Celebrity Big Brother: Trash TV at its Finest

Premiering last week on CBS, Celebrity Big Brother (the 1st celebrity edition of the U.S. version) was thought up as an alternative to the Winter Olympics, airing on NBC.  Normally the other networks air repeats against the Olympics, which attract tens of millions of viewers when they air every two years.  So Celebrity Big Brother is certainly a risk, but a cheap risk, as reality shows are generally very inexpensive to produce.  The regular version of the show, which takes over the schedule for 3-4 nights every week during the summer, has been a modest hit for CBS over the past 18 years.  Celebrity Big Brother has aired in the U.K. for years and is a major watercooler hit, airing for hours each day and discussed in every tabloid magazine.  CBS is clearly hoping to expand the Big Brother franchise beyond the summer, and I'm thinking that its experiment will likely be a success. 

Big Brother original flavor features contestants living together in a decked-out house, completely cut off from the outside world, competing in goofy challenges and voting each other out one by one.  Host Julie Chen, affectionately known as the "Chenbot" due to her friendly but robotic hosting style, has been with the U.S. version since the beginning, but the show has never really been about her.  Celebrity Big Brother replaces regular people with 11 F-list celebrities (seriously, I've never heard of some of these people), and it can be described as regular Big Brother on speed.  Airing 4-5 times a week for only about 2 1/2 weeks (instead of the usual 3 months), contestants are being "evicted" (voted off) every other episode rather than just once a week. 

The contestants this season may be only barely famous, but they are certainly fun to watch.  The women have stolen the show thus far, forming an early alliance against the men with the help of gay talk show personality Ross Matthews.  The men are barely playing the game and have mostly faded into the background.  The first player voted out, mixed martial artist Chuck Liddell, barely made a dent in the game.  Former NBA player Metta World Peace (yeah that's actually his name) is so out of his element that at the first vote, he actually mistakenly voted for the wrong person, thinking that he was voting to keep them "in" the house rather than vote them "out".  I can't tell if he's really dumb or just doesn't care about the game.  The other remaining men (not including Ross) are douchebag singer James Maslow (never heard of him) and washed-up rocker Mark McGrath. 

The women's alliance (which already seems to be crumbling) is led by actress Shannon Elizabeth but also features Real Housewife Brandi Glanville, Broadway star Marissa Jaret Winokur, Miss Universe contestant Ariadna Gutierrez (who?), The Cosby Show actress Keshia Knight-Pulliam, and last but far from least...reality star and former White House advisor Omarosa.  Omarosa has definitely provided the most buzzworthy moments of the show so far.  Whether it was trashing Donald Trump to her fellow contestants (she recently had a very public falling out with the president), calling out Keshia for her support of Bill Cosby during his sexual assault trial, or her (possibly made up) asthma attack after losing a challenge, she is the queen of entertaining reality trash tv (let us all bow down to her).  It's a shame that she will probably soon be voted out (as Keshia already has been), since she has now split from the women's alliance.  The show definitely won't be the same without her. 

As far as gameplay, the frontrunners right now appear to be Ross and Marissa.  Both are fierce strategists who are getting in other players' ears and forcing them to take the heat for their game moves.  Shannon is playing the game a little too hard so far and will likely be targeted soon.  I'm excited to see what will happen over the next couple of weeks.  These "celebrities" may not be world-class Olympic athletes, but their reality show drama and manipulations are the epitome of entertaining trash tv.