Rockwell would be proud…the singer not the artist

Yes folks Big Brother is watching, wait, no, we’re watching Big Brother. It’s that time of summer for Julie Chen to stumble through live broadcasts and introduce us to the latest installment of Big Brother (it’s BB8 for those keeping score at home). Last night we met the 14 new houseguests and of course most of them are white and fit the general publics’ idea of good looking. Like all reality shows BB has gotten more and more about contestants that can make good eye candy instead of good players. Sure sometimes looks are the perfect cover for an evil mastermind (see Janelle from season 6 and last year’s All Star edition) but more often then not the prettier they are the harder they fall. Still BB is one show where I’ll give them a pass on this because it fits with their identity of mindless summer entertainment. Of course the big thing the Big Brother house is famous for is twists and last night we got two. In a call back to seasons past, Julie informed the original 11 people that entered the house that there were 3 more houseguests coming in and that they had ties to people already in the house. Enter the jilted lover, the high school mean girl, and the estranged rocker dad. The three enter the house with a disadvantage because the folks they have a connection to have already bonded with the other housemates but I’ll be interested to see how it plays out. The show does not have a great track record with this kind of stuff (remember Cowboy and Nokomis who found out they were brother and sister on the show…well now they don’t talk), but it should make for an interesting few weeks and probably a lot of tears. Oh and don’t be shocked if there are more connections between the houseguests that we haven’t seen yet as the producers always seem to have a mid season surprise. The second twist is something right up my alley and is almost as good as the twin ruse a few years back. This year one houseguest will have his game play dictated by America. CBS will have polls online and via phone to ask the audience everything from who the player should align with to who he should try to hook up with. The player still has free will and can choose his own path but for every 5 tasks he completes he earns $10,000 so that’s a fair amount of incentive. I must admit I’ve screamed at the TV many a times watching shows of Big Brothers ilk and while I’m so lazy I probably won’t get off my couch to vote the idea still tickles my fancy. Of course the guy sticks out like a sore thumb in this crowd of people as he looks like the dictionary definition of average Joe, so if the other players find out about this twist I’m guessing it won’t take long for them to figure out who it is and vote him out. Meanwhile the broadcasting of the show has taken on yet another twist. CBS already airs the show about 3 times a week and of course they also sell a live feed to folks over the internet. Well now get ready for Big Brother Pay Cable Edition. That’s right folks; Showtime will be airing too hot for TV footage of the house guests over the summer in an effort by CBS to titillate fans of the show and to lure folks flipping through their pay channels to head over to CBS to catch the regular broadcasts. Personally I think it’s nothing groundbreaking but I’m guessing it will be a moderate success. I always assumed no one would purchase the online feed but that has amassed a huge following the last couple of years. All that aside its time for predictions so I’m going to go with Carol, Nick and Dustin to make it to the end with Nick playing the nice guy card all the way to the bank.