But First Fridays Week 4: Your Weekly Big Brother Power Rankings

LAST WEEK’S HOH: Vanessa (Austin relinquished after Jason and Meg won Battle of the Block)

LAST WEEK’S ORIGINAL NOMINEES: James and Johnny Mac

LAST WEEK’S VETO WINNER: Johnny

DID THEY USE THE VETO?: It’s becoming a narrative trope at this point, but yes, he did

REPLACEMENT NOMINEE: Jeff

VOTES FOR EVICTION: 7-4 to evict Jeff (with Liz, Steve, John, and Jackie voting to evict James)

NEW HEADS OF HOUSEHOLD: Liz and Shelli

ANY NEW TWISTS?: Not that we know of yet, but apparently it’s 90s Week, and there was lots of twisting in the 1990s! Especially in the classic Bill Paxton disaster film Twister, which everyone should purchase in their local 50 cent VHS bin

Our thoughts:

GARRETT: Faithful readers, Jaime and I have a slight confession to make.

Jaime bought the feeds.

And gave me the password.

And now I can’t stop watching them. It’s insane. I can’t believe I haven’t watched them in 16 seasons of this show. It changes everything. But, that said, we’re going to try our damndest to keep any extra information we’ve got from the feeds from seeping into our objectivity in ranking the houseguests. We’re still writing from the TV perspective, but we’ll make sure to include any non-spoiling details to provide context if need be.

JAIME: Though it goes without saying that watching James get a haircut and John wash the dishes is going to have a huge effect on how we write these posts.

GARRETT: It’s been another pretty interesting week, and the houseguests are starting to dig into their trenches. The factions have formed, with the major “Sixth Sense” alliance (which, in my opinion, is a lame name) of Shelli, Clay, Austin, Vanessa, and both twins (Liz and Julia). Last week, Vanessa brought the twins’ real identity in to her alliance with Austin, Clay and Shelli, and they formed a final six pact.

Meanwhile, the rest of the house was reeling from Da’Vonne being evicted instead of Audrey, and assumed that evicting her would be the plan. But Vanessa and Austin, who won HoH, had other plans. The two put up pawns again, and Vanessa told John to throw the competition again in order to keep her in power. John, happy to do as the HoH asked for the second week in a row, didn’t even need to try as James was completely baffled by the competition that required him to match women’s clothes together.

And so Vanessa stayed as HoH with her sights on evicting James rather than Audrey. She planned on keeping the nominations the same, but the plan was dismantled by yet another Johnny Mac veto win - this time, aided by a last-second throwing of the competition by Austin.

Vanessa was not too happy about having to pick a replacement nominee, especially because she saw right through Austin’s throwing of the competition. But Austin had grown displeased with Jeff - who, he believed - was trying to win away the object of his affection: Liz.

Vanessa, backed into having to make another power move, concocted a plan to catch Jeff in a lie about splitting up Clay and Shelli. The plan worked, and Jeff, with no credibility left, went up on the block and was evicted in a vote that seemed closer than expected.

I, for one, won’t be missing Jeff, as his macho attitude and douchey, mopey attitude towards everyone around him was not my favorite thing to watch. Good riddance to him I say.

And so we stand heading into the week with Shelli (for the second time) and Liz in the HoH room. Liz has two more evictions to survive before her twin sister Julia can come in to play as her own self.

5. Meg

GARRETT: I actually don’t have too much of a problem with Meg as a person or as a gameplayer. She isn’t outright annoying and actually seems pretty well-liked. But as the weeks go on, the alliances you form are what you live and die by. She picked Jason, James, and Da’Vonne early on, and they just haven’t been able to win any competitions. Slowly but surely her entire foundation is crumbling.

JAIME: And she voted to evict Jeff, so clearly there is some communication going on between her and the side of the house in power this week.  She just hasn’t totally committed to that side of the house yet; for now, though, she seems to make her moves based on what best serves her own individual interests, and that strategy seems to be working for her.  She’d definitely have a stronger hold in the house if she officially joined forces with Shelli/Austin/the rest of the Sixth Sense, but I can see her skating by a little longer.

4. Steve

GARRETT: So Jaime and I both agree that we do really like Steve. He’s actually, no lie, our second favorite houseguest out of all of them. But regretfully, neither of us are playing the game this year. And the people that are just don’t seem to like him all that much. He can’t get any semblance of a social game going. He has no alliance, and seems a much weaker mental player than Ian Terry, a player who he’s constantly compared to. Steve needs to win a Head of Household or Veto to gain some bargaining chips. Otherwise, his time is going to come soon, as much as we don’t want it to.

