Every year Big Brother adds a new twist to the game. Sometimes these twists result in jaw dropping moments, sometimes they change the way the game is played. Other times, these twists make me ashamed to be a fan of the show. I think it's pretty clear that the "MVP" has thus far been a terrible idea, but how bad is it compared to other seasons twists? Let's take a look at what I consider to be "The bottom 5" twists in big brother history. We'll rank the twists on a scale of 1-10 in 3 categories, Fairness, Entertainment, and "Twistiness". You may notice that these are from newer seasons. I'll allow you to interpret that data as you like.
#5 BB14: Coaches/ The coaches entering the game.
In this season, 4 veteran players were brought into the game to mentor the current players. If one of their players won, the coach would also win a cash prize. However, after just two live evictions, the coaches were brought into the game to play as regular players instead.
Fairness: 2
This twist was not very fair to anyone involved. First of all, some players got stuck with coaches who were bad for their game (Jannelle, your players would like a word with you) and then the coaches, who were under the impression that they were playing a completely different game had their plans turned upside down. As did everyone else in the house who now had to deal with playing with some of Big Brothers all time greats. Also, bringing the coaches in voided what would have been Franks eviction, which seemed like an attempt to keep Frank in the game from the producers.
Entertainments: 9
This is where this twist shone. Especially after the coaches were brought back into the game. Without Dan playing the entire house the whole season, BB14 would have ended up being rather forgettable. Thanks to Dan and his "mist" we ended up with a fun season.
Twistiness: 2
Twistiness, as in the sense that you've been twisted around... or something. This game started with 12 players, had 1 player evicted on the first day, and another player kicked out in week 2. That means that a game that was played with 14 people the season before would now be played with 10. If you didn't see this coming, you weren't paying attention. It was obvious from episode 1 the coaches were coming in, and the house figured it out. This meant that bringing the coaches in that late in the game was the equivalent of keeping them safe from the first two evictions.
Final score: 13
Did it make for a memorable season? Sure, but you could have just brought the coaches in from the beginning and had the same effect. Love those players, hated the execution of this twist.
#4 BB11 Coup d'etat
This was the second time the Coup d'etat was introduced in BB, but the first time it was used. This power gave someone in the house the ability to overturn both of the HoH's nominees, and replace them with two of their own, right before nominations happened.
Fairness: 0
This was as unfair as you could possibly get. America's favourite player gets to usurp the HoH, and put up whoever he wants. Essentially it said, gameplay, you're not important, what's important is keeping America's favourites in the house. If that's what the producers want they should have stuck with the BB1 format. This twist was actually so unfair, that it Caused Chima's brain to explode, and I'm no Chima appologist, but she had reason to be upset with production.
Entertainment: 5
This was shaping up to be a pretty good season. It was intense, competitive, and entertainting. After the Coup D'etat, it only took a couple of weeks for all of the good players to be out of the game. The final two of this season was by far the worst final two ever. You could have taken any two people from the final 4 and that would still be true. One very entertaining episode resulted in the most anticlimactic season ever. It gains bonus points for showing us Jeff trying to pronounce Coup d'etat.
Twistiness: 8
As I said above, that one episode delivered. We all knew Jeff would get it, but what he did with it was a complete shock, and resulted in one very good episode. When the twist came, it came hard.
Overall: 13
This twist delivered the goods for one episode, and then wrecked the season. It also undermined the entire structure of the game. Let's try and avoid that.
#3 BB11-14, Pandora's box
Fairness: 0
Matt from bb12 once called this "Producers box" because that's exactly what it is. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. It's generally good when the producers want to lend somebody a helping hand, and bad when they don't. Whether it's giving Rachel and Jordan the ability to both win the PoV, or handing out extra vetos, plently of players have benefited from the Pandora bump.
