US 'Big Brother' "live" eviction taped for the first time

For the first time, the American version of Big Brother will not be airing their traditional "live eviction" episode Thursday night as normally scheduled. Instead, the show will be taped, with host Julie Chen and the studio audience requested four hours earlier than normal.

The reason for the change is due to the expected use of the "Coup d'Etat" power, which allows America's chosen HouseGuest to remove the current nominations and place his own with no warning mere minutes before the final vote. Fan favorite Jeff Schroeder, who has ranked #1 in TV Guide's "power rankings" for the second week in a row, was given the power a week ago after a nationwide televote.

Fellow HouseGuest Chima Benson, who is currently the Head of Household, threatened to go "batcrap crazy" on the house's live feeds earlier this week, threatening the stability of the live show. In the first week's live eviction, she delivered an impromptu tirade against nominee Braden Bacha for his racist remarks against other HouseGuests, causing Benson to be placed on a time delay to censor her language.

TV Guide did not receive any comment by press time about the scrapped live broadcast. Big Brother, now in its eleventh season, is seeing a ratings resurgence, topping the ratings received from the same time last year, with over seven million people watching the three weekly episodes. The eviction in question airs Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS.