‘Celebrity Big Brother’: Neil Patrick Harris Could Be A Serious Contender For The Cast Of The CBS Spinoff

Celebrity Big Brother is not expecting to attract A-list talent—but that doesn’t mean it won’t. The upcoming celebrity-themed season of the long-running CBS reality show has not yet announced any cast members, but the smart money is betting that Neil Patrick Harris will sign on to the show.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, longtime Big Brother host Julie Chen said the network is “being realistic” about the caliber of celebrity they’ll be able to sign for Celebrity Big Brother, admitting, “It’s not going to be all Oscar winners.” But executive producer Rich Meehan did offer up this teaser.

“Maybe there are some celebrity fans of the show that we’ll mix in there.”

And no one is more of a Big Brother fan than Neil Patrick Harris. The How I Met Your Mother star has long been vocal about his love for the voyeuristic CBS reality show. And according to TV Guide, Harris has even gone on record as saying he would love to participate in a celebrity version of Big Brother. While Neil Patrick Harris is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, TV Guide notes that this winter, when Celebrity Big Brother is set to shoot, seems “relatively light for the prolific star.”

As part of his super fandom, in 2006, Neil Patrick Harris actually made a cameo on Big Brother’s all-stars season. Neil surprised that season’s veteran houseguests by showing up in the middle of the night as a Secret Santa for a “Christmas in August” surprise. He even joined the cast for a meal of slop, Big Brother’s signature food.

Harris has also revealed that he has become good friends with Big Brother Season 2 winner Will Kirby, whom he describes as “the greatest Big Brother contestant ever.”

In 2014, Harris told Vanity Fair he knows Big Brother is an unhealthy obsession for him. After a busy summer performing in the Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Itch, Harris admitted he had to catch up on all the TV and movie entertainment he had missed.

“[The only television show] I’ve been watching is Big Brother,” Harris said at the time. “I can’t stop watching it, I don’t know what it is… It’s like an unhealthy relationship.”

Neil Patrick Harris is at a point in his career where he can pick and choose whatever types of projects he wants to do. If he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, no one would consider him a washed-up celeb. Instead, the show would get major kudos for scoring such a big star.

“I’m a very lucky man in this chapter of my professional life, ’cause I get to do jobs with wildly different skill sets,” Harris previously told the AV Club.

“And I choose them just ’cause I enjoy them. Whether that be Barney Stinson, or an Arthur Miller play, or a game show, being on Big Brother for a day…I’m doing things that I really enjoy doing. And I’m in a lucky position to be able to make those calls.”

Of course, Neil Patrick Harris has long been a loyal member of the CBS family, which is another factor in Celebrity Big Brother’s favor. In addition to his nine-season run on How I Met Your Mother, Neil has appeared as a guest co-host on Julie Chen’s chatfest The Talk, and he even turned up on an episode of the network’s iconic game show The Price Is Right.

Would you like to see Neil Patrick Harris on Celebrity Big Brother?

[Featured Image by Heather Wines/CBS]