‘Big Brother’ Season 28 Makes Eleventh-Hour Casting Change Ahead of Premiere

Big Brother is returning for Season 28 (!!!!) tonight, July 9, on CBS. And...it looks like there’s been an eleventh-hour change?

The Sun reports that cast member Levi Banks will no longer be participating in the season and was replaced by Yash Patel, who stepped in “just days before the show’s premiere.”

Per a production source, “Levi did the full casting process including his contestant portrait and sequestering. After everything, he was pulled from the season at basically the very last second. Yash was an alternate and replaced Levi.”

There’s no word yet as to why this happened, so stay tuned.

Twenty-four-year-old Yash is a financial analyst from Monroe Township, New Jersey, and The Sun notes that his “promotional rollout looked different from the rest of the cast,” leading to speculation that he’d joined the show later than everyone else.

Per the official press release, 14 Houseguests will move into the Big Brother house during the first episode, and “additional surprise Houseguests will be revealed on air.” This cast includes “an MMA fighter, rocket scientist, game show host, daughter of an ’80s pop star, and a DRAG RACE All Star, among others. This new group of Houseguests is stepping into a summer where nothing is as it seems, where every twist rewrites the rules, and where time becomes the ultimate twist.”

Big Brother Season 28 is hosted by Julie Chen Moonves and drops its first 90-minute episode tonight, July 9, on CBS and Paramount+.