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It looks like bringing Big Brother back to the air during a global pandemic is not going to be an easy task.
After months of rumors, CBS recently announced Big Brother: All-Stars would be launching Wednesday, August 5.
The rumors about the cast have been swirling for weeks, but it appears that there is still a lot of shuffling going on behind-the-scenes ahead of the premiere.
The series typically unveils its cast ahead of the premiere, and this year looked to be no different.
Moments after the All-Stars season was announced, the Big Brother page on CBS All Access updated to say that there would be interviews with the cast Wednesday, July 29.
The casting director, Robyn Kass, also shared a post on social media Sunday that suggested the cast would be unveiled on Monday.
When that post was deleted, and no word of the names taking part was made public by CBS, fans wondered whether the interviews would still go ahead today.
Unfortunately, CBS pulled the message about cast interviews from CBS All Access, and replaced it with a new screen that teases the show as launching Wednesday, August 5.
That premiere date is in exactly a week, and if producers are still scrambling to cast the season, it certainly makes you wonder whether they will have a cast to kick off the season with.
The season premiere, previously announced for August 5, will be the first live move-in event, so it’s entirely possible that the scrambling for a cast will result in CBS holding off on making an announcement.
Then again, if there truly are big names in the cast, it would be silly of the network not to promote some of the returns in advance.
But we also need to remember that the network has not tried to launch a season of the show during a global pandemic.
All-Stars 2 will welcome back some past winners, fan favorites, and “some of the best to never win the game.”
CBS has put in place a COVID-19 compliance officer to protect the “welfare of everyone involved” and make sure that the cast and crew adhere to specific health and safety protocols.
The houseguests will continue to be tested for the virus on a weekly basis, but will have no contact with any crew members.
Staff and crew members will be wearing personal protective equipment and will work in groups to ensure social distancing is adhered to.
What’s more, Big Brother will be leaving the studio audience at home. It was inevitable, but it’s now really happening.
What do you think of this? Do you think the planned premiere will be scrapped? Would you prefer to meet the houseguests live as opposed to a pre-premiere reveal?
Hit the comments below.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.