Getty Julie Chen attends 2016 CBS Upfront
CBS’ Celebrity Big Brother is back for its latest season. The reality series welcomes new faces like Joey Lawrence, Anthony Scaramucci, and Dina Lohan, and will premiere tonight at 8/7 c. Some fans, however, may be wondering whether Julie Chen Moonves will still be hosting the series.
Celebrity Big Brother will indeed be hosted by Julie Chen Moonves. This will be the 23rd season that Moonves has hosted for CBS, following 20 summer seasons of Big Brother, one online season of Big Brother: Over the Top, and the first season of Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.
Julie Chen Moonves Is Back After Hosting ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ Season 1
Despite Moonves’ lengthy tenure as Big Brother host, there have been some rumors that CBS may be looking to replace her eventually. There have been several legal controversies surrounding her husband Les Moonves, the former head of CBS. Fansided reports that there’s been lots of online chatter about replacing Moonves, with some going as far as to speculate that she was complicit in her husband’s sexual misconduct allegations.
That said, these speculations are not concrete, and CBS has not made any public announcements about replacing Moonves in the near future. In September, Deadline confirmed that Moonves will stay on as host until fall 2019. The news coincided with her announcement that she was leaving her role as host on The Talk.
Despite Rumors Of Her Being Replaced, Moonves Will Stay On Through Fall 2019
“I have been at The Talk since the day it started nine years ago, and the cast, crew and staff have become family to me over the years,” she said in a video message. “But right now I need to spend more time at home, with my husband and our young son, so I’ve decided to leave The Talk.” Moonves was replaced by Carrie Ann Inaba.
Speaking with Parade, Moonves spoke about her tenure with Big Brother and what the series has taught her. “Egos are so fragile,” she responded. “Whether you’re a celebrity or a civilian, at the end of the day, if you get your feelings hurt, you’re going to vote emotionally rather than logically. People always think, Oh, I’m going to be the exception—no one’s going to stab me in the back. It’s Big Brother; it’s bound to happen.”
Moonves Has Said That ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ Is ‘Friendlier’ Than Its Predecessor
Moonves also spoke on the differences between Big Brother and its spinoff, Celebrity Big Brother. “A big difference was because of the shorter duration, the celebrity houseguests didn’t get much exposure to natural light,” she revealed. “We had to scale back the backyard to the little area that had the Jacuzzi and the fire pit because the main backyard had to be turned over and broken down every other day for competitions.”
“There also was a level of familiarity,” she added. “Some of these celebrities knew each other from the charity circuit or being in the business, but they weren’t best friends. Even if they didn’t know somebody, they knew their name so they already had certain ideas of how they thought they would be, sometimes with misconceptions.”