Recapping the Big Brother 16 Premiere

I was very impressed with this year's crop of Houseguests. Sure, there are some dummies and people who are just here to lie around in bikinis all summer, but there are some Houseguests here to play. Let's recap everything that happened throughout the first two days, and then I'll talk about how wrong I was about predicting the Houseguests' personas (Image credit CBS).

Night One

After enduring the forced surprise and shock of the Houseguests receiving their keys and posing in front of a camera crew, we were reunited with the Chenbot, who sent only eight Houseguests into the house, leaving the other half for the next night.

Sorry Pow-pow...El Cuatro
is doomed to failure.

Alliances immediately started forming; after the eight players agreed to stay tight against other intruders, they splintered off into several different sub-alliances. I particularly liked Devin's pact with Donny--the Double Ds is one of the few alliances I think we might be talking about for several weeks to come. Both guys realy impressed me, and I think they can stay under cover about their partnership.
El Cuatro, on the other hand, is doomed to failure even sooner than the ill-fated Big Brother Canada One alliance of the same name. Don't get me wrong--I'm all for a female Brigade-type alliance ruling the roost, but it just seems so unlikely. And if an all-woman alliance is ever going to happen, I don't see Joey, Paola, Nicole, and Amber as the ones to pull it off.

Paola and Cody also made a connection on the first night, with Paola fawning over the former soccer player throughout the evening and the HOH challenge. I have a feeling this relationship will be remarkably one-sided, and I'm already starting to see shades of Ginamarie and Nick from last year...which is even weirder considering that Paola is friends with Ginamarie, and is so far acting very similar.

I think Amber made the right call in throwing the HOH challenge to Frankie; the first HOH is always dangerous, and with the added twist it simply wasn't worth the risk. I really like Frankie and I think he could be a fantastic player. He's athletic and obviously very social, and I hope his first week as HOH works out alright.

Night Two

It became clear very quickly that there's love in the air this season--everyone's fawning over each other. I can't remember exactly who likes whom, but I predict that we'll have our first showmance within a week. 

Frankie and Victoria immediately hit it off, sharing a love of pink and vowing to be co-HOHs (yeah, no). Honestly, this will probably just drag Frankie's game down, because Victoria seems exceptionally vain and naive; if she sticks around long, she will not be playing the game, I'm sure.

Paola and Caleb, meanwhile, were scoping each other out after each identified the other as a threat. I'm looking forward to seeing their interactions over the coming week(s), and I really hope Paola gets the upper hand over Caleb.

Brittany and Derrick had the chance to bond over their kids, which is a connection they could also share with Devin, Jocasta, and maybe even with Christine, as I think she's planning on adopting. 

Not as dumb as he looks.

Zach immediately proved me right by coming across as too intense and abrasive, annoying Frankie about his high school and earning a diary room rebuke from Hayden, who I have been very impressed with so far.

The one thing that didn't impress me about Hayden was his strong performance in the HOH competition; it became clear that Caleb was going to win, so he should have just thrown it. Nevertheless, I don't think anyone is going to be looking at Hayden when Caleb showed off his strength, which immediately put a huge target on his back and doomed him.


We then learned that the first member of Team America is not Frankie, but Joey. Huh. Ariana Grande really dropped the ball there. We also find out that there will be three members of Team America, and they will complete secret tasks in the house for $5000 per task. Sounds like America's Player, but we'll have to see how the twist unfolds...I don't like it. 

She could be the
challenge goddess.

Time to see how my first impressions compared to my pre-season assessment. I'll write what I said before about the Houseguests and then what I saw from them on the show.

Amber Borzotra

What I said: "Amber isn't necessarily a player in the House this year, but she at least has a head on her shoulders, and acknowledges that a showmance would most likely ruin her game.
What I saw: Not much from Amber so far, but her throwing of the HOH was encouraging, and the fact that she was good at the challenge itself bodes well for her chances. She could be the challenge goddess of this season.

Donny Thompson
What I said: "I don't expect him to be exceptionally cunning or strategic, but I really do think everyone in the House will love him and he could make it very far."
What I saw: Donny has the whole package! Everyone does love him and his cricket noises, but he's also intelligent and held his own in the comp. I think he could make it very far barring a misstep. 

Zach Rance
What I said: "Sooner or later, people will see that he's playing hard and being arrogant, and they just will not want to keep him around."What I saw: Spot on with this one. I want to like Zach, because he's one of the nerds/gamers of the season, but he's too abrasive. He'll go soon.

Victoria Rafaeli
What I said: "She seems a little vain and full of herself...Victoria doesn't have any idea what she's getting into and will only ever have control of the game if she's lucky enough to win a comp or two."
What I saw: I was right here, too. She'll be Frankie's pawn, which I'm fine with, but I don't foresee Victoria making moves on her own.

