Americans are about to find out why Celebrity Big Brother has been a phenomenon in the UK for more than 15 years — well, at least until recently.
American network CBS will be premiering its first-ever edition of Big Brother's celebrity format next week, so the channel used its exclusive broadcast of Sunday's Grammy Awards to officially announce the cast.
And it's a genuinely surprising line-up of A-listers. Nah, just kidding — most of these people would be happy to scrape the bottom of the B-list, aside from an ex-White House aide and a very recent star of Celebrity Big Brother UK.
Below, Digital Spy introduces you to the first-ever cast of Celebrity Big Brother USA:
- Ariadna Gutiérrez — former Miss Colombia
- Brandi Glanville — formerly of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Celebrity Big Brother UK
- Chuck Liddell — UFC Hall of Fame inductee
- James Maslow — formerly of the boyband Big Time Rush
- Keshia Knight Pulliam — former star of The Cosby Show and Tyler Perry's House of Payne
- Marissa Jaret Winokur — singer and actress from Hairspray
- Mark McGrath — frontman of noughties rockers Sugar Ray
- Metta World Peace — former NBA star from the Los Angeles Lakers
- Omarosa Manigault — Apprentice USA star and Donald Trump's recently-sacked director of the Office of Public Liaison
- Ross Mathews — former Tonight Show intern and RuPaul's Drag Race judge
- Shannon Elizabeth — star of American Pie, Scary Movie and Love Actually
As you can see, there are a lot of 'formerlies' within the cast, although nabbing one of Trump's key advisors mere weeks after her controversial departure from the White House is quite a pull.
(Brandi Glanville)
What to Read Next
Like the UK, the American version of Celebrity Big Brother will basically be airing nightly, but for a shortened two weeks total as direct competition to NBC's Winter Olympics coverage.
Celebrity Big Brother will premiere in the US next Wednesday (February 7) on CBS, with Big Brother USA's Julie Chen hosting.
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Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
