With 21 seasons under its belt, Big Brother has established itself as one of the most iconic reality TV shows of all time. The game is known for its tag-line of “expect the unexpected,” which is always delivered upon, season after season. In fact, the show has been known to introduce at least one massive twist every single season that can change everything. Today we’ll be going over five of the best twists to ever impact the game, along with five of the worst. Let’s jump right into it.
Best: Season Six’s Duo Twist
One of the most explosive seasons in show history, season six saw every person entering the house with a secret partner, with each duo thinking that they were the only ones. If any of the pairs were able to make it to the end together, the $500,000 prize would be doubled. This twist only further divided an already on-edge house and made both the “Sovereign Six” and “Friendship” Alliances that much more unwavering. While no partners ended up making it to the end, this twist still pushed an already great season to become one of the best in series history.
Worst: Season 21’s Not Duo Twist
One of the many problems with season 21 (ignoring you know, all of the horrible horrible stuff) is that many of the houseguests knew each other going in. Holly knew both Jackson and Kat, and Christie and Tommy knew each other. What this meant is that these houseguests all had built-in alliances from the start, giving them unfair advantages from the beginning.
Why only introduce a few players who knew each other? It seems like a bit of an unfair advantage. Once again, this is certainly one of the smallest issues that is currently going on with this season, but still worth a mention.
Best: America’s Player
America’s Player was a twist through both season eight and ten that allowed America to have an influence on the game. One houseguest (Eric and Dan) from each season was voted to complete tasks that America voted on, winning a certain amount of money per completed action. While some were fun such as uncomfortably hugging Jessie Godderz for far too long, others were tasking him with campaigning against houseguests that America didn’t like. What made this interesting is that Eric and Dan never actually had to complete a task they didn’t want to, making every new task a choice that they had to think through.
Worst: Season 15’s MVP
Season 15’s MVP twist, which allowed America to pick one houseguest to secretly choose a third nominee, isn’t a bad twist in theory. The downfall for this twist was introducing it during a season where fan-favorite Rachel Reilley’s sister entered the game, automatically making her America’s pick three weeks in a row. This made the MVP twist essentially an Elissa twist that made her incredibly powerful for the first three weeks, which in turn saw the twist being turned over to America after Elissa’s three straight wins. Had the MVP twist been introduced in a season without any returning players or relatives, it would have been very enjoyable to watch play out.
Best: Jury Sequestering
While less of a twist and more of a ruling, Big Brother Three’s Danielle would have likely won if it had not been for the jury watching her Diary Room sessions at home. The jury getting outside influence on who they would vote to win was never fair to begin with, and thus, sequestering them from season four onward was a necessary move. Granted, this doesn’t stop bitter juries from being bitter ol’ juries but production can only do so much, ya know?
Worst: Battle Of The Block
Battle of the Block occurred in season 16 and 17. This twist had two HOHs winning and nominating two houseguests, and then the two teams competed in a competition, with the winners being safe and dethroning the HOH who nominated them. To break it down, all this did was form mega alliances and have one HOH put up pawns who would make the target try to complete the competition alone. It forced the house into a stagnant position, where no one on the opposite side of the power could do a thing. Just what we want from Big Brother, right? That Frankie win was pretty iconic though.
Best: Battle Back Twists
The Battle Backs that are a part of essentially every season nowadays usually occurs twice in a season. One occurs for pre-jury evictees, and one usually follows for the first few weeks of jury.
These Battle Backs give an evicted player a shot to re-enter the game. This has a chance to totally flip the house upside-down and cause a shift in power, which is why it is always a welcomed twist.
Worst: First Week Power
Another newer trend on the list, we have the twist that grants a certain houseguest huge power in the first week of the game. While the most recent example of this is Jackson’s Camp Director responsibility, Paul’s friendship bracelets come to mind as well. This gives far too much power to one person very early in the game, and forces people into the outskirts before they even have a chance to game, which can obviously negatively affect the season.
Best: Season 21’s Camp Comeback
Despite the dumpster fire of a season that is Big Brother 21, Camp Comeback is actually an interesting twist. Camp Comeback is a twist on the Battle Back that sees evicted houseguests actually staying in the house until the fight to get back in the house, which can have a big effect on house dynamics. It’s quite a shame that this racist house filled Camp Comeback with the majority of every single POC houseguest in the game.
Worst: Returning Players
While the return of Paul for season 19 is a traumatic memory for most, most times that a season features returning players, it still isn’t a good time. Outcry from fans before season 20 stopped the trend of returning players up until now. Before that though, most seasons included anywhere from one to four returnees. Unless you’re going to do an all-stars season in the vein of season seven, leave returnees out of the mix. Let them go to The Challenge or Ex on the Beach. They’ll be fine over there.