Editorial – Double Eviction Blues

The double eviction may or may not be over before this is published but I’m writing this before it’s happened. DE has always been my mini superbowl. I run around trying to wrap up my work day and like to have the popcorn ready! As feed watchers, it’s one of the only times in the season that we get to be surprised too and for tv viewers, it’s a lot of action in 1 hour so its a win, win for all of us…usually. We never know what’s going to happen during a DE. (partly because there isn’t enough time for outside interference) Sadly, it doesn’t feel exciting this year. I’d like to mention that when I talk about something being “exciting,” I’m referring to an underdog moment, a move that’s unexpected or something that flips the house. I don’t mean a particular person winning HOH and someone I don’t like being evicted. There are only a couple of people I even like at this point and I’m not crazy about them. I don’t really care who wins this season or past seasons for that matter.  I always have people I DON’T want to win and I have opinions on who I think SHOULD win as we all do.  I’m not getting a cut of the winnings so I’m just happy being entertained and seeing interesting game play. The ship has sailed on that one because the game strategies aren’t interesting and things that were entertaining me have been beaten into the ground so I’m over them too.   I’m confident Mark, Elena or Matt will go home on the DE. If Mark wins hoh, I’m still not confident anything drastic will happen. Some combination of Mark and Elena will need to win HOH and VETO for them both to remain in the house after tonight but do many people even care if Mark and Elena remain? They suck too!  Paul will be in the house tomorrow regardless of what happens tonight.

Having the feeds go down immediately after a DE and stay down for 24 hours (most seasons) would feel like torture. I don’t think it will matter as much this year because there’s a good chance that only one person left in the house (Mark or Elena) is going to be mad and no one will be surprised. If Elena is still there, we may miss her having an argument or a tantrum during the blackout but when we know she’s orchestrating it to get more episode coverage, is it really that big of a deal? She was upset Wednesday night by her DR sessions. She said something about being worried they weren’t going to air her fight with Josh because that wasn’t what they were asking her about in the DR. When we hear things like that, we know her argument was for show and starts to feel a lot less important.

After seeing Wednesday’s episode and it being edited to look like Alex is a hardcore game player, I started thinking about how differently we see the houseguests when we watch and/or read updates recapping the feeds. Of course, this isn’t something reserved for BB 19. Remember when the majority of viewers thought Danielle was America’s sweetheart in bb14? Only people watching the feeds realized early on what she was like. There’s still a lot of people out there who think this is the first year we’ve ever seen anyone like Raven but that’s not true.  Raven may take it to a whole new and obnoxious level but Danielle was the original sick girl who had overcome so much but not really.

Pausing for a Raven update: she was pissed this week at getting almost no DR time, thought Matt tickling her gave her a seizure and has salmonella in her finger. She’s gotten a lot of under the covers, live feed viewing this week so she should be happy about that. Right??? #RavenSTFU

We’ve had other past houseguests look one way on the show when in reality, they were something entirely different. That’s one reason BB shouldn’t exactly be considered a “reality” show. We know it isn’t really a game show either. It’s an entertainment program that includes competitions.  I’m not saying we won’t continue to be frustrated when certain things are manipulated from year to year but I do think it softens the blow if we approach it from that perspective from the beginning. There’s nothing new about this.  Think about the advantages Rachel had when she won her season. Yes, she did amazing in comps but she couldn’t have competed well if things hadn’t happened to keep her in the damn house.  Remember the coaches and season 14? They couldn’t be kicked out of the house because technically they weren’t playing the game. Did anyone actually believe they wouldn’t end up as players? Of course they would and the coaching thing just gave them safety for a few weeks.  (at least everyone in the house knew they were safe, unlike this year- secret safety is too much even by BB standards)  Remember the year they did everything humanly possible to give Jeff the win? Even with the over-the-top assistance he had, he still managed to screw it up and Jordan ended up in the winner’s circle.  What we call diary room manipulation, ridiculous advantages and production interference are really just a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a tv show. It’s still more access than a behind-the-scenes look at any other show on tv which is super cool but it’s frustrating because of the competition aspect and a huge prize at the end. With 500k on the line, we want a level playing field but honestly, you’d have to go back to the first few seasons to have that. I’m not sure that it was even that way in the beginning because we knew less about the process back then.  Remember what a jerk Eddie was in season 1? Regardless, the guy with one leg was always going to win because America voted. We’ve even had unscripted diary rooms taken away which was about the only way a tv viewer could gain any honest insight on the players. When there’s a vote for AFP, we want a true depiction of who these people are and the tv voters don’t get to have that.

CBS has an overall theme they would like to run with each year and if they have footage to support it, they’ll go with that even if there’s plenty of footage to discredit it. Sometimes the story lines shift as the season goes on. Remember how Paulie looked like an All American guy last year on tv but by the end they couldn’t avoid showing his dark side? The first week of this show, Alex appeared to be a little blonde ball of fire. They continue to go with that even though many of us see a caffeine induced, hyperactive chipmunk who parrots everything Paul says. Cody and Jessica have been seen as a modern day Romeo and Juliet. It makes for a good TV show. I don’t think it does but if ratings and feedback from viewers say it does… then it does. Let’s face it, tv viewers keep BB coming back every year and if a made for tv romance or a returning player will bring in viewers, you can bet your behind that’s what we’re going to get! Our $5.99 per month or $9.99 (if you splurge and don’t want commercials like me) doesn’t keep them in business. Remember, I’m really paying to see how a tv show is made.  I still like my feeds even when I get mad from week to week. I’ll threaten to cancel them, refuse to watch for a few days because I’m taking some kind of stand against the “injustice of it all” but I’ve never canceled and as long as BB is on the air, I’m sure I never will.  I’ll just continue to be mad, frustrated, excited and elated, sometimes all in the same week.

I’m frustrated with watching the same fights on repeat, too many showmances, a returning vet, and pathetic gameplay, the obvious things. I’m frustrated how this season’s gameplay has literally been so bad that the majority of people have managed to turn two extremely disliked players and Alphas  (Jessica and Cody) into underdogs and America’s Sweethearts. That’s not only my opinion either and it’s really happened.  I’m frustrated that Mark has risen to number 3 on many BB polls and it isn’t because he’s a good player, it’s because he may be our only hope for something exciting to happen. I’m frustrated that there’s already an online push for Jessica to be the first pre jury member to get AFP and that she seems to be the favorite of many past houseguests. It’s pitiful when someone who played a terrible game becomes a fan favorite because terrible or not, she was at least playing. Think about what that says about this season when the favorite of many past houseguests is someone who almost quit the show not once, but twice. I’m not even saying this for the purpose of bashing Jessica. I’m pointing out how bad the game is when Jessica being a favorite, based on her game moves is even possible.

I can handle being excited or annoyed based on who’s up and who’s down in the game but the main source of my frustration is boredom. I’m completely bored with this season and petty fights over cat ears, Coke, Christmas injecting herself into arguments, Paul manipulating the game and Josh calling out who isn’t loyal just isn’t cutting it anymore. I’m an eternal optimist so I’ll still be tuned in tonight, waiting for something exciting to happen. It probably won’t and this year, I won’t rush through my work day and I’ll probably skip the popcorn but I’ll still be watching.