Big Brother 9: A Weekly Big Brother Season Retrospective
Welcome to the weekly Big Brother Season Retrospective where Taran Armstrong (@armstrongtaran) revisits the highs, lows, and unforgettable moments of Big Brother history. Each week, Taran is joined by a rotating lineup of guests to take a deep dive into past seasons, analyzing the strategies, twists, and players that have defined the game.
From legendary alliances to shocking blindsides, this retrospective series is your chance to relive the drama and discover new insights about the show we all love. Whether you’re a longtime superfan or a newer viewer, The Memory Wall has something for everyone as we celebrate the legacy of Big Brother!
This week, Taran, Jenny Autumn, and Mike Bloom discuss Season 9 of Big Brother!
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[00:00:46] And welcome back to the Big Brother Retrospective Podcast here in the off season. As we count down to the end of the off season and start Big Brother 27, we are running through all of the past 26 seasons of Big Brother. I'm your host, Taren Armstrong. And today we are here to talk about the winter season, Big Brother 9.
[00:01:14] And I couldn't ask for a better panel to talk about it with. Because with me today is Mike Bloom. Mike, how you doing? Bueno, Taren, which definitely means hello. I'm so excited to be here and maybe something to tease. There may or may not be a preexisting relationship on this podcast that nobody knows about. Oh no. Well, also joining us is Jenny. How you doing, Jenny?
[00:01:39] I'm great. You know, Mike Bloom is my soulmate. We are a package deal. You know, so if you want to get rid of one of us from this podcast, you're going to have to get rid of both of us unless an alarm sounds. Yes. And then you'll probably choose to get rid of me over Mike, but that's okay. I understand. I understand. Yes. Big Brother 9, a strange season. We're going to talk a lot about Big Brother 9.
[00:02:06] But, but first we have some, we have some catching up to do because last week we talked about Big Brother 8. I polled the audience to see who from Big Brother 8 should be on the poster. Do either of you have a guess for who is on the poster for Big Brother 8 last season, the previous season? I, I do. I have two, I have two options that I think are acceptable. And I think that those are like the only two options that I feel okay about. Okay. List them out.
[00:02:35] I don't know. Mike, do you have strong feelings? I mean, if I'm, if you're asking me to lift up like a, you know, a survivor DVD cover as top six baby. I mean, you got to go the genados. You got to go Eric Stein, uh, throw in. I don't know. There's three, there's three. That's why there's two. That's why there's two scenarios that I, that I think. Okay. So, so Jenny, we're soulmates. I'm reading your mind here. So the other one is Mike Dutz. Uh, it is. Of course, obviously.
[00:03:06] And Joe with the pepperoni nipples. Yes. Pepperoni nipple Joe. Um, for sure. No, I think, I think that there are two options here and I feel, I feel like either of them are good. Um, you either do Dick and Danielle and Eric Stein, or you do Dick, Eric Stein and Jen Johnson. And I think that there is a, there is a chance that that is what was, what the vote was.
[00:03:32] I think that it's hard to put Dick on there with like the season is so much about the relationship between Dick and Danielle. So even though like, you don't always have to have the final two. I think that this is a final two that it makes sense to have on the poster, but I can see Jen also making the vote here, which is why I say I would accept that as the other one. No, I think, I think she's way far behind like this. She's beloved. But, but this is like putting like Sarah Lucina on the DVD cover for survivor. Kaga on like Danielle.
[00:04:01] Donato has a legacy that extends beyond season eight. And I think that's what ends up weighing the most in the minds of the story is still very much about Dick and Danielle and their relationship. So like there's an argument to be made there. Karen, what happened? I can tell you, this is an interesting conversation because there was a battle for the third spot and Jen Johnson is in that battle. But it's not with Danielle. Oh, it's with evil Dick.
[00:04:30] Oh, I mean, wow. I mean, listen, like it was meant to be. I mean, I'm rivals to the end. I would imagine that Danny Donato Briones Q rating is significantly higher than her father's in the year of our Lord. Here's the problem with like, like voting is that it's hard for people to put their personal feelings aside, like voting on something like this.
[00:04:58] You know what I mean? It's like, but from the story, it's like you might have a feeling about Dick, but like, I can't imagine not putting him on cover here. Well, that is what happened. Eric Stein. Big old head. Number one on the board. This is Jenny. You're the evil. How dare you? Danielle.
[00:05:23] Danny is number two on the poster and evil Dick is in the third spot. Evil Dick. 67% of voters put evil Dick on the poster. 54% put Jen Johnson. So she was just just a bit behind there. Probably the closest I think a fourth place has been tracking a top three, but not quite. There's your there's your poster for season eight. Beautiful. That's for Jen.
[00:05:52] Like even just like put her in her unitard like small somewhere there. But there's only three spots. We'll accept this. Sneaker in the eight. Put her for a face right there. One of the loops in the eight. But the cast that she didn't like. Yeah, that's enough for big brother eight. Let's talk about big brother nine. Oh boy. Because big brother nine. It takes place shortly after big brother eight.
[00:06:19] Uh, primarily because there's a writer strike going on. And, uh, guess who doesn't need writers reality TV and big brother. Um, they've got a house that's just sitting there, you know, uh, they might as well use it is the thought. Uh, so they decide they're going to run a winter season. And, uh, it's going to be a very special one. This they're still doing subtitles. Big brother till death do you part.
[00:06:48] Nobody, nobody calls it that. I truly forgot that that was the subtitle until like refreshing myself, um, on the season. Well, yeah, because the big twist now we're still in like the, this, the early days of the Grodner era, right? Where we're like throwing in casting twists out the wazoo, sort of like a tenant of the Shapiro era as well. And so this theme is like, we're going to make y'all fall in love that they are going to bring in. What was it?
[00:07:18] Like, uh, 14 singles. And 16, it was 16. But yeah, I think it was the first class. It was 16. It was a very large, large cast. And they said, you know what? They said, you know what? Exactly. Listen, uh, on paper, the, the, the initially promoted idea was that these were 16 singles who were to quote a future contestant ready to mingle. Uh, they were going to get paired up into soulmates.
[00:07:42] They had this like festive winter cabin theming, and they were there to hopefully spark a love connection. And this is really before we got into, you know, big brother proclaiming that it produces more marriages than the bachelor. They were really trying to fit quite a square peg into a round hole this season, considering the type of people they cast here. And I think that it like premiered, it was like roughly around Valentine's Day.
[00:08:06] So I think they were really pushing like the romance, um, theme, but also, um, it was like, they were trying to do. Are you the one before MTV did? Are you the one except for not that I think that are you the one, uh, was pairing people up, um, based on true compatibility. But they did this thing where we're like, we've decided your match is this person.
[00:08:29] And I, to this day, um, these evil geniuses were absolutely making pairings on what they thought was going to be the most like catastrophic drama. Um, and except for you delivers, except for you gay guy and you other gay guys, we can only storm. Am I right? Yeah, exactly. Hmm.
[00:08:53] Well, uh, this is the season is yes, it's very much designed to be like, hey, it's it's duos. That is the twist that, uh, everyone is playing in pairs. It's going to be their first attempt at, at like locking in a, a duo, uh, kind of thing with a game design element, uh, included. So obviously they had, they've had X's before they had secret partners in season six.
[00:09:21] And then it just last season, they had the secret rivals. Uh, we're not really so secret. They're just the rivals. Um, but now you have a partner and you are linked to that partner. That is the, the premise of the, the first few weeks of the game is that you are going to win HOH together. You are going to be nominated together and, uh, and ultimately go home together. Uh, at least in the first, uh, part of this, uh, this season.
[00:09:50] Um, and it's, uh, it's an awful twist. It's, it's a terrible idea. Yeah. Because I, people get screwed by this. I am. And even look at the voting chart and week three, it is a two to zero eviction vote. Like, because they do start with 16, but because of also they bring in a day one elimination, they winnow down the pairs so quickly, uh, that, you know, it ends up kind of wearing out less than a month into this season.
[00:10:17] Let me also just like put out a blanket statement that I think would represent the views on not only all three of us, but Rob has a podcast in general. Look, big brother. 19 is an incredibly trashy season. We are going to be nine. BB nine. Sorry. What did I say? So it does still work. I mean, I thought you were actually just saying like, I was like, but BB nine is like, but BB nine is worse. Yes. Exactly.
[00:10:48] If we can get there at this point, but what I am to say is that we're going to talk about a group of individuals that are responsible for some of the most offensive, lurid, heinous stuff that has been said even years later in the show's history. All that is to say, I think there will certainly be times where we are going to make light of said situations.
[00:11:12] That is no way a representation of many of us condoning any things that were said because again, there were some very, very bad things that these people said and sometimes did after the show. I think that what makes big brother nine so special is that this truly is a time capsule season. And I'm sure you've been talking about how these seasons represent kind of the place that we were not only in society, but in the genre itself.
[00:11:36] And this was like peak trashy TV is cake, especially in lieu of like the VH one celebrity shows, right? Like this is what this reminded me of is they were trying to make a dating show cross spread with big brother in the hopes that they would cross breed at the end of the day.
[00:11:54] And as a result, the casting was maybe more so in the whoever's going to make good TV and possibly, you know, get frisky with people instead of we're going to cast these, you know, top tier fans of the show to try to play the game that they've been dreaming of. Yeah. And if they oh, sorry, go ahead and turn. I well, I was just gonna say one of my favorite facts about big brother nine is that Dan Giesling was very nearly on this cast.
[00:12:22] Like how though? Like how? Like how? But no, it actually does make sense. Yeah. Think about it. The way that Dan if you if you don't know the story, Dan very much was trying to portray himself as this image of like this deep conservative that was going to be very offensive and in people's faces about politics all the time. Which if that were true, would have fit in really well on big brother nine.
[00:12:50] Lock them in for being the leader of team Christ, right? Like he would have been speaking to BB 19 like he would have had them in the palm of his hand for the second half of the game. Truly. Who would he be matched up with? Like who do you replace of the men on this cast for Dan Giesling? That's the thing. He he was going to be the twist. It was going to be him and his girlfriend that were that were going to be Adam and Jen.
[00:13:18] And then his his girlfriend didn't want didn't want to do it. And so then he knew about the twist. And so he could not be on the cast, which like, listen, that's a bullet dodged. Yeah, if you ever want any big neon sign that says things happen for a reason, look at the fact that Dan Giesling got to go on Big Brother 10 and Jen and Ryan were on Big Brother nine, which again, to go back to my previous disclaimer that in no way are we supporting or validating what these people are doing.
[00:13:46] Jen makes the first two weeks of Big Brother nine and really gets the ball rolling into one of the messiest seasons in the show's history. No, for sure. Ryan is only cast because of Jen. Ryan does not get cast without Jen. Let's be real here. Yeah. Well, so let's see what else to reset here.