JAIME: Some people are really mean to Steve in the house and it breaks my heart every time, okay.  He’s in such a difficult position socially, because he does find it hard to connect with people, and it seems like whenever he really tries, the other houseguests aren’t willing to cut him any slack.  Part of that, I think, is because he hasn’t really proved himself as a competitor yet - once he does, I’m sure more people will be willing to work with him and solidify his place in the house, but until then, I think most of the other houseguests are content to write him off as the smart guy they can occasionally convince to vote their way.

3. Austin

JAIME: Austin was in an incredibly powerful position for most of the week - he and Vanessa were totally on the same page when they started the week as joint HOHs, and they almost immediately came up with a plan that benefited both of their gameplay.  He spearheaded the movement to get Jeff on the block and eventually evicted, but as the week went on, Austin lost sight of why they were working so hard to get Jeff out.  Maybe it was just due to the editing of Thursday’s episode, but all of a sudden, apparently Austin viewed Jeff as a threat solely because they both had a connection with Liz.  It underscored everything the Sixth Sense built this week - suddenly Austin’s main focus isn’t his friendship with Vanessa, but his feelings for Liz?  He’s willing to risk his time in the house in order to protect Liz?  Um, no, that’s stupid, don’t do that.  Clearly Austin needs Judas to smack some sense into him.

GARRETT: He’s been a major liability for his alliance ever since he threw the veto. He’s also the most paranoid person on the feeds by far, and sooner or later, that amount of paranoia (especially before jury) will put you in jeopardy. And on the long list of Big Brother Don’ts that have been added up over so many seasons of this game, one of the ones near the top is to never take your eyes off the prize. You’re here to win, Austin. Not to find love. Especially when that love doesn’t actually have feelings for you.

2. Jason

GARRETT: I really value having Jason in the house, especially on the feeds. He’s very, very intelligent about the game, and very, very perceptive about what’s going on around him. He’s entertaining and funny and makes the show interesting. But he can’t catch a break in competitions. As we said about Meg, his core group is dwindling. I think he’s smart enough to get himself onto the powerful side of the house eventually, but time is running out, and he may just be the biggest target of the Shelli/Liz HOH reign.

JAIME: I totally agree - he could definitely reposition himself, but it seems like his side of the house has dwindled enough that now everyone remaining is standing out.  The more time that goes by without Jason aligning with Austin or Vanessa or any of those people, the more obvious it is that he’s purposely staying away from them.  I guess it’s good that he’s so loyal to James and Meg, but he just doesn’t have the numbers.  Come on, Jason.  Be smart so you can stick around to liven up the feeds.

1. Jackie

JAIME: No, seriously, what does Jackie do in the house?  She spends most of her time with Jeff, Jason, and James, though she considered Jeff her only real friend in the house.  With him gone, her only allies are people who have next to no power in the house.  She has almost no relationship with the powerful side of the house, and seems like she has no desire to develop relationships with them.  She has two, maybe three, people on her side, and refuses to expand her connections in the house - I think it’s safe to say things aren’t going to go well for her.

GARRETT: I think she’s going to make jury, just because the people in this house seem to constantly want to make big moves and take out the big personalities. But she in no way is setting up herself to win the game. She doesn’t seem to have much of a personality and has really not done much in competitions. For all the crap we’ve given Audrey in these posts, at least she keeps grinding along, trying to get herself into good graces again, and, above all else, makes the game interesting. Jackie just does none of that.

5. John

JAIME: First of all, let’s all take a moment to applaud Garrett for finally seeing reason and coming around to accept that John is the best person in the house.

GARRETT: What did it for me was this hilarious compilation of Johnny Mac quotes. And we’re only three weeks in!

JAIME:  He’s been put up as a pawn every week, and so far he’s competed in every single competition.  He’s still a floater, but he’s put himself in a position where the HOHs know they can rely on him, even if they’re not necessarily counting on him to come up with big moves of his own.  Obviously that’s going to have to change if he wants to make it past a certain point in the game, but I think he’s going to be completely safe for the foreseeable future as houseguests set their sights on more visible threats.

GARRETT: John is definitely making a beeline for the jury house. He’s not a threat at all in the foreseeable future, and just seems happy enough floating along in his happy-go-lucky way. Hopefully some luck swings his way because I’d love to see him finally be the one telling someone else to act as a pawn instead of the other way around.

