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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Big Brother Season 17 Season Finale!

Well, folks, this is it. 98 days (that's the number, right?) of insanity, idiocy, busted alliances, and some pretty hardcore game play. It's been a season full of frustration, but also more entertainment than I ever expected. Outside of a couple of people (hello Meg), everybody at least made an attempt at a big move.

So we are down to a final three of Steve, Vanessa, and Liz. Do they deserve to be the finalists? It's pretty easy to argue against a couple of them, but the fact is they did whatever was necessary to get themselves to this point. I can't hold it against them.

Who is the favorite to win? It's really anybody's game, especially given the makeup of the jury. I'd argue that Vanessa is the most deserving, but Steve also did his share of "scampering". Even Liz had her moments, and the fact that her sister (Julia) and "boyfriend" (Austin) are in the jury could lead to an upset.

But there's a long way to go until we get to that point, and quite frankly I'm not sure how they're going to squeeze it all in to a ninety-minute episode. Think about it. There are the first two competitions to show, jury deliberations with Dr. Will, interview segments with not only the jury but pre-jury members, the final competition and eviction, jury questions, voting, and the announcement of the winner and America's Player! Plus, a bit of house footage. Wow! Maybe instead of the rehashed material this past Sunday, some of this could have been aired then.

Oh well. That is the format CBS has used for quite some time, so let's get down to business. After an intro from Julie Chen, and an over-lengthy review of the season from the Biiiiig Brother voice, the show kicks off with the first HOH competition that started at the end of Sunday's "memory wall" episode. It's an endurance comp that sees the three dipped into red goo and then slammed into a wall. This was actually a great competition that earned the title of "endurance" as it lasted close to four hours.

Of course, it's edited in a way that makes it a bit more exciting than it really was, but all three did a great job. In fact, they had to move from the "disc" to the actual apple in order to move things on. At this point, Steve then dropped after losing his shoe. Vanessa says she only has an hour left in her, so she begins to work on Liz. She tells her that she's going to last all night long, and also promises Liz that she's going to take her to the end. Finally, Liz drops and Vanessa wins part one! Sadly, the four hour competition was edited down to less than six minutes.

After the first (of many) sets of commercials, we go to the second part of the final HOH competiitions. It's a combination endurance/knowledge. They have to climb up a wall that includes a crossword puzzle, and the clues are things that happened during the season. The winner is the person who completes it with the fastest time. Steve goes first, and there's no need for a real play by play here. The questions include former HOH's, zingbot, competition names, and other things like that. Steve has a couple of problems, but gets through it pretty easily. Liz is up next, and I have to say that 98 days of being in the game has not helped her do diary room commentary. I won't miss that voice at all.

Steve's final time ended up being 28:27, while Liz was 31:11. Steve has won the second part of the final HOH competition. He'll be facing Vanessa in the final competition. Vanessa believes that Steve will take her to the finals, but plans on taking Liz. Steve has similar thoughts, and thinks the jury will respect him for eliminating Vanessa. We'll see how this plays out in a few minutes!

It's now time for Dr. Will to talk to the jury. Austin says that he so wants Vanessa to join them in jur that he's willing to "cut my pony tail beard off tonight". Becky does NOT want to see John or Steve show up. The latest evictee is then revealed, and it's John. "Why is it that I always find myself surrounded by a bunch of losers?" That's why he's my choice as AFP! Julia is happy, though. John explains how Vanessa brainwashed Liz, and Austin doesn't understand. "I can't believe that Liz is at all trusting anything Vanessa is saying right now, and it's pissing me off." Austin also claimed that he was pretending to like Vanessa the whole time. Sure you were, buddy. Will asks if he'd take Liz to the finals, and he says he was going to step back to let the others make that move.

Will then asks how many are in jury because of Van's influence, and they pretty much all raise their hands. Jackie says she's "back and forth" about Vans' game play, while Shelli says she's impressed with all of her work. James adds that Van treated Big Brother like it was work, and says he respects that. Meg then talks, but I don't hear what she says. Becky does point out that Van does a lot of unnecessary things, though, such as swearing on her mother or the gay community. "Those are things you don't have to do." Austin agrees.

The talke moves to Steve, and James babbles something incoherent. Shelli, though, mentions that when a competition is important, Steve immediately throws it until he needs it to save himself. 'He also did connect with every single of us personally, so he was pretending to be awkwardly social when instead he was actually being brilliantly social." John adds that "Steve is a rat. I didn't like Steve's game at all. He had protection from the twins. He had protection from me for awhile. Everyone kind of open-armed him for awhile. Vanessa had to play for herself, and Vanessa can think on her own. He kind of came to me for a lot of decisions that he made." Julia then brings up how cowardly he was after evicting Jackie.

Liz is then discussed. Jackie says that the twin twist was even harder than her Amazing Race twist. "She's been HOH. She's gotten big targets out...she's gotten blood on her hands". James even says she should win. John disagrees. "She rode someone else to the end." "Literally?", adds Austin. "Her nominations weren't best for her game", says John. "She wins her first HOH and who does she put on the block? Two people who were going after Vanessa. I just never understood that." Meg doesn't agree, though, as she was always protecting her alliance.

Will then asks what happens if either Liz or Steve evicts Vanessa. They almost all shake their heads yes. "That's a tiger pelt up on the wall", says John. Austin even claims he'd consider voting for Steve over Liz if that was the case. Interesting. That doesn't please Julia. She has to vote for Liz. With that, the jury chatter is done with a plea from Will to vote for whomever deserves to win.

After more commercials, it's time for that final HOH competition. As always, it's a series of "A" or "B" answers from the jury. The person with the most correct wins the final HOH, and gets to choose who goes with them to the final two.

The first question is Shelli's favorite moment - winning HOH or meeting Clay. Steve picks winning HOH, while Vanessa picks meeting Clay. What? Steve was right! How the fuck? The second question is from Jackie about what annoyed her the most - the mess or paranoia. They both picked the mess, and they're both wrong. Question three is from Becky, and it's about the biggest lie - everything out of Audrey's mouth or her "hit by the train" story. They both picked the Audrey line, and they were both correct.

Question four is Meg's opinion on who needs a reality check the most - Clay for giving up his place in the game for Shelli or Austin's lame Judas act. They both pick the Clay line, and they're again both correct. Steve is now winning 3-2.

The fifth question is about who James felt was the strongest competitior - him or John. They both pick James, and they're both wrong. Next up is Julia, and the person whose gameplay she respected the most - Austin or Shelli. They boht pick Austin, and they're both spot on.

Question six is about Austin's most embarassing moment, and it's between the Zingbot line about his ex-girlfriend or Zingbot saying he stunk. Steve picked the ex-girlfriend line, while Vanessa picked the body odor. OMG, Steve is wrong. It's a tie!

John is obviously the final juror here, and his question is about the best thing about being in the house - not having to drill people's teeth or "getting ripped". Vanessa picks the getting ripped line, while Steve picks the dentist line. Holy fuck, Steve is right and is the final HOH!!!!

There's more commercials before the final eviction of the season. Vanessa looks worried, while Liz is nothing but smiles. Julie asks if he's ready, and he says no. He then stands and he nervously tells Vanessa that he believes she's the strongest female player in the history of the game. She's perfect at everything she's done, and he's such an admirer. He knows she "can talk your way into that jury", but he can't justify taking the stronger player with him. He's sorry, but he has to evict her.

Vanessa gets up and hugs then both, and then heads out the house. "OMG, Steve", cries Liz. "Thank you so much. I need this so much. OMG. OMG."

Julie then talks to a clearly upset Vanessa, who admits that it "wasn't outside the realm of possibility. I saw the move coming a little bit. I never fully trusted Steve in the game. He stabbed me in the back quite a few times." She also doesn't know if it was the correct move for him, but also admits that she was not going to take him if she had won. Julie then asks to see her hands, as they are all over every single eviction. With that, it's already over.

 A few more commercials later, the jury is brought onto the stage. Julie Chen asks Julia who she thinks the ninth member of the jury is, and Julia wants to know why she's being asked. Austin finally guesses that it was Vanessa, and she is then brought out. Austin is pleased that the boy (Steve) became a man. John jokes that he's "really glad to see my best friend again". Chen then infroms the jury of what just happened.

It's now time for the questions to the finalists. John's question is to Steve, and about how he relied on him or Vanessa on game decisions. As Steve starts to babble, it's discovered there's an audio issue. He then babbles about his various friendships...but the audio is still not fixed. After counting to three, he gets a third try to attempt to claim that he's made his own moves the entire game. I'm not sure that anybody is buying any of it.

Becky gets the next question, and she asks Liz if all of her strategy was actually Austin's. "Nice question", responds Liz, before talking about the twin twist. "I definitely think I held my own. I would do my own campaigining...and yeah,. Austin did help a lot, but I held my own."

Now it's James' turn, and he asks about how he floated throughout the game. "I think you're completely off the mark", says James. He then goes on about the various alliances that he created that protected himself. "I by no means was floating through the game."

Julia then asks Liz about her biggest move besides winning competitions. Liz says it was by "aligning with strong competitors", including Vanessa and Austin. She's really not good at this. Jackie then asks Steve about how he never talked strategy with them, and was nothing but a vote to his alliance members. He talks about his relationship with Austin, and I lose him after that.

