Houseplan Version 3

A BBBA forum member was nice enough to send me some of his screenshots of different angles of the House, and I have updated some final inaccuracies and details in my houseplan.

Also, tonight's Carson Crashes BB's Closet special was edited to look like going through the seemingly magical cloud door in the backyard led the HMs into Casron's Closet (aka the Eviction Room), but from the house layout you can see they were taken for a fair walk around the camera run (presumably blindfolded) to get to their destination.

Edit: HMs were locked in the backyard while this went on. Why didn't BB simply usher the make-over HMs to the purple ninja-access door near the pools? It is the closest exit point to the Eviction Room/Carson's Closet. Maybe BB really wants us and the HMs to focus on that cloud door being "the great unknown".

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Changes to Sunday Format

BB has felt the ratings dive for the first Sunday Eviction, and producers have started reworking the format of the Live Eviction show for this week. Ads airing now are vague about the changes, but promise "You won't know who is evicted until the very end". Well, wasn't that one of the problems? That the evictee was announced too late and there was hardly any time for an on-stage interview.

Main complaints have been:

• Little interaction with the hosts and live audience for most of the show
• The voting process is too slow
• The Eviction Revolver took away the surprise of the eviction for both the HMs and the audience
• The on-stage interview was too short

It is probably too late now to change the nomination/eviction process for the year. The only way they could do this without Kyle and Jackie available Monday nights to host would be to go back to the BB01 style of pre-recording the nominations during the day and airing the highlights during the Daily Show.

Anyway, I don't think there is anything wrong with the new process, as it will see the boring or inconsequential HMs evicted first. It has already delivered one of the most boring HMs from the House.

But one rumour that is going around is Gretel's famous catchphrase "It's time to go" will make its return this weekend.

Looking forward to seeing how the changes improve the pacing and suspense.

New Gimmick Missing From Daily Show

BB's latest gimmick, the BB Vending Machine, failed to make an appearance in tonight's Daily Show. Undoubtedly it will return many times throughout the season, but its first appearance to the HMs must have failed to make a splash.

While 4 of the HMs were in "Bali", BB gave the others 15 coins to spend in the BB Vending Machine. Items included personal things such as Nathan's treasured item, and a new pair of heart-shaped sunglasses to replace Travis' broken pair, to items to share such as chocolates. In the end the altruistic option won, and all HMs divvied up the chocolates between themselves.

I'm sure if Nathan picked his own item to purchase it would have made a storyline for the Daily Show, but the HMs are being too nice now.

I can't wait for BB to put Princess Sparkles in there and see what Brigitte or the others decide to do with their pocket money. Some HMs would feel sorry for her and buy back the toy. Maybe they would do it to shut up her continual crying. But perhaps someone like Nobbi would have Saxon's legend live on and leave the stuffed unicorn behind glass to set off Brigitte on another outburst.

Versatile Big Brother

The main BB voice this year is last year's deputy BB, and has always been the funny one.

And he is getting his chance to show his talents this last week-- so far playing a rapper during FNL, a flight captain on the flight to and from "Bali", a cricket umpire for this week's task, and a fashion show announcer when Carson Kressley crashed the compound.

Do you do accents, too, Big Brother?

Dixie and Her Food

Dixie quickly became known as the house's food thief when the topic was brought up during the first Family Meeting. She admitted to sleeping with an apple under her pillow which she wanted to eat later, and hiding tea bags in her bra, then offering them to other HMs.

In tonight's Daily Show we saw that she is more interested in stuffing her face with breakfast than participating in this week's task. Even after she missed one catch and checked to make sure no one noticed, she continued eating and missed a second one. But doesn't she realise that the reason she has a nice breakfast in front of her is because they passed last week's task? They are well on the way to failing, and then she is back on staples. Maybe just anything edible is satisfactory.