Big Brother 11 Blog

About an hour after the live eviction, Dustin calls Eric into the storage room. What happens is reminiscent of Will and Boogie — they do the HAPPY DANCE!

And they plot. And they promise to go to war. And … and … they’ll probably hate each other in two days, but anyway, here’s the first post-eviction live feed of the night. There will be more to come.

Whoa. Wow. Wild. In the matter of two days, the Big Brother 8 house went from despising Eric, bringing the 27-year-old New Yorker to the point of tears, to voting to evict Kail.

And as the votes were being cast, did you think Eric stood a chance when the tally was 3 to 1 with Dick, Jen and Zach voting to evict him? I didn’t.

However, behind the scenes, Dustin masterminded a plan to keep the LNC leftovers on track, giving them the best chance of unseating the other half of the house, particularly Dick and Daniele.

First, Dustin convinced Amber that evicting Kail would strengthen them. Amber soooo wanted to eliminate Eric from the picture, but she swore on her daughter’s life. And even though Eric threatened to tell Amber’s dark secret regarding her pregnancy lies, all of America knows it now given the editing tonight.

Of course, those of us with live-feed access (seriously, if you’re a fan and don’t have this, c’mon … ) knew about the secret, the betrayal and the attempted recovery long before tonight’s eviction went down. Nevertheless, it was never clear whether Dustin, Jameka, Amber and Jessica would stick to their strategy or word, whichever was most applicable.

Moments after the vote, evel Dick started in on Dustin and then on Jameka. Somehow, I think Jameka might be one houseguest willing to stand up to Dick, who by the way was portrayed very nicely on the show tonight. Not only is Mr. Donato truthful about his connections in L.A., they all say he’s a good, stand-up dude.

Then Jessica wins an HoH and her top damn nearly comes right off. Shame.

Kidding aside, she bear-hugs Eric as Mr. Stein pumped his fist in joy, proclaiming later that he’s taking applications to finally play for the Power of Veto.

It was the most suspenseful vote to date. It was tense, and I think the foursome made the right choice for THEM. By no means do I think this whitewashes some of Eric’s questionable moves, but we have to give him a little credit for not messing it up further for himself.

On the other hand, one of our posters noted that the Diary Room Voice was workin’ it on Eric’s behalf (did somebody record this?), which makes me wonder whether CBS will have Eric do anything too terribly controversial from here on out.

Finally, what does this mean for the houseguests this weekend?

Let’s just say, I’m recording right now. Dick is ready to blow up something fierce, and while he’s not my cup of tea, he makes the show so much interesting. I said it last week, and I’ll say it again: He is a reality-show legend in the making.

Expect to see E.D. well beyond this show. Doesn’t mean I like the guy or approve of the way he treats people, just proclaiming what I believe to be his greatness in terms of game-play and entertainment value. One commenter compared him to Dr. Will earlier this week, and we all poo-pooed it.

But might they be right? I still say Dick has this house in the palm of his hands.

What makes things right now so volatile and interesting is that, in a much more subdued and “deceptive” way, so does Dustin. So, at this point, I think we have the Dick faction, and we have the Dustin faction.

In whose camp are you? Dick or Dustin? Or do you think another houseguest is actually pulling the puppet strings right now?

Stay tuned tonight. Stay tuned Friday. Stay tuned this weekend. We’ll post updates and live-feed videos and all the shenanigans, blow-ups and collective madness. In the meantime, Amber is actually sticking up for Eric (6:22 BBT), which could only mean that the Big Brother house is turning upside-down yet again.

By the way: I think — my kind-of-educated guess — is that Jessica nominates Daniele and Jen, one of them wins the PoV and Dick gets back-doored. Or, Jen and Dick go up and Daniele gets back-doored.

Moments after America’s Player Eric was spared eviction, Jessica wins an HoH question-answer game based on diary room sessions.

Her first congratulations? A big, giant hug from Eric.

Your reaction? Who will she nominate? Who should she nominate?

The Big Brother 8 houseguests just evicted Kail 4 to 3, and America’s Player survives a week of high drama and turmoil.

As expected, Jameka and Amber kept their word, voting to evict the Oregon mother. Eric’s buddy Jessica voted to save Eric, and Dustin did the same. Either Eric did some smooth talking, or something has gone wrong — right?

Even as I write this, Dick is lambasting Dustin about the vote, given that they supposedly had a one-week deal to spare Kail.