4. Clay

GARRETT: Clay, man. I wish I was as attractive as him so that I could just waltz into the Big Brother house, align myself with the prettiest woman in the house, and let her win Head of Household twice. He’s honestly caught so much luck every week, and has emerged with no blood on his hands.

JAIME: He’s so, so pretty.  And he’s actually kind of smart, too, which was an unexpected bonus.  He’s definitely gotten lucky pretty much every week, but he’s certainly not skating by.  He was instrumental in getting Da’Vonne and Jeff evicted, and even though he hasn’t won any competitions yet, he’s capable of handling power when someone in his alliance has it.  Whatever plan Liz and Shelli have this week, Clay is definitely going to have a big week.

3. Liz/Julia

JAIME: For as much as I wanted a Steve/Johnny Mac HOH this week, I was really excited that Liz won.  Obviously this means the power hasn’t shifted in the house, but this is going to give Liz a great opportunity to prove herself.  Is she going to come up with a plan that benefits her alliance as a whole, or is her own self-interest going to come first?  Considering that she went against the plan and voted to evict James over Jeff, I can see her putting herself first this week.  I’m so excited to see where this goes, because it could just be a complete continuation of the last week, or Liz could make some huge moves and blow up the Sixth Sense just as it got going.

GARRETT: I’m very interested to see what happens with the next switch, to be honest. Liz and Julia are showing more and more to be different people, and both of them clearly want to be able to play their own game. For now, it’s Liz in the house, who’s been flirty and the subject of a macho male love triangle. She seems to relish her situation. But what happens when Julia comes in? Is she going to be pissed that Liz voted to evict James over Jeff? What happens if people find out? It’s exciting, if nothing else, and I’m glad the twin twist has brought a fair amount of narrative to this game.

2. Vanessa

GARRETT: Vanessa stays near the top of the power rankings this week because of her alliance sweeping HOH, and for concocting a great way of putting Jeff and his game on blast. As much as she was worried about getting too much blood on her hands, the Jeff vs. Clay/Austin/Shelli argument cleared her from any potential bad graces. She’s a lot to handle on the feeds, and seems to be drawn into paranoia quite easily. But with her alliance in charge this week, I think she’ll calm down quite a bit and play the great game we’ve seen her build up over the first few weeks.

JAIME: The way she prevented herself from getting any blood on her hands was such a smart and calculated move, too.  Her alliance wanted her to put up Jeff, but she didn’t have a reason to put him up.  So she draws him into a very public fight, where he questions her integrity and lies to her face.  Just like that, it would be stupid NOT to put him up.  She made sure to cover her tracks, which is something most HOHs forget and then leave themselves open to retaliation as soon as they lose power.  Vanessa is playing a really interesting game, and luckily her reign as HOH seems to have solidified her near the top of the alliance, meaning she’s probably going to call a lot of the shots over the next few weeks.

1. Shelli

JAIME: Shelli kind of dominated this week, and I don’t think anyone was really aware just how much power she had.  She was part of the initial group who petitioned Vanessa to put up Jeff, and while their group had strategic decisions for wanting him out, she also developed a personal vendetta against him as the week went on.  He tried to throw her and Clay under the bus, and since she and Jeff had been close at the beginning of the game, she felt betrayed.  But she managed to keep calm and, though that personal reason became her main reason for wanting him out, she still played totally logically and strategically.  And now she’s HOH again, making her the first repeat of the season, and only in the third week.  Last week solidified the Sixth Sense’s power in the house, and now Shelli and Liz are going to keep that going.  I feel like another big move is coming up.

GARRETT: Shelli has been outright dominating socially and in competitions. She’s got a big alliance and just keeps winning competitions. She’s also seemed to remain calmer than most of the people in the house. That might be because of the fact that she’s been in power from the absolute start of the game, but the fact remains the same. Her only worry should be coming off as too much of a threat, with two HOH’s before jury. I’m thinking she throws the HOH to Liz this week if she can find some pawns to do so - and with her persuasion skills, it seems likely.

BUT FIRST Fridays - Your Weekly Big Brother Power Rankings: Week 2

Last Week’s HoH: James (Jason relinquished after John and Becky won the Battle of the Block competition)

Last Week’s original nominees: Jackie and Steve

Last Week’s Veto Winner: Steve

Did they use the Veto?: Damn straight he did

Replacement Nominee: Jace

Votes For Eviction: 12-1 to evict Jace (Audrey with the sole vote to evict Jackie)

New Heads of Household: Becky and Shelli

Any new twists?: Oh indeed. Liz is playing the game with her twin Julia, and the two are inconspicuously switching out for one another at random. If they survive eviction for five weeks, both players will enter the game and play separately.

