Big Brother Over The Top: The First Night

We've waited and waited and waited. Ok, we haven't. We only had seven days to rest from last week's finale. But so far I give Big Brother Over the Top an A+.
At exactly 7 pm Big Brother Time, we saw Julie on our live feed screens. After a little bit on an intro, we were shown the video packages of the cast.

After that, they went right into allowing us to view each and every person to enter the house. There was one issue about this, though. Instead of spreading out the entrances by ten minutes or so, production should have pushed them through every five minutes...or less. Ten minutes was way too long, and even their energy would lag at times with uncomfortable silences.

It didn't help the the first person introduced was Scott Dennis, a 24 year-old debt collector from Maine. He's this season's version of  Ian/Steve, and he's just as...um, a bit off. For some reason, he's wearing a Walmart greeter-ish blue vest, and everything he does is just awkward.

The next to enter was Morgan Willet, a 22 year-old publicist in some weird (yet sort of sexy) outfit. Cute girl. Unfortunately, she had to play nice with Scott. They wandered around the house and chatted about nothing as they awaited the next contestant.
(BTW, it was at this point that I discovered that the quad cams actually were already working. In fact, they even showed four different views throughout the night. That's so much better than the 1 or 2 shots spread out over the cams that we usually were provided.)

That person turned out to be 24 year-old roofer Shane Chapman. I have a feeling that our girl Colette will be bringing the lute back out for this long-haired hunk. Morgan was also pretty impressed.

Fort Worth's Neeley Jackson then came in. The 33 year-old sales associate is bound to be this year's outspoken fireball. The routine of new people had already set in. After hugs and brief chit-chat, they then all wandered around checking out the house.

Now we have the momentous entrance of the person I'm bound to love. 24 year-old law school graduate Shelby Stockton is my treasure for the season. Cute, sexy, lively, and featuring a voice that reminds me of many morning afters. You know, those days where you sound like a combination of loud rock and roll screaming, whiskey shots, a pack of cigs, and a line or two. You get what I'm saying here? I don't think Morgan really liked her, though, as Shane started to give her a bit more attention instead of her. (Some claimed that she sounded like a Nolan girl, but that's a real insult to my Shelby.)

From the sublime to the ridiculous as we then got to meet 41 year-old Michael "Cornbread" Ligon. The tree removal company owner talks like his nickname. I swear he's right out of that professional wrestling "it's still real to me" video. Yeah, time to move along.

And from a hick we go to the loud outsider. 31 year-old Chicago waitress/punk rocker Kryssie Ridolfi now came in. She's going to be fun. A complete smartass. But a lovable smartass. So far.

Remember how much I hated Nicole's voice? Well she's nothing compared to 21 year-old medical assistant Whitney Hogg. Seriously, her mouth creates the worst noises I've ever heard. "Ahhhmmmmmmmm frommmmmmm Kennnnnnnnnnnnnnntuckyyyyyyyyy." Gross.
At this point a couple of interesting things happened. First off, Kryssie and Whitney both announced they had boyfriends, so they needed to find "cuddle buddies". There was also an interesting division as the boys and girls separated into their own groups. Oh, and Whitney is having trouble remembering names. That's not shocking.
One more thing I noticed at this point. They never went to "fish" whenever they mentioned production. That's a great sign for this season.

It's now time for New Orleans restaurant owner Justin Duncan. The 27 year-old entered dressed as a pimp. Well, a pimp with little money. Nah, he sounded pretty cool, actually, although he really had little to say to others outside of "this is crazy". Interestingly, now there were three groups of mixed genders hanging out together, and Scott won't shut up about the bed situation. Yep, we get that there are only 7 beds. Shut up! (He's no Ian or Steve.)

Morgan's 25 year-old sister Alex comes in next, and she pretends to not even know her sister. Seriously, it won't take much time for people to figure this out. But oh well. This should be interesting.
Production then announces that the storage room is open. Bring on the alcohol!!! In fact, they have to announce it multiple times before Shelby starts hopping around in excitement.

The girls all seem to be excited when 25 year-old engineer Monte Massongill rings the doorbell. Seriously, they're all lining up to hug him. He looks like a bore to me.

Finally, the last of the "noobs" is in the house, as 23 year-old preschool teacher Zakiy...I mean Danielle Lickey. She does look a lot like Zakiyah, but prettier. Which is saying something. Hopefully, she has higher self-esteem than Zakiyah and doesn't end up with a horrible man like Paulie. Weirdly, everybody is pretty subdued as she comes in. While they all rant to hug Monte, Danielle had to come to them. Strange. Also unlike Zakiyah, she seems to have a personality. I think I'm going to like her.

And now we come to the end of the big cast entrances. It was between Jozea and Jason for this year's token vet. Either one would also fill the CBS quota for another trait, which is a sad thing I have to report. He gets a huge ovation when he comes in, which is somewhat surprising given that most of this cast are recruits. The girls all LOVE him! "Show me around the house", he squeals. "It's like iy'd deja vu but it's not."

The storage room now has champagne for the cast, so I guess it's time for the little meet and greet on the couch that we always see every year. As Tony Kornheiser once said about the Redskins, "this is an era of unbridled optimism." At this point, however, I'm going to bed. This has been fun!
Don't forget the Big Brother Gossip Show returns on Saturday!!!

Edit: Just after I published this post, we found out that Chen was going to address the contestants. A few minutes later, a pre-recorded message from Julie cam on the screen explaining a few things, and being slightly mysterious on other things. As you may expect, that got everybody babbling afterwards. I need to sleep. Good night.