Austin then tells Liz that she's beautiful, and asks why she deserves to win. "Oh my gosh. I deserve to win this money because I came in here with a huge disadvantage having a twin. It was a blessing and a curse. I did a lot to stay in this house, and seem like less than a threat." She's happy, kids, for making it this far.

With that, we go to more commercials before it's time for the final pleas from Liz and Steve. Liz goes first, and we hear about how she didn't come in as a superfan like Steve. Again we hear about how she has a twin, and she talks about her various wins. Steve then talks about his various moves, and how Liz only had to play half the game for the first few weeks. He also talks about his HOH wins, and his moves when he was HOH. "I made my own moves. I didn't follow anyone else, and I won more competitions." He then thanks everybody for making his dreams come true.

Voting then begins with Shelli, who says she's voting with her heart. Jackie congratulates them both, and says she's voting for the person "who dreamed of this their entire life". Becky babbles about their roundtable, while Meg says they look hot. James says they both did a great job, and Steve's haircut looks great. "I'm just going to let Jesus take the wheel on this one, like Carrie Underwood." Julia says her "vote is really obvious, but I do love you both". Austin also says that he loves Liz, but he's proud of his "boy". He then quotes Selena Gomez that "the heart wants what it wants". John complains that he has to choose between "the worst alliance member ever or the twin...I couldn't come up with a good insult for you". Vanessa is last, and she congratulates them both and says there is no hard feelings. She says her vote is going to "the person who will best represent everything that this season stands for because I think you both played great games".

Of course, this means there's another commercial break before we get to bring on the pre-jury members. This is usually a nothing segment, as there just isn't any time for real questions. Julie asks Day what she felt was the most surprising thing she saw, and she says it was Austin's Judas silliness. "You said he was going to take over the season. Where's he at?" YES!!! Austin is speechless, but claims it was just going to be something cool. He then goes on too long about it. "You were just like Austin in a hat", responds Day.

Julie then throws it to Vanessa for her big reveal. She claims that "90%" of what she said was true (um, no), but she also reveals that she's a professional poker player who has won $4.5 million. "I had to wear a poker face for 98 days", she says.

Jason is then asked what surprised him, and he says it was how Vanessa "maneuvered" the game. She "Dr. Will'd it", but she "never owned the game...you sort of just cried and said 'I don't know how to do this'. I wanted to see you say I want to bathe in theri blood." Audrey is then asked about the revelation of telling the world about her transgender status, and she starts crying as she talks about the positive things that has happened in her life. "I didn't win Big Brother, but I feel like a frickin' winner because I've changed lives."

Now it's the moment of truth, as Julie begins pulling the keys. Vanessa voted for Liz. John voted for Steve. Austin voted for Liz, as did Julia. James voted for Steve, as did Meg, Becky, and Jackie. Steve has won this season of Big Brother!!! They run into the studio to hugs from the entire cast.

The show's not over, though, as we must hear who won America's Favorite Player. Julie announces that the top three were John, James, and Jason....and the winner is James! He wasn't my choice, but good for him! Steve is asked what he's going to do with the money, and he says he has no idea!

So that's it for this season. I must say that I've honestly enjoyed the season, and had no clue up to the very end who was going to win. I was no big Steve fan, but the kid came through when he needed to, and I always appreciate upsets. Thanks to everybody who read this stuff, and/or listened to the Big Brother Gossip Show! See you next year!

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Big Brother Gossip Show #513: Season Finale

Hey, it's the final show of the season! Yes, it's sad...but at the same time a relief. Big Brother's extended season is a long haul, and while we've loved this season I think I speak for all three of us in saying we're glad the end is near.

We covered a lot tonight, starting with the shocking eviction of Austin. But was it so shocking? It won't be when you hear the piece of audio from last Sunday night. We then moved on to the first two parts of the HOH competition, and made predictions about what will happen on Wednesday.

Then the real fun begins, as we gave awards to the best and worst moments of the year. You HAVE to check this section out.

As always, we'd like to thank everybody who listened live in Mixler, downloaded in iTunes, or streamed on Stitcher or TuneIn. So grab this from those souces, or


CLICK HERE TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD!!!

Thanks to Colette and Mike for all their help, and go to Colette's site for your Roku needs.


At The End Of The Day...

Well folks, here we are!! The 2nd part of the final HOH competition took place tonight!! As I've noted before, I don't really pay attention to time stamps, but the feeds went to Jeffish shortly after I had my routine Friday night nap. ;)  I took the opportunity to go to the casino with a friend and good thing I did, because I ended up getting a little lucky on the slot machines and came home $240 richer!! Why am I telling you this? To use up a little space in the update of course! haha ;)

Anyways, the feeds came back shortly after I got home, and Steve ended up taking it from Liz in a matter of just a couple minutes! (I can't remember who tweeted it, or the down-to-the-second time, but Steve took it in 28+min and Liz had a time of 31+min, or something along those lines according to what I read.) Yes, yes, I know...I should know these details but I was busy making soup, sorry!

Vanessa congratulated Steve. Steve asked her if they should tell Liz about their F2; he mentioned that Cody and Derrick decided to tell Veronica last year out of courtesy. Vanessa immediately shut that down, telling Steve they can tell her later. I hope that Steve takes it upon himself to tell Liz himself. This should be a red flag for Steve-Vanessa doesn't want to tell Liz because she plans on taking Liz with her to F2 if she wins HOH and she doesn't want Liz to freak out.

BB called an HOH lockdown for some reason. Liz was freaking out because she was in the shower and had to haul ass to get up there. They were on lock down for a bit...Vanessa went to sleep in the HOH bed, Steve and Liz alternated turns with the music, then chatted for a bit about random topics. They discussed the comp a bit; Steve had them loosen the harness more than they recommended because he felt like he couldn't breath when it was snug. Liz mentioned that they were told they had a 90 minutes maximum each to complete the competition and so was proud of them for completing them as fast as they did.

They talked a little bit about Becky and the $10 grand she won and whether she would follow through on her promise to James about sharing it. This led to a discussion about the rules about 'sharing' the F2 prize money (That it's against the rules to do so) and wondering whether that applied to Becky's money as well. They think she'll have to buy James a 'gift' rather than be able to give him cash. This led to a short discussion about Evel Dick and Danielle's F2 in BB8 and how they had discussed Dick paying for Dani's college education. Steve thinks that Dick would've had to 'gift' Dani the money in order to be able to get around the rules about sharing the prize money. Both Liz and Steve then wondered if Dick/Dani are on speaking terms and they discussed Dick's health and a couple other HIV related questions. Liz was getting legitimately hangry while stuck in HOH...She "wanted to make turkey burgers, she was soooo hungry, why are they in a lockdown, this is so weird you guys, there better be a 5 star buffet down there when we get out!"

They were eventually let out; Vanessa went back to bed in the purple room immediately. She's very out of it tonight; BB gave her muscle relaxers and she's been in a doze ever since. Liz went to start making something to eat and BB called her in for a DR, lol...she had to go get ready before going of course so she had to blow dry her hair, straighten her hair, put on her make up, the whole shebang. Steve went in to the kitchen and made something to eat; he ate pizza with a fork while playing with the Lincoln logs at the kitchen table. Liz came out of the DR and Steve was called in. Liz began prepping her turkey burgers. She is currently having a little bit of a pity party while cooking; she's crying a little bit and saying things like "I'm sorry Julia. My mom's gonna be sad. Stupid word, one word!"

So that's it folks! With Steve having won this part of the HOH, it'll be Steve versus Vanessa in the final part of the HOH competition live on Wednesday's episode. I truly believe that whoever wins this HOH will be a clear indicator of this season's winner. If Vanessa wins HOH, I believe that she'll win against either Steve or Liz, but my bet is that she'll take Liz for the 'easy' win. She won't want to risk the gendered curse of no female ever winning next to a male.

If Steve wins...I truly hope he's smart enough to know that he'd lose against Vanessa. He's talked about it on the feeds and has made it seem like he'd cut her...but you never know. He's been just as mind f*cked by Vanessa as some of the other house guests. But, if he does win and is smart about it, he'll take Liz and despite her two solid jury votes I think he'd win against her. We'll find out how it all plays out along with everyone else though. ;)

On that note...I know I've said this before, but I think this really might be the last official update. Nothing will really change in the house until finale night when we all get to watch the final HOH round unfold. Unless Vanessa goes completely round the bend I don't think we'll be seeing any drama or changes in terms of the alliances. If anything major happens, you can follow me on Twitter @Shienara33 where I'll be sure to tweet about it.

And please, please, please make sure you listen to this Saturday's Big Brother Gossip Show as it will be the last one of the season. Mike, Scott and Colette are sure to be in fine form as they discuss the last of the season, make their predictions and generally entertain us and make us laugh for one last time this year! :)

As for me, I've had an absolute blast this summer with you all. I've been a very unreliable and sporadic updater, but you've all managed to put up with me and I've still enjoyed every bit of this season. I'm very thankful to Mike for letting me do these periodical write ups for the site and for all the fun interactions I've had on twitter as a result. I'm not sure I'll be back next season for BB18 as it's still my personal hope that Ash, the writer of previous seasons The Night Owl, will return and blog. She's my BB spirit animal and if I had my way, she'll never take a break again! haha (if you read this, Hi Ash!!) But, it was a well deserved break...and next season is a long way off and I'll never say never if Mike and company still needed someone. :)  So on that note, thanks again everyone! Enjoy finale, remember BB is just a game and that the outcome of this game doesn't affect you on a personal level so just sit back and enjoy the show!



