Big Brother Gossip Show #511: Kingdom In Chaos

What looked to be a short broadcast turned into one of our longest to date, thanks to a controversial move in tonight's POV competition. The results were frayed friendships, a possible romantic breakup, and mad scrambling by the show's professional gambler. We also talked about bribes, last-second potential deals, and so much more.
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Special thanks to Mike and Colette for their help on tonight's marathon show, and don't forget to head to her site for your Amazon or Roku needs!

Big Brother Season 17, Episode 16 Recap

I don't have much to say to open tonight's episode. A good portion of this will undoubtedly again originate from Saturday's Big Brother Gossip Show, with a few minutes at the end devoted to what was originally 24 hours of craziness from Vanessa. The only moment of real interest will come at the very end with the POV meeting.

So let's just get this over with by heading to the aftermath of the Battle of the Block competition, which was won by (mainly) Liz and James. Shelli is pissed that their "perfect plan" didn't go as expected. "I'm feeling so helpless right now." Vanessa rushes up to the HOH to whine, because she didn't want to remain as HOH. "The plan was to backdoor Austin, but I didn't think that I'd have to e the one to do it." She tells Jackie, Clay, and Shelli that the plan is still on, though.

Jackie is also not happy, but she's still excited about getting rid of Austin. Shelli, though, thinks that Liz should be informed. Vanessa says she has to walk around acting happy, which is hard because, as we all know, she's "not fake".

In the bathroom, James is apologizing to Becky for not losing the competition. (Ugh, that's what's wrong with BOB.) He says in the diary room that he must do everything possible to let them know he did try to throw it, and says it was Liz who was getting all the letters. "You're good", replies Becky. "Honestly."

Clay then heads into the bedroom, saying he must win POV. Johnny thinks this is hilarious, since that's been his life this entire game. It's actually a funny scene.

In the other bedroom, Liz is complaining about James' perfromance in the BOB. "I did that entire thing, then I'm like 'James, aren't you happy'? And he's like not happy." They are starting to understand that there is some kind of setup...but really aren't worried as they don't believe that Vanessa wasn't involved. Or is he? "Maybe they were targeting Liz all along."

Austin heads into the HOH, and says "something weird is going on". He tells her how James threw the competition, and he feels that everybody is setting them up. Vanessa lies, and whispers "Judas" as he leaves.

Back to Austin and Liz. They get in bed, and he starts tickling her. In the diary room, she says that she loves hanging out with him, but doesn't "see him in a romantic light". She's "in a bit of a pickle", though, as she knows he's starting to like her. He sees it differently, though, and after some more rolling around in bed he turns her head and kisses her. "I hate you", she whines. "You're so annoying." She claims to not have been expecting it. "Oh God, what a night. What a night." He's basking in the glory of hitting first base, and says she "felt bashful" about their grade school love.

Bad funky music comes on now, which means it's time to pick POV players. Vanessa doesn't want to pick Austin's name, and pulls out Houseguest Choice. She picks Shelli. Clay pulls out John's name, who compares it to be "calling in to work on the weekend". Becky pulls out Liz's name, which is "risky", according to Vanessa.

Upstairs once again, Becky and Jackie come in to talk to Vanessa...followed by Shelli. Vanessa still wants to tell Liz because she doesn't "want to do her dirty". Shelli at this point isn't so crazy about the idea because Liz will most likely run and tell Austin.

After a series of commercials, we get filler on the weirdness of Steve. He sits in the photo booth, and seems to have a oconversation with the cameras. It's dumb, and is only there to give him a cameo. Let's move on!

The awful funky music comes on again, so it's time for the POV. "It's time to get nutty", says Jason. The backyard is made up to look like the woods, and Meg gets her little cameo as she describes it. Then the contestants come out dressed as squirrels. Ugh, shut up Meg!!! Ugh, this whole scene is awful!

So they have to store 250 nuts to win by rolling one up a platform, and then catching it as it comes back down the other side. If they drop it, their score goes back to zero and they have to start over.

It's a painful competition to watch, especially with the diary room commentary. Clay actually claims this is harder than anything he did in football! It's terrible. Let's just go to the end. Clay won. Happy?

