Hi y’all:

I’ve been thinking a lot about Paul lately.  There’s really no way that I, as a Big Brother blogger, can avoid the reality that, so far, this season has pretty much been the Paul show.  To a large extent, the previous season was also the Paul Show.  The only difference is that Big Brother 18 was originally meant to be the Nicole Show until Paul, though force of pure personality, took it over.  Big Brother 19, on the other hand, was clearly designed to be the Paul Show from the beginning.  Right now, you have to wonder if anyone in the house has enough drive and personality to do what Paul did during BB18.  Can anyone force Paul off of center stage?

Even during his first season, Paul was someone about whom I had mixed feelings.  Sometimes, I couldn’t stand him.  Sometimes, I thought he was the greatest thing to happen to Big Brother in quite some time.  I can tell just by reading some of the comments under the previous post that a lot of you have similar feelings.  No one seems to be neutral when it comes to either Paul or his return.  People either think he’s great or they think he’s ruining the show.

During the first part of Big Brother 18, I couldn’t stand Paul.  I thought he was an overly aggressive loudmouth who came on way too strong.  I could not wait to see him voted out.  But, as the season progressed, Paul started to win me over.  It wasn’t so much that Paul himself changed as it just started to become painfully obvious that Big Brother 18 was specifically set up for either Nicole or James to win.  In a season where the other houseguests were just supposed to roll over and let the vets win it all, Paul refused.  Paul not only managed to survive a rough few weeks but he soon emerged as a power in the house.  He was so clearly the underdog that, even if he was still sometimes annoying, you couldn’t help but root for him.

I can’t remember my exact the reaction the night that Nicole won Big Brother 18.  I think, at the time, I was so exhausted with that season that I was just happy that it was over.  But, today, it’s clear to me that Paul should have won Big Brother 18.  Paul was the one who actually had to strategize and compete to survive.   While Nicole was coasting on her showmance and James was playing pranks, Paul was the one who was actually fighting for and earning the right to appear in the finale.

So, now, we have Paul on Big Brother 19 and here’s where things get complicated.  Don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say.  I’m not taking a position one way or the other on this.  However, there are a lot of people online who feel that, so far, Big Brother has been going out of its way to protect Paul.  Not only was he given immunity on his first night back but he was also allowed to give immunity to 8 other people, which immediately put 8 other people in Paul’s debt.  And while the first temptation may have been the result of a viewer vote, it was obvious that Paul was going to win it just because Paul was the only person in the house with a built-in fanbase.  And it was a powerful reward, giving Paul three weeks of immunity.  Three weeks is an eternity in Big Brother.  In short, a lot of people feel that, just as Big Brother 18 was set up for Nicole to win, Big Brother 19 is being set up for Paul to win.

Do I agree with that?  Well, I definitely think that production wants Paul to stay in the house for as long as possible because Paul does have fans and it’s possible that those fans might stop watching if Paul doesn’t at least make it to jury.  Production always has a favorite and this season, that favorite does appear to be Paul.  But, at the same time, being a favorite doesn’t mean you’re going to automatically win.  Just ask Amanda Zuckerman, Vanessa, Frankie Grande, Audrey, and a whole host of others.

However, there is something different about Paul this season.  Paul has always played this game hard but this season, there’s a bitterness to Paul that I personally find to be very off-putting.  It’s a bitterness that you won’t see on CBS.  On the CBS show, Paul is still getting his typical hyperactive, loud but likable guy edit.  But, if you watch him on the live feeds, there’s an anger to Paul that wasn’t as present during Big Brother 18.

Watching him on the live feeds, it’s obvious that Paul is very bitter about losing Big Brother 18 and he is determined not to lose again.  That bitterness, mixed in with a healthy dose of paranoia, could be his downfall.  Already, even some of his allies are talking about how weary they’re starting to get of Paul.  Because he is currently HoH and he has immunity for the week after, Paul is currently extremely powerful but, once he loses that immunity, I wouldn’t be surprised to see people start to turn against him.  They don’t trust him, they know he’s playing hard, and people naturally resent being bossed around.  They resented it when Cody did it and they resent it when Paul does it.

