Pre-season
Following the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, the trade magazine Variety reported that CBS, in response, was considering airing a winter edition of Big Brother, and that the network started cast auditions. Several sites speculated that the winter edition could have been an American version of Celebrity Big Brother but this was untrue as CBS released a statement that the next edition of Big Brother would be a regular season following the format of past editions. The season was announced on November 15, 2007 with open casting calls being held from November 17, 2007 to December 8, 2007. The finalists for the season were chosen on December 27, 2007.
Read more about this topic: Big Brother 9 (U.S.)