Big Brother 13 kicked off last night and given that it’s my all time favourite reality show, I sat down eager for it to begin. The first episode is where we get the formalities of meeting the new cast out of the way so it’s always a bit hard to judge if it will be a good season or not. It isn’t until a few days in the house that we actually get to see what everyone is really like and if they have any game or not.
This year Big Brother promises us some ‘big twists’ like they do every year and then they introduce us to the new cast members. Here’s a brief roundup of each and what I think of them:
Dominic – adrenaline junkie who lives at home, cute, virgin – won’t last
Cassi – hot model from Nashville – don’t underestimate her - she’s smart
Lawon – the token flamboyant houseguest – not sure, but I think this man has some game
Keith – youth minister who’s a horndog – not a lot of game but will be a physical challenger
Shelly – VP of bus dev for outdoor company – the token ‘mom’ in the group – she kinda scares me, will go early
Adam – heavy metal dude into Beverly Hills 90210 – too cocky and too loud, will go early
Porche – VIP Cocktail Waitress – please make her leave soon – she’s annoying
Kalia - relationship blogger – describes herself as a real life Carrie Bradshaw – no game, will be gone early
Then the first twist comes that the houseguests will need to pair up and play the game as duos instead of on their own. They are told that they can choose their partner but that they have to do so immediately. Here are the pairings:
Adam/Dominic, Porche/Keith, Cassi/Shelly, Lawon/Kalia. Please note that the only pairing I like in all of this is the Cassi/Shelly pairing. I get that they only had minutes to get to know each other, but the other 3 pairings seemed really terrible and poorly matched. Porche and Kalia had about 2-minutes to complain about their respective partners when the doorbell rings and here comes twist #2. In walk Rachel and Brandon from last year, followed a few minutes later by Jeff and Jordan from BB 11 (love them so much) and finally a few minutes later by BB 8 winner Evil Dick and his barely recognizable daughter Danielle.
So now I have some mixed feelings because while it’s nice to see the old cast, I wish CBS would have just saved them for an all-star ep. I find it really unfair to the new cast to bring them in with 6 veteran cast members. New casts need their own time to carve out their own niche and now that won’t be able to happen. Regardless of how the game plays out, CBS is limiting its new cast from becoming stars in their own right by resting on the star power of past players.
I already love Jeff and Jordan again, especially after the diary room discussion about how long they have been together, so obviously I’m rooting for them to win. And while I don’t love any of the new cast members yet, I also don’t hate any of them which to me means that they will get walked all over by the veterans since none of them are standing out yet. It has only been one episode though so someone might surprise me. I put my money on Cassi.
The HOH challenge involved team mates having to hang onto a giant banana while getting chocolate and whip cream sprayed at them. Images of last year’s hot dog challenge sprung into my head making me really wonder if the producers have just run out of ideas or if this season will actually offer us something different to look forward to.
Annoying laugh girl Rachel won the HOH after cutting a deal with Dick and Danielle and was told that she needed to nominate one pair for eviction. Everyone is ok with that until Julie comes on the screen and reveals that there’s one last twist – the Golden Key. I would just like to say that Big Brother really needs to come up with better names for their ‘twists’ because ‘The Golden Key’ is just dumb.
The Golden Key means that of the two people nominated for elimination, the one who isn’t eliminated can’t be nominated again until the final 10. Basically, as Rachel put it, the Golden key is the ultimate floater. So now the players have to strategize about who they want to get rid of, but also who they want to keep.
While I do wish that CBS wouldn’t rely on past guests I do like this year’s cast. I’m excited to keep watching and I already can’t stand Rachel and her annoying laugh and stupid lapdog Brandon but it will be fun to watch them. But I can’t help but think that I don’t even remember any of the new people and all I care about is the veterans and how I really hope Jordan and Jeff will make it through to the end.
So tell me, did you watch? And who are your faves?
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