Thursday, September 17, 2015

At The End Of The Day...

Alrighty folks...if you watched tonight's episode or read Scott's recap then you should be aware of the fact that Vanessa, having won veto, removed herself from the block, which at Final 4 means that Liz automatically went up in her place. Vanessa ultimately voted to evict Johnny Mac, as many of us predicted.

Feeds came back to the houseguests either cooking/eating (Liz) or lounging around (Vanessa/Steve) as they waited for the first part of the final HOH competition to begin. There was some speculation if it would even be tonight from the house guests as they could still hear production building in the back yard.

We of course knew that the competition would happen at some point. I went for a nap and when I woke up HOH had begun. I only missed about 20 min of the competition though, so it didn't really make a difference.

The house guests surprised myself and many of us on Twitter, by making the competition a true endurance. After the abysmal performance of Dizzyland (the spinning comp that only lasted a few minutes) I don't think many of us were expecting this one to last too long. However, the final three really did put their best foot forward.

The competition started with the house guests sitting on a small disc that was suspended above a large rubber ball that was supposed to resemble an apple. They would swing over a large pool filled with a red liquid (that apparently smelled really good according to Liz) and be smashed into a wall with pictures of large, open mouths. They would then be sporadically 'dipped' into the red pool I mentioned as well. Basically they were meant to be candy apples (which may have been stated in the comp name, but I missed it so I don't know for sure). They were shot with confetti a couple of times as well as another substance that resembled bird droppings as well.

The house guests all passed the first hour relatively 'easily'. There were a few minor complaints from the ladies about how the discs were really hard on their vaginas. They certainly couldn't understand how Steve managed and would question him about it occasionally.

I don't really pay attention to time stamps or anything like that so I'm not sure on the exact time, but eventually BB cut to fishes for a bit and when the feeds came back they had moved the house guests from the wooden discs to sit directly on the rubber 'apple'. This was definitely a bit harder than sitting on the discs as they had to use more leg strength to grip onto the apples and had to contend with the wooden discs that were still attached. BB also spent more time doing one action repeatedly as opposed to switching off. (Meaning they would bang them into the wall over and over for a while, then dip them several times in a row.)

They still managed to hang on and perform quite well though. It was well into the third hour before we had our first drop...I had noticed Steve appeared to be struggling a bit more with the placement of his wooden disc across his chest as he was clutching it. He then lost a shoe after a wall bang and within seconds of that Steve fell.

So at this point the competition is between Liz and Vanessa. Although there had been some bantering and conversing throughout the competition beforehand, as well as light hearted suggestions to drop, no real game talk or attempts to make deals had happened. After Steve fell though, Vanessa really went to work.

Liz had been complaining as I mentioned earlier, throughout the comp about how hard it was and how sore she was. Vanessa would join her sometimes in those complaints...Vanessa totally switched gears and claimed that she was feeling like she could go for 10 more hours. 'No seriously though, I'm not dropping, I could be for hours. I'm too old to drop, I've got no chance in the next part so I have to stay on. Do you really want to be destroyed for the next part of the HOH Liz? I'm totally serious when I say I could stay up here for 10 more hours!'

I honestly think that Van was actually feeling the burn, that she was starting to feel the struggle. If I had been Liz, I would have readjusted, firmed up my grip and held on even longer...but she's Liz. She can be talked into anything...and...so...of course...Liz drops and Vanessa is the winner of part 1 of the 3 part HOH!!!!!

I'm certainly not surprised by the results, although I was surprised they managed to last so long. Not that I'm complaining about that either, it was nice to get a decent endurance for a change! ;)

As I close off this update, the house guests have returned to the house, showered and are cleaning up. They're all very tired and sore. Vanessa wants Vicodin and a massage, lol. Vanessa was trying to quickly talk game with Liz in the bathroom...She made Liz promise to not say anything to Steve about their deal. "Promise me, you won't say a word. If I have to tell Steve something different just know you don't have anything to worry about." She tells Liz that 'you have my word, I'm taking you." Liz asks if Vanessa has a deal with Steve and Vanessa denies it. She tells Liz she might have to make a deal with Steve just in case he wins the second part though and tells Liz that she won't keep it. (why these things aren't red flags for Liz is beyond me...but she's never been the sharpest crayon in the box.)

Okay, I'm out for tonight. Probably no update until the next part of the HOH happens. Unless things get really exciting in the house of course. I'll still be watching the feeds though and I'll be tweeting about them as well so check me out on Twitter @Shienara33 in the meantime. G'nite folks! :)

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Big Brother Season 17, Episode 38 Recap

Just like last night, this special eviction episode is noteworthy because it will contain lots of action we have yet to see. In fact, there will be even more material that feed-watchers haven't witnessed as the events will have occurred during Monday and Tuesday's dark feeds. Outside of the possibility of some clips from last night and today, all of the house footage will be new to us.

However, we do know the outcome of the POV that took place yesterday, and we also have a pretty good clue as to who will be evicted. While the POV holder claimed to not know what they were going to do, I'd be shocked to discover they go against conventional wisdom.

So after an intro from Julie Chen, let's start off with the aftermath to Austin's eviction. Vanessa is shown apologizing to Liz. She breaks down in tears, but Liz doesn't seem that bothered as she hugs Vanessa. In fact, Vanessa is doing one of her "tells" - holding her hands on her beanie as she fake cries. She claims in the diary room that it was the hardest thing she's had to do this season, as he was "straight up, the best friend in the house". He trusted her, which makes her feel so "crappy, but I have to keep telling myself that in this game it was necessary because in the finals he would beat me". She continues to cry, wailing that she knows she's a bad person. Meanwhile, zero tears from Liz, as she hugs Steve and Johnny. The broken record carries on, but Liz says in the diary room that she's "not even listening". She's hellbent on "doing this thing on my own".

John then says that all of this was decided right before the eviction story (which is a partial truth), and we go back a few minutes as John and Steve head into a bedroom. Steve asks John if he's going to be blindsided, and John says that somebody will be blindsided but it's not him. Steve then heads upstairs to talk to Vanessa, who asks him if he trusts her. He says he does, and she commands him to leave.

Back downstairs, Liz is heading into the loo as John is washing his hands with Austin hanging around. "It's time", says John. "Let's go." Austin asks if they got this, and they bump fists. John describes the whole scenario as a "work of art that couldn't have come together out any more beautifully". (Truthfully, though, John and Vanessa worked on this plan on Sunday night/Monday morning.)

We now move to the HOH competition, and Steve's victory in the tie-breaker. He's shocked that he won by "sheer, dumb luck". You see, he meant to write 6001 instead of 601. He's happy that he'll never have to set foot in the jury house.

In the house afterwards, he thanks Vanessa for not evicting him. She's happy that he won, as she knows that Liz would be going after her for putting out Austin. We are reminded, though, that it's the POV winner who really matters instead of the HOH winner. "It all comes down to the veto." John says that he wanted to win, and jokes about how he didn't win a single HOH. "I'm probably going to be evicted", he laughs. Vanessa announces that she wants to talk to John and Steve in a bit, as a disinterested Liz looks at Austin on the memory wall.

Yeah, her anger is increasing, especially now that Steve is HOH. "I want to yank that key off his neck so bad." Classy, girl. "Austin was my voice of reason. He was my support. Now I don't have him, and I've got to be strong. I've got to put my game face on, and I have to win these competitions for him and Julia."

Liz then comes out of the bedroom asking to talk to Vanessa. Yep, it's damage control time. The sad piano music comes on as Vanessa rapid-fire delivers the standard line about strategy, and how it was so "gut-wrenching". She even goes into a giggle-cry-laugh as she goes on and on about how it was tougher for her than anybody. "Liz, it's better for your game." She needs Liz to stay in the game. Yep, I predicted it would take one conversation to smooth things over, and it did.

Now Vanessa is laying around with John, and she says that maybe they can convince Steve to throw the veto. She wonders if he would take Liz over the two of them. John agrees it would be dumb for him to do that. That's "step one", according to her, and "step two is win final three and we'll go from there". She promises John that she's taking him to the finals. Yeah, right, and she even admits in the diary room it's a fake deal as she can't possibly be in the final three with both John and Liz. She's free to make fake deals with both of them! John sees through it, though, and says he's just agreeing with her for the sake of agreeing.

It's now nomination time, but it's a waste of time as POV is the only thing that matters. Still, Steve goes through the motions and nominates John and Vanessa. They really could just skip this step.

After commercials, there's a jury house segment. These seem really staged this year, and not really that interesting. Julia shows up, and Meg doesn't get why they'd eliminate Julia over her sister. They're all amazed at Vanessa's move in the POV competition that saw Julia challenge Austin, and how she controlled the aftermath. The barefoot ape then shows up barefoot, and another Vanessa story is told. "Judas got Judas'd." Austin is pissed, but Shelli is starting to stick up for Vanessa's game. "Somehow she managed to stay in the house even though we knew what Vanessa was doing."

