,

[00:55:48] uh, kind of thing. And, uh, but they're like floor to ceiling, which is in the ceilings very high. So, it's a kind of a cool vibe. All right. So Taryn, from my perspective, that's everything we know so far about big brother 28, just a little over a week until the season premieres. We know, uh, the fact that we've got this theme going on. We've seen a lot of the house. We've got some allusions to perhaps some controversial people from outside

[00:56:18] the sphere of big brother playing some sort of role. We know that we're going to get a third co-host in a locked and there's going to be some sort of fan vote involved. The last thing I want to ask is that we do know that big brother is going to be hitting its 1000, 1000th episode this season, practically unheard of in the spectrum of television. I know there was a lot of back and forth when this announcement was initially made as to like, is big brother the first show to do it? It might be the first like unscripted or at least reality show to do it. Do you think we're doing anything special for that, especially given the

[00:56:48] time warp nature of this season? Oh, they're definitely going to do something for it. I, you know, special is maybe a subjective measure, but they will certainly do something different for it. I think it's, it's part of their kind of marketing for the season. So, you know, it's again, it's like, is it going to be something we want? Who knows? Uh, but a thousand episodes is, is, is quite the accomplishment. Uh, so, you know,

[00:57:18] I'm, I'm happy that we get to celebrate it in whatever capacity it is. All right, Taryn, any final thoughts? Final is a tough word, right? Because for all we know, more information is going to come out as soon as we end this podcast, but given what we know now, any final thoughts about what we are to expect from Big Brother 28 this summer? Um, I mean, in terms of the photos, the thing I, again, usually look for aside from like certain details is

[00:57:47] like, what is the layout like? Um, and from what it seems so far, we haven't seen enough to really judge. It seems very similar to the, to last season's layout in terms of the bunk beds, uh, and the, you know, the rooms, I assume like the bathroom and the, uh, this hot, like hot tub room are going to be similarly closed off. Um, the question then becomes, is the gym still in the same place that, uh, like upstairs room where the have not, uh,

[00:58:17] room used to be uh, temporarily was. Yeah. Let me read off actually some things that were not seen in the photos, but were mentioned in the press release as to, you know, stuff that would be in the house. They did say that there will be a quote time-lapse gym walls wrapped in time-lapse photography, create the illusion of motion and progression, energizing house guests as they work out and reset. So there will be a gym. Yeah. So, you know, to me that implies again that it's probably that upstairs

[00:58:47] space and that the have not room, so to speak, might be, uh, you know, one of the, one of the bedrooms. rooms, um, and that just in general, we're probably looking at a similar layout. So, uh, nothing significant to look at there. I think the main story, the main headline here, uh, is what, who are these people and what is their role in the season? Uh, where are they coming from? What are they going to do? And, uh,

[00:59:17] you know, that's going to be the biggest impact on, on the show by far. So, that will hopefully, yeah, the hopefully be the next big piece of information. We find out TBD on when in the past, I think we've usually gotten these like two, three days before the cast drops. Uh, and then subsequently there will, of course, be a cast breakdown, Taryn with you and Rob and a draft unless Rob is one of the survivors on this season, who knows, but make sure you don't miss a second of it. Subscribe at we know big brother dot com,

[00:59:47] especially because if indeed the fees are turning on right after the unlocked episode, Taryn, you get to pretty much jump right in. Now, maybe you'll still have a few days to catch up on depending on when they move in, but every morning you'll be in our eyes and ears giving us a recap of what we need to know went down. Yes, uh, the live feeds are starting on Friday, uh, and that is, that is the true, the true start of the season, the true excitement for, uh, for what we have to do. So very excited to jump

[01:00:16] back in to the live feed updates, uh, every single morning, 11 a.m. Eastern. We'll talk through what's happening here with the game and, uh, we'll get into it. Hopefully, listen, last season was very, was very fun all the way through. I hope they, I feel like the ratings were up and so I think they have reason to be positive about how things went down last season and to want to try to replicate it as much as

[01:00:46] possible this season. And so, um, you know, apart from a couple of things like hamster wheels, uh, I think that, um, I, I, you know, I'm, I'm optimistic. I feel like we, we could very well be in for and so, uh, I'm very excited to get started. The season started. Yeah. I mean, uh, listen, tastes obviously vary, but I do feel like the show as a whole has kind of been on a hot streak in particular with 26 and 27. They had just

[01:01:15] been so much fun to check out and a large part of that Taren has been your always sterling work. So I can't wait for another season of that. Anything else you want to plug right now before we convene in a week's time? Like I said, if you have any interest in watching me be uncomfortable while people make out and dry hump each other on Love Island, uh, I am movie night just aired. And so everyone was kind of in your position there, even on the island proper. Listen, movie night was actually great. Uh, I was into it. Uh, I've been watching,

[01:01:45] we're like 25 episodes deep after giving this show a shot. Uh, I'm watching it on my Patreon. So if you want to see all of my commentary and reactions and discomfort, uh, check out my Patreon. All right. And you can check out all the stuff I've got going on over on Parade. Again, I've been posting some stuff that Parade was able to capture from the house tour that they did directly as a set visit. If you want to see some more details, the finer things that are going into the set this year, I also have

[01:02:15] plenty of stuff coming out in the coming days. Julie named for me, speaking of time travel, the top five moments in Big Brother history that she wished to revisit across many, many years of the show and many, many moments. She talks a lot about the house guests she wants to see play again, whether the U.S. version would ever get rid of the live feeds. And I got to ask some of the house guests who were in attendance, those seven names I listed before, their favorite players, what moment they want to

[01:02:44] be in the room for, the one change they want to make to Big Brother as a whole. So check out everything I'm doing over on Parade, including at a Mike Bloom type. And if and when this cast gets released, I'll be sure to give you all the information that you need to know. But we want to hear from you all. Let the rampant speculation begin. If it has not already, what are your thoughts about this time trip theme? How do you think it's going to be incorporated into the season proper? What's with this controversial people thing?

[01:03:14] What do you think is the extent that we might get people outside of Big Brother involved in this season? Let's ask some questions. Let's blindly give some answers, but hopefully at least some of it will be validated or corroborated in just a little over a week's time. And Big Brother is at last back in our lives. Thank you all so much. Thank you to like the what? 2,700 people at one point were watching this. So Big Brother season is slowly ramping back up and I cannot wait

[01:03:43] to walk back through these doors and truly see where we're going both from a time perspective as well as from a game perspective. Thank you all again so much for listening. Until next time everybody take care bye-bye.