At this point, Vanessa is still planning on back-dooring Austin, and we're reminded of this before we head to commercials. When we come back, Meg jokes that Clay finally won something. Shelli yells some congratulatory silliness from the bathroom. "He didn't just win it. He creamed it." STFU Shelli.

Becky, though, is sad and crying in the have-not room. Jackie comes in and consoles her. Thankfully, this doesn't last long.

Finally, the fun begins. Vanessa tells Liz that she has something she wants to tell her. She tells her to go do her makeup and come right back up without Austin. Ugh, terrible edit here. What they're not showing you is that Liz took almost 90 minutes to return. She put on makeup, changed her clothes, cooked some dinner, and all kinds of other things. Meanwhile, a jealous Shelli found out that people were actually rooting against her Clay, and suddenly Austin was not the target.

Instead, it looks like Liz came right back upstairs, followed by Shelli. Vanessa infroms her of all the things that Austin has done to piss her off. Liz stands up for Austin, but says she doesn't like him in that way. She also points out that for the sake of numbers, Austin needs to stick around.

Austin is brought upstairs, and Vanessa confronts him about the Jason incident. Seriously, so much stuff has been skipped here...and will be skipped in the next few minutes. Vanessa tells him off, and starts crying. "I was trying to help us", he says. "I messed up." He asks her if he's going to be put up, and she says that it's possible. He replies that he would never vote against her, or nominate her, or anything like that. "I'd never go against you." She says that he's a good buy who is an idiot that fell in love. Unfortunately, she gave her word that she would put him up. "I don't want to do this", she says as he walks out. Wow, they're making it look like everything was decided right here.

What isn't going to be shown here is that for the next 36 hours, Vanessa was a non-stop talking machine. Anybody and everybody at some point was the prospective new nomination, including Meg, Johnny, Jackie, Austin (again), and Jason. Each of these were going up, depending on what time of the day you watched the feeds.

Instead, we get Austin heading downstairs to talk to Shelli and Clay about his situation. He takes them into the extra room, kicking out Steve along the way. He tells them that he's pissed at Jason, that he's in love with Liz. He pulled Jason aside because he was scared and wanted the twins to make it into the house together. "I fell in love with someone, and that's all that matters to me." He had an "emotional conversation with Jason, and he betrayed me". Um, ok. Clay responds that it's those very emotions that scares him about Austin, who replies that he didn't think his actions would hurt them at all. "We need that number", says Shelli. "We have to keep all of us all together."

Everybody is now suddenly called to the living room. Why? Oh yeah, it's another product placement bullshit segment. Remember that from Sunday's BOB? Each of them get to bring a guest, and Vanessa chooses Becky. Liz (obviously) picks Austin, while James chooses Clay. Yes, we gets some cutesy Meg diary room lines during this segment. They all get dressed, and the product placement is completed.

Ooops, my nap almost caused me to miss one final gameplay segment. Vanessa is with Shelli and Clay, and I once again hear the words "bath in blood". She really needs new cliches. She says that nobody will be targeting them if they backdoor Austin, so why not carry on with it? Clay says the odds for them overall are better if he stays. "My numbers are worse", Vanessa responds. Clay doesn't agree, and neither does Shelli. They begin talking about possible replacements, and after mentioning Jackie Vanessa says that Jason is their "only smart strategic player" who is "single-handedly holding them together".

With that we go to the final commercials. It's now time for the POV ceremony, and as you may guess Clay takes himself down. Vanessa then says it's her most difficult decision yet because she "adores this person". It's a person she'd be buddies with outside the house; a "person with a great sense of humor and an all-around great individual. With that said, Jason, take a seat." POW!!!

Half the house is shocked, especially Meg. (She goes on a huge crying jag right afterwards that lasted for hours.) Vanessa says she did "what was good for my game". Jackie is pissed because it was supposed to be Austin, especially since her pal Jeff was the last person Vanessa evicted. Austin, obviously, is happy. "This is the greatest thing that could have happened to me in this game. This guy manipulated me, and tried to humiliate me. Nobody humiliates Judas." Um, ok.