Cody Calafiore:
What I said: "...maybe he does have some brains. If he's well-liked and popular in the House, he has all the tools to go far."
What I saw: I was actually relatively impressed with Cody. He's not as dumb as he looks. And if he cultivates a relationship with someone (a la Nick, who had control of GMs vote if he wanted it), he could be in a good spot.

No indication of
extreme emotions.

Derrick Levasseur
What I said: "Overall, he seems like a nice guy who wants to play an honest game, which is not really suitable for Big Brother. Derrick also doesn't seem like someone who's going to make a lot of waves or big moves inside the House."
What I saw: The overall theme with this cast so far is that they're outperforming our expectations. I thought Derrick got off to an admirable start, and his parental connections will help him.

Brittany Martinez

What I said: "She'll be a little worse than Sarah, and a little more emotional. Who knows how strong she could be once she's inside, but the separation from her kids could make her crack just a week or two in. 
What I saw: We saw very little from Brittany aside from her connection with Derrick, but she was engaging the other Houseguests at the HOH challenge and has given no indication of extreme emotions...yet.

Nicole Franzel
What I said: "I think a strong social game from Nicole will serve her well...I think Nicole is going to be one of the standout players of this season.
What I saw: We didn't see much of Nicole, but hey--Neda was UTR the first few weeks of BBCAN2. I'm still looking forward to great things from Nicole; she seems very smart.

Frankie Grande

What I said: "Frankie seems very personable and I think he could get along well with most people in the House, although he may be a little bit naive as well."
What I saw: Very self-aware, very charismatic, and an athletic threat too. Frankie is here to play, and my only worry with him is that he will be too big of a target, especially because he won that first HOH.

He's a likable guy.

Devin Shepherd
What I said: "I think that if he can survive those first critical weeks, Devin will be able to get into a strong enough position to make a deep run in the game...Devin's going to need to be making deals and alliances right away, and I think he's up to the challenge.
What I saw: I hold to what I said; Devin is going to have a tough time of things, but he's a likable guy and I think alliances (like the Double Ds) will carry him through.

Joey Van Pelt
What I said: "She seems like a personable type, and that could serve her well in the House. Doesn't appear to be much of a threat either."
What I saw: I have a feeling that Joey is here to play the game, and I think she's fully invested in her girls' alliance. Whether that succeeds remains to be seen, but she's always got Team America as a backup plan.


Paola Shea
What I said: "She'll appeal to some people in the House and be really funny, but her huge personality could turn others off."
What I saw: Well, she definitely has a huge personality, and it seems like people like her rather than are annoyed by her, so I have my fingers crossed. After all, Ginamarie made her way into 2nd place. Paola seems to want to take over this house, and I'm rooting for her.

Hayden Voss
What I said: "I think he could do really well and get along nicely with people...I'll probably be totally wrong, but Hayden is going to be my pre-season winner's pick!"

Extremely aggressive...will
be a huge target.

What I saw: I'm feeling good about my pick so far; he's sociable and competitive. But I can see him working hard at every competition and then becoming a huge target during his HOH week. We shall see.

Caleb Reynolds
What I said: "He could be another of the Andrew/Tom-type guys that pisses everyone off and goes from the top to the bottom in one week...he's going to make everyone mad at him and push his way along through an HOH win or two before people finally come together to vote him out.

What I saw: Well he's already got that HOH win in the bag. It's strange because Caleb is extremely aggressive and willingly shows off his strength, but it's just making people like Devin want to ally with him. But don't start thinking that's a good thing. In the long term, Caleb will be a huge target and he'll get eliminated. After all, Andrew and Tom started off as friends with the others as well.

Jocasta Odom
What I said: "I think that she can get along relatively well with the other Houseguests but will probably get taken out somewhere in the middle."
What I saw: I have absolutely nothing to work with for Jocasta. She was invisible in the episode and all I found out about her is that she's super religious...which we already knew. Stay tuned.

Christine Brecht
What I said: "Christine also came across as a little socially awkward...if she can make it through the first two weeks, Christine will become an undercover ninja and play her way to the end of the game."
What I saw: I take it back--she's not socially awkward at all. We haven't seen too much of Christine, but similar to Nicole, I think she could control the endgame if she can get that far.

That's it for the premiere recap...the Sunday night episode is tonight, so check back soon for a recap as we finally get to see the Battle of the Block. I'm not sure how often I'll be posting during the BB season, but I'll figure it out soon. It's also time to start preparing for our international Amazing Race shows...more on that soon!