HOLLYWOOD—Well, summer’s guilty pleasure is back America, and it looks like things are going to be exciting for “Big Brother 26.” I will admit the AI theme is going to annoy me this season because the BB producers are doing too much as they always tend to do. No, let’s not just have one twist, let’s have a bevy of twists to stifle gameplay in a way that becomes nearly impossible to play: more on that later.
We’ve had a few days to truly digest things after that terrible premiere; sorry, the Thursday episode was a repeat of Wednesday night, just with different people and different competitions. Oh, and those rumors about a 17th houseguests were just that: rumors. Why? That ‘secret houseguest’ was ‘Ainsley,’ artificial intelligence aimed at testing the houseguests to vote them into the game.
Those who voted YES, got the opportunity to compete in a competition for an ‘upgrade’ to their game, while those who voted NO, were forced to compete to not have a ‘downgrade’ to their game. So let’s just say it now, the ‘downgrade’ totally sucks. Chelsie and Cedric cannot compete for HOH, play in VETO or VOTE. Well, just serve them up on a silver platter to the Head of Household will you. On the flipside, Makensy and Quinn received special powers, that include ‘America’s Veto’ and a ‘Deepfake HOH.’
The America’s VETO is good for saving yourself when needed, but the drawback is America names the renom which means editing plays a VITAL role in how the public perceives the houseguests. Not good. As for the Deepfake HOH, which is a coup d’etat. He controls nominations, renoms and he’s safe. He becomes the HOH and the actual HOH has to do his actual bidding. Too powerful, just way too powerful.
As for the houseguests, I thought I would dislike Brooklyn and Makensy based on their earlier interviews, pleasantly surprised, but that is not the case, but we’re only in week one of the game. The only player at the moment I’m still waffling on is Lisa. She is a bit stale, but a character in her own mind, especially after she was forced to wake up a bit this week after touching the block.
So we have our first HOH, and it’s not one of the youngsters, it was Angela, and this woman is cracked in the worse way. Talk about paranoid, superfan on the verge of a breakdown and just doing way too much. So, there are two big twists: three nominees each week and the AI arena. So, the HOH nominates three people for eviction, there is a POV competition as expected, one person saves themselves or another houseguest can use the POV on a nominee forcing a replacement, and then we have the AI competition.
This competition allows one of the three nominees on the block the chance to save themselves yet again and then be immune from being voted out. So it totally affects strategy in a big way because you may not know the final two nominees until the literal eviction voting is about to begin. It definitely gives the nominees a bit of an edge, but a double-edge sword as well as you’re campaigning against two people instead of one and you don’t know the end result until it transpires. I’m hoping at best like most BB twists this doesn’t go past the first four weeks, or it is absolutely going to cause this season to drag a bit.
As I predicted with the cast list, Makensy and Matt are attached at the hip and will at some point become a showmance, the popular good-looking girl and the good-looking guy who would have imagined? Quinn is a super fan with plenty of social capital. This guy is everywhere and everyone wants to work with him which can be a good and bad thing, but he’s talking too much. You told Angela about your power and now Kimo, WTH. Why can’t people just keep their powers secret? Chelsie and Cedric have somehow become the safest players in the house despite having absolutely no power at all.
Angela is targeting three people she shouldn’t be in Lisa, Kenney and Kimo. Angela was all about starting an alliance without starting an alliance. Angela as a super fan, it is never a good idea to let someone go who could be a number for you like Kenney, Kimo or Lisa. Not to mention you blindsided them during nominations and that set Lisa off who couldn’t believe it. Yes, America, Lisa has an inflated sense of self. She thinks higher of herself than what the rest of the world thinks about herself which is quite hilarious to watch to say the least.
Angela had the opportunity to nominate let’s say Matt and Makensy who were actually targeting her and building and army with Leah. Leah, I still don’t know on her. She seems to be this odd enigma who has no true allegiances yet despite good conversations with Quinn and Lisa, and she is seen as a number for Matt and Makensy. That’s not a duo you want to be attached to when there are three nominees each week. Tucker, the guy who seemed to be the funny in our pre-season interviews and on premiere night, has been relatively quiet, but he’s waking up and his distaste for Lisa and Matt is hilarious; he really does not like them.
Seems he is laying low for the moment before he turns on his game. Rubina is similar she was so vibrant on Wednesday, but has been a bit quite as it pertains to actual gameplay and strategy up to this point. Why am I pointing this out? Players like Kimo, Kenney, T’Kor, Tucker and Rubina need to be aligning to start some sort of grouping as everyone else around them are already in many groupings and strategizing.
It is never too early to start playing the game or the game will play you ultimately. If people see you as expendable, you become expendable, and this AI Arena battle and the three-nominee twist is starting to feel more like a ‘revamped’ version of ‘Battle of the Block’ which FYI the fans absolutely hated.
So talk about cracked houseguests. Angela absolutely lost it and got into a major fight with Matt just a few days into the house where she called him ‘Crazy Eyes’ and virtually destroyed the likelihood of anyone truly wanting to work with her. I mean if this woman is this emotional and she is in power, can you imagine what she does when she is NOT in power or finds herself as a nominee? Oh, I can totally see it for week two and I can see her getting voted out because the houseguests see her as too unpredictable. That got into another tiff a day later and then it all exploded during the POV ceremony where Angela blindsided Matt by nominating him, when he ‘thought’ T’Kor or Tucker were going to sacrifice themselves for his game.
T’Kor better start strategizing with anyone besides just Kimo because people will see you as a pawn real quick otherwise. Right now my faves are Tucker, Quinn, Leah and Chelsie, for someone who has virtually no power, Chelsie is making a lot and I mean a lot of moves this week. She is one to watch out for. Hoping Joseph regains his footing because he was in a great position, but those alliances he had pretty much shattered within days of creating them. First eviction should be entertaining, as I assume each AI themed comp will spill over into the HOH competition for the week. Whether it is Matt, Kenney or Kimo, we won’t find out until Thursday during the live eviction.