Ugh, now we have a Rachel and Brendon segment. Fast forward time. Fuck them.

After that silliness, it's finally time for the POV competition. They all come out in karate outfits, and start kicking in the air. Then we see another fool - Caleb from last season. Ugh. This episode sucks. Caleb struggles to read the rules. In each round, an event is read and they have to figure out which day that happen. By punching and kicking, they register points that are accumulated on a counter. The last to answer gets a "strike" against them.

They all babble about the importance of this event before it finally commences. The first question is when Clay won his only competition. It was day 38, and Liz has one strike. Next up is the day that Shelli did her sword gimmick. The answer is day 46, and Liz is now out. Next up is the day Zingbot came in, and Steve is last this time. We move on to when Meg was nominated for the second time, which was day 23. John is the first this time, but Steve and Vanessa are confused. Vanessa finally gets it right, and Steve is now out. (Later, he claimed to have thrown this competition, but did he really?)

It's finally between John and Vanessa, but we have to wait for commercials. Caleb reads the question, and it's the day tha the Person Who Shall Not Be Named came into the house. Vanessa races to answer 86, and gets it right. John now has a strike. Up next is the day of the sixth nomination ceremony, and Vanessa screws up by overshooting. it doesn't matter anyway, as John has the wrong number. Vanessa is the POV winner!

There's another set of commercials before the live POV meeting. Vanessa obviously saves herself, and Liz is now on the block with John. The final pleas begin with John, who babbles his usual nonsense. "If they came to hear me beg, they will be disappointed." Liz then also rambles on about nothing, and reminds Vanessa that she's always had her back.

Vanessa then stands to announce her decision, and says to Johnny, "you've put some very tempting offers on the table this week. However, for me to believe the things you're promising me requires me believing that you're willing to go back on a game-long alliance with Steve, which a) either isn't true, or b). is true and means you're willing to go back on a game-long alliance. So how can I trust the promises you've recently made me. Ultimately, I hope you can respect this as the game move that it is, and know that on a personal level I absolutely adore you and I think you're hysterical. I've got to go for the gold on this, so unfortunately no matter how much I like you Johnny, I vote to evict you".

Whew! Thank God that speech is over! John hugs everybody, and Liz tells her to say hi to Austin. Bye bye, Johnny. You've been fun.

He joins Julie, as the remaining three people go crazy over the applause he received. "I'm still convinced he was a twist", says Steve. Julie asks if he's surprised to be evicted, and he says he wasn't. He knew that he didn't have a real alliance with Vanessa, and would have evicted her if he had won that POV. Julie asks about living on the edge, and John agrees. "I tried all kinds of things. I didn't know what I was doing the whole time. Looking back on it, I wouldn't have done things the same. I should have got rid of Steve last week, and maybe she woudn't have had a choice but to break the showmance." Julie asks if he lives like this in the real world, and he giggles that he does. He's then asked about facing Austin after the blindside, and John says he's just a "big teddybear. He's fine." For his final thoughts, John just wishes the remaining three good luck. "They've been playing hard in there." He adds that he expects to see Vanessa and Steve as the final pair.

Wait, with that the show is over??? Uusally, we get to see the beginning of the first of three final HOH competitions. Instead, there's a brief shot of them drinking champagne and toasting Chenbot. Hmmm, interesting.

Well...what did you think of tonight? Were you as upset to see the redheaded monster as me? Did you cry at John's eviction? What else did you notice tonight? Let us know!




At The End Of The Day...

After a looooong feeds black out due to the taped 'live' eviction show aired tonight (See Scott's recap if you haven't already watched the show) we were all waiting patiently (or perhaps not so patiently, lol) for them to return so that we could find out who Steve had nominated and who had won POV.

The feeds came back to Vanessa, Liz and Steve in the kitchen. Vanessa was doing dishes, Liz was eating and Steve was scampering about. There was no initial sign of JMac. We watched, and we waited and we watched and we waited...I know, I know, just tell you already right?? ;)

Well Vanessa went to the DR (on her own, she wasn't called) for a moment and when she returned she was asking how the POV speech goes down. Within a few moments we were able to surmise that Steve, as HOH, had nominated Vanessa and JMac. Vanessa has won POV though, so that means that she is in full control of who will go home during tomorrow's live eviction.

There are only the four left in the house, so that means things are quite a bit quieter and nowhere near as much action will be going on. There was a rousing game of Sling Band, to which I paid very little attention to and couldn't tell you who won.

After Sling Band, there was a bit of a game related conversation between Vanessa and Steve in the bathroom. It was half a strategizing/game related talk, and half a pep talk. Steve admitted he's been letting the game get to him lately and that he's losing perspective even with reminding himself that this is just a 'tv show in a parking lot'. Vanessa does what Vanessa does and tries to build him up a bit; reminds him that life will be grand outside of the house etc, etc. She says she thinks that everyone's lives are going to be better after the show.

They go on to discuss what Vanessa is going to do with the POV. She claims to not be 100% sure yet, but to be quite honest, in my opinion, I think she's going to get rid of Jmac. If you follow me on twitter, I went on a little tangent pretending to be Vanessa and rambled on over what I think her brain will cycle through what her options are and in the end, I think she finds her odds are better with John gone almost every time. They discuss that their odds of winning the game in F2 are stronger with Jmac (since he's already been evicted) but Vanessa claims their odds of getting to F2 are better with Liz. Although she does go back and forth a bit, it seems to me Vanessa is still completely leaning towards evicting John.

Throughout this whole conversation, John is of course, in bed. Some of it he's awake, sitting up looking adorkably pensive but not much action coming from him otherwise as he's soon lying prone in bed with his bandana over his eyes.

After I took a break to make and eat a delicious grilled cheese sandwich, I returned to Liz and Steve in the bathroom having a discussion. Apparently Liz hasn't really talked to Vanessa either, she's just going to let her do her thing. They start discussing mundane things. Liz apparently lost her virginity at 17. Steve says it's been 22 1/2 years for him. They discuss his little crush on Julia a bit. She tells him to get some muscles, lol.

Steve goes upstairs to have a shower, Liz goes to bed. I'm not really clear where Vanessa was at this point, DR maybe. Johnny Mac gets out of bed and goes into the kitchen where he plays with the Lincoln logs set the house guests received while the feeds were down. He builds a giant tower. Steve comes down from the HOH room after his shower and they game talk for literally around 20 seconds. John says if he gets evicted it's not that bad. Steve asks John if he's talked to Vanessa and John says nope.  Steve tells John he can't push too hard for him and John tells him not to, that it's between him and Vanessa now. Vanessa comes out of what I'm assuming is DR; John decides to go to bed.

Vanessa follows him into the comic room. John tells Vanessa she did good work out there; Vanessa says POV was close today and John says the last round wasn't close at all, that she did a good job. He tells her he's happy she won and she says it's going to be a big day tomorrow.

Steve goes to the hammock room to muse out loud and here we find out an interesting little tidbit of information: Steve claims he threw POV today and he's BIG TIME regretting it. He rants a bit in there, then heads up to HOH where he has an almost full blown melt down. He's hugging his teddy bear, crying, almost sobbing at points. He apologizes to his mother for letting her down, calls himself stupid. "I could have won and I didn't. I could have taken Vanessa out. That could've been my big move and I chickened out. I could beat John at the end but I can't beat her. I'm sorry mommy, I'm sorry." He wants a hug, someone to talk to, a friend, he wants his mom. He says he made a $500k mistake; he should have won POV and should have used it on Johnny. Johnny would've taken Vanessa out and Steve would've had the Scamper Squad votes. It was a little painful to watch, but not b/c I felt any real sympathy...it's just really awkward watching a grown man sob while clutching a teddy bear...and honestly, if what Steve is claiming is true the...yikes, he's right, that may have been a $500k mistake.

He eventually goes downstairs and wakes up Liz. She tries to comfort him a bit; tells him it's cute he's so sensitive and that Austin would not be behaving like this at all. Vanessa also gets out of bed to use the washroom and tells Steve to go to bed. He decides to sleep in the purple room in Meg's old bed so that he won't be alone.

So that's the current state of affairs as I end this update. One other super minor thing of note...Steve mentioned that he's now met 6 former house guests and included Caleb from BB16 amongst the list, so there is some thought Caleb hosted today's POV competition.

So that's that for tonight. Tomorrow night we'll know who Vanessa chose to evict and the episode should end with the first part of the HOH competition underway. My best guess is that the final three will be Vanessa, Steve and Liz. At this point although I think Vanessa has worked the hardest for the win, I'd love to see either Steve or Liz win the final HOH and cut Vanessa...but I truly don't see that happening. There is no clear cut path for any of these remaining house guests to take and so I, for one, am very interested in finding out how the last part of the game will play out...and it's been quite a few seasons since I've said that! ;) So, until tomorrow...or maybe Thursday...I probably won't do another update until we know who the winners of the first two parts of the HOH are and any little tidbits of game play that may occur in between.

