Celebrity Big Brother: What Have We Learned?

Hi everyone!

So, last night, we all watched the finale of Celebrity Big Brother and … MARISSA WON!

Personally, I was shocked.  I wasn’t surprised when Omarosa was voted out.  I was a little surprised when Marissa won the final HoH because I seriously expected that Ross would win it.  (Ross just seemed more determined than anyone else in the house.)  I wasn’t surprised when Marisssa evicted Mark and Ari and then took Ross to the final two.  But I was shocked when Marissa actually won the game.

What happened?

I think it comes down to a few things:

First off, jury management is important, even when you’re playing with celebrities.  James Maslow said that he was planning on voting for Ross, up until Ross started answering the jury’s questions.  Ross couldn’t decide if he wanted to be humble or if he wanted to be cocky and it made him come across as being shifty to the end.  Marissa, on the other hand, was a lot more straight-forward in her answers.  Ross made the mistake of forming too many alliances, which naturally led to a lot of hurt feelings when those alliances fell apart.  So, the lesson there is to keep the jury happy.

Secondly, there was a lot of lobbying going on during the final voting.  Despite Julie saying that the jurors weren’t allowed to discuss how they were going to vote during the actual voting, that’s exactly what happened.  There’s some debate about whether it was Shannon or Omarosa who started it but personally, I think it was Omarosa.  But regardless of who started it, the show’s very first alliance — the Shannon/Omaorsa all-girl alliance — came together in the end to cast their votes for Marissa.

Finally, it’s possible that the jury just felt that Marissa needed the money more than Ross.  Marissa has pointed out numerous times that she’s not as rich or as well-known as the other houseguests.  During the voting, one juror — I’m not sure who but it might have been Omarosa again — was clearly heard to whisper, “She has a kid.”

Myself, I was never a big fan of either Ross or Marissa.  Of the two of them, I thought Ross deserved the win.  He played a better game.

However, despite being disappointed in who won, I think Celebrity Big Brother was a success overall.  I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be.  But the show was consistently entertaining and, even better, the majority of the houseguests (with a few notable exceptions) were actually interested in playing the game.  The problem with the regular season is that so many of the houseguests are more interested in launching an entertainment career than actually playing the game.  (That was a huge problem during Big Brother 19.)  But, with Celebrity Big Brother, everyone already had a career so that wasn’t really an issue.

Hopefully, the show’s producers will learn from what worked on Celebrity Big Brother and incorporate it into the summer show.

Maybe they’ll cast people who actually want to play the game, as opposed to just people they came across on Tindr.

Maybe they’ll keep the twists to a minimum.  Celebrity Big Brother only had two big twists — one was that random draw that gave Omarosa safety during the first week and the other was when they allowed the viewers to vote on what type of veto the houseguests would be playing for.  Neither one of those twists turned out to be that important.

Maybe they’ll realize that Big Brother is a better show when it’s fast-paced instead of when they drag everything out.  I wouldn’t have minded an extra week or two of Celebrity Big Brother but, at the same time, the fast pace kept things interesting.  Again, I can’t help but compare it to Big Brother 19, which seemed to go on forever.

Let’s hope that these lessons are learned!  I guess we’ll find out in June!

Well, that’s it for now.  I’ll be back this summer with Big Brother 20!  And, if you’re into Survivor, I’ll be covering that show at Reality TV Chat Blog, starting this week!

Thank you, everyone, for reading and commenting!  Y’all are the best! 🙂

Lisa Marie Bowman