Big Brother 26hostJulie Chen Moonvesis under fire for lying about her involvement in the current season ofthe reality show. Moonves has hostedBig Brotherever since the show’s debut back in July 2000. However, beforeBig Brother 26premiered on June 24, 2025,Moonves claimed that she was going to be a much bigger part of the show than ever before.
But several episodes into the show, fans are starting to notice that aside from her regular Thursday night live eviction segment, Moonves isn’t really doing much. This came to light when bloggerReality Stevecalled the host out fordoing the same thing that she has done for the past 25 seasons of theCBS reality show.
Over the years, Moonves has become the face of the iconicBig Brotherfranchise. Not only does she do a great job at setting the tone of each episode, but she’s also the one person that the contestants get to directly engage with during their time in the house. Considering that she is such an important part of the show,the fans are a little disappointed about her role not being utilized to its full potential.
Is Julie Chen Moonves Moving on From ‘Big Brother?’
All of this has also led to a lot of questions about Moonves future on the show which turned her into a huge TV personality. In an interview withEntertainment Tonight, the host was seen contemplating whether it was time for her to bid farewell toBig Brotherand move on to other things. However, she confessed thatshe was not going to step down as long as Phil Keoghan and Jeff Probst continued to hostThe Amazing RaceandSurvivorrespectively.Keoghan has been onThe Amazing Racesince its debut in 2001 and Probst has been onSurvivorsince 2000.
And while the audience did not get to see it, Moonves’s role on the show actually did extend beyond her regular hosting duties. She helped conceptualizethe AI themethatBig Brother 26is centered around.In the same interview with Entertainment Tonight, Moonves revealed that she is going to be sharing her duties on the show with the BB AI, since it’s technicallysupposed to be her robotic alter-ego.
Because of thisAI twist inBig Brother 26,the season has already put its contestants through the wringer withchallenges that are more complexthan ever before. One of these twists includesthe power of the anonymous AI Instigator.As reported byParade, the AI Instigator has thepower to spread rumors and misinformationabout the rest of the houseguests. Each week, the audience votes on a different contestant to receive the power. According to an official press release fromCBS:
“The AI Instigator Power, when used, allows, for one week, the user to create virtual avatars of other current houseguests, instruct what they’ll say and to whom."
New episodes of Big Brother air on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 9 PM on CBS in the US. The show is also available to stream on Paramount Plus.
Big Brother
Contestants must compete against each other for a chance to win $500,000 in a house wired with cameras and microphones, capturing their every move for a TV and Internet audience.