Kathy Griffin also made an appearance this week. She placed a telephone in the house, and informed the viewers (but not the houseguests) that the seventh person to answer the phone’s random calls throughout the week will choose three houseguests to exclude from casting a vote for eviction next Thursday.

Our Thoughts:

GARRETT: So the first Big Brother 17 week is in the bag. With it, some early drama and some rises and falls in this week’s power rankings. As this was the first week of regular play (instead of simple introductions and HoH competitions, like last week), this week’s BUT FIRST post will be focusing a bit more on the gameplay over the week, rather than our simple impressions of the houseguests that we had off the bat. We’ll also have a new section of the posts, written exclusively from our friend Craig, that will give some non-spoiler insight from the daily feeds that will give some context to the actions and emotions of the houseguests. But the Power Rankings will remain from our perspective as people who solely watch the show without any news from the feeds.

Going into the week, we had a solid idea of who our favorites would be coming out of our opening impressions. There was the gameplay maestro Audrey and her partner in crime Da’Vonne, who orchestrated a solid alliance with Heads of Household James and Jason. The foursome created a plan to evict Jace through a backdoor, and brought in Clay and Meg to solidify the plan. So it was said, and so it shall be. Or so we thought. But soon, the paranoia set in and the cracks began to show.

Now, we’ve been watching Big Brother for a long time. But even without being superfans of the show, there are some clear tropes that players of the game consistently fall into that, from the outside looking in, seem easily avoidable. Audrey and Da’Vonne, though, failed to maintain their composure and set themselves up as monster targets for the coming weeks.

And then there’s Jace. I actually didn’t mind the guy, and he put up a hell of a fight to keep himself in the game. I always respect people who want to be there and understand just how special it is to play Big Brother. Jace, no matter how much he annoyed the other houseguests, seemed to relish his spot. And for that I’ll miss him.

Without further ado, here’s our rankings for the week:

BOTTOM FIVE:

5. Austin

GARRETT: Austin seems to be a bit more level-headed than we expected in our first impression of him. And he seems to have friends in the house through a solid social game so far. But he’s included in the bottom this week because of a clear disadvantage with his loss of main ally Jace. The two were a clear bromance-in-the-making, and Austin is now adrift without an air guitar buddy for the time being. But I see him working back towards the top and making himself a main competitor as we move forward.

JAIME: I don’t know what I’m going to do now that we won’t get to hear Austin and Jace call each other “bro” twenty times each episode.  I think Austin is in a really interesting place now - he’s definitely at a loss with his main ally gone, but he was smart enough to vote for Jace and distance himself when he knew saving Jace was a longshot.  I’m curious to see who he’s going to get close with in the house now that Jace is gone, and hopefully whoever he picks will reflect better on his gameplay.

4. Jackie

GARRETT: I don’t really have an issue with Jackie so far, but she seems like a perennial pawn in the making. She doesn’t seem to have too many close friends, and her one confidant, Jeff, seems more than satisfied allowing himself to drift apart from her to save his own game. She’s not a bad person or a bad player, but seems like the most vulnerable floater in a house that’s quickly starting to form multiple little power structures.

JAIME: She stands out a lot too because most of the other players have jumped in already with the gameplay.  She’s not part of any of the big moves, or at least not instrumental enough in anything that her contributions make it to the show.  She needs to figure out who to align herself with, because the more the house keeps pulling itself in two directions, anyone left on their own is going to stand out massively.

3. John

GARRETT: I just really can’t stand his voice. As far as I’m concerned, dude is in the bottom until he’s walking out the door. He too seems like a floater. If he can’t get people to believe he’s even a dentist, how can he get people to believe him in the game?

JAIME: I like him fine enough in the house, but then he goes in the diary room and then he becomes the worst person in the world.  I don’t even want him to gain more power in the game because then he might have more to say in the diary room.

2. Da’Vonne

GARRETT: A quick fall from grace from one of our favorites from the opening week. Her overreaction to the curiosity of the other houseguests, who were just wondering what she was doing in a bedroom, quickly turned into a catastrophe and labelled Da’Vonne as a loose cannon. There’s just no reason for her to have lost her head like that. It came off as arrogant, and clearly Da’Vonne thought she was in a position of power where she could act as such. But it just showed her paranoia and inability to maintain her cool in a situation that had no reason to get out of hand.

