Everyone’s summertime guilty pleasure “Big Brother” still might go into production for the 22nd season.
CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl said they are “optimistic” both it and “Love Island,” which debuted last July on American airwaves, will go on this summer. They just might be on a little later, Kahl said in an interview with Deadline on Tuesday,
“Those shows turn around pretty quickly, ‘Big Brother‘ has live shows every week and ‘Love Island’ literally airs the night after it shoots, those shows do not have long post-processes,” he told Deadline.
Strict limitations remain in place in Los Angeles County, California, where the show is produced, because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. A safer at home order remains in effect “until further notice,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
But the paper said the state is quickly working to reopen its economy, which might explain some of CBS’ optimism. Still, the Times reports Los Angeles County outpaces the rest of the state in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths.
The U.S. version of “Big Brother” debuted on July, 5, 2000, and has been hosted by Julie Chen-Moonves since the beginning. Contestants, or “houseguests” as they’re called on the show, are isolated from the outside world as they compete for power and, ultimately, a $500,000 grand prize.
The isolation rules have been broken for unusual circumstances and more recently, houseguests on the German version of the show in mid-March were told of the COVID-19 pandemic.