Meg whines a bit, and Jason then points out that it's the first "real" blindside of the season. "Vanessa is a scumbag bitch. She can sell that she's the most honest, loyal, straight shooting person there is, but she's talking out of her backside." He says that he's not just going to lie down, although feed watchers know that's exactly what he's done the last two days. "If I stay, that bitch is getting it."

So that's it. What are your thoughts? Did you hate the edit as much as I did? Are you happy Austin was saved? Are you pissed that Jason is up? Tell us what you think!!!

Scott's Big Brother 17 Season Preview!

Before I begin my introduction to the cast of the 17th season of Big Brother, I have a little confession to make. I haven’t been emotionally ready for this season to start. I’ve enjoyed these past nine months without the likes of Derrick, Devin, Nicole, Caleb, and that freak show of a brother whose name I won’t ever mention again.

I’ve also been extremely busy. Besides my own little weekly rock and roll radio show, The Ledge, I have other obligations for my time. I’m still writing music previews for my local newspaper, and I had a large music-related movie project land on my lap. In fact, I was in Columbus, Ohio, working on this film when the cast was first announced last week. When I returned to my air-conditioned sanctuary Saturday night, all I wanted to do was lay on the couch and begin the process of clearing out my DVR.

I can’t put this off any longer, though. After all, there is a wonderful live internet radio show called The Big Brother Gossip Show that premieres tonight, and obviously I must be extremely well-prepared to keep up with the brilliance of Colette and Mike. So I’m spending this entire beautiful summer day watching videos and taking notes.

Here are some initial thoughts one each of this year’s cast. Since I refuse to sit through any interview that involves Jeff or that redheaded monster, my opinions all come from the wonderful work of Matt at bigbrothernetwork.com.

Here we go!

Audrey Middleton (25). Talk about starting off with a bang! Audrey is a digital media specialist from Villa Rica, Georgia. She calls herself a superfan, although I’m always a bit skeptical about those claims. She wants to be the “ultimate operator, socially” that will play like Dexter Morgan, in that she has no problems getting “blood on her hands”. Hmmm. She scares me a bit, though, as she says on her CBS bio that her favorite player of all time is Rachel. I do like the fact that she does not intend to be the “next” Rachel or Janelle. She plans on innovating what a strong woman is on Big Brother. Good for her.

She’s beautiful and friendly, but as everybody knows, her interviews don’t really tell her story. Within hours of the introduction of these videos, TMZ reported that she’s transgendered. This is not discussed in any of the interviews. In fact, there’s even chatter about “cycles”. She’s going to be the big news story of this season. The stunt cast...or one of the stunt casts. Julie Chen broke down in tears on her terrible talk show discussing Audrey.

Her casting raises so many questions. Will she inform the rest of the house about her situation? If so, how will they react? Will production do anything in their power to keep her as long as possible? What will the fan reaction be to anybody who criticizes her?

Austin Matelson (30). I can’t type fast enough to list his many occupations and hobbies. The Woodland Hills, California native used to be in the WWE’s developmental league, NXT, before suffering an injury. Now he’s a post-rehab fitness specialist that wrestles in independent leagues under his secret name, Judas. He also enjoys cheerleading, yoga, gymnastics, and I’m going to guess he’s had a few instances of larping. Oh Lord, he’s also a “medieval historian who believes in true love”. I’m not sure about that aspect. He also claims to be a huge Big Brother fan since season one, and in his case I believe him, especially when he talks about how showmances have ruined many a good player in the past. While his promotional picture indicates some intense, crazy eyes, I felt a bit of a calming presence while watching him. It must be the yoga. His favorite players were Dr. Will (due to strategy) and Howie (because he was fun). However, he says on CBS that the one thing he’d like to bring into the house are his Color Me Badd CD’s. Come on. Really?

Overall, I sort of like him. He plans on making the house fun to “take the target off my back” in order to have others come to him with their game plans. It’s also guaranteed that he won’t make a gigantic alliance of the entire house less than 24 hours after entering the house.