[00:14:10] It's again, it's a winter season. And so it's it's a very strange time to air a Big Brother season. It's never been done before in the US. It's always been a summer show. All of a sudden it's happening in the winter. I've said before, Big Brother nine is one of my weakest areas of knowledge. That's for a couple of reasons. One, it's probably the season I paid the least attention to during the time because I was in school. It's like I wasn't. Oh, Karen.
[00:14:38] Karen, it's one of the reasons that I paid the most attention to this season was because I was in school and this was an undiagnosed ADHD student's perfect distraction. Why? Why write my essay ahead of time when I could be watching, you know, BB nine and then just binge it. The day before it's due. When A ballers on the screen, why bother with homework?
[00:15:06] Exactly. You know, I'm learning so much from this television product. I was in my third year of university when when this aired. I am the same age as I believe Crazy James and Chelsea, who are like two of the youngest people on the cast, I believe. Just out here aging myself. So this was like because I would sometimes not be able to fully follow summer seasons because like of work and stuff like that.
[00:15:32] This one was so easy for me to watch in real time because I was not prioritizing my studies like Taryn was. Yeah, I remember very specifically. This is like one of the first times that Big Brother and Survivor were on at the same time. And that was just I was I was like, Jenny, I was just in college. I think it was my freshman year of college. This is also like a very interesting show at the beginning of your collegiate career to be like,
[00:15:58] is this what happens to me after college? I get to jump out in the world will be my oyster. But I do think that it has such a weird vibe to it. But could we argue that this opened up the door for Big Brother Canada to be like, oh, we could do a season in the winter. Look, they were able to make it happen. But whether does it need to be a summer show? Let's take all our cues from Big Brother nine and surely we will succeed from there. Maybe, maybe.
[00:16:28] You know, it did. It did. Like there there weren't a lot of people that like were like, oh, it's in the winter. I'm not going to watch it. You know, there wasn't a lot of other stuff going on at the time. Yeah, right. Exactly. So the writer's strike was happening. I believe it premieres to a bigger audience than Big Brother eight premiered to. It just it just it just lost a lot of those people along the way.
[00:16:53] Imagine this is how you try to like grab the people that aren't really watching reality TV in the summer. This is the season where you're like, it's airing outside of the summer. We have a different audience. We're going to get here. This is this is I mean, our time. My assumption is that just 80% of the people that tuned out were just huge Jacob heads. And the second that their boy left the game, they're like, come out. I'm so sorry. I'm gone.
[00:17:19] We're going to get here.
[00:17:52] We're going to get here.
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[00:19:14] Start your test now. Let's get into this. Oh, my God. I'm sorry. Maybe it was the draft. Maybe it was the draft. Yeah. You guys did all the draft like the or yeah, all the drafts last year. Yeah. Jenny, you're making this look so much worse because that's way more recent than I thought it was. It was the tables. It was the tables. That was before. Before the 25. Yes. It was the tables. It was the tables. Yeah. I feel like there's been a recent discussion about the the iconically bad first boot of Jacob here.
[00:19:41] OK, we need to talk about this because this is much like, you know, the relics of ancient Mesopotamia have been kind of lost to time in the grand spectrum of things. I want to give so much kudos to Peridium, who put out an entire video called the worst Big Brother player of all time. And I think a lot of people would be like, oh, is it is it Howie? Is it, you know, somebody else that got, you know, flamed out spectacularly?
[00:20:07] This is one of the most forgotten seasons of Big Brother ever for good reason, be it the timing, be it the material, be it maybe the the so so gameplay. Let's just like just describe what Jacob did within one day. Day of gameplay. So Big Brother doesn't do like an opening HOH twist, right? They do a pair challenge for the power couple and the power couple gets to single handedly determine which of the other couples is going to leave immediately.
[00:20:37] Jacob, who is partnered up secretly with his ex, Sharon, decides. That he doesn't like one of the members of the power couple, Parker, and he decides while Parker is still in power and is looking for any reason under the sun to get rid of anybody in the first couple of days goes to any Joe or Jane.
[00:21:06] Parker's partner, Jen, who again is also a member of said power couple that could single handedly decide his fate and says your partner is a snake. And so it prompts this entire thing where word spreads like wildfire. It will be the first of many times this happens. House meeting will be called. Parker wakes up everybody in the middle of the night. Jacob vehemently denies. Well, I was actually told it by somebody and they said who people are talking.
[00:21:34] And he just goes, was it me? Basically crickets. Well, people are saying your friends are saying your friends are saying. This is like it's like in a regular season. If you, you know, made a bad like had a bad relationship with the HOH. But the HOH is solely responsible. Like they have the only vote.
[00:22:04] It's like one thing if you really piss off the HOH in the first week, not a great look. But you know what? There's a lot of people here. And depending on the amount of people, they only vote in a tiebreaker. If that's a situation, it's more important to nurture the other relationships at this point. No, there is literally only two people have power in this first week. And he says, I'm going to just completely throw away my game because I don't like this guy. And I'm going to tell his partner.
[00:22:32] It is just like chef's kiss. The worst, the worst gameplay ever. Like Pyridium is so right for that. Like it is true. And it really, I think, sets the stage for what to expect from the season. All right. Like it couldn't have been more appropriate for the level of gameplay that we are going to see for a good, a good amount of the season. The entire season. That's what makes the season fun though.
[00:23:01] Like, you know, obviously parts of it are not fun and parts of it are gross. But if you're a fan of like people being messy, like messy gameplay, but still gameplay, like people are gaming, but they are absolute disasters. The entire cast delivers basically on this, like maybe a couple of exceptions, but everyone is a mess from the start to finish. It does not cease at any point.
[00:23:30] I mean, this, honestly, this comparison just sprung to mind for me and apologies that I keep going back to survivor. I still obviously have it on the brain. It's big brother nine, the survivor Gabon of big brother. Yeah. A thousand percent. Yes. And you know, not character season. It's messy. Yeah. And people hate each other. And also considering, I believe they came out actually in the same year, big brother nine comes out like a six months before survivor Gabon. So there was something in the water in 2008. That's why it's a time capsule.
[00:23:58] That's like, like you said, Mike, like this is very much like the time of reality TV. Like this is what people were expecting from their, their trash TV. It really was like the token genes Gabon, the token genes Gabon pairing with big brother nine and big brother 10, I think is pretty. Yeah. It actually is really interesting. Like it's George Lucas would say they rhyme. But yeah, Jacob. I mean, also this will be the first of many instances where he ends up unintentionally
[00:24:26] like shooting the producers in the foot, because clearly he is one of the twists that get brought in here. Oh, here's a pair of exes that are having to be soulmates with each other. How are they going to cooperate? Are they going to let the secret out? And Jacob proceeds to immediately get himself evicted before anyone seemingly finds out about anything. And when they do, it doesn't matter because he is gone, done and dusted two days into the game. And it's particularly wild because his partner is Sharon.
[00:24:54] Um, and, uh, these disorders are wild. These disorders are insane. Um, wait, I think it's a man. And James one. Oh my God. Put a filter over that. Which one's the most insane. I mean, honestly, Alison should have clocked that something was going on with Ryan, right? Considering look at how salacious some of these photos are and look at Alison and Ryan,
[00:25:21] which are like 10 years married posing for their kids' graduation party. Like so wholesome compared to obviously what is to the left of them, which feels like I should be paying basic cable, you know, prices to unscramble this picture for me. I mean, Adam and Sheila have more chemistry in them. Listen. Like Adam and Sheila do have chemistry. Okay. It's just complicated.
[00:25:48] I gotta say though, I am, I am digging the crap out of the Matt and Natalie picture. Obviously this will be a big storyline as to he's just not that into you, but like she is selling this right now. I feel like I saw this cover on a pulp novel at the airport recently. It's giving Derek X and Claire on us. Like all we need is the wind machine. The hair. I mean, the Jacob and Sharon one is pretty fitting as well.
[00:26:17] I would say with her leaning about as far as possible away. Get this guy away from me. Uh, so as I was about to start talking about, uh, Sharon was Jacob's partner. Uh, turns out to be like, uh, not too shabby at the game herself, at least in, in comparison to, uh, her peers on the season. Um, but this might have been it for her, uh, evicted with Jacob, except, uh, the casts
[00:26:47] are not the only ones that are messy this season. The format itself is messy because, um, Neil, uh, ended up walking from the game. Yeah. I barely know. Yeah. I think this is the first quit in us big brother history, which is, I believe so. Yeah. Yeah. Like a voluntary sort of, uh, just walking out, uh, and Neil, you know what? He might've dodged a bullet.
[00:27:16] I don't think this, this was not, uh, an any presses good press season. It is better to just disconnect yourself. I mean, honestly, the way we should think about the early boots in big brother nine and the way they should think about it as well is like the farther I wait, I get from the possibility of getting involved in a drug ring post season, the better my life was. So Neil, honestly, Jacob gets off the best from that perspective and Neil gets off the second best. Should we debate?
[00:27:46] Higher percentage. Is he actually the best player on the season, Jacob? Ooh, I mean, possibly that is the, that is like the, the metagame of BB nine is just don't end up being like a participant through no fault of your own, uh, personal emergency. I don't know what that is. Uh, and now you are not associated and you don't go down the, the road of potentially being
[00:28:16] strung into a drug ring. Yeah. I mean, this is the exact definition of die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a drug kingpin. We have nothing to say about Neil. Like that's, that's the best, that's the best thing you can come away from. I remember for a long time, it was like, uh, it was like a mystery. Why did Neil walk, uh, in a similar way? You know, it's, it's one of those things it's like probably shouldn't dig, you know, uh,
[00:28:43] it's, uh, if it, if it was kept private, it's probably kept private for a reason. Um, but, uh, but yeah, Neil leaving complicates things for production because he was part of a pair. He was part of a duo and, uh, they can't just have a solo person lingering around in the house. And so what do they do? Um, they gotta, they gotta pull somebody back into the game, but they had people sequestered
[00:29:11] out like they, they didn't, you know, you know, Jacob and Sharon. Well, cause we'll get into the twist later on, right? That they were questioning him for a pre jury buyback. So, and Joshua was truly given the Sophie's choice. Who do you want to spend the rest of the game with Sharon or Jacob? And he days, if not years in his mind to think about it before he finally came to the difficult decision to pick Sharon as his partner and the rest of the best thing to happen to him.
[00:29:42] Yeah. Um, so, uh, so Sharon returns and, and let me tell you, uh, if you look at like the, uh, the, the voting chart for season nine, it's a disaster. Uh, it's a complicated mess because it's got duos all over the place. Half the time, uh, they're both being evicted, but then some of the time one of them's coming back and then another time, another person's coming back and there's all kinds of like, there's a vote back. There's no votes.
