PocketBB's Notes
BB28

The BB28 Cast Is Here. The Roster May Not Be Done.

CBS introduced 14 BB28 houseguests during the July 7 Broveal, but the official release says additional surprise houseguests are coming on air. Here is the confirmed cast, the open door, and the chatter, clearly labeled.

The BB28 Cast Is Here. The Roster May Not Be Done.

The waiting room phase of BB28 is over. On July 7, 2026, CBS and Paramount Press Express announced 14 houseguests during the Big Brother: Broveal livestream on the show's official YouTube channel, which means PocketBB can finally swap placeholders for actual names, ages, and hometowns on the cast board.

But read the official release closely and you'll notice CBS left itself an exit row: "additional surprise Houseguests will be revealed on air." So no, this is not a clean "the cast is locked" moment. It's a "the cast is mostly locked, and the twist door is propped open" moment. Here's what's confirmed, what's reported, and what's just noise, in that order.

The confirmed 14

These are the houseguests CBS itself announced. Everything below comes straight from the July 7 Paramount Press Express release, with a couple of clearly labeled context notes from mainstream coverage.

The 20-somethings doing normal-person jobs (mostly):

  • Ashley Trail, 24, a bartender from Alton, Illinois, now in Chicago.
  • Barrett Pfeiffer, 27, a jumbotron engineer from Benton, Arkansas, now in Austin, Texas. Yes, jumbotron engineer is a real job, and yes, it is the best occupation line of the season so far.
  • Chuk Anyanwu, 27, a supply chain analyst from Dallas, Texas.
  • Drew Campbell, 22, a surgical dental assistant from Temecula, California, and the youngest of the confirmed cast.
  • Taylor Brown, 27, an elementary school counselor from Deerfield Beach, Florida.
  • Yash Patel, 24, a financial analyst from Monroe Township, New Jersey.

The ones with a hook built in:

  • Jason De Puy, 35, a drag queen from San Francisco, now in West Hollywood. TVLine and other outlets identify him as Drag Race All Star Salina EsTitties — that ID comes from coverage, not the CBS release, but it's not exactly a deep-cover secret.
  • Lyric Medeiros, 25, an attorney from Honolulu. Coverage notes she's the daughter of pop singer Glenn Medeiros, which is a useful little trivia flare for a certain generation of feedsters.
  • Mallory Aurichio, 24, from Township of Washington, New Jersey, whose occupation is listed as rocket scientist. When someone in the house says "it's not rocket science," we now have a designated referee.
  • Melody Morris, 24, a corporate game show host from Thornton, Colorado, now in Maricopa, Arizona — a person whose literal job is keeping a room moving, entering a house wired for it.

The physical and life-experience threats:

  • Kamuela "Kamu" Kirk, 32, an MMA fighter from Phoenix, Arizona.
  • Rome Seymour, 28, a pickleball coach from Traverse City, Michigan, now in Delray Beach, Florida.
  • Haley Thogmartin, 29, a telemedicine executive from Neosho, Missouri, now in Wildwood, Missouri.
  • LaTrice Verrett, 57, a boutique salesperson from Kankakee, Illinois, now in Maplewood, New Jersey — the oldest confirmed houseguest by more than two decades, which historically means she's either an early target or an early house mom. Sometimes both.

That's the spine of the season: fourteen people, ages 22 to 57, walking into a house CBS is dressing up as Big Brother: Time Trip, where the past, present, and future collide. What that theme actually means mechanically, CBS hasn't said. Which brings us to the open door.

The open door CBS built on purpose

The July 7 release doesn't just hint at more houseguests — it says it outright: additional surprise houseguests will be revealed on air. Combine that with a theme literally built around "the past" colliding with the present, and the obvious read is that CBS has more names in its pocket for premiere night or shortly after.

That's the official position: 14 confirmed, more coming, details on air. Anything more specific than that is reporting, not confirmation. So let's do the reporting.

The reported additions — labeled, not laundered

On July 7 at 4:25 PM ET, TVLine updated its cast post with two names: reporting via EW that Rick Devens (Survivor: Edge of Extinction) is also entering the house, and via Men's Journal that Angela Murray is returning. The same update says a second former Survivor castaway is expected but unnamed.

Our timeline picked up the same currents in real time. At 19:00 UTC on July 7, a Reddit thread hit our feed claiming Rick Devens is one of two Survivor stars reported for BB28. At 20:10 UTC, our Bluesky timeline picked up Sharon Tharp saying the second Survivor player will be revealed on Friday's BBUnlocked. Between 20:00 and 20:24 UTC, the Bluesky chatter was a steady churn of Angela Murray, Rick Devens, and second-Survivor speculation.

To be blunt about the sourcing tiers here:

  • CBS-confirmed: the 14 names above, the premiere, the feeds schedule, and the fact that surprise houseguests exist.
  • Reported: Rick Devens and Angela Murray, per TVLine's aggregation of EW and Men's Journal.
  • Expected/unnamed: a second Survivor player, possibly revealed Friday on BBUnlocked per social chatter.

None of the reported names are official CBS-confirmed houseguests until CBS says so on air. We're not putting them on the cast board yet. We are absolutely watching for them.

What PocketBB is tracking next

The schedule from here is dense:

  • Thursday, July 9, 2026 — the 90-minute BB28 premiere airs 8:00–9:30 PM ET/PT on CBS and streams on Paramount+. If the surprise houseguests walk in anywhere, it's here.
  • Friday, July 10, 2026 — live feeds open at 9:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM PT on Paramount+ and Pluto TV, with limited YouTube live-feed windows after episodes. Also the day BBUnlocked may reveal that second Survivor player, if the chatter holds.

As CBS confirms names, PocketBB will move them from "reported" to "confirmed" on the cast board, and every status change will come with a receipt attached. Fourteen names is a real cast. It's just not necessarily the whole one.

Receipts