JAIME: It was such a huge overreaction, and somehow it ended in her deciding not to trust Audrey, who from the first day had been her closest friend in the house.  She went from 0-100 really quickly, and I can’t imagine any of the houseguests who witnessed her blowing up would see her as someone to trust.  She was so immensely paranoid, and for a situation that didn’t actually involve the game itself.  What’s going to happen when it actually involves someone’s gameplay?  

1. Audrey

GARRETT: From number 1 champ to number 1 chump is a heavy toll to exact, but it’s one we had to make this week. Audrey committed not one, but two cardinal sins of early-week Big Brother this week, first through a massive overplaying of the game and not consulting her alliance before trying to add on new members, and then through revealing herself as the mastermind of Jace’s eviction to Jace himself (through a poorly-acted lie). You just can’t overstep your bounds this early on when there are so many people. It sets you up as a monster target and puts a completely unnecessary target on your back. I’m sad to have seen Audrey make these mistakes, because I do like her personality a lot. Hopefully Audrey avoids the blowback from this situation and can reclaim a spot in the Top Five moving forward.

JAIME: Also, when trying to add new members to your alliance, maybe don’t pull them from their beds at 5 AM, bring them up to the HOH room, and then ask, “So why can we trust you?”  I literally didn’t understand any of the moves she made this week.  She played Jace so well at first - she made him think he was going to be safe, and that they, Austin, and James were going to work together to get out Jason.  And then she just completely blew up everything, for absolutely no reason.  It’s like she’s making moves just for the sake of making moves, and forming alliances for the sake of forming alliances.  She’s not letting any part of the game happen naturally, and if she keeps forcing everything, people are going to get really tired of her.

TOP FIVE:

5. Jason

GARRETT: Jason lost his spot as Head of Household last week, but managed to form an alliance and kept most of the blood off his hands. One of his nominees, Becky, will probably put him up this week, but he seems to have made enough inroads socially to avoid any worrying about his safety moving forward.

JAIME: Jason seems like he’s in a really good spot socially in the game.  He proved himself as a strong player by winning the first HOH competition, but I can’t see him being a huge target for at least a couple weeks.  Everyone seems to like him, and it seems like he’s very willing to use that to his advantage.

4. Liz/Julia

GARRETT: Liz wasn’t a favorite of mine in the opening week because she just didn’t seem to have much to her personality. Sagittarius from Miami is a bit drab, but I can see that the producers likely simplified her in order to ease the twist of her twin, Julia, joining the fun. I’m excited to see them move forward, and I’m happy that the producers are still finding new ways to shake the game up even in its seventeenth season.

JAIME: I’m still not totally sold on the twins twist, just because I think it’ll only really have a good payoff if Liz and Julia wind up being instrumental to some aspect of the gameplay, like an eviction campaign.  For now she seems really content to sit around and ask the guys to tell her she’s pretty, so, as long as she’s enjoying herself.

3. Becky/Shelli

GARRETT: Both Becky and Shelli get the third spot as co-Heads of Household this week, because they find themselves in a very similar situation. Both are slightly on the outside looking in on the main action in the house, and both have maintained a couple solid relationships. They’re both likable people. I’m looking at them as using this week to solidify themselves within the main social circle in the house moving forward.

JAIME: This week will also hopefully give Becky and Shelli the chance to cement themselves in the house.  We haven’t seen much of them so far, and don’t really have a sense of where they’re fitting in.  But now that they’re both HOH, they’re in a position where other people are going to need them, which hopefully they’ll parlay into relationships that affect the rest of their game.

2. Clay

GARRETT: While Clay didn’t have any power last week, or earn any power this week, he managed to set himself up as arguably the most likable person in the house on top of finding himself as a go-to for power moves from James and Audrey. He exposed Da’Vonne’s paranoia without getting any blood on his hands from the rest of the houseguests. He’s a confidant, has no enemies, and is just so damn good looking that I don’t think he’ll be in any trouble moving forward. His closest ally, Shelli, is in power this week, so I think he’ll have a major say in any big decision that she makes.

JAIME: Clay is also in a really unique position because his physical game is probably just as imposing as Jace’s, if not moreso.  But no one’s really brought him up as a threat, probably because he seems to get along with everyone.  He seems smart enough to avoid getting into fights with people - even when Da’Vonne flipped out on him, he went and apologized, just to keep the peace.  Also, he’s so, so pretty.  He needs to stay in the house for a while so I can keep looking at him.  