[00:30:11] There's co-head of households. There's like 15 different nominations every week. Uh, it's by far the most complicated table. They put a man in a box. It's a man in a box. And it starts here, uh, as Neil walks and Sharon returns, uh, which leads to the first, I guess, real proper week of the game where Alex and Amanda are HOH.
[00:30:38] And they are basically going to, uh, to target, uh, Jen and Parker, the two power couple of the, the two that were in the power couple that eliminated Sharon and Jacob. Okay. So yeah, we need to get into this because this is again, I think one of the most underratedly chaotic first weeks in the show's history. Cause we only talking about like the first bunch to Terrence point. This was back in the day when it like encompassed an entire two weeks. We have a whole entire thing add onto it. So yeah, we're trying to go through like regular degular big brother. We have an HOH, we have a veto.
[00:31:09] And so Jen and Ryan decide to come clean to their respective partners about what's going on because Alison has really been laying the Mac on ride. And as we saw from that picture, he is trying to keep it G not even PG, just G. And so they're like, okay, we're going to come clean. We're going to tell them about this. And then they start to get worried. Oh no, Alison like is kind of loosely threatening that if we don't cooperate with her, she's going to reveal our secret.
[00:31:37] So let's reveal our secret preemptively. And so then the secret gets disseminated through the house. There's this entire house meeting where, again, this is where Dan Giesling would have fit in like a, like a absolute, you know, a zebra in the grass. They had to all swear on the Bible that they were not in other preexisting relationships. And so it becomes an immediate target of, okay, they know each other. These, this is an actual couple in the house and they are split up.
[00:32:05] So it's a very easy set of twosomes to nominate. I believe also Jen was first revealed the, the fact that she was dating Ryan in real life to Parker because it was like to protect Ryan from being targeted. Because I think Ryan got implicated in the nonsense that Jacob started with Parker. And so I think that that was also part of Jen trying to like stifle that target on Ryan
[00:32:34] and being like, you know, we're dating in real life. And then it just, it snowballs from there. And the wild thing for a winter season. Yes, exactly. Um, not that I didn't think there was any snow here, but, uh, they like, then they have to go and start telling people because they believe that Allison, because Allison is also being very like veiled threats.
[00:33:04] Yep. Like she's kind of being like, I can't do this because she, you know, she was, she was a little interested in Ryan. There's a, there's a lot of content of Allison saying that she thinks that she's a better, um, match for Ryan. And also Jen is terrible. Um, and you know, she's seeing this. So, uh, Allison kind of starts to come unglued and they're like, we have a problem here. We have to get in front of this.
[00:33:32] Um, and so it starts to spread. And before you know it, everyone knows that Ryan and Jen are a real life couple. Yep. And that's, that's, uh, that's all before, uh, day what? Like 14. And I, you know, that like the producers were just throwing up their hands in agony that both of their big casting twists get blown up within the first week of the house. And so obviously these two are big targets.
[00:34:02] There's also a side plot where despite swearing on the Bible that there are no preexisting relationships, Allison decides to try in this very emotionally volatile moment in the house to start trolling people and says, Hey, Sheila, let's pretend that we're lesbian lovers and that we're another twist that exists inside the house. And people actually believe it, but the PA stay resistance. The thing that to me is, is big brother nine in a nutshell is that.
[00:34:32] So you would think on paper, these poor, you know, war torn lovers on forced to face off against each other. One must go. One must stay. We saw this with Dick and Danielle, right? Like they refused to campaign against each other. They were actively using the veto on each other. What would they do in this situation? Who would step out in front of the proverbial bus? Turns out Jen just pushed Ryan in front of it because she makes one of, I have to say,
[00:35:00] objectively, given the circumstances, the oddest pitches in big brother history where she goes around to people and says, well, you should vote Ryan, my current boyfriend out because he is racist. Like not, this is to anyone who's not informed. This is not during the point where people didn't know that Ryan was Jen's boyfriend. No, this is after she is while they are together.
[00:35:30] He is racist. Like as. I don't know if this was strategy or if she was just speaking truth. Truth. Uh. What an insane thing to happen. Like people that this is one of the the most insane pitches to use against somebody. In general for a vote. These are two people in a relationship.
[00:36:00] They live together. They were not in the big brother house. And she's like, well, I've got this ace up my sleeve. It's racism. Like she's just dropping this like while her and Sheila are washing dishes. Yeah, it's so casual. She's like, well, did you? Well, you know. Well, did you hear Ryan's racist? Pass me the dawn, please. It's. You I can't like saying it doesn't feel real.
[00:36:29] No, I mean, it's it feels like it's from the show. Jury duty. Like, yeah, exactly. Maybe that you know what? Actually, did we just stumble upon something? Did they like scab writers? And they're like, listen, you need work. They weren't doing anything. And it's reality TV. Oh, my God. Well, that's the thing. But we also. Did we not just come from a season where America's player was pulled off with aplomb?
[00:36:57] There's a non zero chance because we're also a few seasons away from the saboteur that they like had a bug in Gen Z and they're like, all right, now time for the Hail Mary. Go ahead. We'll deal with the repercussions later. Don't you worry, Jen. This is going to work. Yeah, I honestly feel like that would make more sense than this actually being. What occurred naturally.
[00:37:21] So the idea that this was actually just an insane scripted season makes me almost feel better about everything that unfolds here because I'm like, wow, this is so dirty and wild. But, you know, it's fiction. But I don't think it was fiction. I think you probably get the vibe by now. But like this doesn't and never does feel like a regular season of the show.
[00:37:51] No. Like even watching it after the fact, you're not watching it in the winter. You're not like, oh, this is the wrong time. It's not that it was winter, a winter season. Maybe maybe it's a little less bathing suits in these photos. Right. But but but none of the players act like any other players on any other season. There's not the normal like scramble for alliances and relationship building.
[00:38:18] It's just they are treating it like it's a dating show with vote outs, basically, which is, I think, what they were going for. Yeah. Yeah. And it just it ends up with this completely different feel that that lasts for, I would say, most of this. I think by the end of the season, it starts to feel like it might be a normal season again.
[00:38:43] But during this, it's just this is a dating show, except none of them like each other. And there's live feeds. Yes. So then let's talk about the other big thing that happens on top of this, because it will we'll talk about the week after it leads into the boot that happens the week after this, which is Amanda and Alex, like you said, when the H.O.H. And it's not that Amanda gets H.O.H. itis. It's just that more so everyone's kind of trying to quarantine her. They do not like her.
[00:39:10] There's drama, which also leads to a bit of Jen and Parker's eviction about like, OK, Alex likes Amanda, but Amanda might have something going on with Parker. And then also in the midst of the oh, if Allison and Sheila are lesbian lovers, then maybe Amanda and Parker know each other. And they're actually in a relationship as well. And that's why they're canoodling on the side. Then Amanda gets like caught, you know, basically conspiring against Chelsea. Yeah. Chelsea, who is a firecracker, to say the least.
[00:39:39] And much like, you know, the proper explosive, like blows your hand off. If you get too close, has this entire thing where she and Joshua, who gets into it for some reason, like absolutely eviscerates Amanda one night in the backyard, dresses her down, calls her out on her two timing, saying that she's flaunting herself around the house.
[00:40:00] And again, and what I feel is the lowest blow in Big Brother history, something that maybe garners the Gabon comparison with what Corinne says to sugar. You know, they end up making a joke about the fact that Amanda's father died by suicide. And it is something that like, even in this house environment, whereby Amanda and Alex's eviction, nobody really likes Amanda, like everyone's flocking to her side. Clearly it went way, way too far.
[00:40:28] And again, it's still odd that 17 years later, I think it still is probably the worst thing anyone has ever said on the show. And this cast, like, like you said, Taryn, like none of these people feel like, like it does really feel different compared to other Big Brother casts. Like, obviously you have some of the typical tropes, right? But it felt like they took every, you know, some of these people would appear on other seasons of Big Brother.
[00:40:59] But they would usually be like the first boot or get like, you know, removed from the game in later seasons when they actually started to like care about the terrible things that were being said by people. And it's almost as if like, I don't know if they did Psycho Vals back then, but it's almost like they did them and then decide, like use that in the opposite way that they should. And decide like none of these people should have a lot of reality shows.
[00:41:28] I know, but like this is like every single person. It was like, and that it made it hard to watch, but it also made all of them fascinating in a way because it's like they all were doing and saying like terrible things. All of them. And that maybe made it different than like a BB-15 where, you know, there was a lot of really terrible stuff that gets said.
[00:41:55] But there were also like people that just were victims of and, you know, really targeted and really didn't do anything to deserve the treatment that they got. It's like in this season, anyone could get it. And they were all kind of guilty at some point of being terrible. And it's but they all also have these like humanizing moments where you're like, I can see a little bit of why you're like this.
[00:42:21] And, you know, it's it's really hard because it's like on the surface. It's very, very entertaining. And you're like there's there's like three hour compilations of fights from the season, like crazy, crazy, crazy. But also you're looking at these people and being like, God, none of you people should have ever been on reality TV. And like hopefully in some of these cases, it ended up being something that like changed the trajectory eventually for the good. We'll get into that.
[00:42:49] But yeah, this cast is very different than other casts. And they get into the gaming. But it's like every single person here was he was the drama person that the person that's going to get into fights, where in other casts, you only have like a couple of them. That's interesting. Yeah, it's like, yeah, maybe maybe it's this idea that I didn't think they necessarily anticipated casting a season so quickly. So maybe there was a bit of a turnaround of like shit. All right.
[00:43:17] Who are these other people that we put on the burn pile for the other seasons? Or let's kind of like scrap them together, you know, try to make a little bit of like a leftover casserole of some of these players that didn't make it onto the other seasons. They were a little too unstable, a little too offensive and decided, you know what? I think we can make this odds and end season work. Yeah. I think one of my favorite storylines from the first couple of weeks is Adam and Sheila.
[00:43:44] They're the top left here in the photos. Ma. And it's just, you know, because again, ostensibly, this is like a bunch of single people getting hooked up with their soulmate. Right. And Sheila is she basically feels the same way about Adam that Jen Johnson did about her photo.
[00:44:06] So, um, well, because Sheila, unfortunately, like I feel so bad for her, even though, you know, from the, from the minute that she walks into the minute she walks out. Sheila is the oldest contestant this season at 45 years old. The next oldest contestant is 29 years old. And it is the person that she's partnered with. Yeah. It is. It is one of these very clear, like either we're casting for contentiousness or it's like, well, these are the two that are kind of remaining.
[00:44:35] So let's just kind of slap them together. So clearly just like the leftovers. But it, it was, again, I, I, I don't, I, I feel like they knew what they were doing. It's like they couldn't obviously. And we know because we've lived through many, many years of, of the Grodner era of, of, uh, big brother. They did want some of these couples to be showmances.
