Deadline spoke to President and Chief Operating Officer of CBS Interactive, Marc DeBevoise, about upcoming changes to the CBS: All Access fall programming. Last fall, CBS: All Access unveiled its Big Brother spin-off series: Big Brother Over the Top. The series dubbed BBOTT by fans and CBS premiered only a week after Big Brother 18 ended.
Big Brother Over the Top aired on CBS All Access from the end of September to the beginning of December, basically airing for the entire fall TV season. Before the premiere of Big Brother 19, CBS made it clear that they had no immediate plans to repeat history with Big Brother Over the Top 2 directly following the Big Brother 19 finale.
However, Big Brother 19 Executive Producers, Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan, felt good about the future of the series. In the Deadline interview, DeBevoise confirmed that Big Brother Over the Top 2 will not air in the fall. He stated that the timing ‘was not easy,’ but that ‘we are looking at what to do next for that show.’
Big Brother 19 fans hoping to get a full year of Big Brother might be disappointed by the news. If DeBevoise and team want to have Big Brother Over the Top air within the 2017-2018 television season, they may have difficulty finding where to place it.
Back to back Big Brother seasons can be overwhelming for the fans and production team. Therefore, it makes sense not to air it in the fall, but that only really leaves the winter season as a possible option. Big Brother Canada 6 is likely to air in the spring again, and CBS wouldn’t want to compete with that, especially considering how the fans (many of them overlap with the US audience) fought so hard for the show’s return. Then Big Brother 20 will air in the summer.
We’ll have to wait to see what DeBevoise and CBS ultimately decide to do with Big Brother Over the Top, but don’t expect it to take over your life in the fall. You are officially free to live it…until further notice from Big Brother.
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