“Big Brother 16” certainly started things off with a major twist. It was in hi-def for the first time!
This would be incredibly exciting news if it were still the 2000s. Even “The Amazing Race,” which has cameramen literally running around the world following contestants, made the jump to hi-def in 2011. But that was only the first twist awaiting houseguests and viewers alike.
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First of all, only eight houseguests were introduced, and they’ve already had a Head of Household competition. How is that possible? Because there will be two HOHs each week. Even worse, the HOH isn’t safe from eviction, and based on host Julie Chen’s cryptic statement, one of them stands a real chance of getting the boot.
This wasn’t good news for Ariana Grande’s brother, Frankie, who won the first log roll competition. He’ll be hoping the alliance the eight houseguests created, called “The Crazy Eights,” will protect him from whatever twist comes in with the other half of their competition on Thursday night’s show.
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Little does he know, that the eight-person alliance is one of only three alliances that were created seemingly within minutes of entering the Big Brother house. Single-father and retired baseball player Devin Shepherd approached groundskeeper Donny Thompson — the oldest contestant in the house — to create a secret alliance, while the girls banded together to try and create an all-girl alliance that can make it deep into the game. Previous seasons have tried this, but they’ve never had the same level of success as various all-guy alliances.
The summer’s first showmance started kindling as well, with professional DJ Paola Shea very aggressively flirting with and asking very pointed questions of the seemingly always shirtless Cody Calafiore. In fact, there was plenty of flirting and sideways glances within this very young and mostly single first group of Houseguests.
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They’re young, they’re hot, and they’re not afraid to take off their shirts and do crunches to solidify an alliance … not that this made any sense. Any excuse to show off toned abs, apparently.
When Julie put them all in their bathing suits for the HOH competition it was clear right away that this was going to be a cast that was not afraid to show off their toned bodies. It’s going to be a hot summer on CBS.
Esthetician Amber Borzotra proved to be the first contestant willing to use strategy, when it came down to just her and Frankie on the rolling log. Julie had just warned them that the HOH would not be immune from eviction, and so Amber made the decision to throw the challenge, despite the cries of support from her all-girl alliance, “El Cuatro.” And, it doesn’t appear that she told them about it, either. Sounds like a solid alliance built on trust.
Day 1 alliances are so cute, because they almost never last. These people don’t know one another, and have no idea how their personalities will inevitably clash. Plus, they may be underestimating how much the addition of eight new players will change their games. Not to mention however the double-HOH twist is going to play out.
And then there’s the secret alliance, but no one in the Big Brother house knows about it yet. America is creating a three-person alliance by voting for its members one by one, with the first person revealed during Thursday night’s show. Will all three know they’re in this alliance together? Apparently, they will perform tasks that America gives them, but we have no idea what that means, either.
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This early on, it’s impossible to predict much of anything about any season of “Big Brother.” We’re just getting to know the houseguests, and they’re just getting to know one another. Alliances will shift and crumble over the next three months, and there’s a real possibility that nobody we met tonight will still be around by mid-July. It’s really just about meeting everyone and checking out the cool Big Brother house.
The remaining eight houseguests will enter the house Thursday night. This includes Caleb Reynolds, who’s already stirring up controversy for an alleged Instagram post he wrote two years ago. In the post, which TMZ had a screenshot of, Reynolds purportedly described President Obama as a “Muslim monkey,” and used the homophobic epithet, “fag.” His family and friends have since come out in Caleb’s defense, insisting that he’s not racist.
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Last summer, it was Aaryn Gries who was at the center of controversy after several racist and homophobic comments made by her and other houseguests throughout the summer were slowly revealed.
At first, the comments were only heard on the show’s live feeds, with none of them making it into the show’s edits. Eventually, though, certain comments did make it onto the CBS broadcast, as it began to impact relationships in the house.
Adding fuel to the controversy, two of the contestants who contributed racist and homophobic comments wound up making it into the finals, competing for the grand prize of $500,000, coming in second and third. Several of the contestants who participated in the offensive behavior lost their jobs as a result.