[00:45:03] They for sure did, but they definitely wanted some of these people to hate each other. And they looked at Sheila and Adam and they were like, this is a disaster. Sure. We'll be fun. And they were right. They were. Yeah. I mean, again, like we're not for Jacob shenanigans. Talk about sliding doors in many ways. Adam and Sheila were probably going to be the first ones gone. They were sort of like what you'll talk about next week, Taryn, with like, uh, with, with, uh, Jesse and Renny in the first week of big brother 10, where they were making so much noise.
[00:45:32] They hated each other, or I'd say mostly Sheila hated Adam. As Jenny mentioned before, he called her ma, which she really disliked. He ended up using the R word when describing what he did for a living, which really offended Sheila. Understandably so. And he basically said like, well, I can say it because I work with them. So like to say they were oil and water from the beginning would be an understatement, which makes it absolutely ludicrous that they are two out of the final three and the last pair standing.
[00:45:59] Their storyline is throughout the season is very, very interesting. And like so many of these people have very up and down storylines, but like the, these two, because they do end up going to the final three. It's like, it is a really big part of the season. And it's very, very interesting. Like, because it is really back and forth. Like it is a love hate relationship between these two.
[00:46:28] Um, and incredible pairing on behalf of casting because yeah, it was, it was a lot. Yeah. So, uh, Jen and Parker are evicted. Uh, the first real, like officially evicted players. Uh, although even that you, are they officially evicted? They were evicted by a vote of like three to one. Um, in, in the first week of the game. That's like, uh, uh,
[00:46:58] what is that? They were voted by 75% of the house or the voters. Yeah. Um, they should have let the people vote individually. Like if we're going to do pairs, maybe you could be evicted as a pair, but like imagine the mess. If these pairs could vote, vote. they should, they should have done it like, they should have done it like the challenge where like, if you can't come to a decision, then you get nominated, you know? Well, it's, and it's also the thing where it's like, there are six people not voting because two of them are HOH. Yeah.
[00:47:28] And then four of them are nominated. Uh, they didn't think this through. Yeah. It's just wild. So, uh, following their eviction, they were at the top right here. Um, it is going to be, uh, Alex and Amanda who are, and it's, it really just follows this pattern at first of, uh, Jen and Parker with a power couple. Then immediately after they're evicted by Alex and Amanda, who immediately after are evicted, um, by, uh, this time, Chelsea and James, uh,
[00:47:58] who have the, uh, the very funny photo down near the bottom. Right. Um, so, uh, so that's going to be, uh, that's going to be the, the end of Alex and Amanda. And they are also the last pair to be eliminated together. Uh, which, you know, thank, thank God. And we'll, and we'll talk about this twist. Like I do think Alex was probably one of the most screwed players by a lot of the mechanisms in this season, because I do think the eviction is largely at Amanda's feet just due to the way that she was, you know,
[00:48:28] being perceived in the house. Some of it unfair, some of it. Listen, you know, she, she had a bit of a personality that was an acquired taste. Uh, and Alex, I mean, ends up getting like nominated alongside Matt, who he's close to. And Matt only gets nominated because he is close. Close to Alex. But this is also the week where, even if you think the strategy isn't that messy, somehow big brother nine finds a way like a bowl of cereal without the bowl,
[00:48:56] because it got taken away in the food competition. It ends up getting by Matt from BB 19. Yeah, exactly. He took the bowl away. So what happens in this week is that on one very eerie night, there's this entire fight. Some of you've heard this before, because the whole Alice and Sheila thing ends up blowing up. It turns out that they admit that they made it up and people are not entirely happy about it. And then Alison is like talking through her sort of reaction to everything blowing over. And she's like,
[00:49:25] my tongue feels weird. I'm going to go to the diary room. And it turns out that she is having an allergic reaction to whatever, either something she ate or something that's going on. In the meantime, Amanda has been on slop because they just introduced slop a couple of seasons prior, but is also hypoglycemic. And so has a blood sugar crash and is not eating to the, and then just passes out at one point. So there is. While,
[00:49:52] while Alison is already receiving medical attention in the diary room, literally the same time. There's a scene where she faints and James like tries to go get somebody in the DR and he opens the door and is like grandpa Simpson in the, in the gift. He's like, Oh, there's somebody in there. Okay. Alice is being treated right now. There's another crisis. It essentially turns into the pit for like a brief second. Like it becomes a trauma ward. And the wild thing is, is that in the food competition,
[00:50:19] they had communally lost the right to any glassware. And so the medic is like, Amanda's dying right now. Let's get her some water. And you have Matt be like, there's no fricking glasses around here. We can't do anything. So I, are they pumping their hands? Are they giving like baby bird, baby birding the water into Amanda's mouth? I'm not entirely sure, but it was, I remember following the feeds at this point. And it's the way people were describing. It was just absolutely bananas. That at the same time,
[00:50:49] in the same place, these two very separate yet equally dangerous medical circumstances pop up. I will. Yeah. Like, I think that that was one of the first times that this happened on the show too, where like, you know, somebody needs medical attention like this. And the fact that it happened to two people at the exact same moment for entirely separate reasons. Like, I guess maybe it could have been related to food for both of them, but like not the same reaction. It is insane.
[00:51:20] It's, it's a very memorable part of the season. It's one of the, the moments that I remembered the most, uh, that really struck me watching it when I was a kid was like, Whoa, because it also was like breaking the fourth wall. Uh, in a way that had, I, I don't think I'd really seen before. Um, and, uh, and it, I think probably to this day feels like the most. Harrowing and dramatic sort of medical incident. Uh, maybe I guess the Christmas field, but, but even like,
[00:51:48] no portrayal of it doesn't feel the same. It doesn't like, Whistle done wasn't going to kill Christmas. Like this was, this was, this was looking like, it might've been nothing at the end of the day, just like stick Allison with an Epi pen. But like, just the idea of her being like, Oh, my throat's closing up right now. my tongue is falling. Yeah. It's like really scary. It really was the pit on big brother. I think that's a great, uh, comparison. Yeah. And I don't know if they were, uh, you know, prepared for like, they hadn't had to,
[00:52:16] to jump in for something like this yet. And then all of a sudden it's like everyone needs something. It's like a survivor. It's like, it's like when Caleb on survivor, uh, you know, because, you know, passed out, uh, trying to get spices and then everyone dropped in that challenge. Like it was like that, but, uh, big brother had not done this yet. This was like the first time that this happened. Yeah. I do want to say a little something like this isn't eulogizing Alex and Amanda, but like,
[00:52:46] I feel like the narrative was very much that, um, Al, Amanda was the reason that Al, like Alex and Amanda get evicted here. And like, from a game perspective, sure. That is, that is probably correct. But like, I felt like, and this is how bad this cast was that like, Alex was, was given such like this. Oh, poor Alex edit.
[00:53:15] Some of the things that Alex said, especially to Amanda are like, are the kinds of things in today's big brother that makes him the most hated person on the cast. And this man was beloved. Like they, they, America wanted to vote this man back into the house. Um, not to spoil what, what, what's to come here. Like he is, you know, berating her, you know, saying that she is like walking around,
[00:53:45] like dressed like a slut. Like he's, it's insane. What's what some of these men say to the women on this cast. It's like, that is a very much a theme is like the misogyny is rich in this season. Like it's really bad. And Alex was definitely one of the offenders. And it's just like, looking back, everyone said terrible things, but I just like, it's, everyone was like, oh my God, poor Alex. If, if not for Amanda, Amanda was a gossiper.
[00:54:14] Like that's basically what she did. She didn't really say anything super, super terrible. So listen, I don't think Amanda is a great person. I don't know her, but I just feel like a lot of blame gets put on Amanda. And that has somehow like turned Alex into the hero here. And I just feel like we need to take a moment to say like, I think that Alex eventually would have probably like, you know,
[00:54:42] made his bed for himself with some of the stuff he says. Sometimes we talk about how on big brother, you need, you know, like people will turn, you'll, you'll find a villain no matter what, you know, like even on a mild season though, you'll hate somebody for doing something. But I, but the opposite is also true. Like you'll find heroes. Yeah. They may have like the most lowercase H you've ever seen in like point to font,
[00:55:10] but there'll be a hero nonetheless. And it's like by doing the least best stuff, even though to Jenny's point, like there was so much rampant massage that was happening. Even look at someone like Joshua, right. Who like, as we'll get into as soon as the next week was not afraid to get into the faces of the women, but like their male partners, they could do no wrong in his eyes. Yep. Well, uh, that's it for Alex and Amanda. Um, and next up,
[00:55:39] Joshua and Sharon, when the HOH, they are targeting Alison and Ryan. Yeah. And this is another, this is another really big fight. Cause Joshua, who is a member, obviously the LGBTQ plus community is upset about the whole lesbian lie. I did not realize this. I'm only reading it now on Wikipedia. So again, take it with a grain of salt, but apparently there was like a restraining order placed on Joshua by production that after that fight,
[00:56:07] like Alison could remain in the game because she was threatening to quit, but they could not be in the same room at the same time as each other. How long did that last? Like when was that? Like a day before. She goes, she goes this week. So probably not that long. I was not able to access the feeds. Um, so I, I, I was following via, uh, like Joker's updates back then. Um, so I don't remember that part, but that's absolutely wild. An in game restraining order.
[00:56:38] Not just like, we're putting you in different rooms until you cool off. I would say probably easier to enforce in big brother than any other reality. Surely. Yeah. That's true. Um, and, and yeah, I mean, it was, it was fairly, uh, obvious where things were going that week as well. Um, but this is the first week, as I said, that, uh, they're not actually going to go out as a pair. They were voted out as a pair. Uh, two of the two votes, uh, two of the two pairs, not voting,
[00:57:07] voted them out. However, they then had to revote between the two of them. And, uh, unanimously that was the end of, uh, of Alison. Yeah. There's an image that I always remember. And I forget if it's like a screenshot or just like the footage of it, but everyone kind of like cheering for the partner's twist being broken up, except for Alison, who is crestfallen knowing exactly what's going to happen.