1. James

GARRETT: It was about as strong of an opening Head of Household term as one could have for James this week, as he was able to take out a threatening physical presence, form an alliance, and keep the blood off his hands all in one go. Audrey took almost all of the fault for Jace’s eviction and cast herself as a villain, allowing James to skate by. He’s the main player in the social circle, and a quality person who understands how the game is supposed to be played. He’s lied without being malicious, yet shown his ability to be trusted. Plus, as an added bonus, he seems to have lost the need to constantly talk about being an Asian guy with a Southern accent.

JAIME: Yeah, now that he’s seemingly given up on constantly reminding us that he’s an Asian man from the south, I can fully like James.  I was so impressed by what he said after putting Jace up for eviction - that it was a decision he made completely on his own, to benefit his own gameplay.  He really left no room for Jace to start thinking that there was some movement in the house working against him.  Really, the only reason Jace figured it out was because Audrey pretty much told him.  Otherwise, James’ game was totally clean, and he perfectly carried out every single part of the plan that he formed almost immediately after being named HOH.

CRAIG:

Alright, now for what’s been going on behind the scenes, we’ve definitely got to talk about Audrey this week. Show viewers might be a little confused as to why she voted to evict Jackie, despite her original campaign to get Jace out of the house, and the subsequent blow-up the two of them had after Audrey essentially outed herself, but those of us watching the live feeds know exactly what was behind the seemingly sketchy vote.

As we all know, things can change on a dime in the Big Brother house, and with so many houseguests ready to become real players this year, it’s been a whirlwind keeping up with the house politics. There’s been more game talk and maneuvers in the first fifteen days of BB17 than in all of BB15 and BB16 combined. The energy in the house reminds me of the first day of BB7, All-Stars. These guys are here to play.

But Big Brother is a marathon, not a sprint, and every year we see houseguests who forget this mantra. Audrey is chief among them this year. If you think she’s been over-reaching with game talk and strategy on the show, you should see her on the feeds. It just. Doesn’t. Stop. At breakfast, it’s game talk. In the bathroom, game talk. Five in the morning, game talk. Playing volleyball in the back yard? Nope, just another opportunity for game talk. It’s overboard. ESPECIALLY for the first week. This is when houseguests should try ingratiating themselves into the group as a whole, but Audrey’s barely revealed anything personal or specific about herself or her life other than the fact that she’s transgender. People don’t know her. They don’t have personal connections with her. And when you don’t have connections with someone in the BB house, then you don’t have qualms about getting rid of them.

Which may be in the cards for Audrey this week. Though she managed to corral an alliance to support James’s decision to backdoor Jace, her constant strategizing and refusal to stop talking game turned them all (James, Jason, Shelli, Clay, Meg, Da’Vonne, and Jeff) against her in a matter of days. But Audrey’s good at the game, even she can’t seem to stop playing it, and caught on pretty much right away. So she teamed up with Austin, who saw an opportunity to save his bro, and they agreed to work together and rally the “outcasts” of the house (Vanessa, John, Steve, and Liz) into keeping Jace.

But again, Audrey took the machinations too far, and exposed her former alliance in front of the entire house, which earned like, everyone’s ire, and made the “outcasts” wary of voting against the house. And so they didn’t, but Audrey never checked in with anyone before the live show, so she voted for Jackie. And is going to have quite the week of scrambling ahead of her if she doesn’t want to follow in Jace’s footsteps next Thursday.

BUT FIRST Fridays - Your Weekly Big Brother Power Rankings

It’s a new season of our favorite CBS reality show! And nothing goes better with a thrice-weekly viewing of the comedy that is Big Brother than a weekly recap and power rankings, because what is reality TV without gross overanalysis? That’s exactly what we thought, which is why you’re reading the first of the “BUT FIRST” series, where my good friend and reality-TV confidante Jaime and I will be bringing you our recaps and power rankings every single Friday. This season has shown some promise in its first two episodes, so we’re excited to get way too invested as the summer moves along.

Normally these posts will have some more exciting events, because the houseguests will probably start lying and manipulating each other in week 2.  But this is only the first week, so things got off to a slow start.  Of course, things are still interesting in the Big Brother house, and as always, there are twists that are going to affect the game throughout the season.  For one thing, the Battle of the Block is back from last season.  This means that each week will have two head of households, who each nominate two houseguests for eviction.  Those four houseguests will be able to compete to save themselves and remove their names from the chopping block, and the HOH who nominated them can go up in their place.  Meaning, someone could go from being HOH to being evicted in the same week.

