Big Brother is back!
Big Brother, the hit reality show now in its 18th season, premiered again on Wednesday, June 23rd.
In this show, a select number of “house guests” spend their summer in a house that cut off from the outside world. No phone, no books, no talking to loved ones, no games, nothing. The only thing they have is the chess board upstairs and their houseguests to talk to.
They are constantly being watched by over 100 cameras. Each season lasts about 3 months.
The object of the game is to survive weekly evictions and be the last houseguest remaining to win the $500,000 prize. Second place gets $50,000.
Big Brother, created by Allison Grodner, is hosted by former journalist, and talk show host, Julie Chen. She is known for saying her famous line “But first…” when introducing the show each week.
This may seem like any other crazy reality show, but it is not. Big Brother can become addictive. Not only is there competitions every week, but houseguests get into arguments, and there are huge twists that shake up the game.
Every week, they compete for Head of Household (HOH), and Power of Veto (POV). There are nominations and sometimes luxury competitions.
The HOH is safe from eviction that week and nominates two people. The POV allows the person who wins to change the nominations or keep them the same.
You can catch all of the drama three times a week, Wednesdays and Sundays at 8/7c, and Thursdays at 9/8c, on CBS.
This season we met 12 new houseguests, 2 of them looking very familiar. Paulie and Tiffany are siblings of two past Big Brother contestants, Cody from season 16 and Vanessa, from season 17.
On the two-hour premiere, we learned of this twist, plus were informed of a few others. The first one is four previous houseguests from the past 4 seasons were going to be entering the house and get a second chance at playing the game. Next, they were told that one person would be evicted before the premiere was over. The third twist would be explained later, but the houseguests were told it would shake up the game.
The four returning houseguests, or “veterans” as they are called, are Nicole (16), Frank (14), Da’vonne (17), and James (17). The 12 newbies were not happy that these four have a second chance.
This year, the house was split into 4 teams, with a veteran on each team. For any Big Brother superfan, they would have flashbacks to season 14 when they had the coaches twist and brought in 4 previous house guests and they were split into teams.
(Way to recycle old twists Big Brother….)
The teams were picked and decided on names.
Group 1: Category 4 (Frank, Paulie, Michelle, and Bridgette)
Group 2: Big Sister (Da’vonne, Paul, Jozea, and Zakiyah)
Group 3: Unicorn (James, Bronte, Victor, and Natalie)
Group 4: Freakazoids (Nicole, Glenn, Tiffany, and Corey)
This was the first season that the premiere was 2 hours and showcased a new competition. The last person to finish the three part comp was evicted. Team Freakazoid lost the first paet of the competition, so they had to compete against each other to see who would be eliminated.
The person eliminated was the ‘father figure’ of the group, Glenn. He was the oldest player this season. Also, from the three remaining group members, a HOH was to be picked. The group decided on Nicole.
Nicole made her nominations, and put up Paulie and Jozea, with her target being Jozea. He was planning on taking out the veterans and Nicole found out.
We will see how the mystery new competition unfolds in the upcoming episodes and how it affects the game, and how the POV will change the nominations.
For now, we can just sit back, relax, and enjoy this season.
As always, we need to “Expect the Unexpected.”
