Big Brother will return once again this summer for BB 24, and it's time to explain why big changes may be beneficial. Given how the show has been received for the better part of a decade now, a massive overhaul will be needed to prevent certain problems that have been prevalent in recent seasons. Although many attempts to curb these recent issues have been made, big alliances still manage to form and steamroll through the game. Big Brother has largely had the same format for most of its run.
"Expect the Unexpected" is the show's motto. Big Brother producers try to spice the show up every year, by introducing new twists to make things a bit different than the year before, although the general format remains the same. Some twists have little effect on the game, such as season 12’s Saboteur, while others strongly impact the strategy of the season, like Battle of the Block. It's often hard to tell whether a Big Brother twist will help a season or stunt it. However, it is quite safe to say that the twists conceived over the past few years have done nothing to save Big Brother from its biggest issues.
What season 24 needs to avoid is a big alliance steamroll. Multi-person alliances have dominated the game before, with The Brigade in season 12. However, season 16 is really where this strategy began having a stranglehold in future seasons, and major power shifts have become more and more rare. The mega-alliance Bomb Squad and sub-alliance Detonators dominated, and had little to no pushback because they consistently had the power and the numbers. Following this season, new players caught on that the Big Brother winner was usually part of these giant eight-person alliances. At its worst, this strategy leads to an incredibly troubled environment, which has been apparent many times on the show. Houseguests who are not in these alliances are often isolated and bullied by the big alliance members, as seen with Paul’s minions in season 19 and Gr8ful in season 21. This strategy made the show uncomfortable to watch, and resulted in miserable viewing experiences.
At their best, the changes just make the show predictable. Many fans could easily see Derrick’s path to victory in season 16, along with his former alliance member Cody Califiore in the recent All-Stars season. Cody saw firsthand how easy it could be to win, and winning Big Brother should never be easy. Even with the Cookout in Big Brother 23, as historic as that alliance was, Xavier had a pretty easy path to victory after their formation.
Big Brother has tried to discourage this gameplay, often through twists, and while that’s a good place to start, more has to change. The challenges need to cover a wider range of skills, so that strong and athletic people don’t just join up and sweep every competition. The twist they come up with needs to allow houseguests who are on the outs with these alliances to be able to have a fighting chance.
The MVP twist from season 15 was very useful in preventing a big alliance from dominating that season. A twist in that vein would probably be well-received today, so long as the cast is comprised entirely of new players, without returnees or siblings of past houseguests. It may be time to take a look at the general Big Brother format and give it an update, to change the way that future players think and play. However, if season 24 sees another big alliance steamroll, then Big Brother might be a broken game