The Paul of Big Brother 18 would have picked up on this and I think he would have done some damage control.  But Big Brother 19’s Paul has, to a certain extent, let the fame go to his head.  He may be getting revenge by evicting Cody but it’s hard not to think that it might have been a better idea to, instead, evict Cody’s allies like Jessica or Jason.  That way, when Paul loses his immunity, there would still be a bigger target than him in the house.  Because, once Cody is gone, Paul is going to be the biggest target around.

Anyway, regardless of what happens, Paul is going to get what he wants this week.  He won the veto last night.  Someone is going to come off the block and Cody is going to go on in their place.  However, it appears that Ramses came close to beating Paul and Paul is really angry about it.  In fact, Paul’s so angry about it that I think all of that anger is going to backfire on him.

We’ll see if I’m right or if Paul can keep winning.

As always, thank you for reading and commenting,

Lisa Marie

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Hi y’all!

So, I’m about have to leave for the day but I wanted to give y’all a new post to comment under.  I’m happy to see how active everyone is this season, especially when compared to the previous season.  Say what you will about how this season is going, people seem to be a lot more excited this season than they have been in the past!  As someone who writes about Big Brother, I’m always happy to see that!

Anyway, here’s a quick recap of where we are right now!

Paul did make his nominations last night.  And, as we all expected, his nominees are Alex and Josh, while his plan remains to backdoor Cody.  Ramses, because he’s cursed, also put himself on the block.  After the ceremony, Paul yanked Ramses aside for some private talk and basically told him that if he didn’t throw the veto comp, he would have the entire house mad at him.  Ramses agreed to throw the comp but then, privately, said he had no intention of doing that.

(Personally, I don’t blame Ramses for that.  Paul can be funny but he can also be a bully and he’s been coming on pretty strong this season.)

Due to the temptation curses, Cody, Jessica, and Jason are in frog costumes right now and have to hop around.  Cody is not happy about it and, again, I don’t blame him.  To be honest, and I may be alone in this, I’ve never been a big fan of Big Brother’s obsession with putting people in stupid costumes.

For his part, Cody knows that he’s the target this week.  Last night, he was complaining that he would be the first person to be voted out of the house while wearing a costume.  (That’s not true, of course.  Plenty of houseguests have been voted out while wearing a costume.  In the past, the silly BB costumes have too often just been an extra humiliation for a houseguest who already knows that their days in the house are numbered.)  Cody is starting to sound like he wants to leave.  I don’t see him as the self-evicting type but the supremely confident and cocky Cody of the first week is definitely gone.

Anyway, the veto comp should be later today!  If Cody or Jessica doesn’t win this veto, Cody is definitely leaving the house this Thursday.

We’ll see what happens,

Lisa Marie

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Hi y’all!

So, let’s see if I can keep all of this straight.  As everyone saw last night, Jillian was voted out on an 8-4 vote.  She was totally blindsided and, even more importantly, Cody and Jessica were blindsided.  Jessica yelled at Christmas.  Cody looked like he was incredibly angry.  It was a classic moment in Big Brother history.

This was followed by the HoH comp.  Even thought the live show ended right when the comp had started, live feeders and readers of this blog know that the new HoH is Paul!

Now, obviously, Cody is everyone’s target.  As of right now, Cody pretty much only has one ally in the house and that’s Jessica.  And, quite frankly, a showmance is not the same thing as a strong, strategic alliance.  Over the past few seasons, Big Brother has really gone out of their way to encourage showmances.  It would be nice if they would also tell houseguests that showmances usually lead to eviction.

Of course, Paul has to be Paul and that means that he can’t ever do anything the simple way.  If anything, Paul’s downfall will eventually probably be a result of his tendency to overthink everything.  The simple thing to do, of course, would be to nominate Jessica and Cody for eviction and then do everything possible to keep them from winning the veto.  Even if one of them did when the veto, the other one would go home and leave the remaining player extremely weakened.

Instead, Paul has decided to backdoor Cody, by nominated two pawns.  At first, he was planning on nominating Matt and Raven, which did not sit well with either of them.  Eventually, they were able to convince Paul that it would be silly to nominate two allies for eviction, even if they were just pawns.  So, briefly, Paul decided about using Kevin as his pawn.  Kevin let him know that was not cool with him.