[00:57:35] Like she already sees the writing on the wall. She was, you know, primarily the reason why she, they ended up getting evicted. And so she knew like, all right, if it's between me and Ryan, I ain't betting on Ryan to go. That's for sure. There was like a moment of hope because that like, so they had warned them ahead of time. Like you might hear this alarm go off at some point. Like that means something. And then when Alison and Ryan are about to leave, like leave the house,
[00:58:04] that's when the alarm goes off and it's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, the Paris twist is over. And like, Oh, they get to stay. They're very excited. And like, it's completely like, you know, crushed in moments when they realize, no, no, we're still going to vote. But now we're actually voting between the two of you. Someone is still going. And like Amanda is just like, or sorry, Alison's just like, yeah, okay. Well, it was fun thinking that I still got to play the game for like 30 seconds here. Yeah. Yeah. Good news for Ryan though,
[00:58:34] as he's going to, you know, last quite a bit longer after this, uh, surviving this untethered from his partner. That's getting him in trouble. He's untethered from his girlfriend who she didn't realize for a while was calling him racist to try to get rid of him over. Yeah. He's a free man. It's this, you know, this twist allows him to get all the way to the final two and make, make some good final two money that he invests really wisely. Well, you know, you know what guys you're,
[00:59:03] you're making really good points here. Maybe the women were the problem here, you know, like Ryan was like, just Jen was a problem for him. Alison was a problem for him. It's these women. There's so much drama. You know, they say that there's a common denominator. But I feel like we don't talk enough about the numerators. Yeah, they change, but they're just as important to the fraction. That's right. Um, so with Alison out,
[00:59:33] Ryan actually, uh, in classic big brother fashion, uh, wins the, uh, the next HOH, uh, except that's not the person that was evicted because of, uh, weirdness that goes on with returning. Um, let's talk about him. Crazy James. You talk about looking for a hero this season in a very, very low bar. Here he is. Yeah. And, and speaking of low bar, sorry. Uh, um, my taste in men, this was my,
[01:00:00] this was my big brother crush for a very long time. I loved crazy James. I loved him. Yeah. I love to admit all of the terrible things and my opinions of the, of the time. But again, like you said, Taryn, you know, when everyone is terrible, um, you know, the, the redeeming qualities and moments of some really, really shine.
[01:00:27] And he also was like the underdog kind of hero of this story. Well, he was like all this young little punky guy. Like I, I was like, I loved crazy James. I remember very specifically. He was the reason why I learned the rule that like, if, especially on big brother, if you have tattoos of copyrighted materials, they like make you cover it up with a bandage because he had like a bad-ass Mr. Clean on his shoulder, I believe. And I remember he always had to wear like a bandage over it.
[01:00:57] And I always wondered just like blurred on. Yeah. And I was like, Oh, did he get hurt? What happens? Like, no, they just made him wear it because, uh, they don't necessarily want to promote the image of Mr. Clean in such an R rated variety in such an R rated season of the show. Yes. crazy James, as he was known, uh, in the house, uh, comes away America's favorite player from this season. So he is, uh, he is the most popular, uh, player from the season. Um, and, uh, he,
[01:01:26] he certainly made an impact. He was just full of energy. Um, the, the thing I think he is probably most well-known for in the fan base is that, uh, uh, he was found to have like done pornography. Um, and, uh, and people thought that was so, uh, scandalous really. back then it was. Yes. Now it's like, well, for this, that's just what you do after this season ended up being more so like a warmup, like a leg up. He's like, aha,
[01:01:56] don't worry. I'm the master. Uh, I also remember his career because I do not believe he had a residence at the time was quote, biking around the world. Oh yeah. Like he, he talks a lot of in the season about like, you know, not having anywhere to live. And, um, people definitely like use this against him and say like really like terrible things about him as well. Not that he is innocent in any of,
[01:02:25] of the things that he does and says throughout the season as well. But yeah, like he was, I mean, he was 21, you know, like he was just living his life. He's just biking around the world. Like also a lot of tattoos for a 21 year old. And I was like, where did you get all the money for this? He was, he was kind of like van life, you know, but back in, in 2008, right. He was a free game. Maybe he like traded like, Hey, if you give me a ride,
[01:02:54] I'll have you tattoo whatever you want on me. Let my skin be your canvas. I will tell the story. I'll be the, the bathroom wall to be graffitied upon. Yeah. Do sexy Mr. Clean. That's fine. Like, you know, let me stay over for a week. It's all good. Now what's interesting about James is that, he is evicted here. He's going to, fairly quickly, uh, get right back into the game. Um, but, uh,
[01:03:24] it's after returning to the game that he then goes, on a comp streak. He wins three vetoes in a row. like, I guess, or no, or no, well, in honor of his namesake, Yeah. Yeah. But I believe James, James Ryan's three in a row were interrupted by, uh, by a Sarah win. Oh, I mean, listen, he really is sort of like the mixture of all James's though. Cause he had the, uh, James Hewling fan favorite quality in him. He was ahead of time. I mean, let's,
[01:03:53] let's, let's not gloss over the weird ass twist that brought James back at the game. Cause we loosely referenced it before. So James does get evicted. And yet it's, it's this big betrayal where like Ryan wins. And initially the men are together, but then, uh, and this is basically what ends up forming the God squad team, Christ, whatever you want to call it. Like Sheila ends up leaking that this foursome of James, Chelsea, Joshua, Joshua and Sharon were starting to target the other side of the house. And so she was like, by the way,
[01:04:23] James is playing both sides. And initially they had set up like this big backdoor plan to happen with Ryan. It doesn't end up happening. And James ends up getting backdoored. But as he had, after he leaves, Julie presents this twist. America has voted back one of the previously evicted house guests. You can choose between the mystery house guest, or you can choose James. It literally is that Simpsons. You can have the washer and dryer.
[01:04:51] So you can have what's in the box type of let's make a deal thing. And by a very narrow vote that I'm sure many of the people rue the day that they ended up voting him back on. They took the devil. They know over the devil. They did it. And James ends up popping back out of a box. What? Like 10 minutes after he walked out the door. It was close. It was like, I don't know if he had, you know, made it far out of the door at this point. And it was a close vote too, which is,
[01:05:19] which is wild because it's like not knowing who could be in that box. Like so many people had bad relationships with like a possible person that could have been in the box. Um, and I think this speaks to the, the fact that people kind of saw the threat that James could have been to them and been like, listen, I just voted this guy out. It's going to be fresh in his mind. Let's like take the clean slate. Like it, and Natalie is one of the votes,
[01:05:49] Mr. Clean. Exactly. Natalie is one of the votes to bring James back in, which is like kind of a shocker because like the most of the rest of her alliance, um, uh, you know, chooses otherwise. Um, and it's, it's just, it's a very interesting storyline here. And the, the person in the box that was voted to buy America, like I mentioned was Alex screwed Alex. But again, it should have been Parker. That's who I think should have been.
[01:06:19] Well, I think there were only like a few people that were up for the vote anyway. Like I, I think Jacob was part of it, but obviously he was out of contention, but otherwise it was Jen Parker, Amanda and Alex. So like, it pretty much came down to Parker and Alex as it was. Uh, but yeah, that's also, I mean, it's also going to like, uh, bear a lot of weight here as well, because James to your point gets voted back five to three. It's like his allies. Plus Adam. Well, I think admitted at one point,
[01:06:45] like he only voted James back in because like James was like standing in front of him and he felt guilty if he couldn't do it. And Natalie, who's like been playing a little bit of both sides at this point. And then James is going to, one of the large reasons why he ends up like really kicking off this war between two sides that dictates the rest of the game is because he finds out that Matt lied to him about voting him back in the game. And as a result, he decides to go back on his deal that he made to Natalie and backdoor him.
[01:07:14] Yes. Uh, yes, exactly. This is, and this is, I think the true start of the strategic season. Yeah. The, the Matt versus James thing definitely like carries on for a little bit here. Like, because, because, you know, James and Chelsea have put Matt up on the block earlier in the game. Um, I went, I think Amanda and Alex ended up going out. Um, and James technically went back on his word. So, so you might argue that James, um,
[01:07:45] was the person that, that struck first. Um, but, uh, this is like a theme where it's like Matt and James are kind of going at each other back and forth. And, and they bring them back in. So it gets to keep going. He comes back and, uh, and really takes over the show for a few weeks. Uh, he wins the HOH and the veto. The, the second he comes back, he nominates Ryan who had just, uh, been the HOH that evicted him. Um, and, uh,
[01:08:15] and then is eventually going to use the veto that he wins to backdoor Matty, uh, who yes, uh, it had not voted him back into the game. Um, and, uh, and he did not, uh, appreciate that. Um, and so, uh, the Matt and Ryan vote ends up being very close as well. Um, and, and James ends up breaking that tie. So James is like truly the star of that week.
[01:08:42] Like HOH veto and tiebreaker. It's, it's just, it's just the James week. It's like the, uh, Gordie how, uh, hat trick, um, and hockey. Like, it's like, you're just like hitting all of the different areas that you could do in the game. Um, yeah. And that, and that is really like the, the rise of, of James hero at it too, where it's like he came back and he got his revenge against like the people that wronged him.
[01:09:12] Um, you know, and, and this is like something that, that continues to carry on because now, like, this is the first big loss for this Alliance as well. Like there were other people affiliated, perhaps not by choice because of the partner twist to the team Christies. Um, but like, it's like a serial or the core of, of it here is really like, you know,
[01:09:39] Adam and Ryan and Maddie, Natalie, Sheila, Natalie and Sheila are kind of like side dealing a little bit. Well, everyone's doing a little bit of side dealing, but like, this is like the, the core Alliance and this is their first real big hit. And Matt was gaming. Like he was messy, but he was like, like there was like a point. I don't remember what week this happens, but like him and James kind of get into it because James calls him out for basically promising his vote to like, uh,
[01:10:08] two different couples early. And like, you know, he's playing both of you. Like the feud between James and Matt is like a really fun part of the season because it's like, like James kind of will call Matt on his shit and, and Matt's kind of deflecting. Um, so yeah, the, this was the big hit for team Christ. And then it kind of is going to become like a revenge tour. Yeah. Because, uh, less than three days later, they resurrect their Alliance in a manner of speaking. And it comes down to also, well,
[01:10:37] we see sometimes a big brother that like the game at its simplest core on paper is very good with just the idea that anyone can win power at any time. In the converse, if one Alliance, as we saw in big brother 22, just wins every single HOH from then on out, then it hits a really, really dire patch. And that's what we get into where, yeah, to your point, like you could say on paper, they just struck it. Like one of the most connected members of the God squad,
[01:11:07] they'll fall like dominoes. It's four versus four now going into the next HOH and team Christ cleans up the next three. We, I mean, they win every HOH from here on out, but they're able to basically just, it's rinse and repeat, right? It's team Christ wins HOH, either nominates James in somebody or the plan is to backdoor him. He wins the veto. One of his allies goes into place. Yeah. Yep. That's exactly what happens. Adam wins the next HOH. He nominates, uh,
[01:11:37] James and Chelsea. James wins the veto. Uh, Sharon goes up as the replacement. Chelsea is voted out. Chelsea, uh, James is original partner. Um, and, uh, that is, that is it for, for Chelsea. Really? Uh, Go nuts on the way out. Progenitor of the Karen haircut as well. I feel like people were commenting the uneven bob, but it was like, first of all, that it wasn't quite the Karen. Like, it wasn't like Kate, uh,
[01:12:07] plus Kate and John plus eight or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Like it wasn't quite that. And then she also like, this is why of course she got paired with James. She had like an edgy, like pink, uh, like, you know, chunk in the hair that was dyed. And then she also had like the little piercing. So she was like, yeah, the piercing, like it was like, it was like a, yeah. I believe it doesn't really do her justice. Like to the look that she, I think had on. No, she was like the most alt girl, but like, in a preppy way, it was like,
[01:12:36] she was like experimenting. I'm trying to remember like her speech. I feel like I had to commit to memory at one point, Jenny. So maybe you can remind me. It was like, she said, Adam didn't have a backbone. It said that like Sheila, the men will have your way with you. No, she said, she said your road hard and will be put away wet. That's what, Oh my God. Oh my God. Yes. Yeah. Was she a mop? Oh boy.