What is your reaction? Are you pissed? Or relieved that Eric survived?

Comment now!

We’re not far from the live eviction, when somebody’s getting their wish.

Will Lisa and Tony and E Young and Lee be happy when Eric marches out that door? Or will those who support Eric get the last laugh tonight?

This has gone back and forth, back and forth, back and forth again. But right now, as of 12:20 BBT, Eric is staying.

This not through any convincing of his own, either. Zach ain’t voting for him. Jen ain’t voting for him, and I don’t see any way that Dick tries to trick things up by voting for him. So, all of Eric’s arguments fell on deaf ears.

However, Dustin has worked hard to keep Eric here for the sake of attacking Dani and Dick next week. I really think this is strategic on his part and beyond anything signalling a true friendship.

On the other hand, if Eric isn’t evicted, we won’t get to see the houseguests’ surprise when they find out he was America’s Player. We won’t get to see (yet) if there are any conspiracy theories that come to life. I really thought Tony’s comment this morning that Eric might be a paid actor or a CBS employee was pretty astute (I have secretly thought that to be a possibility, as well).

Eric was right-on when he said he was on his eight-and-a-half(th) life. Whether he’s evicted this week or not, he can’t survive another two or three weeks. Because he’s such a big fan of the game, I would like to see him at least get to the sequester house so he can watch the game 24/7 and be as analytical as he’d like.

However, as we all know, this group of houseguests can turn on a dime, and I think they’ll switch positions three or four times before the live vote. And, please join us back here after the show for reactions — ours and YOURS.

Earlier today and each Wednesday through the rest of the BB8 season, we opened up our virtual diary room so you could cast your votes for eviction. As of 11 p.m. CDT, the votes are cast, and the voting is closed although you can still post your thoughts.

Let’s hear from our announcer.

Houseguests, you’ll have one day to continue to flip-flop over and over as to who you’ll evict (special thanks to Lisa for all the excellent updates this afternoon); however, we’ve made our decision.

By a vote of 15 to 8, Kail, you have been evicted from the Big Brother house.

Good arguments were made as to why Eric should be evicted (Lisa, Tony, et al). However, most others acknowledge that banners that flew outside the house last Thursday night sabotaged his game play.

Katie wrote: Firstly, I dont think that its fair to have Eric leave just yet. It is not Eric’s fault that the banner flew, partially revealing a part of the twist. Plus, Eric has only done what America has asked him to do, and hes getting a lot of flack for that. Does he deserve this flack? Maybe. But the fact is that the conspiracy theorists in the house (aka Evel Dick, his Evel Spawn & Jen) are spinning the contents of the banner into their favour. They neglected to even look at another possible theory, if there is one.

You have to imagine CBS is pissed about this, and while Eric has to live with the turn of events, it’s hard to imagine producers couldn’t stop fly-bys.

However, the house engaged in a ruthless, uncalled for beat-down of somebody who is essentially a nice guy. Amber went off on Eric this afternoon for what, I’ve recently learned, wasn’t even the revelation of a secret. Eric never told Amber’s secrets; he merely told other houseguests that he knew a secret, a secret that Dick has acknowledged knowing as well.

Yikes, did Amber flip out.

Besides, Kail gave up HoH for five weeks, rendering her useless to everybody in the house. She can’t protect anybody. She can’t nominate enemies. On the other hand, outside of her terrible decision-making early on, there has been nobody in the house more genuine and likeable personably.

You heard me — likeable. Frankly, it’s kind of a shame that she might have to leave this week.

Nevertheless, strategically, isn’t she doomed?

The America’s Player moniker and participation is only fun if it doesn’t cost the houseguest the game, and it’s clear that it will if Eric is evicted Thursday. Life ain’t fair though, and technically if Eric is as smart as he says he is, shouldn’t he have been able to negotiate the challenges of this twist a lot better?

I still say that without the banner, nobody at all figures him out.

For that reason and because of Kail’s inability to compete for HoH the next five weeks, we say Kail’s gotta go.

Amber laid into Eric this afternoon for the whole secret divulgence brouhaha. For those of you who don’t know, Amber idiotically told another houseguest (Eric) a secret about some abortions and pregnancies that not even her boyfriend knew about.

Hope I’m telling that right.

Anyway, Eric tells somebody else, and Amber just hammers him over it in front of the whole house. Eric takes it. Dick comes up to him and rubs it in, and then Eric heads off to the diary room for an extended session of a) begging out the house, b) threatening to reveal his status as America’s Player or c) bawling.

