Big Brother Back Next Summer

So there won't be a winter edition after all.

TV Week

By Josef Adalian

"Big Brother" will be back next summer.

Just days after wrapping a successful 10th season, CBS has confirmed that its long-running reality soap opera has been renewed for an 11th cycle. The news was announced to "Brother" staffers Thursday night at the show's wrap party in Studio City, Calif.

The renewal doesn't come as much of a surprise, given "Brother's" solid performance this summer. Airing three times per week, the show regularly delivered CBS's best ratings of the night with its Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday broadcasts. Its finale attracted nearly 8 million viewers, down from last summer's swansong but up compared with the show's 2008 spring finale.

While CBS has traditionally aired "Brother" once a year, during the summer, the network launched an in-season edition of the show earlier this year as a way of filling programming gaps caused by the writers' strike.

Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan are the executive producers of "Brother," which is produced in association with Endemol USA