Your Guide To The “Celebrities” Of ‘Celebrity Big Brother’

By Joe Reid @joereid

Published Feb. 7, 2018, 12:00 p.m. ET

Photos: CBS ; Illustration: Dillen phelps

**Brandi Glanville**
**Age:** 45
**Most Famous For:** Starring on *The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills* during its second through fifth seasons.
**Also Famous For:** Her claim to fame before *Housewives* was that her husband, actor Eddie Cibrian, left her for LeAnn Rimes. And then after *Housewives*, Brandi made the tour of secondary reality shows, like *Celebrity Apprentice* and *Celebrity Big Brother UK*.
**Chances For Victory:** Few Housewives have ever been as good at creating and reacting to drama as Brandi, and she did finish fourth on *Celebrity Apprentice* ... where she (briefly) co-starred with Keshia Knight Puliam, so maybe there's a built-in alliance there? photo: CBS

**Chuck Liddell**
**Age:** 48
**Most Famous For:** Being one of the great early stars of UFC, helping to popularize mixed martial-arts in the mainstream.
**Also Famous For:** Finishing 11th on season 9 of *Dancing with the Stars*.
**Chances For Victory:** While his MMA background would suggest he'll be one of the strongest competitors, at age 48, he's also the second-oldest. *Big Brother* has never been a game to honor its elders. photo: CBS

**James Maslow**
**Age:** 27
**Most Famous For:** Being a Nickelodeon-famous boy-band member in the band Big Time Rush.
**Also Famous For:** Finishing 4th on the 18th season of *Dancing with the Stars*.
**Chances For Victory:** How much will the other celebrities want to listen to the teeny bb boy-bander? He might have to just go along to get along. photo: CBS

**Adriana Gutierrez**
**Age:** 24
**Most Famous For:** Gutierrez was the reigning Miss Colombia at the 2015 Miss Universe pageant when Steve Harvey incorrectly announced her as the winner, before then having to go back and say the real winner was Miss Philippines.
**Also Famous For:** After the Miss Universe debacle went viral, Gutierrez co-starred in the film *xXx: The Return of Xander Cage*. Also, she was portrayed by Valentina on *RuPaul's Drag Race* during season 9's Snatch Game.
**Chances For Victory:** She's the youngest contestant, which could give her some sort of energy advantage. And given her Miss Universe experience, she's *never* gonna fall for one of Julie Chen's eviction-night fake-outs. photo: CBS

**Keshia Knight Pulliam**
**Age:** 38
**Most Famous For:** Her role as Rudy, the youngest Huxtable child (until she got too old to be cute and they cast Raven Symone as Olivia) on *The Cosby Show*.
**Also Famous For:** Every once in a while, she'll pop up on the celebrity reality TV circuit, from *Fear Factor* to *Celebrity Mole* to *Celebrity Apprentice*.
**Chances For Victory:** Unclear, but it'll be *real* interesting to see if anybody asks her Cosby questions, considering her last reality appearance happened before his rape accusations really took hold with the public. photo: CBS

**Ross Matthews**
**Age:** 38
**Most Famous For:** Staring out as roving reporter Ross the Intern for Jay Leno's *Tonight Show*, Matthews is now best known as a judge on *RuPaul's Drag Race*.
**Also Famous For:** He's hosted red carpets, been a panelist on *Chelsea Lately*, and competed on reality shows like *Celebrity Fit Club*.
**Chances For Victory:** Only one gay man has ever won *Big Brother* in the states, but Ross is very likeable, and with Courtney Act having just won *Celebrity Big Brother: Australia*, maybe *Drag Race* talent is on a hot streak. photo: CBS

**Metta World Peace**
**Age:** 38
**Most Famous For:** The former Ron Artest, World Peace had an 18-year professional basketball career, including a brawl in Detroit with fans and players that lives on in infamy.
**Also Famous For:** Getting eliminated first on season 13 of *Dancing with the Stars*.
**Chances For Victory:** He's never been an incredibly likeable guy, so if there's any fan-voting component, don't count on it. He's a huge athletic threat, though. photo: CBS

