Big Brother Over The Top: First Impressions!

Hi y’all!

So, I did get to see the first three hours of Big Brother Over The Top on Wednesday night so I’m going to just share a few first impressions of the houseguests and the show itself.

However, before I do anything else, here’s the Big Brother Over The Top Weekly Schedule:

Big Brother: Over The Top Weekly Schedule –

• Sunday, 10PM EST: Final Weekly Safety Ceremony / Nomination Reveal
• Monday, 4PM EST: Veto Competition
• Monday, 10PM EST: Weekday Replay
• Tuesday, 4PM EST: Veto Meeting
• Tuesday 10PM EST: Weekday Replay
• Tuesday 10:30PM EST: Live Diary Room Sessions
• Wednesday 10PM EST: Weekly Full Episode
• Wednesday 11PM EST: Live Eviction
• Wednesday 12AM EST: HOH Competition
• Thursday, TBD: Julie hosts a live Q&A with the houseguests
• Thursday, TBD: Julie interviews the evicted houseguest
• Thursday, 10PM EST: Weekday Replay
• Friday, 10PM EST: Weekday Replay
• Friday, 10:30PM EST: Live Diary Room Sessions
• Saturday, 4PM EST: Have-Not Reveal
• Saturday, 10PM EST: Safety Ceremony

As for my first impression of the show — well, it was interesting.  For the first time, the feeds started as soon as the first houseguest entered the house.  The 13 HGs entered one at a time, at 15 minute intervals, and it was kind of fun getting to see them meeting each other for the first time and exploring the house.  At the same time, it also seemed to take forever before all 13 of the HGs were actually inside the house.

We learned that the Over The Top houseguests have been in sequester for the past two weeks so they don’t know who won Big Brother 18.  The majority of them seemed to be rooting for Paul.

After all the houseguests had entered the house, a pre-taped film of Julie Chen showed up on the big living room screen and informed that 1) all of the competitions will be live and 2) there will be no jury house.  Instead, we the viewers will be voting for the final winner of Big Brother Over The Top.

So far, it’s look like production actually did a pretty good job as far as casting is concerned.  As a lot of people on twitter immediately pointed out, almost everyone in the house is from the South.  Personally, I’m totally okay with that, because I’m from Texas and I have family all over the South.  When I listen to all the accents in the house, I feel like I’m at a Bowman-Meehan-Marchi family reunion.  I know that some people up north were complaining about all the accents but you know what?  I had to spend an entire summer listening to Nicole, Paul, and Meech so it’s hard for me to have much sympathy for people who can’t handle 10 weeks of listening to the way people talk in my part of the world.

As for the individual houseguests, here are my thoughts:

The first HG to enter the house was Scott.  Scott is a 24 year-old virgin from Bangor, Maine.  He makes his living as a debt collector.  He’s one of those people who spends his day calling people and asking them why they haven’t been paying their credit card.  Scott is so socially awkward that he was painful to watch.  Personally, I found him to be kind of creepy.

The second HG to enter the house was Morgan.  Morgan is from Austin, Texas.  She’s 22 years old, she’s blonde, and she was a cheerleader in college.  When it was just her and Scott in the house, things were kind of awkward and the way Scott kept staring at her was really icky.  Fortunately, they were soon joined by…

SHANE!  Shane is third HG to enter the house.  He has a beard and he looks like a less muscular and better looking (and, hopefully, better-behaved) version of Austin from season 17.  Shane is a roofer from North Carolina.  When he first entered the house, Morgan seemed really happy to see him.  Could this be a showmance in the making or was Morgan just happy to have someone other than Scott to talk to?

The fourth HG to enter the house was Neely!  Neely is 33 and is from Ft. Worth, Texas.  I liked Neely as soon as she entered the house and it seems like she might have a good social game (she works in sales so she should). Neely is lying about her age, the better to fit in with the other HGs.

The fifth HG was Shelby!  At first, I didn’t like Shelby because, whenever she spoke, she sounded a lot like Liz Nolan and I started to have flashbacks to Big Brother 17.  However, Shelby won me over.  She seems to be one of the smarter people in the house so we’ll see how that pays off for her. Shelby is 24 year-old law school graduate from California.

The sixth HG was Cornbread!  Cornbread is 41 years old and he’s from Georgia.  I really didn’t think that I’d care much for Cornbread but, so far, he’s actually been pretty likable.  He’s a redneck but he also seems like a genuinely nice guy.  He’s the oldest guy in the house but I don’t think he’ll struggle to fit in.  He doesn’t seem to be anything like Glenn.

The 7th HG was Whitney!  Whitney is 21 and she’s from Kentucky.  Just in case you didn’t hear her the first time, Whitney continued to tell people that she was from Kentucky for several minutes.  I lost track of how many times she mentioned it.  Whitney has the strongest accent in the house so, if you don’t like country accents, don’t listen to Whitney.

The 8th HG was Kryssie.  Kryssie is 31 and she’s from Chicago.  According to her profile, she’s best known for appearing in a viral video in which she was rude to someone at a restaurant.  Personally, I had never seen the video before so I’m thinking it might not be as big a thing as Kryssie seems to think it was.  Kryssie came on very strong from the minute she entered the house.  I would argue that she came on too strong.  After being in the house for less than 2 minutes, she announced that she would need someone to agree to cuddle with her at night.

“I have a boyfriend,” Whitney replied, her eyes bulging in apparent terror.

The 9th HG was Justin!  At first, I liked Justin’s laid back New Orleans stoner vibe but I have a feeling he’s not going to last long in this game.  First off, he’s a recruit and, shortly after entering the house, he mentioned that he’s never even seen Big Brother before.  He’s been struggling to remember everyone’s name (“What’s your name again?”) and he’s been a little aloof.  While everyone else was gathered in the kitchen, Justin was walking around the house.

The 10th HG was Alex!  Alex is from my hometown of Dallas!  And she’s Morgan’s sister!  The thing is — Alex looks exactly like Morgan.  And yet, she and Morgan are pretending that they’re not related.  They’re not doing a very good job at it.  Every time I’ve checked, Alex and Morgan have been either standing or sitting next to each other.  (Alex and Morgan could seriously be twins, though I believe Alex is two years older than Morgan.) Alex is even calling Morgan “Mo,” despite the fact that they’re trying to convince everyone that they’ve just met.

The 11th HG was Monte!  Monte is from Mississippi and he’s nice to look at.  As soon as he entered the house, Shane offered to give him a tour of the place.  That’s right — it’s bromance time!

The 12th HG was Danielle!  Danielle is a 23 year-old teacher from California.  When last I checked, Justin was trying to flirt with her in the back yard.  For her part, Danielle is absolutely beautiful but she also seems a little stand offish.

The 13th HG was JASON ROY!  That’s right.  The people have spoken and Jason defeated Jozea for the right to reenter the house.  Personally, I always liked Jason but it bothers me that he’s entering the house with a built-in fanbase that the other HGs do not have.  Considering that a lot of this season is going to be determined by what the viewers vote for, it doesn’t seem quite fair to force a bunch of unknowns play against someone who already has a following.

So, what will happen?

Well, from what I saw, it appeared that the women were bonding and the men were doing the same.  Jason and Kryssie seem to like each other.  Justin is obsessed with Danielle.  Monte and Shane have a bromance going.  And Morgan and Alex still seem to think that nobody will ever figure out that they’re related.

The first HoH competition is tomorrow!  We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie