A Couple of Odds And Ends

There have been a lot of questions coming our way these past few weeks, so I thought I'd throw a quick post up here. How the hell have you all been this winter, by the way? Personally, I have a new side gig that is taking up a lot of time, which is why...

No, I'm not watching Big Brother Canada. Ok, I take that back. I'm watching the actual broadcasts on YouTube. I'm not, however, watching the feeds. There are many factors why, including the new second job as a music writer for the local newspaper (Argus Leader). This is also a much busier TV time than summer, so I am constantly struggling to empty my DVR.

The main reason I'm not watching, though, is pure lack of interest. Yes, it is an all-noob cast, so one of my Big Brother US dreams is being fulfilled up north. Outside of that, I don't have much positive to say. They have completely copied the U.S. formula - HOH, POV, Have-nots, slop, etc. They've even recycled all of the speeches before the various ceremonies, including the much derided "who wants to see my HOH room?" There are a couple of elements borrowed from other countries, though. There's a telephone AND a talking moose that give the players tasks to win dinners and booze.

I'm also not taking a liking to the cast. I don't really hate anybody, though, except for possibly the recently evicted glitter king, Gary. I just haven't developed any positive OR negative feelings about the rest of the cast. I have nobody to root for or against. They're all just dead weight.

One of this site's other contributors, Ash, is a big, big fan, though, so if you do want updates then you should click her twitter link on the left side of this page.

Ok, now on to the other big news. Last week, it was announced that CBS was taking over this year's live feeds. They will not be handled by Superpass. Obviously, this raises a million questions, and we really don't have any answers. As more details emerge, I'm sure Mike will be quick to update the site, and we may even do an early Big Brother Gossip Show episode to explain everything. 

Don't forget, though, that this season will be starting a couple of weeks early. The season premiere is currently scheduled for June 26. What does that mean for this season? Who knows, but it does indicate that there will probably be even more contestants than last year.

What would you like to see happen this year? Do you disagree with my critique of the Canadian version? Have at me, my friends. It's been awhile since I've had hate mail. :)

Dead In The Water....The Night Owl

Well so far tonight, nothing happened.  No really, nothing.  Nothing out of the ordinary or new anyway.

The day started very very early when BB woke up the HGs to rush the veto ceremony.  Dan was called to the DR and was tipped off that he should be concerned about being back doored and then they instantly started the veto meeting before Frank could even finish talking to Boogie about the idea of putting Dan up.  So, needless to say, the feeds came back and everything stayed the same.  Thanks a lot production.  The chance was small in the first place, but they definitely made sure it wouldn't happen once Frank started really pushing the issue with Boogie.

After the meeting Joe hugged Frank and Boogie (so obvious) and Wil had a panic attack. The rest of the house commenced daily boringness of playing in the pool and sleeping.  The general consensus of course is that Wil is dead in the water. There really is no hope. I would be willing to bet every penny I have that nothing will change between now and Thursday and he will be the one walking out the door...sigh..there goes my overnight entertainment.

There was a moment tonight where Britney said she wanted to talk to Wil and that she was considering her options, but unfortunately because dingbat crazy eyes was told by Ian the worm that Wil was after Dan, she has had on her mean pouty puss all day and each time Britney brought up the idea of considering their options she has said "No, I KNOW Wil is after Dan. He HAS to go!". 

To add insult to injury, before Wil can even talk to Britney, Joe comes over to the hammock where Britney and Danielle are talking and tells his own version of what he thinks happened the night prior.  He spins a story involving Wil saying he wanted Britney, Danielle, Shane, or Dan to leave this week in exchange for safety and that he made a deal with Frank but that Frank completely blew it off.  He went on to say that his integrity is obviously higher than Wil's and that he really wants to be there blah blah blah.

Upon Joe's exit from the hammock Danieel seethes "I KNEW IT! I JUST KNEW HE WAS AFTER US! HE HAS TO GO!".  Britney puts her own spin on it recalling a conversation that happened about a week ago before noms happened saying that Wil was a liar because he said he wanted to work with she and Shane. 

The problem with all of these conversations is that there are tiny TINY bits of truth in them..just enough to make it look suspicious and they are all taken out of context.  Wil did not go upstairs and say what Joe said he did.  He just went and pled his case...he tried to fight which is what anyone would do on the block.  He basically said "why waste a week on me or Joe when there are bigger targets in the house."  He strongly implied Dan, but definitely didn't say Britney or Danielle.  The part about wanting to work with Britney and Shane was a conversation they had before Noms when he told her that he had no one but Ashley to work with and she was hurt and that he would like SOMEONE to work with and would be open to talking to she and Shane. I think it's a damned if you do and damned if you don't mentality.  If you talk to people you are a liar and a schemer. If you don't talk to anyone you are just floating and not playing the game.