Becky Burgess (26). This “retail store manager” from Denver is a big fan of a whole year! Yes, a whole year! She became hooked and supposedly auditioned. She believes that she’s lived a “crazy” life, and claims to be inspirational to women. Yeah, right. Honestly, I was sort of bored by her within the first minute of the interview. In fact, I walked away and grabbed a protein bar. She’s not going to make big moves early in the game, and seems to only hope to make it to jury. For some reason, she thinks it’s important to not let the house know she was a “double finance major” or that lucrative retail management gig. What? She also is dying to relive Jordan’s season, and desperately wants a showmance. Ugh. Overall, I get a bit of an Amber vibe from her, minus the struggling modeling career.

Clay Honeycutt (23). The former Texas A&M defensive back is another new self-described “superfan” who has watched eight seasons in three month. He’s also bound to be the “bro” I’m going to hate the most this season, and will probably cause me to be blocking cat ladies left and right on twitter. Yes, I’ve already heard from a certain person how hot this douche is, but he’s a dullard. A complete and utter dullard who looks up to Cody for his “big moves”. That’s right, Cody. I’m sure we’re going to hear over and over all summer about his college football experiences, although he claims that he’s not going to let the house know he’s so athletic. Yeah, right. Come on, you just know that he’s going to whip off his shirt in the first five minutes of being in the house.

Da’Vonne Rogers (27). She’s a poker dealer from Inglewood, California. This is intriguing. As much as Becky believes she can read people, nobody can top a poker dealer in this regard. That said, there are many things to not like about her, particularly the fact that her favorite player of all time is Rachel. Why??? Her roommate was a superfan who talked her into auditioning. Despite being a new fan, I did get some giggles out of her descriptions of past house guests, particularly when called Keesha a “flunkie”. However, I have a feeling her rapid-fire motormouth may grate on me quite often this summer. On the other hand, I could see her creating some fun drama even though she wants to find that middle ground between playing hard but not being seen as a threat.

Jace Agolli (23). This Venice Beach personal trainer rankled me on sight. He has a bit of the look of a Dave Matthew fan. No, let me take that back. He looks like the type of John Mayer fan who claims it is because of his blues playing and not his godawful balladry. He babbles and babbles and babbles, and somewhere in there I heard him say he’s a rapper. No, please, I don’t need to hear any beatboxing this season. He uses a lot of motivational speaker phrases, spoken at a pace that would shame Da’vonne, but which also caused me to zone out by the third minute. I’m moving on.

James Huling (32). An Asian hayseed??? Really? A retail associate (who was also in the military and had a corrections job) from Sumter, South Carolina that makes Donny seem like a city boy. He loves Taylor Swift and Zach. No. Please no. Given that all of his Big Brother references come from that awful 2014 season, I have few reasons to believe he’ll last long.

Jason Roy (25). I may be way off here, but I would bet this is the first supermarket cashier to be cast on the show. He is a true feed-watching superfan who says on the CBS site that his faves include Danielle (season 3), Diane (season 5), Danielle (season 8), Kevin (season 11), and Britney (season 12). I really can’t argue with that list. He first auditioned for season 15 (“bullet dodged”), and admits that his personality is a bit over the top. I like him a lot, but like many past superfans I could see him being one of those that wants to talk game every minute of every day. Or he could be another that somehow manages to pop in and out of every room where there’s game talk. He claims that he’s going to lay low, though, but I just really don’t see that happening.

John McGuire (27). I’ve heard a lot about this Scranton, Pennsylvania dentist before I sat down to watch his video...and everything I’ve heard is spot on. Sorry, Audrey, you’re not this year’s Dexter. This dude truly knows where the bodies are buried. Holy shit, he’s intense! I love the fact that he’s truly surprised that he was chosen to be on this year’s cast. I have a feeling his time is going to be short, but he’s going to be oh so entertaining. He is a superfan, but says he’s not going to make the same mistakes of past contestants with similar knowledge. He also claims that he’s going to make being a dentist his advantage, because apparently everybody loves talking about their teeth. Wait, what? Despite his frantic chatter, he is self-aware enough to understand that he’ll have to mellow out to succeed. Can he do that? I have my doubts.