[01:13:07] Like this is also after like, so, so Chelsea knows she's leaving and she's just starting, like, she's just starting to be so over these people. She hated Natalie the entire time. And she gets to the point where she's like, I don't have to pretend to like these people anymore. Um, and they like, we're painting eggs for like Easter. And like Chelsea smashes a bunch of like the eggs after Natalie, like spends all this time painting them. And like, it's literally, because it's Easter, which is again,
[01:13:37] very weird in the big brother out there. Like just celebrate Easter. The one time in the big brother house where we did Easter egg painting. And it was actually, cause it was Easter. Yeah. And so I remember, yeah, Chelsea, maybe in lieu of like evil Dick, you know, smashes the eggs. I remember her and Natalie really got into, I think that's where Natalie got into the, uh, your D you and done as well, which leads Chelsea to also say in her eviction speech, like Natalie, get an education. You need one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:14:05] Chelsea definitely roasted everyone on the way out. She did like, she also was one of, well, I don't know, maybe I'm misremembering some other people's evictions, but she definitely did the, like, no one come hug me. I have things to say. And she like went through each person and then kind of did like, it wasn't quite like the Michael Bruner where he like just walks out, but it was like giving that, but like, she had a few things to say to people first. Hmm. Well, uh,
[01:14:34] the following week goes as described as well. Natalie wins the HOH, nominates James and Joshua. James wins the veto again. Sharon goes up as the replacement again. And Joshua is voted out this time. Oh, he was, he was a piece of work. Like he was, because I remember he was also, had a lot of those confessionals of like, I'm the best player here. I've got this game wrapped around my finger. He also had, he cried.
[01:15:04] He fake cried. He had this like side deal with Ryan that ends up being the only jury vote that Ryan gets. And like, again, maybe if things hadn't split apart, Joshua could have been somebody that like we talked about with Natalie and Sheila could have written the middle and like, cause he was also, especially when the guys Alliance thing was happening during the Matt vote, like, and the James first eviction was like kind of in with both sides of the house, but like such a, you know, ugly spirited, egotistical man, including on his way out.
[01:15:34] Yeah. There was a lot of really terrible moments, which is too bad because like, we saw little like sprinkles of his gamer side and without all of the like deplorable parts. It's like, it's something that could become standable in another, in another world where you're like, Oh my God, like he did the fake tears thing. Like, you know, he was on the block next to his best friend, Sharon, who he had been in a pair with.
[01:16:04] They were very close. Sharon's in the bathroom crying about the fact that she, she feels so bad that now Josh was going to go home next to her. Meanwhile, he's like plotting against her. Like he, if, if he had kept like the personal, terrible things out of it and just kept the, like, you know, I am playing the hell out of this game and I will make deals with anyone. Like he could have been a really fun,
[01:16:34] routable villain, but the way that he acted and things he said to people, just like ruin that. So it was like really disappointing because it's like, you see like the glimpse of the kind of player that he could have been, but it's like so hard to separate that. Yeah. And ultimately like, you know, I think again, I think sort of like we talked about with heroes and villains, you often look for like, well, who was the best player? Well,
[01:17:03] like on this season, it doesn't take much. The bar is in hell. It is the definition of kingdom of the blind. And you were just looking for like anyone who has a modicum of eyesight or like anyone who is making a decision that isn't like 100% fueled by like, you know, knee jerk emotion. And so that, and so that's the thing is that, you know, Sheila, which we can get into like does make one of the biggest power shifts of the game. And again,
[01:17:33] deciding to blow up what was going on with the other side of the house and helping solidify team price. But it was all solely due to the fact that she was angry about what they were doing. And so she's like, all right, well, screw you. I'm going to do my own thing now. So that's, that's the wild thing is that. Yeah. And, and listen, this is some discourse. I know it's been brought into a little survivor as well. Like whether it's your heart or your brain that drives you, there's going to be some sort of organ and all that matters is that you're the body making those decisions. Yes. Well,
[01:18:02] they finally get James out in the following week. Adam wins again on a little run. His himself there to HOH is basically back to back is back to back. So you can be on big brother unless you're Jag. Um, and, uh, Ryan beats, uh, beats out, uh, or wins that veto. And James is finally going to be evicted again. Yes. An interesting, sorry, thing about this week though.
[01:18:31] And this is like one of those, those moments where, um, Adam kind of pisses off his allies. Yes. Yes. Because it seemed like a very straightforward, um, week here. Like the only two people left from that side of the house is James and Sharon. Joshua has just left the previous week. And so it's like, you put, you put James and Sharon on the, on the block here.
[01:19:00] And the final six, everyone is competing. There's no backdoor happening. Yes. So it's not on camera. Just read feed reports. James will be, uh, competing in the power of veto regardless. And Adam, and this was like an interesting, like part of Adam's story in his game is that he also would like have these like deeply emotional moments with people where he was like crying. And he was, seemed very like empathetic to other people's pain.
[01:19:28] He had lots of moments where he was crying with people. Um, sometimes it was Joshua faking tears, but he like had this like soft spot for, for James, but also had like convinced himself that he was like, well, I'm gonna, if you guys really want James out, um, then, you know, like you have to fight for the veto. So he doesn't get it, which they could have done anyway,
[01:19:57] if he was on the block. Well, and like there's, there's a, there's some logic to this, right? Where it's like, if I don't put James up, given that James has won the last three vetoes, uh, if I don't put him up and he still wins the veto. Now I have credit with him. The following. And James did promise Adam. If he had won the veto, he wouldn't use it. Like I think he is someone that, that blindsided Matt a few weeks prior. I think he was more than happy to break that deal. But like,
[01:20:26] look at the field here. And if you're James, like so many of like the other people still left in the game, like no love lost for Ryan. Um, I think that, I think that if James survives this, like it's probably, um, Ryan and Natalie, that would probably go up on the block or Ryan. And, um, because she, because Sheila was on the floor. Yeah. And that was, that was another big to do. You talk about that. We'll say like Sharon goes though.
[01:20:56] Like she said, the risk here is that James can use the veto on Sheila or on, sorry, on Sharon and protect the both of them. Um, and then that forces, uh, Sheila or, uh, likely Natalie, um, um, to go in that spot. Um, and then like Ryan and Natalie are so mad because they're like, what are you doing? Because if he wins, which he has a history of, like, he will take Sharon down, that's his only ally left.
[01:21:26] And one of us is going to go up and we don't have votes. The two of them are going to vote one of us out. Like, um, there's no one left on the block here that, that isn't in our alliance. And, um, you know, understandable for, for them in this situation. But like, this is where Adam's just trying to get a little too cute because it's like, Oh, James made me a promise. He wasn't going to use the veto. If he wanted, he was just going to keep himself from being a replacement here. I think it's, it's a good example of, uh, you know,
[01:21:56] we are, we are starting to talk about how the competitions have shifted a little bit in big brother. Uh, James has now won four competitions in three weeks. And that starts to change the way that you play the game around a player like that. Uh, you know, it, it not only affords you like the power itself, but it also starts to influence the way that people treat you and deal with you. Uh,
[01:22:24] it impacts your social relationships and, and strategic game as well. And, uh, we see this happen more and more often as big brother moves forward and competitions become even more winnable by the same, uh, people over and over. Um, but you eventually get to the place where, you know, you're, you're like big brother, Canada 11 and tie has won the last, you know, four or five vetoes or competitions. And you're like, well, I don't even want to bother nominating him this time because he's probably
[01:22:54] just going to win. And then he's going to be mad at me. Um, and it just, it completely changes the way that you play the game. And I think this is probably one of the first times you're really starting to see a taste of that. And I also think it's really interesting to compare Ryan and Adam to a bit of Jag and Matt, as you were mentioning, Karen, because at this point now, Adam, what I find really interesting about his game and obviously the after effects, like he is very understated until these individual game jury phase hits. And then once he starts winning, he's making more decisions.
[01:23:24] This is really the first time he kind of like really sticks out from the group. And we'll talk about this a lot more in the next week when he's like more so going to do a little couple of secretive sneaky things to push his own agenda forward over the groups. Again, Sheila certainly has a few words with him due to the fact that he ended up nominating her when James was right there. So it's interesting in that Ryan and Adam at this point, we're pretty much like locked in to go to the end with each other. And due to the competitions,
[01:23:52] they'll pretty much dominate the rest of the season. But there are these moments that we occasionally have a Jag and Matt less so towards the end where they're like also kind of undermining each other. And in particular, Adam undermining Ryan's game. And it really becomes to your point about snowballing Jenny, just a slow rolling boulder of this guy doesn't necessarily have the best social game. And on top of that, Adam's going to kind of, you know, bring up his own image in the eyes of a juror, like James, who's like, I gave you a chance to win the veto and you didn't.
[01:24:20] And in lieu of someone like Ryan, who is going to continue to get a lot of egg on his face and not necessarily care about it. Yeah. Well, the next week is, is an interesting one because James is now gone. And, you know, theoretically it's, it's everyone now against Sharon. Sharon. But that's not exactly how it plays out because Sheila wins the H, the H O H.
[01:24:48] And she nominates Adam and Sharon. Adam wins the veto. Natalie goes up. And Natalie ends up evicted. Yeah. So this is, this is a lot of fun. This is when like, we hit the strategic pinnacle of big brother. Nine folks. Get ready. The anti penultimate week. But we finally reached it because initially last week, you know, you have again, the God squad,
[01:25:18] this foursome. And the final three out of that were Ryan, Adam, and Natalie. They'd sort of locked in together. They felt like Sheila was on the out. She was still carrying a lot of favor. She had a relationship with Sharon going on. People were leery of her, but last week, Natalie was starting to, you know, attract some favors that maybe not of the variety that she wanted for Matt earlier in the season where it's like, Oh, she's our biggest threat in competitions. Oh, she has some pretty deep relationships with people on the other side of
[01:25:48] the house and was through the first half of the individual game. So now Ryan and Adam decide to lock in with Sheila and Sheila up to this point was very close with Natalie, but the three of them decide. All right, we got to make our move right now. Let's get rid of Natalie. Let's make it a clean sweep. You two boys. You're the only two voting at the final five. Just vote to evict Natalie. Let's make it clean. Let's get her out of here.
