Julie Chen Moonves starts our interview with a prayer.
“Heavenly Father, thank you for this beautiful day, and thank you for providing peace and patience,” she begins, after asking if I’d like to contribute or simply listen.
I choose the latter and admit that this is a first in the decade I’ve been a journalist.
Faith has become an important part of Chen Moonves’ life, especially in the past five years — following the ousting of husband Leslie Moonves, the former CBS Corp. CEO who disappeared from the limelight after he was fired over sexual misconduct allegations in 2018. While Chen Moonves chose to leave “The Talk” in the wake of her husband’s exit from CBS, she remained at the forefront of one of the network’s biggest shows, “Big Brother,” which premieres its 25th season on Aug. 2.
She and her husband watch the reality show together, along with their 13-year-old son. “We get into it. It is still appointment viewing,” Chen Moonves, 53, says of their family nights. The former news anchor, who departed CBS’ “The Early Show” in 2010 after eight years, admits that she’s too critical of her own hosting, and even leaves the room when she appears on-screen. But she is committed to the show, often watching those notorious “Big Brother” live feeds during her downtime.
Nearly 16,000 hours of “Big Brother” footage is recorded each season, with 40 hours airing on CBS. In 2022, it was the most-viewed reality series in total minutes watched, with 14.3 billion minutes seen across CBS, Paramount+ and the CBS app.
“Big Brother” began in the Netherlands (it was created by John de Mol in 1997), with the idea of putting a group of contestants in a house, cut off from the rest of the world, with cameras recording their every interaction. Each week, the cast compete in challenges and must vote to evict one houseguest until one winner takes home the $750,000 prize. CBS debuted the U.S. version in 2000 and from the beginning took advantage of the slow summer months by airing multiple days a week…