First, should Eric have divulged the secret? Strategically, he should have shut the heck up about it, particularly if he meant it when he said he could use it against her. However, really, he just did use it against her because this rant of hers a) makes her look not just crazy but insane and b) just saved Eric.

Look, when Jessica awakened this morning to see Eric *staring* at her, she was creeped out. Jessica has given Eric a bit of time to try to explain things, but she had clearly gone to the other side, ready to evict her former buddy.

To save face with Amber, who is genuinely furious, Dustin said he would vote to evict Eric so that Amber wouldn’t have to, given that the Las Vegas waitress and meth addict (once an addict, technically, always an addict) had sworn on her daughter’s life.

However, given this episode, this uber-compelling video, Amber’s complete and utter meltdown, I think Eric has just garnered a week’s worth of sympathy. Here’s the thing, and I’ve tried to look at it from both sides. While Eric wasn’t a nice boy for divulging Amber’s secret, Amber is a complete and utter MORON for telling it — you know what I mean?

Think about it this way. Let’s say YOU’RE in the Big Brother house. If somebody comes up to you and says, “I’ve gotta huge secret,” the tendency is for the other houseguest to think of ways to utilize that secret against the other person later in the game. However, there is no part of me that would think, “What is the worst secret I can divulge to another houseguest, in the name of desperate friendship, in front of live cameras and tens of thousands of people?”

It’s a classic situation of weighing out two evils. On one hand, yeah, Eric divulged a secret, and his friendship with Amber is over, probably within the context of the game and outside of it. On the other hand, there is no getting past the truth of Amber’s idiocy for telling the secret in the first place.

Who knows what happens down the road, whether it be tonight or tomorrow come time for a live vote, but if Eric had meant to use Amber’s secret against her all along, then well — uh — mission accomplished.

Don’t mean to be bagging on Amber, but houseguests have to remember that they’re on 24/7. What they say is recorded, will be seen and — yes — will be judged relative to the game and beyond.

TMZ.com is in on the act this morning, detailing the Las Vegas waitress’ opinions on Jewish people. Read the post here, but here’s a highlight:

*** Relations between Israel and the “Big Brother” house are strained today, after a somewhat anti-Semitic rant from crybaby housemate Amber hit the Internet this week. Oy vey!

Where to begin, already? First of all, Amber said the majority of Jews she knows are “selfish.” She then went on to say that her mom and sister explained to her that one can tell who is Jewish based on “their last name” and “by their nose.” Gevalt! ***

There’s even a video on that site, and I will look for more. Promise.

Now, as a counter to this news, I should note that — in my experience — expressions like this are merely based in ignorance and not in hate. Amber seems like a truly good, loving person (outside of the lying and deception and endless tears), and we should all remember that being stuck in a house like this for weeks upon weeks is liable to bring out the worst in just about anybody at some point.

Ahem. With that caveat out of the way, bag away. What are your thoughts? Does this change your opinion of Amber? Should Big Brother evict her for her comments? Or do you think it’s just a heat-of-the-game sort of thing?

OK, another week is just about in the books inside the Big Brother 8 house, and those of us on big-brother-blog.com have survived a volatile week of deliberation and side-picking. As a new feature on the site, each Wednesday, we’ll open up the comments (our version of a diary room) for your votes.

Tell us who YOU vote to evict this week — Kail or Eric — and why.

At the end of the evening, I’ll tally the vote and draw up eviction papers for the houseguest of YOUR choice. And, I’ll use the best comments to back up our decision, so make your reasoning pithy and thoughtful (and perhaps funny :-)).

Who will it be? Eric or Kail? The online diary room is open.

So because the one thing that is missing here on our blog is pictures, I have finally added a Photo Gallery for Big Brother 8 Live Feed Screen Caps. This is the first of what I hope will be many pages of screen captures from the Live Feeds!

This is a handful of pics I grabbed while watching the Live Feeds from July 21 through July 24. (I am on top of things aren’t I?) I am still working out the new photo gallery plug-in but so far I like it. The first page can be viewed by going here…

Big Brother 8 Screen Caps - July 2007

or you will find it on the side bar to the right under the new Newsletter sign up form!

(right over here —>)

Let us know what you think of the new addition to Big Brother Blog! We would love to hear from you! Also let us know if you have some pictures you would like to add to the site. I am going to start separating the pages by days for easier viewing.

Peace,

Big Brother Blogger