Will ‘Big Brother 28’ Have Returning Players? The Case For and Against
As rumors swirl about potential veterans, here is a look at the evidence pointing to an All-Star return on the CBS show — and why it might just be wishful thinking.
While the summer season officially started on June 21, for Big Brother fans, it will actually kick off in two weeks. That’s when Season 28 of the iconic CBS reality show premieres, opening up the doors to the house (and subsequently closing them) for another group of houseguests to duke it out in the ultimate form of cabin fever in pursuit of $750,000. But could it be possible that this year’s crop of contestants is full of familiar faces?
Now, to be frank (not Eudy), if you’ve been a longtime Big Brother fan, you know that rumors about returning houseguests, like a visit from OTEV or Zingbot, have become an annual occurrence. Every year, in May or June, gossip begins that alumni have been contacted, production has decided on an all-stars/captains/fans vs. favorites format, etc. And most years, the rumor mill is shut down when CBS announces the actual cast and theme. It seems this year, however, discussion of returnees is more prevalent than ants at the end of any given Big Brother season. And, while Parade has no intel as to whether or not Season 28 will feature an all-new group of houseguests, with nothing to do but wait until the big July 9 premiere, we figured it could be an opportunity to, much like eviction night, hear the pleas from both metaphoric nominees.
Here are our arguments as to whether Big Brother 28 will or won’t be a returnee season. And, regardless of whether it’s the case, be sure to tune into the 90-minute premiere on Thursday, July 9, and check out Parade‘s coverage all season long!
Why Big Brother 28 won’t have returning players
Let’s start with the less fun argument. The biggest piece of evidence in support of an all-new group of houseguests for Season 28 is that, with one exception, the “new era” of Big Brother has remained surprisingly free of returnees. Over the past five seasons of the show, among 82 houseguests, only one of them had played Big Brother before. Despite the show’s consistent popularity, the producers and the casting team have been remarkably conservative about bringing people back, opting to create new fan-favorite players rather than bank on known entities.
The last time Big Brother had a season with more than one returnee was all the way back in 2020. And, to be honest, there’s probably a good reason why. After years of consistent speculation, in the height of the pandemic, CBS announced its second-ever full all-star season. The cast was absolutely stacked on paper, combining old-school legends like Janelle Pierzina and Dani Briones, long-requested returns of people like Kevin Campbell and Keeha Smith, and recent standouts like Cody Calafiore, Tyler Crispen and Nicole Anthony. Unfortunately, the reality failed to live up to the high expectations set in the days leading up to the Big Brother 22 premiere.
What followed was one of the most straightforward seasons in the show’s history. Nearly every competition was won by the majority alliance, which spent the first two months of the game cleanly picking off every outsider. Even among those who were dominating, the general mood among the houseguests was dour and depressing (completely understandable, given what the world was going through at the time). This may be a bit of fan fiction on our part, but we could see a world where, having seen the worst-case scenario of a returnee season play out, they would be cautious to go back to the stove again.
But perhaps the biggest smoking gun against a possible returnee season is simply the fact that we haven’t heard anything about it yet! Season 22 revealed its all-star theme two weeks before the premiere (even though the always-next-level sleuthing on behalf of Big Brother fans was able to gather evidence to mount a case speculating as such). We’ve just reached that point, and there hasn’t been any form of announcement from CBS about returning players, not even any vague clues posted on the show’s social media. I know we’ve been told to “expect the unexpected,” but wouldn’t Big Brother want to hype up some returning veterans only a handful of days before its premiere?
Related: Frankie Grande Reveals Whether He’d Ever Return to ‘Big Brother’ (Exclusive)
Why Big Brother 28 will have returning players
Sure, has information about returning players come out around this time in the past? Absolutely. But for evidence to the contrary, we can look no further than the only returnee we’ve had in the past five years: Rachel Reilly. Last year, CBS did not reveal there would be a returning player until the premiere itself, simply teasing a seventeenth “mystery houseguest” along with some enigmatic clues. And even that information wasn’t revealed until the cast of newbies was announced, which only happened two days before the Season 27 premiere. Given the fact that neither the house theme nor the houseguests are known yet, we have recent precedent to show that returning players could still be announced.
Reilly’s presence in the house last year also showcases that Big Brother 28 can certainly feature some returnees, rather than all. Out of the 28 seasons so far (27 on TV and the online-only Over the Top), six of them had newbies playing with at least one veteran. Even if recent seasons have shied away from returning players, there’s still plenty of examples in years past where producers have filled the house with one, four, or even six of them at a time. And, as odd as bringing Reilly back by herself may have seemed on paper, it was absolute knockout casting, showcasing how bringing in “reality royalty” can help stir up the gameplay and the drama among a new crop of characters.
It should also be mentioned that while only one alum actually played Big Brother last summer, there were many who appeared on the show proper. Over the course of the season, we got cameos from Tyler, Kaycee Clark, Angela Murray, Frankie Grande, Eric Stein and Jessie Godderz. 2025 also saw the debut of Big Brother: Unlocked, a companion series hosted by winners Taylor Hale and Derrick Levasseur that also featured appearances from Chelsie Baham, Jag Bains, Britney Haynes and Nicole Franzel. Though this may have simply been CBS pulling out all the stops in honor of the show’s 25th anniversary, it could also be an indicator that the network is eager to dive back into the pool of previous players. Heck, technically speaking, there was a Big Brother all-star season after 2020, in the form of the holiday spinoff Reindeer Games!
Related: ‘Big Brother’ Winner and ‘Bachelorette’ Alum Reveal They’re Dating
For our final piece of evidence, we have to turn to the vague online activity that always factors into the preseason speculation. As many fans have pointed out, the first press release for Big Brother 28 made no mention of a group of “all-new houseguests” moving in, with the omission of the phrase perhaps indicating they may not be entirely fresh faces. When asked last year by Entertainment Weekly if future seasons would mix veterans and newbies more, executive producer Alison Grodner replied, “You never know. I mean, it worked out nicely, but we don’t necessarily like to repeat ourselves all the time either. I think it was nice that there was a break and that we had complete newbie casts playing. And so it just depends.”
There’s also the fact that there’s been a rather coincidental amount of suspicious activity from a number of previous houseguests. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen alums turn off their Cameos and go private on social media. Sure, legends like Danielle Reyes and Janelle have explained they’ve done so simply for work, not because of any possible return to the house. But wouldn’t that be something a returnee would be saying as an excuse?! Could Ainsley be seeking her revenge and creating those deepfake posts and videos? Where are the pictures from these supposed trips to Greece?! If Dan’s Funeral taught us anything, it’s not to count any possibility out!