Anyway...after this hammock discussion Danielle went inside and told all Joe's lies and Britney's spins to Dan as if they were truths that she actually knew to be fact.  Apparently Joe is trustworthy now and none of them can see that Joe has a deal with Frank and Boogie. Good grief. She then went on to bitch and complain about how Shane is such a dick because he talked about how hot Dani Donato is.  Dan cut her off with "This is why I said NO SHOWMANCES".

There are a lot of little conversations like this going on in the house, but none of them vary far away from the same general idea which is get Wil out first and hope it's a fast forward or DE so they can get Joe out.

Meanwhile Joe continues to lie and scream his cooking shows at the camera and tell big whopping stories that annoy the shit out of everyone.  Danielle continues to act like a psycho about pretty much everything.  Britney continues to talk shit about everyone and somehow not be found out, and the boys in the house work out and occasionally make comments about how they are definitely keeping Joe.

I'm kind of bored to tears with these people right now. I don't feel like anything exciting will happen until at least Thursday. I'm to the point of most likely going to bed at 2am rather than holding out for 6am when they all go to bed.

I am of course sad that my favorite is going to be walking out the door.  I hoped and I hoped but alas hope has failed ...oh well..on to the next one.

But alas...I probably could have written this blog in two simple words "Nothing changed".

Update on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 at 2:24AM by Ash

I decided to check back in just to make sure that nothing had changed and was exposed to a roving discussion between Frank, Britney, Shane, and Danielle about how many times they have to wipe their ass after they poop and what it looks like and how long their swipes are.  I can't make this shit up..no pun intended. This is ACTUALLY what these people talk about.

New BB 14 Commercial Plus Live Feeds Special Start TODAY!!

Please note - there are currently issues trying to order the Early Bird Special - you may need to try later if you get a technical problems message. -indymike

Hey guys! It's been a while, but it feels like just  yesterday that Big Brother 13 ended and here we are ramping up for 14.  Today is the start of the live feed early bird special. The new features will not be in place until a little closer to the season, but the flashback features etc.. will be up and ready to go. This year's early bird special price also includes the mobile feeds instead of having to pay more for that feature. So gett your feeds here at bigbrothergossip.com before they go up in price. You should also probably start notifying your jobs, friends, and family of your absence for the next few months. ;)

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, on to the main reason I am writing this. Last night CBS aired a new BB 14 commercial, and, while the visuals were of course just of last year's cast, they did drop a few hints about the upcoming season. They said more house guests than ever. I've heard there will now be 16 this year. That's quite a lot in comparison with past years. That leaves room for things like lots of double evictions, or twistst that involve more than just two people nominated and more than just one going home at a time.

The second thing the commercial mentioned was that there would be "not one, but FOUR big surprises".  Now I personally think this probably means that at least four of the house guests will be pretty well known former Big Brother contestants, but I look forward to seeing what your opinions and guesses are about it. The end of the commercial also said "Get ready for Big Brother to the Max". I am not sure if that is a hint to the theme or the title of this season or not.

At any rate, who else is ready for the new season? I know I am slowly working up to excited. What do you all think the commercial hints mean? The new season airs July 12th!

Update on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 9:12AM by IndyMike

Here are the two commercials:

The Fortune Teller Finally Speaks - Feeds Will Be Down For 24+ Hours

Monday night at 9:37pm the Fortune Telley, who we now know is named "Crystal," started telling fortunes about all 14 house guests.  These fortunes will obviously be used in the next HoH competition that will take place tonight (Tuesday) at the end of the taping of the eviction show (More on that shortly).

"Crystal" did each fortune a couple times over the course of the night - the HGs were kept up almost all night long with the last fortune being given around 6:30am.  Rachel stayed in bed towards the end since she can't compete in the HoH competition.

The fortunes are all 'funny' and I am guessing the three HGs that compete will have to answer something like 7 questions for points and the HG with the most points will win the competition and be the new HoH.  The fortunes are as follows:

