Sunday, May 18, 2008

Ninja Exposure Causes Info Leaks in the House

On the Live Stream Bianca just confirmed that the "Ninja" that did her hair and make-up (for the Carson Kressley special) told her she had seen the fight between Bianca and Corey on the show. When Bianca questionned which fight had been aired, the Ninja said she probably shouldn't have mentioned that.

But why are the Ninjas talking to them anyway? Shouldn't they have taken a vow of silence before entering the House for the special? Or maybe it is too much to ask a hairdresser to stop gossiping for more than 20 minutes!

Changes to Eviction Show

There were slight changes made to the Eviction format this week. It could have been taken further, but it was a big improvement already.

Firstly, more happened on stage. This is good news for those who paid $80 for an Eviction Show ticket. They had the chat with Mrs Travis, discussing her son's sexuality and constant questions posed about it. And also Corey live on stage-- although he said about 15 words during the 4 minute interview, it was good to have a send-off for him after his interesting stint in the House.

The nominations and voting worked the same way. It was still a bit drawn out, but as the number of HMs gets smaller the voting process will get shorter and shorter, but I guess so will the length of the whole Eviction Show.

Announcing the "safe" HM seemed a bit awkward as well. Kyle just blurted it out and no one was really sure if he had meant it. It could have been made a bit more official. But why announce a safe HM? Why not have the 3 of them fearing eviction until the last moment?

But then the way they pre-recorded the announcement during the commercial break and played it to the audience on delay so Rebecca could be backstage straight after the announcement was a good move. It keeps the suspense, but also allows them to go straight into the interview. While we know the evictee has really had 2 or 3 minutes by themselves on the buggy ride to the stage and getting mic'ed up, it still makes it seem more spontaneous. And some people who don't know the intricacies of the show might believe their fake little revolver on the back of the stage is really attached to the House.

The interview was still way too short, but maybe they will get longer as the show goes on and they have more to talk about. Also, maybe they don't have as many video packages edited together this year because they are not really sure who the nominees would be before the show. Crossing back to the House after the interview is almost unneeded. The segment could be better used for a longer interview.

The show was a lot better this week and hopefully more small improvements happen over the next few weeks. Hopefully the ratings will show an improvement this week as well.

Rebecca Evicts... Herself

Who saw this coming? Rebecca-- winner of FNL and holder of the Eviction Twist --first repaid Travis for saving her last week by removing him from the Nomination line-up, but then she, herself, fell into the bottom three. Then, with double points to evict, chose herself as the next evictee with her 4 point advantage.

In the Daily Show from Friday night when Rebecca found out she was in the bottom 3, she confided in Brigitte that she would definitely save herself and she really wanted to be in the House. So enough happened in that weekend to make her want to leave.

In the past, one of the rules of nominations was that HMs could not nominate themselves. Either BB was not expecting anyone to choose to evict themselves and did not have a comeback for her, or BB really doesn't care who their points go to now, as long as they give reasons. And really, it is the ultimate strategic vote. With the strategy to let anyone other than yourself win!

As it turns out, if Rebecca hadn't voted for herself, and given her 4 points to Ben and 2 to Rory, she still would have been the evictee of the night. Results would have ended up Rebecca 18, Ben 17, Rory 7.

The result probably worked out for the best, too. I'm sure that Ben will become a great HM later in the series if he survives. He seems really funny but needs a smaller audience for his quiet voice to be heard and appreciated. Rory is a loud, dominant male, and without him the only alpha male left will be Nobbi, ruling over all the quieter boys.

Rebecca was leading the bitchfest. Over the weekend we saw all combinations of the girls in little groups, talking about the others, then moving into different little groups and talking with the ones they just bitched about, about the others. Rebecca was separating a lot of the groups of girls, and now with her gone, Dixie is the one doing it, which will be noticed and she will be dealt with soon.

The other HMs will never know during their stay that Rebecca sacrificed herself for their sakes. The question that will probably never be answered is, if she hadn't been evicted tonight, would she have still gone out of her way to leave?

Eviction #2: Who Will Go?

It's a lot more difficult to judge this year because we don't really know who will be nominated for eviction until 7:30pm. Also it doesn't take much for the bottom 3 to change drastically, because on Friday night Bianca was not in the Danger Zone at 7pm, but by 9:30 when FNL was over, she was one of the bottom 3 confirmed to Rebecca.

So we can safely say Rebecca will not be evicted, because she has already said she will undoubtedly save herself if she is nominated. This year's voting method actually makes it more likely that she will be though, because why would the public vote for her after Friday night knowing she can save herself? The only reason to do so is to hope she ends up #4 on the list, so she will save someone else and fall into their place herself. An unlikely event to aim for.

Rory has kept himself out of the Danger Zone this week after his nomination last week. David has played the "unfortunate upbringing" card this week in a hope to save himself. Favourites Alice and Dixie have been in there all week.

We will probably see an all-girl bottom 3 this week, or if any of the guys slip in there it will be Nathan. I wouldn't mind seeing Nathan go this early as he is very boring.

I will guess it is time to go for either Alice, Bianca, or Nathan.

Separated at Birth?

It was pointed out to me that Scout from the video game Team Fortress 2 may be Travis' long lost twin. What do you think?