The season premiere of Big Brother 9 in its first non-summer season (thank you, WGA strike) is just around the corner. The big night is February 12 and I believe we can expect cast announcements sometime this week -- most likely before mid-week.

Even without the cast information, some details are beginning to emerge about the season and about the house. Thankfully, it won't be another Alice Through the Looking Glass theme this season. After all, that was never really developed last season! Read on past the jump to find out the skinny as it's known right now.

Despite earlier speculation that we'd have a shortened season running around six weeks or so, it's been confirmed that the season will run for approximately three months. Since Big Brother 10 is on the slate for an early July start, we'll have about a month to recover between seasons. Yes, I said recover. Remember, I report on the live feeds!

Once again, the 24/7 live feeds for the show will be provided by RealNetworks and they'll be offering specials for the entire season, free trials, and such. The only danger here is that it can be addictive. Of course, if you don't want to get caught up in the feeds, you can always tune in here on TV Squad where I'll be posting live feed reports and screen caps daily.

As in the past, the show will air three nights a week, but those nights have been juggled a bit for this season. It will be on Tuesdays at 9 PM ET/PT, Wednesdays at 8 PM ET/PT, and Sundays at 8 PM ET/PT. Mark those calendars now!

Since it was a success last season, the After Dark nightly feeds will be on ShoToo again this season. They'll run every night from midnight to 3 AM Eastern Time. ShoToo is Showtime's sister station. If you don't get the station, you might want to check out the pricing differences between enhancing your cable or getting the actual live feeds (which run for a lot more than three hours a day).

The theme, as anyone watching any CBS show can tell you from the promo spots, is along the lines of "dirty little secrets." There have been hints of lying and not playing fair in the spots, but there's no real solid information on it at this time.

Reality BBQ has posted some details about how the house will look this season. Now, I can't really vouch for the veracity of these details, but they're worth the sharing.

• The living room and kitchen will boast a log cabin kind of decor.
• There will be a surfer theme to the HoH room.
• There's a large circular couch in the living room.
• The Diary Room has a real tree in it. (Didn't it always have some sort of plant?)
• The bedrooms will have spaces for alone time. (Hmmm...)
• The backyard has a heated pool and a fire pit.
• The rooms are all very colorful.

So, what do you think?