Additionally, there will be constant twists thrown in weekly that will change the game up.  There’s also a secret twist that, so far, only the audience knows: one of the houseguests has a twin, and they’ll be switching back and forth with their twin in the house.  If the houseguest makes it past the first five evictions, then their twin will enter the game as an individual player.  Knowing Big Brother’s history with huge, game-changing twists, the guest with a twin will probably be the first person evicted and the whole concept will be ruined, but we’re optimistic.

The sixteen houseguests entered the house in groups of eight during Wednesday and Thursday’s episodes.  Then, each group of eight competed in an HOH challenge, and after being sprayed with tomato juice and alien go, James and Jason, respectively, were named this week’s heads of household.

Since it’s only the first week, we haven’t gotten the fun parts of the game yet, like eviction nominations or the power of veto competitions.  But this week’s episodes were all about first impressions, which helped certain houseguests establish themselves as powerful players who potentially could control the course of the game.  Based on our impressions of the houseguests, we created rankings of the five most and least powerful players for the week.

Here’s how the weekly power rankings are going to work: we’re going to evaluate the houseguests based on their standing in the house and position in the game, ultimately ranking them on their likelihood of winning.  Part of that is going to be based on the players themselves and how they approach the game, while factoring in how they performed in that week’s competitions and how the other players see them, if that changes their gameplay.

So here are our rankings for this week, starting with the bottom five players in descending order, where, basically, five is the least terrible and one is the most terrible (or has the least power, but that essentially means the same thing, right?).

Bottom Five:

5. Steve

JAIME: Steve was very purposely ranked at #5 because he’s not as annoying as some of the other houseguests, so he’s got that going for him.  Most of his screentime was devoted to building up the idea that he’s shy and awkward and doesn’t spend time with other people, especially women, and I can’t really tell yet if he’s genuinely that awkward socially or if it’s just a stereotype they want to play up.  But he’s a self-professed Big Brother superfan, and winds up being the first person eliminated from the HOH competition - and then is the first person to acknowledge that he’s probably lost his chance to create a good first impression on the other houseguests.  He might have screwed up his chances already, which would be a shame, because I’m looking forward to watching him learn how to interact with women.

GARRETT: Ian was the same way off the bat a few seasons ago. His lack of threat in terms of the competitions helped him get to the middle of the game and allowed him to tack on as a fifth member of an alliance. I’m thinking Steve takes the same angle. But Ian’s strategy already happened, and the rest of the house should be watching out for it.

4. Austin

JAIME: I actually wound up liking Austin, but when he was first introduced, he was talking about how he has an alter ego and I don’t know, I think he might go crazy at some point.  He seems nice enough for now, though.  He’s 6’5” and really likes to talk about how huge he is, and the other men who entered the house with him on Wednesday night seemed to gravitate towards him.  But everyone this year seems to be really focused on how tall they are, and using that as a barometer of how they’re going to do in the game.  I don’t get it, but especially since James gained so much power so early on, I think Austin might come off as too intimidating and immediately become a target.

GARRETT: You weren’t wooed by the masters degree in medieval romance literature?

JAIME: Wait, I actually forgot all about that.  I was a little wooed by that.  That’s genuinely awesome.

3. Liz

JAIME: Liz is annoying and one of the first things she said was, “I don’t like jealous girls,” so already, I don’t like Liz.  I think the show is hoping for tension between her and Shelli over Clay (or just male attention in general), and I can’t see her eagerly going along with Audrey’s plan for an all-female alliance.  That could work to her benefit if she gets in with some of the men, but if her strategy only involves starting a showmance, she’s not going to make it very far.

GARRETT: She just seems very cookie-cutter. Nothing exciting about her. When the first thing you say is “I’m a Sagittarius” then I’m probably not gonna love you.

2. Meg

JAIME: Meg might be the single most annoying person I have ever encountered in my life and I hope the other houseguests start to hate her as much as I hate her.

GARRETT: “I have a gay best friend. He’s my gusband.” Congratulations. You’re so brave.

JAIME: Her biography on the CBS website includes the fact that straight men love her because she’s a cool, blonde, girl next door, and gay men love her because she’s fun.  She needs to go, please.

1. John

JAIME: John is allegedly a dentist, but I can’t really see why anyone would trust or pay him to do anything.  He’s one of those people who thinks he has to scream in the diary room, and after the HOH competition sprayed alien goo on him, he implied that he might wind up impregnated by an alien.  He’s annoying.  I can see the other houseguests growing tired of him really quickly.

