TV and Movies

[gardenman]

And it's time for a new HOH! Tonight will see Brent meander his way out of the house to meet with Julie after getting voted out by an 11-0 vote. He may or may not be surprised by this. A few houseguests have told him he's leaving, but since they're the ones outside of his make-believe alliance, he thinks they're outside the loop. They're not. He's a goner. Then the fun starts.

Who will be the new HOH? Right now, Derek X, Whitney, and Hannah know that Whitney and Hannah are potential targets, so those three should compete for the HOH and try to win it. Christian and Alyssa are potential targets also, so they should try to win it. The rest of the house, eh, they're more content to just go with the flow.

Tiffany came up with a plan yesterday where each member of the Cookout should team up with a non-member and be somewhat obvious in the pairing so that they get nominated together as a pair. Then the Cookout would control the votes and vote out the non-Cookout member and keep the Cookout intact. That only works though if the rest of the house is blind and they're not.

The better BB players this year are targeting the biggest threats. Kyland and Xavier are clearly big physical and mental threats. Tiffany is also viewed as a threat. Those three could pretty easily be targets for Derek X, Claire, Sarah Beth, Whitney, Alyssa, or Britini if one of them got power. (Assuming they're brave enough to be accused of being racist by nominating two people of color.) With Brent leaving tonight the remaining physical threats are Christian, Kyland, and Xavier. A smart player (and we've got some this year) would target two of those guys with the third in reserve, and Tiffany's game is becoming a bit too exposed, so she's at risk also. 

The Cookout is largely assuming they'll get to the end unscathed. That may be an overly bold assumption. If a player makes nominations based on the threat posed by players still in the game, then the Cookout has three big targets all queued up and ready to be taken out. Will a player be bold enough to put up two members of the Cookout at a time? We'll have to see. 

We have a show tonight! Hopefully, the blindside will still be in play and no one will have told Brent the truth. Sadly, he'll probably know though. Then we'll have the new HOH comp and we'll have to see who wins. Britini would be interesting. Since Kyland and Xavier both put her on the block, she could put them both on the block, but I suspect she'd lack the courage to do so. She would likely yield to whoever the house consensus was (probably Whitney and Hannah with Whitney the target.)

We'll have to see what happens. The house could use a good shakeup though. Things are getting a tad too predictable. If the Cookout prevails this year, then next year we're apt to a group of six to eight other minorities (Asians, Hispanics, etc.) cast so they can team up and become the first (insert name of minority here) that has ever won BB. 

Other than season 16 where BB intentionally cast racists to send a message, BB has largely been race-blind. BB21 had a very diverse cast with a Hispanic American (Jessica Milagros), Iranian American (Analyse), Part Native American (Holly), Asian American (Isabella), African-Americans (David and Kemi), Bangladeshi-American (Ovi Kabir.) This year's cast is not nearly as broadly diverse with one Puerto Rican in Alyssa, and one Asian in Derek X,  but the rest are either African Americans (Azah, Derek F, Xavier, Kyland, Tiffany, and Hannah) or caucasian (Frenchie, Brent, Whitney, Christian, Travis, and Claire.)

The casting for BB has done a bad job in the past casting dumb minority players for BB. David in season 21 was a prime example. He knew nothing about BB and was a week one eviction. They then brought him back for All-Stars and he was equally clueless. This year they found good, smart, African-American players in Tiffany (maybe playing too hard,) Xavier, Hannah, and Kyland, but if one of them wins, it'll be in part because they stacked the house in favor of them.

Any of them could have won a "normal" season of BB had they been cast. They're that good as players. CBS though felt they had to tilt the balance in the house to favor them though which is kind of racist and demeaning in itself. It's like CBS is saying, "We know you can't win unless we help you." Uh, no. They could have won in a season without the house stacked in their favor. They're just good players. Now if one of them does win, and odds are one will right now, there will be something of an asterisk attached to the win. CBS claimed they wanted more diversity, but they cast a less diverse cast than the BB21 cast and heavily titled it towards one minority all but ensuring that minority would get the win. Care to bet next year's cast will be heavily Hispanic-American or Asian-American to ensure we get a first-time winner from that minority? 

[sktchy]

I agree with everything you said Gardenman.

