(PRESS) Big Brother is Back — On-Air, Online, On Cable and on your Mobile Phone

Press Release from today outlining the multi platform push for Big Brother 12.

BIG BROTHER IS BACK — ON-AIR, ONLINE, ON CABLE AND ON YOUR MOBILE PHONE

CBS’s SUMMER SENSATION TO PREMIERE THURSDAY, JULY 8, WITH ONE-HOUR EPISODES ON SUNDAYS, WEDNESDAYS AND THURSDAYS (LIVE) 

  • Full Episodes and Highlights to Play across the CBS Audience Network
  • SHOWTIME to Air Three Hours of Live Feed Every Night
  • CBS.com and Real Networks to Stream Live Internet Feeds 24/7
  • CBS Mobile to Simulcast Network Broadcasts

 
CBS.com to Host Expanded Community Offerings, Including the “Big Brother Ultimate Fan Contest” and an Interactive Video Trivia Game

A new season of BIG BROTHER returns this summer with an expanded multi-platform presence on-air (CBS Television), online (RealNetworks, a redesigned CBS.com, the CBS Audience Network and Twitter), on the phone (CBS Mobile) and on cable (SHOWTIME).
 

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

“BIG BROTHER 12” on THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK:

  • BIG BROTHER returns on Thursday, July 8 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network.  Following the premiere, BIG BROTHER 12 will be broadcast three nights weekly, beginning Sunday, July 11 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), Wednesday, July 14 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) and the LIVE eviction show, hosted by Julie Chen, beginning Thursday, July 15 (8:00-9:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT).

“BIG BROTHER 12” ONLINE:

  • 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 program online and incorporate clips into their blogs, wikis and widgets and interact as well as discuss BIG BROTHER 12 on message boards.  The CBS Audience Network consists of dozens of distribution partners including 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 stations, 144 radio stations and up to 183 affiliated stations.
  • CBS and RealNetworks, Inc. join forces for the 10th 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 8 premiere and will be accessible through the official BIG BROTHER Web site at CBS.com and through Real’s SuperPass subscription service.
  • All new this season, CBS.com will launch the Big Brother Ultimate Fan contest: BIG BROTHER fans will earn points and rewards across a suite of Big Brother games and community elements based on their activity.  The fan with the most points at the end of the season will win the title of “Ultimate Fan.”  The grand prize includes a trip to the finale and a chance to meet the BIG BROTHER Houseguests.  The winner will be randomly selected among the top 25 percent of high scorers.  Fans can earn points and badges by playing “Big Brother Fantasy” video trivia, commenting on clips, “fanning” Houseguests and having highly-rated message board posts.  Registration will launch June 30, with the contest beginning July 8.
  • Also new this season will be a Video Trivia game: the fast-paced weekly trivia game will include questions and clips from BIG BROTHER 12 episodes and will go live shortly after the season premiere.
  • Last season, CBS launched two very successful Twitter experiences 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, and “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 or follow us www.Twitter.com/CBSTweet.

“BIG BROTHER 12” CBS Website:

  • Official BIG BROTHER website redesigned and relaunched on CBS.com (www.cbs.com/bigbrother) to include:
    • – More videos and photos than ever before where fans can catch up on prior episodes and be primed for upcoming shows.
    • – New “Interact” section where fans will 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.
    • – The return of “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 fifth season, where fans will be able to hear straight from the Head of Household about life inside 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).

“BIG BROTHER 12” LIVE FEEDS

  •  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 allows fans from across the country to converse about what they see live on the feeds.  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, CBS may block or delay the webcast for a limited time and other events that transpire in the house to preserve the drama for BIG BROTHER television viewers.)

“BIG BROTHER” MOBILE:

BIG BROTHER episodes will be simulcast on the CBS Mobile Channel presented on FLO TV’s live mobile TV service. (Download mobile apps for BIG BROTHER 12 here!)

  • Viewers will be able to interact and influence the show by participating in fan polls via SMS text messaging from their mobile phones.
  • BIG BROTHER Mobile Game: Fans can download and play the game in which they compete as if they were actually living inside the BIG BROTHER house as one of the past Houseguests.  They can play 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/9:00 PM-12:00 AM, live PT), seven days a week, on the multiplex channel SHO2TM beginning Thursday, July 8.

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.

BIG BROTHER is executive produced by Emmy Award-winning producer Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan for Fly on the Wall Entertainment, in association with Endemol U.S.A.