The ‘Big Brother’ You Grew Up With Is Gone — and No One Saw This Coming

The Big Brother you grew up watching is officially gone—and the Houseguests aren’t happy about it. For over 25 years, CBS’s reality juggernaut balanced social strategy, alliances, and cunning gameplay with just enough chaos to keep fans glued. But this season, the spotlight has shifted almost entirely to competitions. Winning challenges now trumps plotting your way through the house, leaving former players, current contestants, and longtime viewers alike wondering if Big Brother has become more like MTV’s The Challenge than the strategic social experiment it once was.