Follow me on Twitter @Shienara33 and let me know what you think of my attempts to mimic Vanessa's brain patterns! haha

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Big Brother Season 17, Episode 37 Recap

For the first time since the premiere episode, feed watchers know little about what's going to happen tonight. Sure, we do know the results of the POV competition, and a conversation held on Sunday evening indicated a new target for eviction. But we don't know for sure who is going home, and despite the fact that this episode was taped yesterday, we do not have confirmation as to who is going to be the next HOH.

This is because CBS shut down the feeds yesterday morning, and they won't return until after the west coast airing of tonight's broadcast. While it has created a ton of online whining, and phony twitter accounts "reporting" results, it also has created a bit of intrigue for even the most jaded fan (such as myself).

So let's get right to it, starting with the aftermath of Vanessa's nominations of the "non-romantic" couple of the house, Steve and John. Oh wait, I'm wrong. Tonight's show actually starts with Julie calling everybody to the living room. She informs them that it's time for a surprise eviction episode, and somebody will be evicted within the hour.

Then we go back to earlier action. After the nominations, Steve says he's upset and surprised that Vanessa sided with the showmance. John says he's "going to do whatever it takes to keep me from walking out that front door". Vanessa hugs him, and says that everything she said was "100% true...game thing, that's it". "I hear you", is John's disinterested reply. Vanessa explains that John is her target simply because he's never won HOH, and "that person will always be taken to final three over somebody like myself". She's sad about putting up Steve, though.

Cue Steve's entrance into the HOH, and they hug. The fake tears come on as Vanessa says she "means everything I said" (heard that before?) and that they're friends. Steve says he understands, and "doesn't need to worry". He complains in the diary room about how he's on the block yet she's the one "bawling her eyes out". He's not going to let her take "attention away from what's really going on". He still tells her that he trusts her, as Vanessa continues on with her boring monologue.

Downstairs, John enters the bathroom and asks Liz and Austin if they're ready for tomorrow. He says that he's "getting the vibe that I'm out of the club". He tells them that he'd consider throwing the veto to them if they'd consider breaking their deal with Vanessa. "I'm trying to build trust with Austin and Liz right now", he claims. He says that even if they don't take the deal, he just may throw the comp anyway. Going home fifth is ok with him. "Ok, I like that idea."

After he leaves, Austin is confused. "Either JohnnyMac has lost his marbles, or he's become one with Judas." Ugh. Stop it, Austin. They see Vanessa, and call her into the bathroom to fill her in. (BTW, all of this was on last week's Big Brother Gossip Show.) Vanessa backs up, and giggles. She can't believe her ears. "Yes. Please. And thank you."

It's now commercial time, and we return to the POV competition. Besides the competition, they get to watch a new comedy called "Life In Pieces". Vanessa almost puts me to sleep as she describes this show, and we then get a commercial for it. Ugh, this stinks. This is followed by everybody fake applauding, and then Liz claiming it's something she'd watch.

Everybody then walks outside, and Steve says he's feeling right at home with the backyard theme. It's a puzzle competition. They have to race across a balance beam, and then have 20 seconds to put together a puzzle of the TV show's poster. If they don't get back within 20 seconds, their puzzle is dismantled and they are eliminated. The first to complete the puzzle wins.

The commentary of this competition is ridiculous unless you have problems with short-term memory. As always, the rules are repeated over and over. Vanessa's clock goes off right away, which means it's all down to Liz since Austin is so awful at puzzles. Yet he's seemingly doing ok. John has decided to build the puzzle in the trough so he doesn't have to worry about being disqualified. Austin, meanwhile, does keep falling off the beam so he's not getting any farther. Liz is doing well, though, so John claims he is thinking about throwing to to her. Steve, though, is also doing well, so John says that he does need to win this competition. Sure enough, John does then win the POV! Vanessa's "worst case scenario" has indeed come true!

After more commercials, it's the aftermath of John's victory. They're coming back into the house, and John is still celebrating. "One of you people has to go, and it's not me." Vanessa runs up to the HOH room to feel sorry for herself. She even cries in the diary room, which I don't think she's ever done this season. Liz and Austin are also whining because one of them has to go on the block. John enters the room, and Austin congratulates him. Liz continues to whine and leaves the room, but John says that he still feels the same as he did before. The plan is to take out Steve...for now.

Steve, meanwhile, is celebrating in the storage room. "That's what you get for going back for going back on me and JohnnyMac", he says in the diary room. "You should have put up the showmance, period." He's talking to himself, saying "cry your fucking eyes out. JohnnyMac ain't leaving." He believes that it will come to Vanessa needing to break the tie. He heads upstairs to convince her that's what she should do, but she doesn't want to talk. (Stupidly, they didn't show Vanessa spending almost a full hour going over scenarios with Skittles.)

Austin then comes upstairs, and they talk about John's win. Austin says he's not worried since they have the votes, but Vanessa didn't want to send Steve out this week. "It's just really shitty for me."

It's now time for the POV meeting, and obviously John takes himself off the block (although he does it in his usual silly way). Vanessa then stands, and puts up Austin because Liz was on the block last week. The segment concludes with the usual silly diary room commentary we usually see at the conclusion of Wednesday's episode.

Oh wait, there's more footage as Vanessa and John talk. She's kissing his ass, doing that giggle-speak that is a "tell" that nothing she's saying is truthful. He says his strategy is to just go around and "talk to people when I have to". Vanessa asks if he's going to keep Steve, and he's noncommittal. Vanessa wonders if they'll be the "dumbest people in history if they don't break up the showmance". They shake on going to final three together.

John then walks donwstairs, and tells Austin "maybe I'm crazy enough to take a showmance to the final three". Will he actualy do it? We'll see in a few minutes, but Judas "loves it".

Finally, it's eviction time, and obviously the house spent the last 20 minutes changing clothes. (BTW, they also had John sit in the eviction chair during earlier segments, and then be seen wearing his POV after that old house footage. Interesting production touches there.) Steve gives the first final plea, and he says he had nothing prepared. Being in the house was a dream come true, and he's thankful for everything.

Austin follows with saying "I never thought I'd make it here tonight." For some reason, he then gives a plug ot "Life In Pieces", "but one of our big brother dreams is going to go up in pieces...or smashed to pieces. I'm Judas, and you're the boy, right? We were never supposed to like each other, but we've become best friends. (Not really.) And I see a lot of myself in you, believe it or not. We both watched it our whole lives, and I've seen you go from a boy to a man. I wish you the best of luck. We're going to be best friends after this, and to the voters follow your heart, and all of your wildest dreams will come true. Julie, I'll see you on 'The Bold and the Beautiful'." Ugh.

Voting then commences, and Liz obviously votes to evict Steve. John, saying "it's time for some blood, people", votes to evict Austin. Vanessa will now have to break the tie. When Julie announces the tie, you can see the look of concern on Austin's face. She says it's a tough thing, but she's here to play a game, so she evicts...Austin! "I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. I love you to death outside of this house." He and Liz are stunned, and he's not moving from the chair. "You can't win the game", says Austin. "You can't get the jury votes." She says she knows that, and "it's ok."

He finally gets up, and says he "knew it was too good to be true". He kisses Liz, and slams the door open as he leaves the house. "Good luck, Austin", Steve says as he's out the door.

The barefoot ape joins Julie as Liz and Vanessa hug. Surprisingly, Vanessa is more upset about Austin's departure than Liz. Funny. Julie immediately asks about Vanessa, and he says "she basically saw a chance to take Liz out because JohnnyMac and Steve are going to do what she needs to do if Liz doesn't win HOH or veto". He says she has zero chance to win the game, though. "She was going to get to the finals either way. She didn't have to scumbag me to do it. She chose to Judas Judas."

Of course, Chen asks about Liz, and he says he's madly in love with her. This is where I lose interest. Thankfully, the interview is over after this question.

Now it's time for the HOH competition. Only John, Liz, and Steve are in this comp, which is called "What the Bleep". Videos of house guests are played with a word bleeped. Julie will then read a word that it may be, and they have to answer true or false. The person with the most points after seven videos win.

Everybody gets the first answer correct, which is Julia whining about not being picked for POV. The second video is from Becky, and they all get this right by choosing false. The third clip is from Jackie, and Steve is the only person to get a point this time. The fourth clip is from Jace, and again they're all correct. Meg is next, and John ties Steve by being the only person correct. Clip number six includes James, and all three are wrong. We're on the final clip, and it's Vanessa reading a letter from home. John and Steve are both correct, so they're tied for the win.

The tie-breaker is a number, and the question is the number of seconds it took to complete the "Under the Rainbow" competition. Ooooh, two smart guys having to compute numbers. Steve changes his answers a few times before picking 601, while John picked 3600. The correct answer is 2825, which means Steve is the new HOH!

BTW, this competition was really funny as the bleeps were hilarious, especially when Jackie's was about being backdoored. Yes, grade school humor, but I'm an old creep.

The show then ends with Julie running down the schedule for the last three episodes. Ugh, Brendon and Rachel will be on tomorrow night. I'll have the mute button ready! There's one final look as Vanessa appears to still be making everything about herself.

That's it until tomorrow night. What did you think? Wasn't it exciting when Austin was blindsided? Tell us what you think!



