There are rumblings that
Big Brother 11 may in fact be a winter edition. Speculation has been fueled by the mere fact that casting has already begun for
Big Brother 11, some fans saying that casting now for a show scheduled nearly a year from now doesn't make any sense. While there is some validity to this line of thinking,
Big Brother executive producer Allison Grodner has denied that
Big Brother 11 will air in the winter. While
Big Brother 9 did become the first season of the series to air in the winter months (where it was a mild success), the only reason CBS ran it was because of the writers' strike and CBS was desperate for new content. There will be no such strike in the coming months, and nothing there to necessitate bring
Big Brother back before next summer. Nevertheless, let's examine this all a little bit further.
My first thought when I read the rumor was that, no, that's not possible because CBS's schedule is too crowded to house a winter
Big Brother edition in non-strike times. But, then I examined the schedule. It's actually doable.
Big Brother needs three open hours a week. Two slots will have openings for a couple of months.
The Amazing Race (Sundays, 8pm) and
Survivor (Thursdays, 8pm) both run shorter seasons than most TV series, and neither air re-runs. Both of those slots happen to also have been
Big Brother 10's slots.
Big Brother would just need to find another hour. CBS has two comedies that may or may not make it through the entire season –
Worst Week and
Gary Unmarried. They air on different nights, but with some schedule shuffling
Big Brother could easily fill out another hour for a couple months. The most likely time slot is Wednesdays from 8-9pm.
Big Brother is a massive undertaking. If CBS opts to air a winter edition again, it will probably be a shortened season. Which might not be so bad. Either they accelerate the competition (for instance, making three episodes worth of content into two), or simply begin the series with less contestants. However, this is all speculation.
I have to believe that CBS would only air another winter
Big Brother edition if they were truly desperate. We shouldn't read much into the early casting. Grodner and CBS are simply doing their due diligence and trying to find the very best possible houseguests for next summer and
Big Brother 11.
What would you prefer for Big Brother 11?
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of CBS)