**Mark McGrath**
**Age:** 49
**Most Famous For:** The silky smooth, lite-reggae-infused pop that Sugar Ray brought into our lives in the late '90s, wrapping their arms around us and flying us into chilled-out bliss.
**Also Famous For:** Being the co-host of the celebrity news program Extra since 2004. He also finished in 10th place on the fourth season of *Celebrity Apprentice*.
**Chances For Victory:** McGrath's whole vibe -- a friendly alpha male -- usually tends to do pretty well on this show. photo: CBS

**Marissa Jaret Winokur**
**Age:** 44
**Most Famous For:** Winning a Tony Award for originating the role of Tracy Turnblad in *Hairspray: The Musical* on Broadway.
**Also Famous For:** Finishing 4th on season 6 of *Dancing with the Stars*, hosting the dance/weight loss competition *Dance Your Ass Off*, co-hosting *The Talk* during its initial season.
**Chances For Victory:** Well, she's tight with her old *The Talk* co-host Julie Chen (or at least she used to be), so maybe she could make that work for her.photo: CBS

**Shannon Elizabeth**
**Age:** 44
**Most Famous For:** Her acting roles in movies like *American Pie*, *Scary Movie*, and *Thirteen Ghosts*.
**Also Famous For:** Transitioning from the world of acting to the world of professional poker.
**Chances For Victory:** Very strategic *Big Brother* players often fancy themselves like card sharks, so maybe Shannon has the upper hand there. photo: CBS

**Omarosa Manigault**
**Age:** 43
**Most Famous For:** Getting fired three separate times on *The Apprentice*, then getting fired once more after that from the White House.
**Also Famous For:** Omarosa has gotten into beefs with other celebrities everywhere from VH1's *The Surreal Life* to talk-show appearances with Wendy Williams and Bethenny Frankel, among others.
**Chances For Victory:** She will almost certainly end up leaving the game on her own accord once it looks like her goose is cooked. photo: CBS

Where to Stream:

Celebrity Big Brother

Tonight at 8pm ET on CBS, America finally catches up to the rest of the world. After years and years’ worth of celebrity seasons of the reality competition Big Brother have aired in places like the UK and Australia, the U.S. is finally getting around to its own season of Celebrity Big Brother. Host Julie Chen will be hosting a two-week sprint of the series, designed to last through the run of the Winter Olympics across the dial on NBC, starting tonight. So which famous celebs will be gracing the Big Brother house with their beaming star power? Clearly, Meryl Streep will be competing with Aaron Rodgers for Head of Household, while Tom Hanks and Kristen Bell campaign for votes in this week’s eviction vote. …Right?

Haha, of course not! Celebrity reality shows are a kind of D-list realm all to themselves, where once-hot careers go to safely cool. They are the windowsill of modern American celebrity. If you check out the cast members for the inaugural American season of Celebrity Big Brother, you’ll notice a lot of people who have previously been on celebrity seasons of The Apprentice or Dancing With the Stars. They’re members of the celebrity reality-TV economy, and they’re always ready to suit up. Sometimes that’s a good thing — if there’s one compliment you can pay a Real Housewife, it’s that they always show up ready to make good TV. But the difference between a show like Celebrity Big Brother and, say, VH1’s Scared Famous is that CBS wants to attract a broad American audience, so they need to have broadly recognizable names, and since almost all entertainment these days is niche, broadly-appealing celebrity reality stars are … the ones who we all remember from Dancing with the Stars. VH1 got to populate Scared Famous with VH1 reality celebs, and thus attract that VH1 audience. (Plus they had Alaska from Drag Race, so they win.)

So in the interests of keeping you up to date on all the hottest Winter Olympics counter-programming options, here’s our handy guide to the eleven celebrities (well, “celebrities”) who will face off under the watchful eye of Julie Chen for the Big Brother prize.

Where to stream Celebrity Big Brother