Sunday, September 13, 2015

POV results.... Another Feed Blackout Monday - Tuesday

Howdy all,  thought it best to let you all know whats up if you don't happen to listen to our weekly podcast.... wait, why don't you listen to our weekly podcast?  If you did there will be barely anything in this post you don't already know so get on listening to our weekly podcast!!!

Still here eh?  OK, fine. Here are the basics on what's gone on since nominations.

As you should know, Vanessa nominated Steve and John with John seeming to be the person she wanted to go (I explained the logic of this in our weekly podcast - John is a wild card and I think Vanessa feels he is the hardest to read of the remaining HGs).

Then on Saturday 'ole Johnny Mac WON the POV competition which throws a huge spanner in the works (Thats British lingo ya know, I've been catching up on Celebrity Big Brother over the weekend!).

Vanessa mulled it over using about 5 bags of skittles and came up with the replacement nomination of Austin - that POV meeting took place today so now Austin is up against Steve.

If I had to pick I'd say Steve is the one that will go to the Jury on Monday.  Liz will want to save Austin and John won't be mad at Vanessa for voting out Steve if she happened to have to via tie-breaker and in theory John would want to work with Vanessa over Austin/Liz. (Follow up - after I posted this John and Vanessa had a long talk where she suggested he make it a tie vote and she would make the big move and get out Austin which is exactly what happened).

The actual eviction will take place on Monday - it will be taped and shown on Tuesday.  CBS is already advertising via a scroll on the live feeds page that the live feeds will be down from 9am BBT on Monday until 9pm BBT on Tuesday (after the West Coast airing of the fake 'live' eviction show).

There has already been a ton of complaining online about this - it happens every year. It will be ok......  honest.  If you are incensed - I'd suggest canceling the feeds now and saving yourself a dollar or two - but frankly the feeds have been the best in years with all the game play we have been able to see - Mondays to Thursdays haven't been this consistently interesting ever.

Scott has already laid out the remaining TV schedule so check out his post here.

One last thing - be sure to check out Scott's recap of Sunday's TV show - we didn't watch it but I am pretty sure he nailed what was shown.

Big Brother Season 17, Episode 36 (Unwatched) Recap

While delivering the instructions for Thursday night's HOH competition, Julie Chen mentioned a special "egg slot" that would reward the first person who placed an egg there a "luxury" trip outside the house. Throughout the night, feed watchers speculated about the various possibilities, especially given the news that the feeds would be down for most of Friday.

When the feeds came back live on Friday night, we learned the details of this prize, and for many of us it's our worst nightmare come true. Because it involved a Person Who We Will Not Name and his nincompoop pop star sister, we are not going to watch tonight's episode. Keeping in mind just how close the show has mirrored the Big Brother Gossip Show anyway, I suggest you just download last night's show, especially as we refuse to mention that person's name.

Since the Sunday show is so predictable anyway, here's what they're bound to show you tonight.

The broadcast will begin with the HOH competition that started on Thursday's show. The fake Irish music will come on as each of the remaining five house guests describe the chicken coop competition, along with Liz saying she just has to win this to get revenge on her sister's eviction. They'll also comment on just how hard and tiring it is to move these eggs up and over the "rainbow", but each and every one of them are determined to win. Oh yeah, Steve will also have to provide some commentary, so that is bound to be him being giddy that Liz isn't doing well and/or concerned that Austin or Vanessa is in the mix to win. Or he just may say he's feeling good as he has deals with each and every person.

These comments will be interespersed with shots of the competition. Austin takes the early lead, but Vanessa quickly passes him. "Funny" music will come on as we watch Liz unsuccessfully attempt to compete, but she quickly realizes she has no chance and opts for the luxury prize. John ultimately makes a run for the lead, and it looks like he just may pass Vanessa after she drops an egg. Then he also drops an egg, and Vanessa carries on to become the new HOH. Expect comments from her on how she HAD to win it.

There will then be a segment or two of Vanessa working the house. She'll have chats with each and every person, and at first it will look like Austin and Liz are going up. Finally, a conversation with Austin changes the tone, and a disastrous talk with John seals the deal. These various talks may actually be cut up to surround the nightmare I'm about to describe.

The worst moment of the season will begin with the doorbell, followed by fake exuberance of the Person Who Shall Not Be Named. After some shrieking from the house, and more annoying babbling by the guest, Vanessa and Liz will don disguises before they're whisked out of the house.

They'll have dinner with the family, have some wine backstage, and then see the person's famous sister perform a concert. I'll bet shots of the three boys sleeping in the Big Brother house will be shown as a contrast to the girl's excitement. They'll then return to the house, full of stories of their night. The segment will end with Austin and Liz in bed, and him complaining that he never wants to be separated from her again. (Gag.)

Nominations will finally happen, and Steve and John are now on the block.

What do you think? Will this be pretty close to what is shown tonight? If you don't observe the boycott, please let me know what I missed.


Saturday, September 12, 2015

Big Brother Gossip Show #512: Incentivized Reasoning

While not as exciting as the previous week, Vanessa's HOH win brought out a lot of interesting chatter. Ok, maybe just a lot of chatter. Hours and hours of babbling, in fact, as she just had to come up with proper reasoning and the correct incentives that would make the two nominees further her game.

Yep, we sat through this marathon, along with everything else that happened during the week. We even have the inside scoop of what went down when the feeds went to "Jeffish" for almost fifteen hours yesterday. Too bad we won't tell you who spent time with Vanessa and Liz, as it was the Person Who Will Never Be Named on our show.

Thanks to Mike and Colette Lala for their help tonight. Grab this episode from the usual sources, or...

CLICK HERE TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD!!!

Next week is our season finale, so don't forget to join us at 10 pm ET!

The Day Timer - What Happened During Feeds Blackout

If you feel the way some of us do about a certain house guest from last season, this isn't going to be good news to you.

CBS announced that the "live feeds would pause" from 9:45 AM to 11:30 PM Big Brother Time (i.e. Pacific Time) yesterday (Friday) -- in other words, a feeds blackout. No, we didn't know why, and no, it had nothing to do with observing the coincidental anniversary of 9/11.

First, here's what happened game-wise during the blackout: Head of household Vanessa nominated Steve and SqueakyJohn. I don't myself know if either of them is her true target, but before the blackout there was some speculation (as noted by our own @Shienara33 here last night) that Vanessa might be targeting Liz for eviction this week.

Second – and this is the news which some of us find disturbing – apparently the "luxury prize" that Liz won during Thursday's HOH comp involved attending a concert by a certain pop star. With a house guest from #BB16 who is related to that pop star.

Which means it's likely we will have to endure several minutes with He Who Shall Not Be Named during an upcoming television episode. Please stock up on your favorite adult beverage and have your finger poised on the mute button.

Until then, we may at least take solace in that the best #BB17-related entertainment is on the air tonight at 10:00 PM Eastern: the Big Brother Gossip Show, featuring Scott, Mike, and Colette!

Don't forget that the schedule for upcoming TV episodes changes this coming week! CBS will air episodes on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. See Scott's guide to the last five episodes here.

Vanessa seems firmly in control of the game. Of all the other house guests, who has the next best chance to win this season? Comment below or @uselesstraffic.

Friday, September 11, 2015

At The End Of The Day...

Well hello there strangers! Yes, I know. It's been a long, long while since I last wrote but you'll just have to forgive me if you can. I had a week off from work and travelled to visit my grandparents as well as two of my sisters and their families. I stayed with my grandparents though, and horror of horrors, they have no wifi. No wifi meant no laptop, no laptop meant no feeds and no feeds meant no updates. It was all extremely sad and tragic and very #FirstWorldProblems traumatic. ;) My little holiday was lovely despite that, as I was able to spend plenty of time with some of my favourite people in the world. ;)

This will be a very short update...Only 5 people left in the house means not much happening even on the most happening of nights and I suspect this will most likely be one of the last few updates you'll get out of me, depending on feed outages and show recaps from Scott.

The end of tonight's Big Brother broadcast saw the house evict Julia over Liz. The show ended with the house guests competing in the HOH competition that involved moving a golden egg from one side of a rounded cage to another side through a chicken wire fence and placing it a holder. There was a spot for a luxury item win as well. Liz ended up falling far enough behind that she finally decided to go for the luxury win. She won a 'once in a life time' trip outside of the house. I don't know any other details beyond that.

At the end of the day...ok, ok, at the end of the competition, though it did come close at a few points, Vanessa ended up winning HOH. This marks her 4th HOH win and she has now tied the record for most HOH wins in a season, if you're into that kind of BB trivia. ;)

She almost immediately went into her victim/crying, interrogation/questioning/dealing mode and began making the rounds. I have to say...yes, Vanessa makes my brain bleed. She's annoying, she over uses phrases and uses words incorrectly (I swear if I NEVER hear the words 'incentive' or 'incentivized' again it will be too soon!), she cries and plays victim a bit too much for my taste BUT...as feedsters we don't always know what she's thinking and/or what she's doing and although it's exhausting keeping up with her, at least she keeps us spinning in terms of what she's going to do.