Entertainment: 5
From time to time, Pandora delivers a good laugh when the game has really slowed down. Who can forget Jeff stuffing his shorts full of cash, or the spectacular fight between Rachel and Ragan. Other times, it's a groaner. It's 50/50, therefore, 5 points.
Twistiness: 3
Sometimes it's a distraction, sometimes it's an unpredictable twist. Most of the time it's an obvious attempt from the producers to spice up the last few weeks.
Overal: 8
Yes, the final weeks need some spicing up, but anytime the producers give their favourites a better shot, I die a little inside.
#2 BB12: The Saboteur
In BB12 we met the saboteur, this persons job was to secretly sabotage the house. Essentially, they were a glorified prankster.
Fairness: 7
Technically, the best thing about this twist was that it didn't affect gameplay. It was a twist that didn't affect nominations, votes, or anything of the sort. It did however give our saboteur a rough ride as she was voted out first. I guess it was self espionage.
Entertainment: 0
This added nothing to the game. It wasn't that fun to watch, it was really just awkward. Luckily, the house took us out of that misery early.
Twistiness: 0
There was nothing shocking about this. There was nothing that made me get out of my seat, or want to see what happened next. At one point they tried to shock the house by naming a new saboteur, but it had mostly the same effect.
Overall: 7
On the plus side, the players actually got to play. So there's that.
#1 BB13: Dynamic duos
This season went along the theme of dynamic duos. The first 8 house guests were paired up, and then they were introduced to 6 returning players, who were all paired up in duos based on their previous games. You were nominated as a pair, and then one of the pair would be voted out, leaving the other to wait until the pairs were split up to continue playing.
Fairness: 0
Part of the problem was that you had no control over who you were paired with. Part of it was that it immediately created a "vets vs newbs" vibe, and the vets had an obvious experience advantage, especially considering they were all competition beasts. Part of the problem was that if your partner was eliminated, you were safe until final 10, which ruined any motivation to stay off the block. Part of the problem was that the newbies they cast were honestly not that great at big brother. The biggest fairness issue was that when the producers wanted to keep their vets around a little longer, they gave Rachel and Jordan the pandora bump by pairing them back up so they could win the veto together. The producers wanted the vets to be the story, and that's what happened. The newbies ended up being the supporting cast, and I feel like they didn't get a fair shake at big brother.
Entertainment: 3
This is mostly personal bias. I was not a fan of bb13. I feel like being in pairs removed a lot of the drama from the game as the pairs never felt the need to stay off the block, they just wanted to eliminate the partner and float through the next couple of weeks. Which was another problem, too many inactive players. In the end, bb13 suffered greatly from treating more than half of their cast like supporting members to the veteran stars.
Twistiness: 3
The moment that the veteran duos first walked through that door was intense, after that, the novelty wore off. The duo twist just resulted in too many players sitting on the sidelines, which is the opposite of an exciting twist. In my opinion, it ruined the season, and was therefore the worst twist to this point.
Overall 6
Big Brother, please, don't pit newbs and vets against each other like this. All stars or newbies, the mixes aren't the way to go.
Honourable mentions
"Till death do you part" bb9
I mostly didn't include this because I don't want to revisit bb9. Those were dark days.
"America's player" BB8
Perhaps the least fair twist ever, as it rigged the entire season for Dick to win, however it gets high scores on entertainment value and twistiness. This is the greatest reunion moment ever.
So what about the current twist?
It's not over yet, so it's hard to put a final judgement on it, but let's just say it doesn't look good. While Elissa can still technically be nominated, as long as she's on the majority alliance, she's safe. She is getting a power that nobody else has access too, and it's not even because she's popular, it's because her sister's popular. It's not entertaining, because, well, to be quite frank Elissa is not very good at this game, and it's not very twisty, because it's so predictable that she gets it every week. I don't know if the producers are happy with the results, but I can't imagine any of the long time fans like myself are.
To cheer myself up, I'm going to watch Jeff say "Coup D'etat" again.
Yup. That hit the spot.
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