Eric Todisco
Big Brother is always watching.
The cast of “Big Brother” Season 26 has been sequestered on the show since before the assassination attempt of Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Joe Biden as the hopeful Democratic nominee for the November election.
The hit CBS reality show rarely informs its contestants about developments in the real world — with two past exceptions being the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Trump’s victory in the 2016 election.
So will the show break tradition again this season?
Host Julie Chen Moonves has an answer.
“Right now … No,” she said in an exclusive interview with The Post ahead of the season’s first live eviction on Thursday.
“But if, God forbid, something huge happens where we have to, then yes,” the 54-year-old TV personality added.
Season 26 started filming July 16, and the cast went into sequester some days before.
On July 13, Trump, 78, was shot in the ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The show premiered July 17, and on the 21st, Biden, 81, reversed his decision to seek re-election, and endorsed Harris, 59.
“These people don’t know that Biden has stepped down from running. Whoa,” Chen Moonves said, also confirming that houseguests were sequestered before the attempt on Trump’s life.
She continued: “I’m gonna bring that up to my producer tonight and say like, ‘The evicted houseguest tonight goes out back in the real world. Can we be the one to tell them?’”
Chen Moonves also reflected on the two other times they broke major worldwide news to the houseguests.
In November 2016, Chen Moonves told the remaining contestants on the show’s online-only spinoff, “Big Brother: Over the Top,” about Trump’s shocking election victory.
“We told them afterwards because we thought it would be a fun current event thing,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh, you all know it was Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. Who do you think won?’ And then we did tell them.”
She similarly broke the news after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“9/11 was a rare thing. There was only three people left in the house. And in my opinion, I’ve always said those three houseguests were the last three people on planet Earth to learn about 9/11,” Chen Moonves explained.
“And we definitely had to [tell them], because one of the three people left, her cousin … was missing,” the host said of contestant Monica Bailey. “We had to tell her, ‘Your cousin was in one of the towers. Right now she’s missing. There is a search and rescue going on right now.’”
“Her cousin perished. Her cousin was never found. We had to give them the opportunity to say, ‘Real life is happening, and this is so tragic. I don’t want to play the game anymore.’ We had to give them that.”
And as Chen Moonves noted, any “Big Brother” contestant can quit the game if they feel ready to return to the outside world.
“At any point … That door is not locked,” she said. “You can leave the Big Brother house at any point.”
“Big Brother” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern and Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS.
This post was originally posted by NYPost
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