Initially, as she made her rounds, it seemed as though she was going to put forth an effort to 'find a reason' (as she so likes to do) to target Liztin. She was definitely hemming and hawing during an early conversation with Austin and was being very non-committal. In one conversation with JohnnyMac, he told her about a deal he made with Austin at her suggestion, but she claimed she didn't recall telling him to do so. Jmac also told Vanessa that of course he's going to take her to final two; according to how he's playing to Vanessa, she's the only one he could beat because every one in jury hates her.

She then went on to have an extended conversation with Austin. If (and of course, this is a big if because it's Vanessa and she definitely changes her mind more than she changes those damn beanie hats of hers!) Steve or Jmac find themselves on the block this week, I have to say it's their own fault. At no point during this long conversation did either of those two even attempt to break up what they had to know was game talk between Vanessa and Austin.

Austin was basically selling his soul to Vanessa in order to not be nominated. He swore he'd throw POV, he promised even if Liz was up and he did win it he wouldn't use it on her [Liz], he promised he'd vote whichever way she wanted. Vanessa gave out some strong hints that she might need him to vote out Liz and Austin didn't say he wouldn't. It was interesting and I think part of Austin's pleading did get to Vanessa. She is saying things like "America will think I'm stupid if I don't nominate the couple." but tempering it with "I like you guys better."  Austin is trying to play it off like Steve and JohnnyMac are a couple (in terms of being a solid duo alliance) as well and that America wouldn't hate her because they've been working together since the beginning.

I missed a few conversations as I took a break to watch the west coast airing of the episode and eat delicious homemade, hand cut fries. Seriously, they were fantastic. ;)  Anyways, when I returned to the feeds, HOH room reveal had happened. Vanessa got some sort of nonsensical letter from some sort of nonsensical friend, along with a few photos. She told a story about her and Mel (her girlfriend in case you didn't know) going to some club where there was a stripper pole; she danced on it and could actually pull a few moves on it. Who knew?

Everyone but Austin ended up leaving the HOH room in a very short time frame compared to how they lingered earlier in the season.

The evening then wound down significantly. Vanessa got called to DR, Jmac went to bed (yes, I still like him but he's officially taken over Meg's position for most time spent in bed. GET THE HELL UP DUDE!!) Liz unpacked while Steve chatted with her and Austin made over cooked scrambled eggs for them [Liz and himself]. Steve also spent some time counting things and studying to himself while pacing around the house.

As I write this, Vanessa is still in the DR, Austin and Liz have retreated to the purple room bed; Jmac, having gotten up for a bit, also returned to bed in the comic room and Steve is currently scampering around the house waiting for Vanessa. He really, really wants to talk with her before going to bed. He's making me twitchy just watching him so I won't be staying up to see how that conversation plays out.

In any event, the next few days will be interesting I'm sure, but I don't think we'll be getting to see much of it. Scott has written a helpful post detailing how CBS handles the last couple of weeks in terms of episodes, competitions, time lines etc that you should read if you're not familiar with the usual practices. CBS rarely deviates from the norm (though we can always hope! lol) so I'm sure things will be very close to Scott's out line.

One important thing to note: feeds are going to be down quite a bit over the next few days. There's a banner up on the CBS feeds page indicating that the feeds will be down basically all day tomorrow (9:45 am to 11:30 pm) so we most likely won't get to see the nomination fall out. I've no idea why this black out is happening; my own personal guess is that perhaps the trip Liz won will take place but I don't know for sure. Typically nominations take place on Fridays later in the day but if it is the trip, who knows. Then we will most likely see the feed black out Scott mentions in his post I linked to above as well. These blackouts combined with my schedule probably means I won't do another update until Sunday regarding nominations and then again perhaps on Wednesday once the fall out of those episodes takes place and we seen the HOH competition.

Never fear though, there is always the Big Brother Gossip Show that you can listen to on Saturday night if you get the chance!! You know Mike, Scott and Colette will have all the pertinent information for you, along with their unique commentary! ;)

As for me, feel free to follow me on twitter @Shienara33 where I tweet about Big Brother, french fries and other riveting things from my exciting life! haha ;) G'nite for now!

Thursday, September 10, 2015

A Guide to the Last 5 Episodes

This is a quick post to explain the scheduling for the last few episodes, as a lot of action will be compressed into five episodes. While there's a chance producers may mix things up a bit, this is how they've handled the action for the last few years. There won't be as much "house action", which does make sense as the cast numbers decrease.

Sunday, September 13: This will be a pretty typical episode, including nominations, although they may squeeze in the POV competition and POV meeting.

Tuesday, September 15: While this will be promoted as a "live eviction" show, it's not. What usually happens is that the feeds go to "Jeffish" around noon on Monday, and won't return until after Tuesdays' broadcast. Monday's Big Brother After Dark will consist of footage shot earlier in the day on Monday. An eviction episode will be filmed on Monday evening, along with a HOH competition, to be shown on Tuesday night. While the feeds are down, POV will happen on Tuesday to be aired on Wednesday. (Yes, this is infuriating too all of us live feed watchers, but this is what they've done for a long, long time.)

Wednesday, September 16: This is a true "live eviction". Nominations and POV will be shown, and then the POV meeting AND eviction will be shown live. This gets us to the final three, and the beginning of the first of the three final HOH competitions will end the show.

Sunday, September 20: The conclusion of the first HOH competition will start the show, and the beginning of the second part will end it. In between, they'll show clips from the season as the three have a "final dinner".

Wednesday, September 23: The finale, and all the trappings that go with it. The conclusion of the second HOH competition, jury questions, the final competition/eviction, interviews, voting, and the crowning of the winner.

Again, this schedule isn't guaranteed, and I hope they do change it up. But it's probably pretty close to what will happen.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Big Brother Season 17, Episode 34 Recap

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, it's rare that we have entertaining feeds in September. As the cast numbers dwindle, the suspense and drama also decreases. It all comes down to the competitions, and the subsequent nominations and evictions. Otherwise, the feeds are pretty boring, primarily featuring the remaining cast hanging out and waiting to discover their fate.

What makes this season the most successful in years is the fact that there is still activity on the feeds. Sure, there are hours and hours of nothing but the twins and Austin laying around bragging about their popularity, or Steve pacing around talking to himself. But there are still great moments that makes for compelling feeds.

This past Saturday was a perfect example. The hours after the afternoon's POV competition were captivating. There was so much going on, and it involved almost everybody in the house. There were (temporary) breakups and new alliances. There was screaming and tears. There was bragging and pleading. It was tremondous.

Unfortunately, time constraints means that only a few minutes of this will be shown tonight. There will be one, maybe two, segments devoted to the fallout from the POV. If you have access to the feeds, go back to Saturday around 3 pm. If you don't, we played plenty of clips from these events in the last hour of the most recent Big Brother Gossip Show.

Also, it should be noted that there's no real frontrunner to win the season. Each and every person could be the winner, depending on the combination at the end. Sure, Vanessa is playing the hardest game, but we've seen her make some mistakes in recent days, and she no longer has people to hide behind her moves. Even the silly twins have a legitimate shot to walk away with the win. I understand that's precisely why some people don't enjoy this season, but I thrive when it's unpredictable.

Before we get to the real fun in tonight's CBS show, though, we have other house activities to cover. So let's get started where Sunday left off when Steve nominated the lovebirds, Austin and Liz, and Liz's dramatic run from the table to the bedroom in tears. Liz's tears continue in the diary room as she whines about being on the block next to her boyfriend. "It's just tearing me apart." Austin isn't so upset. In fact, he's still babbling about "heroic quests...between the girl and the glory". STFU. Steve, meanwhile, says this is the point of the game where he moves from being passive to more aggressive. Unfortunately, he's so hyper-active in the diary room that I can't transcribe what he said.

The sad music comes on as Austin consoles Liz. Julia joins them, as Austin says "it's not over yet". They have the veto coming up, after all, but Liz can't believe that it was Steve "of all people" who betrayed them. Austin reminds them that if Julia wins veto, everything changes. "It's really hard to fucking depend on her, though", replies Liz. POW! "This means war", though, as the fake tears go away.

Austin then meets with Steve, and tells him that it's tough to see her cry like that. Steve says that he hates hurting people, and that he avoids confrontation. Austin is still cocky, though, as he's goine so long without making it on the block. Steve plays along, and claims in the diary room that he's "very sneaky".

Austin goes back and climbs on Liz, who tells him to "stopppp-uh". Julia asks if he feels any animosity towards Steve, and Austin calmly says he won't until after the competition. They think he'll put up Vanessa if Julia happens to win POV. They know that if Austin or Liz wins, then Julia will go up. They hatch up a plan to throw the competition to Julia. If not, then Julia is going headstrong against Steve.

With that said, it's time for the POV. They're all dressed in tutus. Being a Big Brother historian, Steve immediately recognizes that this is the same competition that saw Amanda and McCrae have a falling out in season 15. "Now Liztin is in the same spot as McCranda was, except this time Liztin isn't going to win if I have any say in it."

Jesse, aks "Mr Pectacular", then comes out in his tutu, and the twins are immediatley in love. Austin's not too happy with their reactions. "Are you for real? This guy has no layers. He has no depth. He's also like five feet tall." So the competition finds two people spin around fifteen times before rolling a bowling balls. The first to knock down all four pins wins their round. After fifteen seconds, they have to go through the spinning routine again.