[mspatmac]

Great analysis as usual @gardenman  Thanks

[SusieQ_2]

@gardenman 

I found your post today very interesting. There were parts with which I agree, parts with which I disagree, and parts that left me confused.

Most of what's been happening in the house up until now--Brent leaving, Tiff playing hard, who the biggest physical threats are--I agree. 

What confused me ~ 

"Other than season 16 where BB intentionally cast racists to send a message, BB has largely been race-blind."

I'm wondering if that was a typo or you may have meant season 15--the one with Gina Marie Zimmerman and Aaryn Gries? I rechecked the cast of season 16 and don't recall them being racist. I also don't know exactly what race-blind means unless it's that BB doesn't see color/race? As much as it can be tiring lately to always be focused on race I would say it's not because BB was race blind in the past and more that they were race ignorant. 

I just went through the first 5 seasons of BB to see what the make up of the casts were. I intended on going through all 22 previous seasons just out of curiosity, and probably will at some point, but I had other things I need to get done. In those five season there were ~

50 white/Caucasians

8 Black/African Americans

2 Asians 

The winners consisted of 3 white males, 1 white female, 1 Asian female. I don't need to go through all 22 seasons to know we have never had a black winner on Big Brother other than on a celebrity show in Tamar Braxton. That's twenty-two regular seasons of BB with no black winner.

Several things you said I agree with. BB has not done a good job in casting SOME of the black players in the past though some have been really good. I also agree the black players in this season's cast are bright and know how to play the game. 

What I don't agree with is that CBS tilted the balance in favor of black players so one could win. My feeling is that CBS finally made the playing ground more fair and ALMOST equal though still not quite so. In a house where there are 8 white players and six are black (two of which are half black) the tilt is not in the direction of the black players. It's still tilted toward the white players. 

If this season does have a black winner I don't agree that there will be an asterisk saying the game was tilted in their favor because that would be false. What is might say is this was the first season BB gave the black players an ALMOST fair and equal chance to win. 

eta ~ @gardenman I just wanted to add that when I said I found your post interesting I meant that in all sincerity. Most days we talk about the fun stuff, the crazy stuff, the stuff that leaves us scatching our heads, lol, but we don't often take the time to talk about the serious stuff. I enjoy reading other people's opinions when we agree and even when we don't. Though I think we tend to agree more often than not, I enjoy the conversation either way.

[gardenman]

Yeah, I meant season fifteen. Daniele Reyes was an all-time great BB player in season two. This cast has players who are comparable to her. BB has not done a good job casting black players in recent years. They cast three times as many black players as normal this year which is why I said they tilted the casting in their favor this year. There are fewer other minorities than we saw in BB21. That was a very diverse cast. 

[SusieQ_2]

Yeah, I figured you meant season15. I probably wouldn't have noticed except I feel like I'm always hearing about how season 16 was "Derrick's season" and I didn't remember anything racist about it. Now Aaryn and Gina Marie...they were quite the pair. 

Totally agree about Daniele Reyes although I was totally a casual viewer back then. I get what you're saying about 3xs as many black players this year. I'm just saying we should keep in mind that even with 3xs as many they're still in the minority compared to white players. 

Enough of that...I'm hoping this will be a good episode. It seems like at least two people tipped off Brent that he's going home but there's still hope of a blindside. I mean, Brent is still Brent. I doubt he can imagine a world where people don't want him around. Nevertheless, tonight it's Bon Voyage to Mr. Champagne! 

[gardenman]

BB reportedly has been telling the houseguests in their DR sessions not to tell Brent he's the target, so that's interesting. They may be assuring him he's safe in the DR.

[gardenman]

Brent's brutal edit continues. Suffice to say there's no suspense about who's getting evicted tonight. Everyone's in comp clothes tonight, so there will be a physical element to the comp. Aerial photos showed four lanes set up in the yard. A team comp? Could they do the tea cup comp as teams?

[gardenman]

I'd be happy if they flushed Britini on a double eviction so she wouldn't have time for another speech  The vote to evict Brent is 11-0. Oddly, no one was sorry to evict Brent. Imagine that. Derek F can never get his lines down. Sadly, I think Brent knew. Pity.

[Marp]

Listening to Brent with Julie and all I can think of is--what is common word for onager.