Julie Chen Uses ‘Moonves’ Surname Again for New ‘Big Brother’ Episode

EXCLUSIVE

Julie Chen‘s sign-off last week on ‘Big Brother’ wasn’t a one-time stunt — ’cause she did it again for Wednesday night’s episode, and got major love. 

Sources at Tuesday night’s taping tell TMZ … Julie opened the show by saying … “Good evening, I’m Julie Chen Moonves. Welcome to ‘Big Brother.'” Her words were met with a thunderous show of support from the audience. 

Julie signed off with the Moonves surname during last week’s episode — and now it seems she is taking her husband’s name full-time, on the heels of his hasty exit from CBS amid sexual misconduct allegations.

TMZ broke the story … Julie wants to stay on as the host of ‘Big Brother,’ and CBS won’t ask her to go. Assuming they renew the hit show for another season, she’s likely to stay put.

“The Talk” is a different story. Julie announced her exit from that show Tuesday. We’re told she left on her own accord … and wasn’t asked to leave.