So, eventually, Paul settled on Alex and Josh.  He has explained to both of them that they were just going to be pawns and that one of them will come off after the veto comp….unless, of course, Corey and Jessica win and use the veto.  (If that happens, Paul has said that the target will become Josh.)

For some reason, Paul is also encouraging Ramses to go ahead and become the third nominee.  I guess the idea is to make sure that Ramses plays for the veto but if Ramses wins the veto and uses it on himself, that’ll mean Paul won’t get to name a replacement.  Does Paul really trust Ramses not to use the veto on himself?

Christmas won the ring of replacement.  She has told Paul.  With the ring, she can apparently take the place of any player in a veto competition.  So, the plan is — if Cody gets selected to play for the veto — Christmas will take his place.  But, since anyone can be randomly selected to compete for the veto, what if Christmas’s name gets randomly pulled out of the bag before Cody’s?  Can she still switch out for Cody even if she’s already been selected?

(Add to that, how is Christmas going to compete anyway when she’s due to have surgery on her foot on Monday?)

This is just one of those plans that sounds like it could go wrong in so many different way.

But we’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

P.S. For the record, three houseguests received a curse as a result of Christmas accepting the temptation.  Christmas told Paul that she selected Ramses, Jessica, and Cody for the curse.

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Hi y’all!

Well, how was that for a blindside?  Tonight, we had our first real eviction and our first real blindside of the season.  I think it was obvious to all of us that Jillian was going to be voted out but Jillian, Cody, and Jessica were certainly caught off guard.

Paul either organized this vote brilliantly or Cody is just totally clueless.  I think it’s combination of the two.  Cody believed that he had Mark and Elena voting with him.  He thought, at worst, things would end with a tie and that he would break it and send Christmas home.

Instead, here’s how the vote went down:

Jessica, Jason, Ramses, and Alex all voted for Christmas.

Kevin, Matt, Raven, Paul, Dominique, Elena, Mark, and Josh all voted for Jillian.

By a vote of 8-4, Jillian was evicted from the Big Brother House.

Needless to say, the vote did not go down well with those were blindsided.  Cody looked like he was about to murder someone.  Seriously, I was worried that forehead vein of his was going to finally blow.  Meanwhile, Jessica and Christmas ended up yelling at each other.  There was so much drama in the house that a clearly stunned Jillian didn’t even get much of a chance to talk to Julie.

Well, the drama is going to continue because Paul won HoH!  And, as of right now, he is definitely going to be targeting Cody and Jessica.  Everyone in the house is sick of both of them.  Cody’s HoH was eventful but it was also a total failure.

We’ll see what happens but right now, it looks like it’s going to be drama and more drama!

(Of course, let’s not forget that Ramses also has to go on the block either this week or next.  If I was him, I’d go up this week because everyone is after Cody and Jessica.)

Lisa Marie

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Hi y’all!

Y’know, it seems like, with everything that has been happening in the house, that this season of Big Brother has been going on forever!  We’ve lost two houseguests.  A new houseguest has come in and already gotten a ludicrous amount of power.  I’ve lost track of how many showmances we’ve got going on.

And yet, we’re only a week into this season!

Well, after tonight’s show, we now now know a little bit more about what’s going on in the house.  We now know that Ramses’s curse was a direct result of Paul accepting the temptation.  We also know that, as a result of the curse, Ramses must go on the block sometime over the next three weeks.

Tomorrow is the first “official” eviction of the season.  (Cameron left because he was being replaced by Paul.  Megan left voluntarily.)  That means that it is now time for the Big Brother Blog to … OPEN UP THE DIARY ROOM!

Who do you vote to evict from the Big Brother House?

Do you vote to evict…

CHRISTMAS, whose eviction would mean that we could no longer make jokes about it being Christmas in July

or

JILLIAN, whose eviction would mean no more stories about getting medical treatment in Tijuana!?

There’s a few ways to cast your vote around here!  You can vote in the poll over on the right hand side of this page or you can vote in the comments below!  Or you can do both!

And then be sure to tune in tomorrow to see who gets voted out and who becomes the new Head of Household!

Happy voting,

Lisa Marie

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Hi y’all!

Well, first off, I hope that all of our American readers had a good and safe 4th of July!

