Paramount+ dropped the news on their streaming site -- noting archives and flashbacks won’t be available for the live feed on Season 26 of their long-running CBS reality show -- but they've told fans they could still catch all the live feed action on four different cameras.

The only catch ... they'll have to do it in real time, so if you miss something -- tough!

In other words ... 'BB' diehards who usually rewind to catch up on what they missed or what might've happened inside the house, are out of luck now -- 'cause they can't do that anymore, and they can’t save clips either.

The notice was buried in a bunch of other Q&As about the 'BB' show's live feeds ... so it seems like Paramount+ didn't want to make a big deal out of this -- but viewers are already sounding off on the new pivot online, fuming that they can't catch contestants in bad acts.

We know going through "Big Brother" archives is a favorite pastime of viewers of the show -- so it'll be interesting to see how this affects subscriptions, if at all, in the long run.

So far, there's no official explanation for the sudden change -- but the general feeling is that they probably wanted to keep fans from digging up problematic stuff cast members say live in the house -- something that's been a big problem for the show over the years.

As we've reported ... "Big Brother" has been home to loads of racially charged scandals over the years, like last year when white contestant Luke Valentine dropped the N-word while chatting with other houseguests.