‘Celebrity Big Brother’ Teaser Released With No Sign Of Julie Chen
Julie Chen has been the “face” of Big Brother for 18 years, but there is no trace of her in a new promo posted on Instagram for the upcoming celebrity edition of the long-running CBS reality show. On Thursday, the network released a new teaser for the second season of Celebrity Big Brother, and while it teases plenty of past drama from last winter’s edition of the reality TV competition, there’s no sign of Chenbot in the clip.
The teaser, which you can see below, highlights some of the most memorable houseguests from last winter’s Celebrity Big Brother run, including TV personality Ross Mathews, former Trump political aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, and first season winner Marissa Jaret Winokur.
Julie Chen, who has been a visible part of every past Big Brother season, does not appear at all in the promo, although it was previously announced that Chen will host the show as usual. The CBS host is listed as “Julie Chen Moonves” on CBS’s press release about the show.
Julie Chen has been weathering some personal drama at home after her husband Les Moonves’ fall from CBS amid multiple sexual misconduct allegations. It was recently determined that the ousted CBS president and CEO was fired for cause and will not receive a planned $120 million severance package from the network, according to the New York Times. This puts Julie Chen in an awkward position as she continues to work at CBS while supporting her husband.
While Julie Chen stepped down from her post on the weekday chatfest The Talk, Deadline reported that the longtime CBS star told the network that she wanted to keep her job on Big Brother, which she has hosted since 2000. Chen’s CBS contract reportedly runs for the 2019 edition of the celebrity-themed spinoff and one more summer season of the long-running reality show.
The second U.S. edition of Celebrity Big Brother will premiere on January 21 and will run for a fast-paced three weeks as a cast of stars competes for a $250,000 cash prize. While no celebrity houseguests have yet been revealed, Julie Chen previously shared who she would like to see compete on the show. According to Newsweek, Chen reportedly named Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, fallen Olympic skater Tonya Harding, and her former Talk co-star Sharon Osbourne as people she would like to see enter the Celebrity Big Brother house this winter.
You can see the new Celebrity Big Brother teaser below.
Celebrity Big Brother premieres January 21 on CBS.