As for what’s happening in the house this Independence Day — well, things are still a bit up in the air.  Cody may be HoH but Jessica has definitely emerged as the power behind the throne and she is determined to get Christmas out of the house.  Both she and Cody are convinced that they have enough votes to get Christmas out.  Cody thinks that, at the very worst, he might have to break a tie.

Meanwhile, Paul is just as determined to get Jillian out of the house.  Both he and Jessica have been campaigning hard.

As of right now, it appears that Jessica, Jason, Alex, and Ramses are planning on voting for Christmas.  I was a little bit surprised by Ramses but I guess he just wants to stick close to whomever he feels has the power for that week.  Alex apparently believes that Cody threw the POV to her and Jason feels that he owes Cody for not nominating him as a replacement.  I don’t really follow either Alex or Jason’s logic.  If anything, Jason owes Christmas because he’s responsible for her being in cast.  As for Alex, even if Cody did throw the POV to her, she wouldn’t have needed the POV if he hadn’t nominated her in the first place.

Paul, Dominique, Elena, Mark, Matt, and Raven have all said that they’re voting out Jillian.

Kevin and Josh are the big question marks.  If both Kevin and Josh vote to evict Christmas, it would be a 6-6 tie and that would allow Cody to send Christmas out of the door.  Kevin has told both sides that he will vote with them.  As for Josh — well, who knows with Josh?

When last I checked, Paul was working on Jason, arguing that Christmas has the votes to stay and that, if Jason votes to evict her, that will just lead to Jason making enemies in the house.  Jason was nodding but Jason does that regardless of who is talking to him.

So, as of right now, who knows who will be leaving on Thrusday!

Hopefully, things will become clearer!

We’ll find out, eventually!

Lisa Marie

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Hi, y’all!

Well, after learning what happened in the Big Brother House this morning, all I can say is, “AGCK!”

In case you missed it, Christmas and Jason were out in the back yard.  Production likes to play music in the morning to help everyone wake up.  The song that they picked was “Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy” so Christmas decided to do just that.  She jumped on Jason’s back and Jason started to run around the yard with her riding him.  The problem, of course, is that Jason was wearing cowboy boots and running in boots — especially on wet grass — isn’t always the easiest thing in the world.  Jason slipped.  He went crashing to the ground and he landed on Christmas.

Christmas screamed out in pain.  “I’ve broken my foot!” she yelled, “I can feel the blood pooling!”  The Big Brother medical team rushed in and Christmas was rushed to the hospital.

The house was in shock.  Can you blame them?  In the comments under the previous post, my sister suggested that the house might be cursed and she might be right.  Ramses seems to believe that he’s cursed and has even been telling his fellow houseguests that.

Myself, I think that Jillian might have magical powers.  Anyone who is put on the block with her ends up going home.  Cameron was voted out.  Megan self-evicted.  And now, Christmas injured herself.  Jillian, in fact, spent most of today asking people if there would still be a vote if Christmas didn’t come back.

Really, Jillian had a legitimate point.  In the past, whenever someone has had to unexpectedly leave the house, that’s led to that week’s vote being canceled.  And it could happen this week.  Julia could very easily announce, on Thursday, “Since Megan previously left, there will be no voting tonight.”  To me, that would seem to be the only fair thing to do.

But anyway, back to Christmas in July.

Christmas did eventually return to the house.  She is on crutches and she’s wearing a big cast on her foot.  She didn’t break her foot but she tear a ligament.  While her injury was not bad enough to take her out of the game, it will be interesting to see if any of the future HoH or POV comps are modified to give Christmas a fighting chance.  Because, seriously, there’s no way she’s going to be able to take part in any physical competitions.

(Seriously, torn ligaments are the worst!  As a lifelong dancer, I’ve suffered more than a few and, while it technically may not be as bad as a broken bone, it can feel even worse.  I imagine that’s why Raven, being a dancer herself, was the most concerned of everyone when Christmas was first taken to the hospital.  She knows how bad an injury like this can be.)

Of course, this could work out for Christmas.  Now that she is no longer a competition threat, there’s not really any compelling reason to vote her out.  So, this could be bad news for Jillian come Thursday.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

P.S. In case you were wondering which Houseguest seemed to care the least about how badly Christmas was injured, it was Jessica.  Big surprise, I know.