[01:26:13] And Adam decides to just continue to make this messy season even messier when he decides purposely to force a one, one tie to make Sheila have to evict her formerly closest ally to her face. So what I recall about this week too, is that like there were like some other complications because like a couple weeks prior, like Ryan and Sharon kind of make this partnership where like they're kind of working together. So,
[01:26:42] so Ryan's like looking out for Sharon in the game and it's like almost, they have become like a secret pair. And then obviously like Adam is still, you know, has his relationship with Sheila. Cause it's like, I got to keep Sheila happy. That's someone who will take me in the final three. This is like a good relationship for me. And then they start hearing because Natalie is, Natalie's a mess, but she's gaming. She's talking. They called her chatting at it. She was talking to everyone.
[01:27:10] And there were lots of these like occasions of Natalie talking with the girls. Like they, you know, Natalie, Sharon and Sheila were acting as if they were going to, cause they saw the guys were working together and they're like, the girls have to stick together, but they're all just like feeding each other BS because they're all also working with the guys. And there were many occasions where Natalie is like saying like, Oh, I got, you know, Adam's my target. And then this stuff gets back to the guys and they, the guy,
[01:27:40] Adam and, and Ryan realized that Natalie is kind of, playing both sides and is talking to the girls about getting them out. And while she's on the block, they decide to confront her about it. And this is where they basically force Natalie to pick a side. And she says in front of, you know, all five of them are in the bathroom. And Natalie says, well, I'm with the guys and this is, this is it. And, you know, I may have like played along with some of the conversations with the girls,
[01:28:10] but like you guys know, like everything. I, I came back and told you guys everything. If I said, I agreed with something. I didn't like, I didn't actually mean it. And so she apologizes and they hug and all of this stuff. And so she leaves this conversation feeling like, okay, I may be made a little mistake. I little, I flew too close to the sun a little bit, but I've apologized. I said in front of the entire house where my allegiance is. And these are the two people voting. I'm good.
[01:28:40] And then when it's, you know, her and Sharon up there and it's time to vote. She, she makes the speech as if she's saying, staying and says like, okay, like you guys were working together. And she says in front of everyone, like this is, this is, uh, you know, the, what I'm hitching my, my horse to here. And, uh, the, I believe that, um, Sheila didn't know that they were going to make her break the tie, but the guys agreed.
[01:29:09] They had actually made the plan together, um, that they were going to make it a split vote. But the problem was, and so obviously Sheila breaks the tie and says, Natalie, you literally just said that you're working with these two. Sharon gets voted out. I'm your target. Like I'm not keeping you here. Um, but the, the, the interesting thing here is that when Natalie realized she gets, voted out, Adam mouths to her, I voted for you. And Ryan is off. Ryan.
[01:29:40] Yeah. It's like, that's the thing is like at one point, everyone is mad at each other. Like even these two guys that are riding together, like near the end of the game, Ryan starts to see like Adams, like he is just telling everyone what they want to hear. Like he's really buttering up this jury. Um, and he's pissed. And Adam denies it. He's like, no, I said, uh, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? I said, watermelon, watermelon. I said, I said, hook me up out there's a show. I got a good number for oxycodone. If you need some. No,
[01:30:10] I think he got Matt's number instead. Yeah. So Natalie, I mean, Natalie was also really interesting because I feel like maybe to the point about Joshua, she did seem like somebody that was perhaps more of an adept player than the people around her, which again, isn't saying much, but it was interesting that through this, you know, almost what, like kind of like crusades, right? Religious war that was going on, uh, between these two sides. Like she was someone that was probably making some of the most
[01:30:38] intrinsic relationships with that other side that should she admitted to a final two did stand to, to be in a good place here. And so it was interesting to then watch it kind of almost preemptively fall apart where the week before James was kind of a foregone conclusion. And so these guys are focusing on what happens next. And they say like, Oh yeah, we got to cut Natalie out immediately. And then to sort of like recruit Sheila to do it as well. I mean, Sheila will obviously have, I would say probably the most like vocal,
[01:31:06] emotional exit of the season besides Chelsea. But like the karma almost begins here with Natalie, where she is devastated by what happens. And I think it's also, I would say is as part of an unfortunate storyline as being kind of edited as like the single white female, you know, fatal attraction obsessed with Matt and he wants nothing to do with her type of edit. Matt was terrible to her. Like she should have gotten the hint, like, and I'm not trying to blame her,
[01:31:34] but like Matt was literally so, and it carries on into the jury house too. Like it's there were like jury house, like footage where she's like still being like, you're so nice to everyone else, but me, but Natalie was like social game. She was in with everyone. She was talking to everyone. And I think that also part of the, you know, the reason that Adam and Ryan get rid of her here is that she was
[01:32:02] probably one of the better challenge threats left. They weren't really worried about Sheila chatty Natty. Yeah. Well, that was it for Natalie. And then we got to the final four and somehow in a season so messy, so controversial. I'm pretty sure that most people would say that the most controversial
[01:32:31] thing that happened in big brother nine happened here at the final four. And that's because Sharon was evicted. Guinea pig gate. Guinea pig gate. But we should have seen this coming right in retrospect, Karen. You talked about this last week, the tiebreaker of how many, how many cups fit inside the giant teacup trick question. The doors open. We get a similar question here, but it's much, much more bullshit. It's worse. It's really,
[01:33:00] really bad. I mean, it is like, you know, I think that big brother fans are, are like very used to, you know, decisions. They don't like controversial choices, things happening being like, Oh, this was sketchy. this was probably the most BS thing, like just blatantly BS thing that they did. Which was that they, the,
[01:33:30] the question that Sharon loses this HOH on, she gets the correct answer. Ryan gets the incorrect answer, but it's actually the correct answer because the question was something along the lines of how many preexisting relationships were there coming into? It was, I think. So it's, it's fact or fiction. It's true or false. And it's like, yeah, there were two. Yeah. The two that you know about, is there a, was there a third, um,
[01:34:00] preexisting relationship in the house? I think was the wording. It was preexisting relationship. And Adam and Sharon understandably choose fiction. Right. Yeah. You might think, okay. They all, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was Jen and Ryan. It was Joshua. It was Jacob and Sharon. We all swore on the Bible. Like that. Nothing else happened,
[01:34:28] but there were two particular sets of very little pause that did not swear on that Bible that proved to be the undoing of one Sharon over Mueller in this game, which is wild. So, so yeah, they, uh, they, they, Julie says, nope, sorry. There was another preexisting relationship in the game, uh, in the house. It was, uh, the Guinea pigs, um, that, uh,
[01:34:57] that have been living in the game that they had a preexisting relationship prior to. The final question. Like this is insane. Like in all of the like rig, like controversy that we've had over the years in big brother, this has to be one of the most egregious things that ever happens in terms of a challenge. Right. It's not even, it's not even rigging. It's just writing.
[01:35:27] Maybe, maybe the stupidest question in game show history, which is unintentional rigging actually, because it's like, are you just stupid? What? Who thought of this? Who on earth? Now, granted these people were like up their own asses with conspiracy theories. If you remember, like there was that pink toy that was in the Guinea pig cage. And James was like, there are six sides on that. That indicates six house guests that have a preexisting relationship. And so like, Oh yeah, maybe there, there was that entire line. They went down, but nowhere, no one on earth.
[01:35:57] You could take a guy that was covered in 10 foil, let alone wearing one on his head as a hat. And he would never say, Oh yeah, there's a third relationship. And it's between the Guinea pigs. Who would think about that? Maybe Natalie, the pet store owner who would have sold them to Guinea pigs. Probably didn't realize it either. The Guinea pigs might not realize it. It's going to be a cowboy in the coma situation with the damn Guinea pigs. Right. And it's just, it's like, if that counts, like what counts as a relationship?
[01:36:26] I'm sure multiple people from this cast, like saw one another prior to entering the game, like at casting, does that count as a preexisting relationship? Like what is happening here? Does the crew count? Like how, how are we extending this out? The pool floaties? Like where, what are we doing here? The crew has certainly been in the house as well. Uh, you know, like, yeah, do they count? I mean, how generous is the wording here? Like when they were treating the, the,
[01:36:55] the house guests with the medical emergency. Yeah. Julie, Julie Chen is also related to the CEO of CBS. Does he count? He's technically affiliated with big brother. Yeah. This, this was, people were mad and justifiable. Yeah. For it to be the thing that decides. This, this, the, the competition. And then thus the fates. Of Sharon in the game at the final four,
[01:37:23] where she wins this HOH. She is guaranteed a spot in the final three in what would have been like a massive, like upset in this competition, beating out, uh, both Ryan and Adam for this safety, forcing the trio to turn on each other, uh, around earlier than they otherwise do. Um, and in a spot where she like has a basically like wins. If she makes it to the end, all she needs to do is win one more HOH. Um,
[01:37:51] and instead she loses on specifically this question, which is complete nonsense. It's just objectively, absolutely ridiculous. And like, I guess, you know, these contracts were, were pretty ironclad even back then. And I think that Sharon was enough of like, I would say a placid personality where like, I don't think she would have raised a huge stink about it. I think they might've gotten lucky because like, this could have easily been like Alexa and big Tom and survivor Africa situation where afterwards they're like,
[01:38:21] you're going to have to pay me a pretty penny because that was absolute bullshit. I guess the only thing I could say to counter this is like, is it one of these things where you say, why would they ask us about this? Would they only ask us this question? If it was fact, if there were more than two, I guess I'll say that. Cause otherwise the question is so obvious. Why would you have such a gimme there? I mean, I think it makes sense though, because there were secret preexisting relationships that yes, we're out of,
[01:38:50] but then there were rumors of other relationships that turned out to be not true. And it's like, did somebody pull the wool over your eyes? Did, did, was there another preexisting relationship that never got caught? Uh, you know, like I think it, it kind of does make sense as a question. Um, like how good are you at reading, uh, your, your fellow house guests? Did you suss out that there was another preexisting relationship or do you trust that there wasn't, uh, based on what you've managed to gather? Um, and you know, two people got it right.
[01:39:21] And what it, like, what a fun reveal if they're actually like, you know what I mean? Like that's a fun way to reveal it at near the end of the game. If there actually was one that, that existed. Um, but no, no, it's just guinea pigs, just guinea pigs. I mean, imagine they could, I mean, again, to go back to cowboy and a coma, they could have really pulled out the rug of being like Matt and Natalie. I've got really good news for one of you and really bad news for the other one. Oh no. So Ryan ends up winning.
