Julie Chen Moonves is Big Brother’s Forever Host
By Kelli Luu | 11 Sep, 2025

As an Asian American pioneer in television, Julie Chen Moonves has broken barriers and built her own legacy on our screens.

Julie Chen Moonves has been leaving her mark at CBS Broadcasting for decades and for the last 25 years she has been the host of Big Brother, one of the country's most iconic reality TV shows. 

She was born in Queens to Chinese immigrant parents. Julie’s father was a prominent political figure in China before moving to the States so there was never any thought that his daughter wouldn’t succeed. In 1991 Julie graduated with a double degree in broadcast journalism and in English from the University of Southern California. 

While studying at USC she began interning alongside legendary TV personality, Andy Cohen, at CBS Morning News. She would answer phone calls and fax distribution papers, not knowing that 10 years later she’d be one of the faces of the company. 

Julie also worked at ABC NewsOne as a desk assistant and was promoted to producer of the show after three years. However, Julie didn’t feel fully content because she really wanted to be in front of the cameras as a news anchor. So, she left California in 1995 and worked for WDTN-TV in Dayton, Ohio. Here, she had a painful encounter with a news director that told her she would never be a successful anchor because of her “Asian eyes” and suggested that she get plastic surgery. This lit a fire under Julie and she was ready to prove him wrong. 

After spending two years in Dayton, Julie moved back to New York to be a reporter and weekend news anchor at WCBS-TV. From there, her career took off as she was offered the anchor position for CBS Morning News and The Early Show. Viewers were immediately drawn to Julie’s elegance and natural charm but it was when she traveled to Kuwait and Qatar during the US invasion of Iraq where she conveyed incredible news reporting skills that impressed everyone.

In 2000 CBS introduced two major reality TV programs, Survivor and Big Brother, which completely swept media ratings. From the start, Julie was chosen to host Big Brother, but was quickly criticized during the first season for her “very scripted” performance, giving her the nickname “ChenBot”. Rather than taking the comments to heart, Julie embraced the “ChenBot” persona and integrated the phrase, ‘But first…’ into her signature script, which was one of the aspects of the show that kept viewers coming back to watch every summer. 

Aside from Big Brother, Julie also co-hosted CBS Daytime talk show The Talk for eight years where she has opened up about her career, culture, and identity, bringing important conversations to television screens. 

Not only is Julie Chen Moonves a friendly face on TV, she is also paving the way for Asian American women in television and broadcasting. Today she is currently hosting the 27th season of “Big Brother” still giving the world a strong presence that portrays resilience, professionalism, and representation.