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Hi y’all!

So, if there’s one thing that has always remained consistent about Big Brother, it is that you don’t want to be the first Head of Household.  It’s true that, last season, Nicole was not only the first HoH but also won the game but that was largely because the season was obviously rigged for her (or one of the other vets) to win.  Usually, being Head of Household during week one means that you’re going to have a huge target on your back during week two.

That’s certainly the situation that Cody has now found himself in.

To recap: As we saw on tonight’s episode, Megan self-evicted and Cody picked Alex to be the replacement nominee.

However, Alex has since won the veto.  Today, they had the veto ceremony and, as expected, Alex took herself off the block.  After telling everyone that he probably wasn’t going to nominate Paul as a replacement, Cody did just that.

Except — Paul has immunity for the next three weeks!  Paul revealed this during the veto ceremony, which naturally Cody is not happy about.  Instead of nominating any of the other outsiders in Paul’s place, Cody nominated Christmas.  According to Cody, Christmas is too close to Paul.

Needless to say, Christmas did not take this well.   She and Cody spent a good deal of today yelling at each other.  She is angry with him and now, Cody is determined to get her out of the house.  The only problem is that the rest of Cody’s alliance is now mad at him, because Cody didn’t let them in on his plan.  They don’t want to vote out Christmas, though both Jessica and Mark have been trying to convince them to vote the way that Cody wants them to vote.

All of that is not really surprising.  As HoH, Cody has gotten so full of himself that you just knew the rest of the house was going to turn against him.  However, what some may not have foreseen is just how angry some of the people in the house are at Paul for taking the temptation.  Paul has spent a week being everyone’s friend but, by accepting the temptation, he also reminded everyone that he is in the house to play the game.  Everyone has been reminded that Paul actually is a threat to win.

But here’s the thing — Paul has three weeks to regain everyone’s trust.  By the time his immunity expires, everyone will probably have moved on to other targets.  Cody, on the other hand, now has literally everyone angry with him.  If any of the women, other than Jessica, win HoH on Thursday, there’s a good chance that Cody is going to be nominated.  They’re sick of him.

Perhaps the luckiest person in the house right now is Josh.  If not for Cody managing to alienate literally everyone in the house, unstable Josh would be the obvious target.  As it is, it looks like Josh might survive for another week or two.

Lisa Marie 

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Hi, everyone!

I’m sitting here, trying to figure out Cody’s thinking as far as who he’s going to put on the block and it’s not easy.  Right now, the nominees are Alex and Jillian but Alex has won the power of veto and will be using it on herself.  So, Cody has to put up a replacement nominee but, because he has formed a huge alliance, he doesn’t have many options.  Add to that, Cody has been making deals all over the house, further limiting his options.

Here’s how the house stands:

Cody’s big alliance consists of Christmas, Dominique, Elena, Jessica, Mark, Matthew, and Raven.  Elena and Mark have hooked up.  Matthew and Raven are flirting.  Cody and Jessica are kind of together, though their relationship doesn’t seem to be anywhere close to being as serious as Elena and Mark’s.  So, in theory, that’s 7 people who Cody would not nominate.

Not in the mega alliance are Josh, Ramses, Jason, Jillian, Alex, Kevin, and Paul.

Alex and Josh are both safe.  Jillian is already on the block.

That leaves, as far as Cody knows, Paul, Jason, Kevin, and Ramses.  When Cody first became head of household, he was talking about backdooring Paul but then, after Paul worked some of his famous charm, Cody’s focus shifted to Jason.

But today, Cody approached Alex, Jason, and Ramses and made the same deal with all of them: if they promised to keep the three couples safe, Cody would agree not to put any of them up on the block.  Alex, Jason, and Ramses all agreed to the deal but all of three of them later stated, privately, they were still planning on going after Cody and Jessica the first chance they got.

That would seem to leave Paul and Kevin as the only options.  EXCEPT — Paul has three weeks of immunity.  Cody doesn’t know that but, if he does attempt to nominate Paul, then Paul’s “secret” will be revealed to the house.

So, in other words — Kevin will probably end up as the replacement nominee.  That said, everyone seems to like Kevin so Jillian’s days are probably numbered.

The veto ceremony will either be tomorrow or on Monday.  We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

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