‘Big Brother’ Season 28 Ratings Show Huge Bump

Big Brother returned with a vengeance last week on CBS. The much-buzzed about premiere, which featured the return and “death” of show legend Rachel Reilly, made a big splash on the network, per the ratings.

CBS announced that Big Brother‘s Season 28 premiere episode drew in an average of 3.88 million viewers, which was its most-watched premiere since July 7, 2021 (the Season 23 premiere) and an increase of 22% compared to Season 27’s starter and a 21% increase for the show’s Thursday night average last season.

The overall viewership for Big Brother‘s Season 28 premiere was 4.27 million, which was the biggest Thursday night episode since August 13, 2020, per CBS. The network also claims the show was the most-socialed premiere since 2020, generating 8.1 million views and 866,000 interactions.

In addition to “killing” off Reilly, with both a dinosaur and a volcano of all things, the premiere also introduced the “Time Trip” twist, with 14 new houseguests joined by Reilly, along with Big Brother Season 26 standout Angela Murray and Survivor‘s Rick Devens. Reilly’s premiere “death” ushered in the arrival of Survivor winner and The Challenge alum Dee Valladares. Valladares’ arrival was announced during the post-show, Big Brother: Unlocked.

Big Brother Season 28 premiered on Thursday, July 9. Sunday’s 90-minute show subsequently revealed that the competitions for safety were won by Jason De Puy, Chuk Anyanwu, and Rome Seymour. The first Head of Household competition was played by the trio of reality alums left in the game, with Valladares winning HOH and earning safety for the week.

Up on the block for this week’s possible eviction are BB newcomers Yash Patel, Mallory Aurichio, and Taylor Brown. They will compete on Wednesday’s (July 15) show for the Power of Veto, and the first houseguest eviction of the season will commence on Thursday (July 16) night’s live-vote show.

Big Brother, Season 28, Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 8/7c, CBS, stream on Paramount+