Source: Entertainment Weekly

Fans of curling, figure skating, and a weird sport where people ski and then fire a gun are eagerly anticipating February 2026 for the return of the Winter Olympics! Fans of reality TV were also looking forward to the global sporting event staged every four years, because the last two times the Winter Olympics have taken place on NBC, CBS has counterprogrammed with a competition of its own: Celebrity Big Brother.

However, it appears CBS will not be going for the gold(en power of Veto) this time around. Entertainment Weekly asked Big Brother executive producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan if we could expect to see Celebrity Big Brother gracing our screens this February, and their answer was like a Coup d’Etat punch to the gut.

“It doesn’t look like it,” replies Grodner. “I think it would be fantastic, but it’s just other factors beyond our control. But you can ask CBS.”

So that we did. We poked around with our sources close to the network (no, not the Mastermind and Otev), and it indeed appears that the celebrity version of everyone’s favorite competitive reality show that employs a Time Laser is indeed not slated to air opposite the Olympics in February.

First off, let’s pause for the cause to mourn the fact that for the first time in 12 years there will be no Olympic counter-programming featuring celebrity shenanigans such as Tamar Braxton entering a haunted house nor Metta World Peace canoodling with a stuffed owl. But the news only gets worse from there.

EW also inquired as to whether the Christmas-inspired Big Brother Reindeer Games — which debuted in 2023 but was absent last year — would once again be gracing our screens this holiday season, and the answer that came back was like a giant lump of coal in our stocking. Our source close to the network (also not the Zingbot) confirms there are also no current plans to air Reindeer Games in 2025.

That would seem to indicate that Reindeer Games could potentially be completely dead at the network after another year off the air. However, our source (no, not Jankie) notes that the spinoff could possibly return as a schedule-filler at some point in the future should the network need to fill a hole for a few weeks. At this point, that is what Grodner and Meehan are hoping for.

“Oh my God, we would love it to come back,” Grodner says. “We think it deserves to be out there, whether it’s in the winter, whether it’s summer games, spring games, or, you know, Halloween Horror Games, or whatever.”

According to Grodner, maybe it was the mid-December timing — never a prime spot for TV ratings — that was the problem. “It feels like the show worked really well, and it probably had a lot to do with the time of year it aired that maybe it wasn’t quite as successful.”

Which is why the producers have pitched the show to CBS as one that could work in any season. “We designed a format that could be skinned in any way,” says Meehan. “It could be a Halloween stunt, it could be a Christmas stunt, it could be for Valentine’s Day, or even Easter Games could be fun.”

But if a version of Reindeer Games were to resurface during another part of the year, finding a regular habit-viewing season to air repeatedly would be key.

“I think you have to teach an audience that it’s there,” says Meehan. “Because I think our fans would love the show if everyone knew exactly when it was on. Because people are such [creatures of habit]. It’s like, ‘What’s on in the summer?’ and you show up and it’s there. When you’re trying to teach people new things, it takes a minute [for] everyone [to] know that this exists.”

But getting it onto a CBS schedule already stocked with plenty of successful procedurals is the true challenge.

“I think ultimately just it comes down to schedule availability,” Meehan explains. “CBS has a successful scripted business and ultimately, it’s like, ‘When do they need stuff?’ But we love it, we’re always asking about it, and from talking to them, it’s not like it’s gone forever. It’s just when is the right time and when do they have the airtime for it? Everybody at CBS loves it.”

“We didn’t hear anything negative about it,” concurs Grodner. “It would be great to see other alumni play, but it’s not in our control. We will produce it wherever anyone wants it. It just comes down to availability in the schedule.”

And that availability sadly does not appear to be anytime soon. HUMBUG!

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