Big Brother Over The Top: The Reign of Monte

Hi, everyone!

Before I get to anything else, I want to answer a question that The Mortgage Doctor asked me in the comments under the previous post.  He asked me if I liked the format of Big Brother Over The Top and whether or not I thought this format would ever be used again.

It’s a good question and I don’t have a definite answer yet.  There are a few things that I do like about Big Brother Over The Top and there’s a few things that I dislike.  It’s way too early to say anything for sure but he’s just a few of my thoughts:

Here’s what I do like about Big Brother Over The Top:

I like the cast.  To be honest, I think it’s shame that this cast was not used for Big Brother 18.  Everyone on Big Brother Over The Top seems like they could potentially win.  They all seem like they could turn out to be good players.  There’s no one like Bronte, Bridgette, or Glenn.

I like that there’s only one returning player.  To be honest, I would prefer no returning players but Big Brother tends to use former houseguests as an insurance policy.  (If the new HGs turn out to be duds, production can count on the vets to cause some drama.)  But the problem is that whenever a group of veterans are sent into the house, they immediately form their own little alliance and they end up running the house.  It gets boring.  In Big Brother Over The Top, Jason is the only returning player.  And, since he didn’t do very well the first time he played the game, he’s not entering the house with any sort of built-in advantage.

I like that, every night, a recap of the day’s activities is posted.  This is good because I’m not going to have time to watch the live feeds 24/7.

Here’s what I do not like about Big Brother Over The Top:

IT’S NOT ON TV!  That’s actually my only real problem with Big Brother Over The Top.  I don’t mind paying for the feeds.  I already subscribe to CBS All Access so it’s not an unexpected cost for me.  But I do understand why a lot of people aren’t happy about the idea of having to pay to watch the latest season of Big Brother.

As for whether or not the format will last — well, it depends on whether or not CBS makes money off of Big Brother Over The Top.  Big Brother is a cheap show to produce and apparently, they’re spending even less money on Over The Top as they do on the CBS show.  I get the feeling that there will be future online seasons of Big Brother but, fortunately, Big Brother will continue to air in the summer as well.

As for what’s happening in the house right now…

To be honest, I haven’t had many opportunities to watch the live feeds over the past day, though I have made sure to check in a few times.  Here’s what I can tell you.

As Margie P pointed out in the comments below, Jason figured out pretty quickly that Morgan and Alex are sisters.  All he had to do was look at the memory wall.  (Morgan and Alex might as well be twins.)  He’s been telling everyone in the house that Morgan and Alex are probably related but nobody is really listening to him.  If anything, everyone in the house seems to be kind of annoyed with Jason.  And, as much as I like him, Jason can be kind of annoying.  He talks constantly and seems to be kind of annoyed that the other HGs aren’t more interested in hearing stories about Big Brother 17.

Shane and Monte bromance is going strong.  In fact, it’s so strong that they are currently the strongest duo in the house.  I don’t think that’ll last, however.  Monte is way too full of himself.  He reminds me a bit of Paulie.

Shane, Monte, Cornbread, and Scott formed an alliance during the first night.  At first, Monte and Shane both seemed convinced that they needed to get the girls out of the house, largely because the girls outnumber the guys.  However, it now appears that Monte’s new target is Jason.  Since America is going to be voting on rewards and punishments, Monte feels that Jason has to go early because Jason probably already has a strong fanbase.  As much as I hate to admit it, Monte’s absolutely correct.

Monte is also the current Head of Household!  I actually liked the way that they did the first HoH comp.  The houseguests entered the house and discovered a bottle of blue liquid and a sign that said that only one houseguest could drink it.  Shane volunteered to drink it.  He was then called to the diary room.

When Shane returned, he explained that he was now “infected” and could not be HoH that week.  However, it was explained that Shane also had to power to choose who to infect next and then that person would infect someone else until the eventually the only uninfected HG would be the new HoH.  It was like a game of tag.  Since the infected HG could only pass on the infection when production set off an alarm, the HoH comp lasted for 24 hours.

And it went something like this…

Shane infected Danielle.

Danielle infected Justin.

Justin infected Shelby.

Shelby infected Scott.

Scott infected Neely.

Neely infected Kryssie after Kryssie volunteered to be the next player eliminated.

Kyrissie infected Morgan.

Morgan infected Cornbread after he told her that he would infect Jason next.

Cornbread infected Jason, which led to Jason saying, “Don’t worry, I’m coming after you, too.”  Jason now says that he wants Cornbread out but I don’t think Jason’s going to be around long enough to do so.

Jason infected Whitney, because he felt that if Whitney became HoH, she would let Monte run her HoH.  For some reason, Jason also though that Whitney might chose to infect Monte so that Alex could become HoH.

Whitney, however, infected Alex.

And that left Monte as HoH!  Monte says that he’s planning on targeting Jason.  Apparently, he wants Jason, Kryssie, and Neely out.  I can understand wanting to get rid of Kryssie because she’s loud and kind of annoying but I don’t know what Neely did to get on his nerves.

As for whether or not there will be an All-Girl’s Alliance this season — don’t count on it.  The girls seem to be obsessed with voting each other out of the house.  Almost all of them seem to want to get Danielle out of the house.

Finally, the way they’re doing the nominations is a little bit different on Over The Top.  Instead of a nomination ceremony, they will be having a series of Safety Ceremonies, at which time the HoH will tell two HGs that they are safe.  They’ll keep doing this until Sunday night, at which point the two HGs who haven’t been “saved’ will become the nominees.  Apparently, America will be selecting a third nominee but I don’t think that the HGs know that just yet.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

(By the way, I’m going to be on vacation for the next two weeks.  I’ll still be doing quick updates, though.)