I’m obsessed with twists on reality shows. Especially on Big Brother and Survivor because they’re usually chaotic and comedically poorly designed. The latter part I want to focus on specifically. What if Big Brother did a twist but like… actually gave it some thought. No hate to the producers, just thought this would be a fun thought experiment!
Season 4
The Ex-Factor. Loved this season and I really liked the concept of this twist. The only thing I would change is that all of them should’ve had exes in the house. Start with seven houseguests, and then bring in the other seven. More drama, more chaos, and more interesting social dynamics. But I’m sure getting seven pairs of exes in a house probably isn’t easy. The Real World season 29 tried to do something similar and some of the cast’s exes just simply refused to be a part of the show. I mean of course. Who wants to live with their ex for a summer?
Season 5
Season 5’s twist was “Project DNA”. Meh? I’ve only seen this season once, and I don’t recall being too fond of this twist. Starting with the twins. Yeah, it’s cool to see them try to play as one person. Watching them switch places, try to keep their story straight, and pull off this scheme is fun for a while. But aside from that, there’s not much else besides, “Omg you guys were twins the whole time? Woah!” Then back to our regularly scheduled programming. What was in it for them, truly? To “fix” this twist, I would’ve given them a monetary reward for surviving five weeks. And if they were caught, it would be an automatic eviction. Add some stakes.
As for Michael and Nakomis, I honestly just found this a bit… too personal. Yes, it’s great the siblings were brought together, but the whole set up just felt a bit exploitative. If I found out I had a secret half-sibling in the house, I’d be less concerned with the game, and more concerned about my family. What else are they hiding from me? I would be a bit distraught. To “fix” this twist, I honestly would’ve just replaced them with a secret pair of siblings or relatives. Similar to season 6’s twist. It may not be as flashy, but at least I’m not potentially blowing up an entire family’s secret.
Season 6
Season 6’s Summer of Secrets… Honestly, I don’t hate this twist. At least not in theory. All of the houseguests came into the house with a secret partner, and the goal was to make it to the end together for double the prize money. But logistically speaking, this was likely never going to work as intended. Some of the houseguests started to figure out that they were all in secret pairs pretty much immediately, because it’s just difficult to pretend like you don’t know someone. And the odds of a pair making it all the way to the end together are pretty slim. Not to mention, this immediately made any remaining pairs in the game an instant threat, since they would obviously always put each other first. Plus, did Big Brother even have a million dollars to give away at this point? Anyway, to “fix” this twist, maybe make the pairings known from the beginning. Instead of the goal being to make it to the end, perhaps make them a liability instead. What if when a houseguest wins HoH, their partner is penalized somehow. Maybe an auto-nom? Maybe that’s a little harsh. But at least something. I find the idea of using the houseguests allies against them to be far more compelling. Of course it’s not a “Summer of Secrets” anymore but… who cares. The show surely didn’t.
Yeah you don’t need to fix 6. Everyone having pairs, and having it be a thing players can puzzle out easily ( they did, including the pairs) and then target or strategize as they like is a better situation than telling even the stupidest players “these two people need to be separated by eviction, as do these two, as do these two, etc.” is just a baby mode for babies. If Janelle figures out the secret pairs? You’ve balanced the challenge appropriately.
I sort of see what you’re saying. My goal wasn’t necessarily to reveal who they should target, but rather flip their relationships on their heads by manufacturing some sort of rift. If your partner is somehow penalized by you winning HoH, would you continue to go for power? How would you maneuver through the game if you knew your actions could directly negatively impact your friend? Basically replacing the whole “secrets” aspect with a test of friendship instead. My initial thought was automatically nominating the partner of whoever won the HoH, but I felt that might be too invasive of a twist. Perhaps some other punishment
No, because the first seven are likely gonna bond internally more than the latter seven will. I say to put them in in a "random" order and let the sides form as they may.
The season five stuff is fine. However, I'd consider bringing in a pair of adopted siblings of difference races! How's that for not assuming?
Great! Let's see more competitions thrown... No way.
Regarding the first one, is that not what happened anyway? With the first eight vowing to take out all the exes. I feel like if we put them in together we won’t get the initial shock from a reveal either.
You’re right about the last one though. I was very unsure about that too, and felt it was too invasive. I was struggling to think of a punishment that actually stung in my hypothetical scenario.
Yes, and it would not have happened if each pair of exes were in the same move-in group.
Anyway, for the pairs, I think that just having them public could be fine as well even without a punishment. A season like this could be compared to the two Blood vs. Water seasons from Survivor US.
While I loved the original twin twist, I do think if they bring it back they should just make it for the first week and then as long as the twins survive that have the 2nd twin enter the house and have the twins compete as one houseguest like the Pacs Bros.
Most twins aren't as identical as Adria/Natalie and people now know to look for a twin twist as we saw in BB17, so having it last for 5 weeks again with the threat of there being an additional houseguest if they survive is really playing with fire.
Dang it! You beat me to it! I was actually going to suggest the twins in BB17 play the game together like what was done in Canada 4. Once I actually got to posting about that season that is (I plan on doing these posts for each season thus far). But you’re right. There’s no way they could pull off the original twins twist again. Your iteration of the twist is great!
Posts by randos on reddit proudly proclaiming they'd do a better job than literally the people who produce Big Brother as their life's work make me die laughing every single time.
Hey it was never that serious. This was just for fun! Plus, we have the gift of hindsight. But I’d love to hear your thoughts
These are the same people who created battle of the block. Just because something is your life's work doesn't mean you're good at it (or even give a shit about it)
I swear! This was just a fun a little critique! Reality shows bug up all the time. I was more so just curious what others had to say and what other ideas people had.
No yeah you're totally valid, the person I was replying to is just a moron
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Sure, but you never even brought up my critiques. Nor anything I said for that matter. You just seem to oppose me making a critique… at all. Perhaps it was my snarky tone in the post that turned you off? Valid, but it really was in good fun.
Tell me you're a fourteen-year-old without telling me you're a fourteen-year-old.
Because life is all about maturing and....recognizing the untouchable wisdom of overpaid reality TV producers? That's a weird hill to die on
Even I have to admit that I'm guilty of this like I absolutely hated the hamster wheel elimination comp because it's not Big Brother and it hurt seeing Rachel come back for an ordinary season, play the game, work hard and I wanted to see her fight for her life in the game...but I can't deny it was the best episode in literally years and I don't blame the producers for wanting to bring it back haha
Her exit speech was actually kind of moving. It felt like a movie!
Nah, episode sucked. Every episode that is all competition editing is boooooring.
There's no way the white locust episode was better than some episodes even this season: the Zach and Rylie evictions, the double eviction, hell even the finale come to mind
Seeing Rachel get twist-screwed fucking sucked
Thank you for admitting it. This is what growth looks like. 🙏