Entertainment

'Celebrity Big Brother' Is Coming To CBS Sooner Than You Think

Sonja Flemming/CBS

Big Brother is soon going to introduce some big names to the Big Brother house. Between Big Brother Seasons 19 and 20, CBS will be airing a brand new variation on the classic reality show. And, fans are going to want to know when the Celebrity Big Brother 2017 premiere date will be.

Big Brother has always focused on taking ordinary people from different walks of life and pitting them against each other. Over 19 seasons of Big Brother in the United States, regular people have evolved become heroes, villains, even celebrities, all in the world of Big Brother. However, for the first time in nearly two decades on the air, Big Brother is taking a break from turning ordinary houseguests into larger-than-life personalities and is recruiting tried-and-true celebrities for the first-ever American season of Celebrity Big Brother.

Celebrity Big Brother is scheduled to premiere sometime in winter 2018, which means Big Brother superfans will still get a much-needed break after pouring over the BB19 feeds all summer. The news of Celebrity Big Brother may be exciting for fans in the U.S., but Big Brother fans from across the pond may be surprised that it took 19 seasons to finally have a celebrity season of Big Brother.

Having a Celebrity edition of a reality show is nothing new. Some shows, like Dancing With The Stars, are based on the concept while other reality shows, like The Apprentice, revitalized themselves by introducing a all-celebrity seasons. While Celebrity Big Brother isn't the first celebrity-focused reality spinoff, and certainly won't be the last, it may be the most demanding reality show that any celebrity could be on.

Seasons of Big Brother can last over three months, and during that time contestants are not allowed to leave the house or have any contact with the outside world. It's already a major commitment for an ordinary person to make time to participate for Big Brother. It may prove to be a challenge to find big-name personalities with that kind of availability and a willingness to seclude themselves from the real world for three months is surely a challenge.

However, there is plenty of precedent for Celebrity Big Brother working and proving to be extremely successful. In the U.K., there have been 20 seasons of Celebrity Big Brother since 2001. While 20 seasons is nothing to sneeze at, it's worth pointing out that that the U.K. Celebrity Big Brother works differently than American Big Brother.

The major difference between the two series is that Celebrity Big Brother in the U.K. is far more condensed. While Big Brother takes up three months and airs three episodes a week, Celebrity Big Brother in the U.K. only films for thirty days, but airs every single night of the week. Both versions take about the same amount of time to watch, but Big Brother in America gives fans a break between episodes. Celebrity Big Brother makes the most of the celebrities' time, however, and packs as much content as possible into one month.

It's not yet been revealed if Celebrity Big Brother in the U.S. will look more like its U.K. counterpart, or if they're going to have a more standard season of American Big Brother that happens to be filled with celebrities. A shorter season may allow the show to book some big-name stars that would otherwise be unavailable, but it's doubtful that CBS would be able to make room in their schedule to ensure that an episode of Celebrity Big Brother could air every single night. However CBS chooses to approach their new Celebrity spinoff, Big Brother fans will likely be tuning in this winter to see if this all-star spinoff can prove to be just as satisfying as ordinary Big Brother.