Liz is the first name pulled, and she picks Steve as her competitor. Liz wins, elminating Steve. Round two gives Julia the choice of an opponent, and she asks Vanessa for advice. "Austin", whispers Vanessa. "Trust me, trust me." John, who is sitting between there, thinks this would be awesome if she can pull this off. She does, as Julia indeed picks Austin, who now wonders if he's being set up by the whole house.

After commercials, Austin is shown asking Liz why Julia picked him. Vanessa explains in the diary room that the worst thing for HER if for Julia to win because then SHE would be put on the block. "It's the smart play", Vanessa whispers to Liz. She goes on to say that Austin winning is "the worst case scenario. So you need to maximize that not happening." Ooooh, she's damned good. Liz doesn't agree, and she's not happy how Vanessa is only looking out for herself. Hey, it's Big Brother! Of course she is.

Back on the "court", Austin asks Julia if he's being played. "I shouldn't have picked you", he replies. "I'm sorry." Julia says she trusted Vanessa's advice, but it may not have been smart. Austin adds that he wanted Julia to beat JohnnyMac first, and THEN he would have thrown it to her. He believes that Judas needs to take over. "I have to win this veto."

Julia quickly gets three of the pins, as Liz cheers her on. Austin then catches up, and gets that fourth pin before Julia. She is now eliminated. Steve asks Julia why she picked Austin, and she replies, "I don't know." Austin sits down and says he doesn't understand, and Vanessa attempts to explain. Except that Austin is not as dumb as the twins. Close, maybe, but he knows how this should have worked. He's even more determined to win the veto.

John is the next to make a challenge, and he chooses Liz. His strategy is to spin a bit slower, so he's not as dizzy. That's pretty smart, and works, as he quickly knocks down all four pins. Both of the twins are now out.

Vanessa now gets to challenge somebody, and she chooses Austin as it's "the only way nominations stay the same at this point". Yep, that will help defuse the paranoia, but is the right move for her. He feels betrayed, and says he's going to "destroy Vanessa". He crawls on his knees to the bowling platform, which John describes like a "caged gorilla". Pretty accurate, JohnnyMac! He quickly destroys her, as she doesn't even knock over a pin.

This means that the finals are JohnnyMac versus Austin. They shake hands, and Austin says "I got you next week. I got this." John thinks this is awesome, as this means that "Austin wants to take out one of the twins is essentially what he's saying". Sure, he'll throw it. "Take the veto, and I'll see you next week." Yep, it doesn't take long for Austin to win this round...and the POV! "Yeah! Judas is here...all of you. All of you be afraid. Austin isn't here. He's gone. Heel turn." Jesse hands Judas the power of veto. "The entire house needs to be afraid, because I feel betrayed and I'm safe."

Liz is pissed. "He makes it seem like he's this completely different person. You don't react like that when your girl is on the block, and now you're just rubbing it in my face." Liz still gives him a hug, but Vanessa knows she has some serious work to do. Before that, though, Jesse rips up his pink shirt and flexes.

When we return from adverts, they're all walking in the house and Judas is still celebrating. "Everybody who was in the plan to take me out", he says in the diary room, "is going to have to live in fear. I'm going to find out exactly why Julia did what she did."

In the have-not room, Liz is bitching at Julia for picking Austin in that second round. "What's wrong with you?" Julia apologizes, but tells Liz that it was all Vanessa's doing. "I trusted her." They're now realizing they will be on the block together.

Austin then enters, and asks Julia the same question. Julia responds that it was all due to Vanessa, and Austin explodes that "she just played you". He tells them that he felt it was a big setup to take him out, and they head out of the room.

Julia heads into the bathroom and tells Vanessa that she feels that she was just played. Vanessa puts on her best teary face, and says she would never do that. Liz joins the conversation and explains exactly what Austin just told them about how she should have challenged John. Vanessa then throws out a bombshell. "It's not in Austin's incentive to play the game with both of you. You realies that?" She says he had no plans to throw it all along, and as a "game playing expert" she was just helping. Wow, this is unbelievable. She goes on by saying she was doing nothing but being their friend. "I swear on Mel's life I wasn't playing you. I was looking out for you." Then the tears come, as Vanessa says she's so hurt by these accusations. She's got a ton of information, and she's now going to spill all of it.

Steve then enters, and the twins tell him to go away. Vanessa carries on, telling them that Austin "can't win going to final three with you guys". She's not exactly lying here, as Vanessa explains in the diary room. We even get some flashback of these very conversations. She reminds Julia that he ultimately didn't throw it to her. "He's a liar, that's why." Finally, Vanessa lays down the ultimate smackdown. "I don't trust him and I never have." Vanessa adds that she will be staying over Liz. "I can tell you, I'm so close to spilling the beans. I am so close." With that, we head to commecials.

When the show returns, Austin is in the have-not room with Liz. She's laying on the floor, and she asks if he's "hiding stuff from me". Austin asks if that question came from Vanessa, and Liz says that Vanessa claims to have info. Austin now firmly believes that this was a setup to take him out this week. He asks Liz if she knew about this beforehand. Liz denies it, and asks again if there's something going on that she doesn't know. Austin says he's done nothing but try to protect three people throughout the whole game. He does admit, however, that when questioned he has had to "play ball" and claim he would take one of them out if necessary. "Julia just sealed her own fate." Liz says she needs to think, and gets up to leave. "Honestly, I'm over this. I'm just going to leave this game with intergrity." She starts bawling, and Austin follows her out.

Liz heads to the bathroom, and says she has "no idea what to think about (Austin)". Vanessa carries on her various themes, and Vanessa asks if she thought he'd use the veto on her. "Maybe...I learned a lot today. I learned that he's pretty selfish, and he's no Clay. He is not the knight in shining armour." She "literally" never wants to talk to him again.

Meanwhile, John fills Steve in on what's going on, including what happened during the POV. Steve is happy with the results, but is becoming "nervous about what she is capable of".

Back downstairs, Liz states that Austin never had any intention of saving her. Standing a few feet away, Austin hears this and starts arguing with Vanessa. He says that he either had to play, or "walk out of the game like Clay...but nobody respects that". Ooops, the wrong thing to say! He asks to talk to Vanessa alone, and confronts her about what she's been telling the twins. She claims that she has defended him, even though he's a "piece of shit right now". Vanessa points out that if he did indeed throw it to Julia, then the noms would have been her and Austin. "So now you think I'm against you", asks Austin. "That's a huge attack on me", replies Vanessa, "and I had to use every ounce of strength that I had to not vomit on a plate all the information I have on you". Wow, she is good! How can one be a victim, martyr, and hero at the same time? Austin says he has to play nice with her, though, and says that while he wants to protect Liz, "I can't lay over and die". He can't be that knight in shining armour.

Austin then heads into the bedroom where Liz is sleeping. He starts rubbing her back and asks her what's wrong. "I just want to be with my sister", she replies. He says that he wasn't trying ot hurt her, bu the had a bad moment. Julia then enters the room for a second, and Liz says his "reaction was everything. It proved a lot to me. I just want you to know it's probably not going to end well. So I'm just coming to terms with that, too." Austin can't believe what he's hearing, and says what happened is the "worst possible thing" to have happen. "Liz, I love you." He says he's done everything possible to protect her, but Liz points out in the diary room that she's won more HOH's than him. "I don't need you anymore, and clearly this might be the end for us."

The rehash of the POV carries on, but Liz tells him to leave because he's so "full of shit". He ruined his life for her, after all, and broke up with a girl for her. Yep, this wasn't a good move on his part. He says he's never lied to her, and he "loves her with all my heart". He finally, leaves the room, as she says "get the fuck out of here".

Standing in the kitchen, Julia walks by Austin and asks if he's going to wear the veto all day. "I always promised I'd do that so everybody would know who won." (Note: this sounds worse than it really is. He actually meant so feed watchers knew who won.) Julia heads into the bedroom and tells Liz what she said. Of course, this meant he was rubbing it in. She then grabs all of Austin's clothes and tosses them across the room. "I'm Judas", she laughs as she puts on his hat. "I hate him. It's disgusting. He's ugly." Liz slightly disagrees, of course.

A few more commercials later, and Julia nad Liz are sharing a bed. She decides to go talk to Austin. She still loves him, of course, so we get the pretty music as they make up. "I'm sorry for being a bitch to you" she says. "Thee last thing I want is for this game to tear us apart." Sorry, kids, but the fun is over. The worst couple ever is back together, and back to finger banging.

As the camera fades above the kissing pair, we move to the POV meeting. Austin says that "while my heart tells me to use this veto to save Liz, my head is telling me that if I do that I might not be here to fight for her anymore". Yep, he uses the veto on himself. Steve then stands, and after saying he "hates being the bad guy here", puts up Julia.

We end with the twins talking about how bad it is to be up next to each other, Steve saying he would have rather have Austin go but is still happy, and Austin over-stating his heroic move. That's it. The show is over.

But what a great show. It took me a full 90 minutes to watch it, even though so much of it were the exact same clips we used this past Saturday. What did you think? What amazes you more - that Vanessa can talk her way out of situations or that these bozos fall for it?



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