Ruining Big Brother 18 – July 28th

There are two different experiences, both called “Big Brother”.

One is the television show Big Brother, as the CBS producers present it to broadcast tv audiences, three times per week. But the other is what is actually going on in the Big Brother house; the experience of the house guests, unfiltered — or at least less filtered — by television editors.

Fetchland presents Ruining Big Brother. It’s less “spoiling” Big Brother and more pulling back the curtain, to ruin our collective illusions about reality television. Enjoy! Or better yet, recoil in horror…

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Paul
HOH Nominated – TBD
Veto Winner – TBD
Evicted – #1 Jozea #2 Victor #3 Bronte #4 Tiffany #5 Frank
Battle Back Winner – Victor
Return Ticket Holder – TBD
Have-Nots – Corey, Natalie, Paulie, Zakiyah

The live TV show of July 28th began as they always do on eviction night, pretending that the inevitable evictee isn’t leaving after all. This time they use Michelle’s fear of Bridgette coming after her as a motivation to flip the vote and keep Frank. But it doesn’t really take, as we know. They give it about thirty seconds to a minute of screentime, including that crying jag we saw of Michelle in the storage room. Sob sob sob, “but I’m a big fan, Frank…” sob sob.

Then the show quickly gets on track, turning to the topic of The Secret Room. We see the houseguests adventure as they chase the clues (mostly Paul) just like we saw on the feeds but with better camera angles this time. One cute thing we didn’t witness via feeds was Frank and Bridgette going into The Secret Room and celebrating together.

So, next Frank and Bridgette are together onscreen again but this time it’s sitting on the block, waiting to find out which one will leave the Big Brother house tonight. BB takes a brief interlude, after telling us the eviction vote is forthcoming, to check in with the buddy of each veteran from their previous season. It’s funny when Hayden (Nicole’s ex from season 16) says he wouldn’t recommend a showmance for anyone who wants to win Big Brother… “but hey, I’m all for doin’ what makes you happy,” Smoochin’ rocks, bro. It was also nice to see how freakin’ FINE Frank was with that long hair. Cutie pants alert.

When the show returns to the eviction ceremony Julie announces that The Secret Room tickets will expire after the one on the eviction of August 18th is opened onstage. This means if nobody gets the return ticket by then, that Secret Room return twist won’t happen at all this season. After this chilling declaration, the houseguests each vote to evict Frank who declares his disdain for all of them except Bridgette. Then he sits down with Julie and she tells Frank she’ll open his envelope in front of the whole house. So, the houseguests all sit on their couches in heart pounding anticipation for the grand opening. It turns out Frank’s envelope merely contains a one way ticket home. Julie then asks him about why the veterans didn’t stick together and he mentions feeling uneasy about Mama Day early on. Then Frank admits acting on this feeling about Da’vonne was likely his downfall and the reason he’s sitting out there with Julie on this fateful July 28th. Mama Day reiterates this EPIC FAIL in her goodbye message to him and even Frank has to laugh at the always funny and fearless Da’vonne.

The HOH competition that follows, “Perfect Shot” is a long one that mostly takes place off the feeds. Houseguests roll a ball up a winding narrow “creek” to land either in the perfect slot at the very end or one of the numbers (up to 22) before that ultimate last one. Julie also says that whomever ends the challenge with the lowest score will be Have-Nots for the week. The houseguests can practice with a yellow ball as long as they like but once they use their red ball, it’s their final shot. Whomever gets the perfect shot with their red ball first is the ultimate winner but truly, the winner could just have the red ball in a high number too.

Turns out this is what happens, nobody gets a perfect shot but Paul gets the highest number and is the new HOH for the week. He takes his seat next to Paulie on the HOH bed and they hold court together for the night. Of course, Bridgette is going up on the block but the houseguests scurry in a flurry to figure out who’s going up next to her. The prevailing refrain from Paulie/Paul is they want to put a strong competitor up next to her so that they can win the Veto and keep the ultimate control in Paulie/Paul’s hands. Can you say BORING? Yes.

There’s also a new way to influence the game from home. Each week America picks a houseguest to send a “care package” by voting online. The first care package is a “Never-Not Pass” that keeps the recipient from ever being a Have-Not again. One of the quirks to this deal is that once you give a houseguest a care package you can’t give them any upcoming ones, which may be cooler or simply have better perks. Each houseguest can only get one. So, you could think of the care package vote in a kind way, as a gift to save someone from the wretched Have-Not situation of cold showers, eating slop, and sleeping in bumper cars. Or you can think of it with villainy in mind and give it to someone so they can’t get a better one later; assuming the care packages get better. We think they probably will. The first care package winner will be announced Sunday night on the next TV episode. In the meantime we’ll be covering the feeds for you here on Fetchland.com and via twitter @RuiningBB18.

– Katherine Recap