GARRETT: John sounds like a squealing pig doing an impression of a dying giraffe that sounds like Maria Sharapova hitting a tennis ball.

Top 5:

5. Clay

JAIME: Clay is really pretty and we were introduced to him by seeing him feed baby animals, so.  I’m a fan of Clay.  Moreover, all the women are fans of Clay, and considering Liz and Shelli’s apparent willingness to have a showmance, I think the women are going to try and align with him.  We don’t have any sense of his strategy yet, and I still feel totally confident saying that he’s going to stick around for a while.

GARRETT: There’s really nobody, looks-wise, that stacks up to him. It’s a very underrated characteristic in this game. He’s coveted, and he’s very nice and doesn’t seem to be a guy who’s going to get in anybody’s face. I’m looking at him to stick around for a while.

JAIME: I’m looking at him, too.  Ayyyyyyyy

4. Jason

GARRETT: Wow, Jason is a character. One of the more flamboyant contestants, standing out amongst a sea of flamboyant contestants over this show’s history. I’m not a fan, because he doesn’t seem genuine. But he’s endearing to the other houseguests, and more importantly, has one of the HOH keys. I’ll probably be voting for him to be in the bottom later on, especially if he loses HOH in the Battle of the Block, but for now, he’s in a solid spot.

JAIME: Yeah, I see him as one of those people whose position in the house is going to rely a lot on how he does in competitions.  The other houseguests do seem to like him (and I’m sure Meg will absolutely love him), but I can see him fluctuating a lot.  I feel like he’ll wind up being a floater.

3. Da’Vonne

JAIME: Da’Vonne actually seems smart, and is intelligent enough to hide that from the other houseguests.  It’s a reality show, so they always have to get people to fit certain boxes and play up their stereotypes, and while Da’Vonne was probably put on the show so CBS can feel good about how diverse they are, she’s not the person playing up any prejudice someone might have based on her background.  She’s the first person to remind you that she’s a single mother from Inglewood, but so far she seems like she’s letting other people create that stereotype.  She’s not playing it up herself to hide how intelligent she actually is.

GARRETT: You’re definitely right about CBS bringing her on as a show of their inclusive diversity. And it’s sad that year after year, their diverse member of the cast fails to make an impact. Constantly, the black women that come on this show have a lack of screen time and fail, oftentimes, to even reach the jury, with no help from production and editing. I’m hoping that Da’Vonne continues to garner a solid amount of screen time, because she’s a solid player who seems to be jumping right into the thick of things with a trust-no-one attitude.

2. James

JAIME: James really, really likes to remind people that he’s used to working hard to change people’s impressions of him, which I guess does give him a social edge and might make him pretty successful at turning people to his way of thinking, but like we get it, please talk about something else.  Otherwise, he impressed people really quickly with his performance in the first HOH competition.  Normally that would make someone a huge target, but everyone seemed genuinely impressed with him, which is hard to pull off.  I think he’s going to fly low on everyone’s radar for a while, despite already making it clear that he knows how to play this game.

GARRETT: His HOH this week is key. I’m rooting for him to retain it and use his nominations to leapfrog into a solid alliance (I’m thinking with the guys). He’s sociable and kind, and of everybody who looked like they would have been taken aback by Audrey’s moment of honesty, he seemed to respond in a positive way. Once his “I need to prove real quick how southern and outdoorsy I am” mentality wears off, I think I’ll like him more. I think he’s a lot like Caleb from last year, if Caleb was a quieter, smaller Asian man who wasn’t as quick to give his loyalty away.

1. Audrey

JAIME: Audrey might be the most likable player this year, at least so far.  Her immediate strategy is for all the girls to stick together; I can see that backfiring, but hopefully she’s smart enough to abandon ship if she needs to.  She’s also the first transgender Big Brother contestant, and openly shares that fact, which seems to gain her respect from the other houseguests.  It was a smart move to be so open, because she immediately created an emotional connection with everyone, and I don’t think she’ll be on James or Jason’s minds when they start considering who to nominate for eviction.

GARRETT: I’m glad she put the transgender thing out in the open right off the bat. Her fidelity definitely helps her out and puts her firmly within everybody’s likability. But she’s also clearly a great player, making quick pacts and getting ahead of the game. But she’s not trying to do too much too quickly, either.

That’s it for week one of Big Brother!  We’ll be back next Friday with an update on what’s been happening in the house and our new power rankings.  Hopefully no one gets too annoying too early in the game, but as always, we have to expect the unexpected.