Is it Time For BB Canada Yet?

OK, maybe that is a bit of a stretch, but man were those much more likable houseguests.

Anyway….

As Big Brother 15 draws to a close with the worst final three we’ve seen since Sheila, A-Baller, and Ryan during season 9, I find myself looking back and wondering how we got to this point. Where did it all go wrong? The season started out pretty promising, after all, with all new houseguests, a house divided, big blindsides, and the “bad guys” going down. 

My pick to win Big Brother going in was actually Andy, but I was a big McCrae fan immediately. Who wouldn’t be? The awkward guy who was likeable to the audience, but maybe not so much to other houseguests. When this geeky underdog won the first HOH, I was ready. This season was going to be good. And when Amanda made her way up to McCrae’s HOH room, their showmance also made its way into our hearts. Don’t lie, folks. You loved McCranda at first. 

Of course, McCrae’s HOH really didn’t matter, as the MVP (aka Rachel Reilly’s sister, aka Elissa) got to make the third nomination (a Big Brother twist worthy of being spoken of along with other strokes of genius like the Saboteur). Although it took a few weeks for BB to really hit the lowest of the lows, the fact that the MVP twist even existed in a season where one houseguest would have such a huge advantage was a clear sign of things to come.

But first we saw the end of David.

A potential half million dollar winner.

After David’s eviction, we saw the best week of the BB season. Elissa should have been a shoe in to go home, but Jeremy’s bullying antics suddenly made him a big target in the house. It was looking like the “good guys” were going to take control. Sure, Elissa wasn’t exactly smart enough to try and backdoor Jeremy, so he got off the block. Sure, they had to go for their second target (Nick), who I think could have become a fan favorite had he stayed a little longer. But still. For the first time in a long time, I think even those of us who follow the live feeds were uncertain of what would happen at the live eviction. Ginamarie certainly was. 

Soon Jeremy followed Nick out the door, and suddenly the “good people” were in complete control of the house. Another Big Brother season was going to continue without much excitement, but at least the cast was likable.

And then, the racism began.

And let’s be honest, non-live-feed-followers. It wasn’t just Aaryn being racist (although she was pretty awful). It was also Amanda being racist, and McCrae sitting by and laughing about it. Ginamarie being racist, cruel, and completely without conscience (telling Candace that her birth mother must not have wanted her was really crossing the line). Spencer being racist, and sexist, and homophobic. Fan-favorite Judd being sexist. Andy bashing houseguests behind their backs.

The awful comments being made on the live feeds (and being ignored on the CBS show other than scapegoating Aaryn) made half of the houseguests impossible to like. In fact, it became impossible to do anything other than really dislike these people—and all you could do was root against them.

Those who didn’t make any comments weren’t really fan favorite type characters either. Sure, there was Elissa with the Brenchal Army behind her. But other than her? There was Helen of the Mom Squad, who was commonly referred to only in the context of “STFU Helen” and not much else in social media. Howard seemed like a good guy who was evicted pre-jury, so there wasn’t much time to root for him. Candace had potential but unfortunately it’s hard to really like someone who calls everyone “boo” and refers to herself as “Candyland” (although I’d still prefer her in the final 3 over anyone else there). Jessie started off the season pretty annoying, but by not being a bigoted human being she suddenly became one of the better houseguests. I guess I’d vote for her for fan favorite if you put a gun to my head. Not because I really liked her. But because I disliked everyone else more.

Having a bunch of bigots in the final 3 is one thing. But unfortunately we are stuck with three that didn’t really have any redeeming qualities in their edits. 

CBS watchers may not know Ginamarie as probably the worst racist out of the whole cast, but they do know her as a psychotic stalker who couldn’t give a speech to save her life, and didn’t even think about strategy until she had a week left in the house.

Spencer was racist, boring, and even called himself “disgusting.” His claim to fame is that he was nominated more than anyone else in BB history. Now, some people could probably make this into a really redeeming quality, but I can’t imagine Spencer telling the jury that the fact that he was nominated so many times and managed to survive makes him a deserving winner. In all honesty, Spencer was nominated 47 times because no one in the house cared about him. And no one on the jury cares about him now either.

Andy wasn’t racist. But he was completely out of line in the way he talked about the other houseguests, especially Elissa. And he could have been the nicest guy in the world on the live feeds, but that wouldn’t have mattered to America. Although Andy is probably (no—definitely) the most deserving to win out of the final three, he is also probably the most hated by America. He is considered a rat, and a floater. Fans of basically anyone else in the house other than Andy blame him for their preferred houseguest’s eviction.

So where do we go from here? 

Most viewers are going to be more interested in seeing if Ginamarie attacks Nick onstage than they are in the actual winner of the show. Can Big Brother redeem itself after a season full of houseguests with no redeeming qualities?

I guess I will continue to keep my fingers crossed for an All Stars season. One starring actual All Stars like Eric Stein, Matt Hoffman, Ragan Fox, Michelle Noonan (I think she’s underrated, deal with it), Frank Eudy (I think he is overrated but know he is a shoe in), Ian Terry, and hell even Shelly Moore (rather than having to sit through another three months of Big Jeff). And maybe better casting when they go back to newbies. (I was begging for an all newbies season and this is what I got—do I have bad BB karma for some reason?)

In the meantime, Andy was my pick preseason to win it all, so here’s to hoping the little rat can win the final HOH and take come the five hundred grand.