• In 2018 Shelly will make millions when her book "How I created the perfect tan and how you tan too."  reaches #3 on the all-time best seller list.
• In 2017 after the hot Miami sun becomes too much for her to bear, Porsche will move to Anchorage, Alaska, and buy an igloo with an Eskimo named Ernie.
• In 2014 Jeff will disappear from society, he will be last seen wandering the Chicago streets muttering only two words, "Clown Shoe."
• On Oct 15th, 2011 at 3:42pm Dani will reconcile with her father Dick. On Oct 15th, 2011 at 3:49pm they will go back to not speaking.
• In 2014 after sleeping for 19 straight days and making national headlines in a sleep study, Kalia will earn her dream job as a matress and pillow tester.
• In 2016 Lawon will take new york fashion week by storm when he launches his "handsomefied" line of hats, ties, and jackets.
• After taking 9 years to earn his PhD, Brendan will shock scholars and physicians alike after discovering the cure for an ailment that plagued him his entire life.. Athlete's foot.
• In 2020 Adam will file for bankruptcy after investing his life savings into a line of bacon scented heavy metal teddy bears for children.
• In 2018 Rachel will give birth to a 9lb 6oz bouncing baby boy, naming it Bookie Junior after it's proud father.
• In 2012 Cassie will land a role alongside international mega star David Hasselhoff in the "countryfied" baywatch reboot, Riverwatch.
• In 2015 Evel Dick will start a Christmas tradition by bringing gifts to heavily tattooed orphans changing his name from Evel Dick to Old Saint Dick.
• In 2013 Dominic will grace the cover of 17 magazine with the headline "Total DOM-ination" He will dethrone pop sensation Justin Beiber as America's favorite heart throb.
• In 2015 Keith will land a job hosting a new dating show called "Love Rejection" but it will be short lived after it's revealed he tried to date all 29 female contestants.
• In 2011, after the runaway success of the humilitard Jordan will launch a line of humilitard inspired items including the humilcar, the humilifier and the humili-bake oven.

With the taping of the eviction show today, the feeds will be (or have been) cut off around 2pm and we have no confirmation on when they will return but we hope it will be after the airing of the eviction show on Wednesday.  So if they cut them at 2pm and turn them back on at 6pm Wednesday they will be off for just over 24 hours.

Assuming they have a live audience tonight we should know who is evicted long before the feeds return and we should also know who wins the next HoH (although the sources will have to be highly trusted for that info).  Even without a source I am 99.9% sure Kalia will be voted out tonight.

Big Brother After Dark tonight will show a pre-taped part of the live feeds from 9am-12pm today.  The Hgs toasted the final five with Mimosas and then made tie dyed shirts and played cards (Big Brother finally gave them real cards to replace the ones they had made themselves.

If you have the live feeds Real is going to provide extra content to fill in the downtime (CBS controls the feeds - Real has no say over when they are blocked) - planned for today is the following:

• 2-3pm PT live call-in show with Howie and Kevin
• 3-4pm PT Howie Skypes with Janelle
• 4-5pm PT Game Show Hour with Kevin & Howie
• 5-6pm PT Happy Hour w/ Kevin & Howie
• After that there will be some Live Feed highlights played in a loop overnight.
• I assume there may be additional programming on Wednesday during the day.

What If There Were No More Live Feeds?

I have a question for you.  If the live feeds for Big Brother here in the U.S.A. were no longer available, would you still watch the shows?

The reason I ask that is because of what will be happening to The UK's Big Brother this season.  Channel 5, which has taken over the handling of Big Brother from Channel 4, will no longer be offering live feeds for our fellow BB diehards across the pond.

Channel 5 has decided to forego live streaming of their Big Brother content for video highlights.  There will be a Facebook app that will provide "real-time news, extra video content and the ability to vote out housemates online." (Don't get your feathers ruffled my fellow BB USA watchers, BB UK fans have always had the ability to vote out their hamsters.)  I don't know if their fans will also be able to vote out their houseguests the old fashioned way or view highlights and news also on the channel's website but I think all of this really sucks for them.

Despite what Mark Zuckerberg and the media want you to believe, not everybody is on Facebook - myself included - but that's beside the point. So they would have to pay for their vote to eliminate a houseguest with Facebook Credits (their own currency which you have to pay real money for). So they have the ability to watch exclusive video. So the social aspect of Facebook combined with The UK's Big Brother Facebook page will take away traffic from their Big Brother sites created by their fans. I could go on and on but I won't because what really sucks is they won't get to watch live feeds anymore.

As the article in that link above mentions, their live feeds were cut in 2009 but brought back for what was believed to have been their last season last year. With the switch to Channel 5 this year, their fans were hoping the live feeds would stay with them. They are quite disappointed now.

What if that were to happen here? What if CBS and Allison Grodner told Real Networks (or any other company that had the ability to provide the live feeds) that their services were no longer needed? What if CBS told us that we'll just have to make do with the clips they put on their website and that they would create a Facebook page for us to follow the goings on in the house?

Would you continue to be a Big Brother fan? Would you continue to watch the shows aired three times a week? Would you believe even less the 'storyline' that was fed to us on the show? Or would you just stop watching altogether?

I'm curious to read about what you think and what you would do if this were to happen here. Let your thoughts rip in the comments below!