Liz Nolan (23). As I’m getting to the end of the cast, I’m noticing that a good percentage of the females look exactly the same! How does this Miami marketing coordinator differ from the other blondes? This one is an admitted party girl who is supposedly also a “brainiac”. Her faves include Janelle, Jeff...and Frankie. Ugh. She was also recruited by Porsche. She’s a “fierce competitor” that plans on winning as many HOH’s and POV’s as possible who is also great at cooking and cleaning. At least she’s honest in the fact that she has no plans to start a Joey-ish all-girls alliance. Ultimately, my only real hope for this smoker voice twit is that she follows through on her promise of quite a few itsy bitsy polka dot bikinis.

Meg Maley (25). Hey, we are near the bottom of the list before we get our first “server”. At least she’s not a Hollywood bartender/waitress. Oh, and she adores Frankie. Ugh. She’s “really serious about the game” but is a “goofy girl” who wants to be a rare strong female player. She claims to be “drama free and chill”, which is supposed to help her get far in the game. At least she knows she’s a loudmouth, although that sort of goes against the drama free/chill description, but whatever. Once I got past her annoying, bubbly voice, though, I must admit that she seems to have given some thought on how to make it far in the game. Will it happen? I’m not so sure about that.

Shelli Poole (33). I know one castmember is going to love and obsess over this Atlanta interior designer, and all you have to do is look at her photo to know who I’m talking about. Yes, Shelli has teeth. She has the toothiest grin of the entire cast, and I’m hoping and praying that John annoys the shit out of her with his dentistry talk. While she says she’s been watching for many years, her faves are the type of those who have only studied for the past few weeks - Brendon, Rachel, Jeff, and Jordan, along with Cody and Derrick from last year. Borrrrrrring!!!! She is also a twin, which has raised some questions about this year’s planned multitudes of twists. I must say that I love her backstory on the CBS site, though. She divorced her husband, and jumped right into another relationship. When she told this new man that she wanted to apply for Big Brother, he mocked her and was kicked to the curb. Otherwise, her interview is a pretty typical onslaught of clueless planning and little self-awareness. Seriously, she believes that she’ll be able to ape Derrick’s gameplay? Doubtful.

Steve Moses (22). Is this Gouverneur, New York college student this year’s Ian? He knows his Big Brother history, which has rarely been a true advantage. This is her first year applying, though, although he says that he’s been planning on trying out for years and years. He truly is honored to have made this season, and I will always admire anybody who abhors stupid people. He claims to have Caleb’s sense of loyalty, but not truly blind loyalty. Steve is very analytical, but I have a feeling that he may be have a penchant for going overboard. It is possible to overthink everything. Can a virgin dweeb win on Big Brother? Well, it has happened before.

Vanessa Rousso (32). Ooooh, so we have a poker dealer and a Vegas poker player? This could be interesting. She has a quirky look and talks about music quite a bit on her CBS profile (she’s also a DJ), but I have a feeling that I’d be disappointed by her tastes. Vanessa also claims to be a longtime fan, and says that Big Brother is similar to poker. The main difference is the difference in time, and admits that maintaining “mental focus” will be tough. She also doesn’t want anybody to know that she’s a successful poker player

Oh wow, I just took a little break to look her up after a couple of references that people may recognize her, and she is a big deal in the poker world. She has dual citizenship in the U.S. and France, and is known as Lady Maverick in the poker world. She was a member of Team PokerStars for a few years, was in the 2009 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, and has done commercials for GoDaddy. She was married for four years to acclaimed poker expert Chad Brown, and is now in a relationship with a woman named Mel.

I guess she’s a bit of a stunt cast, but even with her credentials she’s not exactly a household name. I think she’s really intriguing, and hope she goes far. Her only downfall in the interview is that EVERYTHING ends up going back to poker terms.

So that’s it for this season...so far. That’s only 14 people, which is impossible to spread out over a 90 day season. There are plenty of rumors floating around that Thursday’s episode will include the introduction of at least two more players, or maybe even a number of people playing for two spots.

Don’t forget to join us tonight on the Big Brother Gossip Show as we go through all of this year’s victims. The show commences at 9 pm ET at mixlr!