Big Brother 26 host Julie Chen Moonves is under fire for lying about her involvement in the current season of the reality show. Moonves has hosted Big Brother ever since the show’s debut back in July 2000. However, before Big Brother 26 premiered on July 18, 2024, Moonves claimed that she was going to be a much bigger part of the show than ever before.
But several episodes into the show, fans are starting to notice that aside from her regular Thursday night live eviction segment, Moonves isn’t really doing much. This came to light when blogger Reality Steve called the host out for doing the same thing that she has done for the past 25 seasons of the CBS reality show.
Over the years, Moonves has become the face of the iconic Big Brother franchise. Not only does she do a great job at setting the tone of each episode, but she’s also the one person that the contestants get to directly engage with during their time in the house. Considering that she is such an important part of the show, the fans are a little disappointed about her role not being utilized to its full potential.
Is Julie Chen Moonves Moving on From ‘Big Brother?’
All of this has also led to a lot of questions about Moonves future on the show which turned her into a huge TV personality. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the host was seen contemplating whether it was time for her to bid farewell to Big Brother and move on to other things. However, she confessed that she was not going to step down as long as Phil Keoghan and Jeff Probst continued to host The Amazing Race and Survivor respectively. Keoghan has been on The Amazing Race since its debut in 2001 and Probst has been on Survivor since 2000.
And while the audience did not get to see it, Moonves’s role on the show actually did extend beyond her regular hosting duties. She helped conceptualize the AI theme that Big Brother 26 is centered around. In the same interview with Entertainment Tonight, Moonves revealed that she is going to be sharing her duties on the show with the BB AI, since it’s technically supposed to be her robotic alter-ego.
Because of this AI twist in Big Brother 26, the season has already put its contestants through the wringer with challenges that are more complex than ever before. One of these twists includes the power of the anonymous AI Instigator. As reported by Parade, the AI Instigator has the power to spread rumors and misinformation about the rest of the houseguests. Each week, the audience votes on a different contestant to receive the power. According to an official press release from CBS:
“The AI Instigator Power, when used, allows, for one week, the user to create virtual avatars of other current houseguests, instruct what they’ll say and to whom.”
New episodes of Big Brother air on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 9 PM on CBS in the US. The show is also available to stream on Paramount Plus.