Big Brother 9: Big Brother in the Winter?

CBS has announced on cbs.com that Big Brother 9 will begin a bit early this year. February 12, 2008, to be exact. (Is the "winter games" version of the show?) No word yet on whether or not this replaces the Big Brother that would be on this summer, or would be an additional season, amounting to two seasons of Big Brother during 2008. But one thing is for sure: Big Brother 9 WILL start February 12.

They have also announced that they will be bringing back, "Big Brother After Dark" on Showtime's Show Too sister station. This could make for some interesting live-blogging. A lot of last year's most interesting moments happened while "Big Brother After Dark" was airing. Case in point, the big Jen vs. Dick fight from Big Brother 8.

What will the Big Brother 9 twist be? There are a lot of rumors floating around. One of the big ones was that BB9 would be a celebrity edition, but that rumor has been put to rest. Another was that Dick Donato, winner of BB8, would be returning. That rumor has not so solidly been squashed, but neither has it been proven!

According to producer Alison Grodner, America's Player will not be returning. "That's really hard to do twice," Grodner said. "Anyone coming to be a part of 'Big Brother' this year would know about it and we'd hate to have people act differently because they think that the viewers are in control. ... That doesn't mean that it couldn't return in some other way, but doing exactly what we did again, no." (Source: New York Daily News)

So what is left in the way of twists? One persistent rumor is that BB9's twist will have something to do with 'dirty little secrets' and will based on one season of the French version of Big Brother, which was called, "Secret Story." Apparently there is a promotion for BB9 right now that has part of the song "Dirty Little Secrets" playing in the background. Another of the more persistent rumors is that this BB9 will only last six weeks, but will still have 14 players, thus driving even more speculation on twists and unexpected evictions. (Source : CBS Big Brother 9 Insider)