The 'Big Brother' Live Feeds Have a Big Change in Store for Season 26 and Fans Aren't Happy

Every Big Brother fan looks forward to the season premiere each summer. But every Big Brother super fan anticipates the moment the live feeds go up and the real fun starts. Every season, there are live feeds of the houseguests that can be accessed online after each new episode airs (and usually in between episodes too).

But first (as our fearless leader and host Julie Chen Moonves is iconic for saying), you'll need to know how to watch the Big Brother live feeds, especially if you're a newbie to this way of keeping an eye on the houseguests. Plus, there's one big change to the feeds starting in Season 26 that might change how you view the feeds as a whole.

The Big Brother live feeds are available on the Paramount Plus app, which costs $11.99 per month with Showtime or $5.99 monthly with limited commercial interruptions. The live feeds have always cost a bit extra, but with the amount of drama you get, most "Live Feeders" consider the price to be totally worth it.

And for the first time starting with Season 25, fans got the added bonus of Pluto TV offering five dedicated channels to the live streams under a new Big Brother category. Of course, you can also keep an eye on Twitter or Reddit to get the juiciest info — just not in real-time.

After each season of Big Brother premieres on both CBS and the Paramount Plus app, you can then use the Paramount Plus app and now, Pluto TV, to watch the houseguests get to know each other better without the edited episodes to guide a certain narrative. It's with these live feeds that Big Brother fans are usually privy to inside jokes, a heads-up on alliances, and even some nifty spoilers before the episodes air.

Prior to Season 26 of Big Brother, Paramount and CBS made a big change to how fans watch the live feeds. Or, to be more exact, how fans re-watch specific moments from the feeds.

According to the Paramount Plus website, starting with Season 26, "archives and flashbacks are no longer available," which means fans can;t go back and re-watch clips or time-stamped moments from the feeds.

No one is happy about it, since that also limits being able to catch some houseguests saying or doing something scandalous or exciting that might not be in an edited televised episode.

One user tweeted, "By removing the rewind/flashback feature on the Big Brother Live Feeds, you are freezing out many people (live feeders) with certain disabilities who solely rely on this feature to understand what is happening in the house."

Another pointed out, "In 2022, it was reported that viewers watched nearly 8.3 billion minutes of live feeds, putting BB on par with streaming services such as Netflix and HBO. Taking flashbacks and rewind away only negatively impacts these statistics moving forward."

Before now, there wasn't really a way to hack the system or watch the Big Brother live feeds for free. But now, thanks to Pluto TV, more viewers than ever have access to the live feeds.

And if you have a Paramount Plus, regardless of your plan, you can enjoy the feed with no ads.

But be warned — watching the live feeds means dedicating even more of your time to the houseguests. Sometimes the live feeds end up being worth a few months of your time or paying for Paramount Plus. Other times, you might find yourself a little too invested in watching the houseguests sleep at 3 a.m. But for many of us, it's all worth it in the end.

Watch Big Brother on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on CBS and Paramount Plus.