[01:39:51] He also wins the veto. And that is going to be it for Sharon, who really made such a miracle run, um, from being the first person evicted to getting pulled back into the game, uh, surviving the, uh, the, the decimation of all of her allies, uh, and then surviving around that should have been it for her. It was just down to her, but she manages to survive. Natalie leaves instead, then comes so close to winning that final four. H O H, um,
[01:40:20] does not do it. And, uh, really goes down as sort of like the, uh, the, uh, the fallen angel of the season, um, who just made it so close again, smallest halo on that angel. I'm also trying to remember. I think her and Victoria, I think they tie the record right now for most times being nominated in a row because she's nominated after James returns every single eviction. Every year. After that. Yeah. She was after his H O H ran. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to the point of, you know,
[01:40:50] her not really putting up a fight about this absolutely terrible robbery of a question that she, she loses the H O H on. Like, is there a part of it where she's like, I'm playing with house money. I was given a second chance in this game. I was literally evicted. Yes. It wasn't really my fault, but that's part of the game. You know what I mean? I, I got cast and, and tied to this terrible ex-boyfriend that cheated on me and is an absolute idiot and the worst big brother player ever. Um,
[01:41:20] but I got evicted. I was in sequester. My game was done. And by the grace of God, um, or Neil Garcia, uh, I get, I get a second chance in this game and I have a really incredible run. And sometimes that's just the way it works out. Um, I don't know if that's part of her rationale here. If she was thinking that like, Hey, I survived way longer than I should have, but man, like there were many fans of Sharon that were really,
[01:41:50] really upset to see this, uh, turn out the way it did. Because, uh, again, also just because she was the last surviving member of like the opposition against like the Christies. Um, so what were they called team God? I don't know. I forget. Um, Bible bros. There were a lot of different names. Yeah, this really was. This was like a peak big brother on survivor sucks era where there were a lot of, uh, contemptuous nicknames that were going around, but not for Sharon.
[01:42:20] Look, no, Sharon seems like a very pleasant person. She really does seem like the one normal person that was trapped in this house with a bunch of manic people. Uh, and so for that, I felt for her. Did it make the most riveting TV? No, I do think Sharon was maybe a bit of an underrated player. Like I think that she obviously would have had a very good chance of winning. Had she gone to the end considering that she had three votes locked in, in Chelsea, Joshua, and James. It would just require one more person. And she was in good with Natalie.
[01:42:49] Maybe if Ryan is getting evicted and she's sitting next to like Sheila, Ryan might vote for her, but she even has, you know, some instincts as to like, you know, when James was HOH and Natalie was approaching her, uh, making deals. She's like, Natalie is not going to work with you. Like you're, you're going to burn Matt. Natalie is not going to work with you anymore. Despite the fact that he was deluding himself into that fact, she was always kind of like the small voice of reason in the back of everyone's heads that would of course get out shouted by all of the other
[01:43:17] stuff that was going on in the front of their heads. So you must, you know, sorry, go ahead. No, I mean, I would say that obviously this, this season is known for its personalities. And so I think Sharon doesn't necessarily stand out in that way. I think, unfortunately the thing she is most famous for is this controversy that we were just talking about, but nice to see a fairly level-headed person amongst this, like, uh, we, we will wobble house of a season. I think she must have had like a PhD in crisis management because the
[01:43:47] people she had to work with were like so volatile and like causing so many problems at all points that she had to be like the calming force. That was just like, you know, she was, she was her own allies were being terrible to the other side of the house. And then she was like going to the people that she wasn't even working with. And like, you know, comforting them. Like she did actually have like a pretty good social game. She was good with a lot of people because she wasn't. And a terrible person. She wasn't a maniac.
[01:44:17] Like she was just, she was just a chill person. Um, but yeah, uh, tough run, uh, at the end here for Sharon. Yes. Well, after Sharon's departure, we were down to the final three. It is Ryan, Adam and Sheila, Adam and Sheila, the last remaining soulmate pair. Um, God intended. Who would have predicted it? Um, but this is going to be the end for them as, uh, Ryan and Adam,
[01:44:45] both beat out Sheila in parts one and two of the final three. HOH Ryan ends up winning and evicting Sheila in favor of Adam to bring to the final two. And that is it for Sheila. Just, just beat out, uh, at the end here. Yeah. And she is again, absolutely emotionally devastated at this. Uh, she, and again, I don't, I don't think Adam necessarily through this, but if we talk about Ryan continuing to just dig his hole deeper and deeper,
[01:45:14] right before he asked everyone to vote for him, $500,000 richer. It shows right here where he has to be the one to look Sheila in the face and be like, yep, I'm sorry. I'm taking a baller with me. You got bald. We're getting rid of you. Yeah. Sheila was mad because she thought that Adam threw it and that he was never going to, again, the emotional part of it. Um, she felt like very much like you were always going to go with Adam. Like, well, with Ryan,
[01:45:42] I was just trying to set himself up so that no matter what someone was taking him, like, I don't necessarily think he was throwing to get Sheila out here. Mm hmm. She, Sheila, not without her mistakes in the game, but, uh, really, I think a good example of a player who, uh, made the best out of, uh, very bad circumstances, um, managing to work with Adam, uh, despite their rocky start, uh, made some headway in the game from a, from a position that was very weak in the beginning.
[01:46:12] Um, and, uh, and also, you know, uh, again, as, as you pointed out for what it's worth, uh, like a decent amount older than most of the cast, here, making it all the way to the final three and not, I would even say dragged to the end because they thought that they could beat her as much as was an integral part of a dominant alliance that, uh, that crushed, uh, a good portion of this game. Um, bit of a double-edged sword though, of course, as they won all those competitions, helping, uh, beat out the other side. And then was,
[01:46:41] she was not able to then beat them in, uh, in the end. Um, you know, you probably would look at her final five HOA train and say, should you have gotten rid of Natalie there? Maybe you could have made a move, a little bit earlier, uh, against one of these guys had a better chance to win in the end. But you have to remember that like at this time in big brother history, the idea that like these big physical guys are definitely going to be able to win competitions, uh, was not quite as prevalent, uh,
[01:47:10] because it wasn't quite as true yet, but it was certainly getting there as we sort of see in this season. Yeah. And it is interesting because I feel like this was one of the first times in big brother history, I guess maybe besides big brother five with, you know, cowboy and drew coming back together as the remnants of the four horsemen, where we got like an authentic bro down in the end game, which is good. Why I compare Ryan and Adam to Matt and Jag, where it was just like, the two of them decided to join up together in Matt's absence.
[01:47:38] And then we're just able to control a lot of what happened either in the HOH position or as the votes themselves to determine who goes. And they ended up taking their final victim here in the form of Sheila. And yeah, I mean, Sheila has this very fun run. Like we see in some reality TV characters of like melting down early on in a really tough situation was able to recover, becomes a bit of like a mover and a shaker towards the middle of the game. Again, is the one to form team Christ,
[01:48:07] the Christies Christ on a cracker, whatever you want to call them. Uh, but she was somebody who unfortunately ends up kind of getting out done at the end, just due to the comp circumstances and some of the stuff that forced her hand in a way. And, you know, I know she was angry at Adam for throwing it, but Adam was sort of in this rare position for a winner where I do think no matter who won that final HOH, he was guaranteed final two. Now, maybe it would be tougher sledding against a certain person, definitely tougher sledding against Sheila than Ryan,
[01:48:37] considering what the vote ended up being. But I think he felt pretty good in the position that he was in, no matter which way the card shook out. There was also like the, um, the narrative through the season where like, you know, Sheila is a single mom. And there was like a point where like, there was lots of conversation of like, I really need this money. I really deserve this money. It's going to like change my life. And that was another fun moment during the Yankee swap, where if you remember, Adam, Adam,
[01:49:04] Adam got $10,000 and gave it to Sheila as sort of a gesture of goodwill. It was one of the rare moments that they were on each other's good sites. Like she's a single mom. Ryan then finishes the next round and proceeds to take the $10,000 and give Sheila the unitard. Did you want to see Ryan in the unitard Mike? Listen, I don't want to, sometimes I want to put myself in Jen's brain and see what she has the sometimes misfortune of seeing. That's the way, that's the way to do it. Yeah.
[01:49:33] So I, I'm sure that that was like, you know, in the minds of Adam and Ryan here as well, where they're like, there's a chance that, cause like the way they would talk about it, like, Oh, like don't play the single mother card and stuff. Like, I'm sure that the way that they felt about, uh, you know, a single mom here, they probably were like, Oh, she's going to play the single mom card and get all the votes. Like, yeah. Stop talking about how you're going to use the money. That's like, that's like a touchy subject. It's not fair. Yeah.
[01:50:03] Which is ironic as we'll get into the final two. And one of the direct questions that Matt of all people asked Adam is, what will you do with the money when you get out of the house? They were planning. Yeah. Like, Oh, I'm going to set up. Can I get some of this? I'm setting up a charity. Wink, wink. That's the code word. Yes. So the final two, of course, for a long time, they really dominate these end game competitions. Uh,
[01:50:33] after James's HOH win, uh, in week five, uh, it's not the fifth eviction, but it's the fifth week of the game. Uh, James wins that HOH and then Adam and Ryan both win, uh, to each four of the next six total HOHs. Um, and, uh, it's a pretty landslide vote. Uh, as mentioned before, uh, Joshua, the only person to vote for Ryan. Everyone else votes for Adam.
[01:51:02] Who would have guessed it? One of the more lopsided votes, uh, in big brother history to this point. And it's for Adam Jasinski. And a baller. I, I, I have to mention a facet of this man that has not been brought up. And Karen, quite frankly, I'm quite surprised you did it because you know, I have a thing. Okay. I've, I've got, I've got an, um, a mild bee in my bonnet when it comes to the adult babies. Uh,
[01:51:32] it all. And I don't, and I don't know if you remember this, but during Adam's first HOH reign, again, one of the many perks you get upon winning this illustrious power is your own room and your own sort of supply of food and snacks that can be sent to you from home. Adam Jasinski. Adam Jasinski. Shoes. Like purposely, though, I believe it was maybe initially sent to his, like from his family as a joke.
[01:52:01] Like a bunch of, a bunch of, a bunch of baby food shows up in Adam's HOH week. His HOH week was sponsored by Gerber. Like, let's be real. Gerber baby food. And you would think initially it's like, ah, we're resident. We're sending him a bunch of baby food. But he goes like, you guys don't know what you're missing. And he cracks open one of those bad boys and like fricking guns,
[01:52:26] all of these strained peaches and mush down his potato and carrots as quickly as he can. And just talks up, extols the virtues and health benefits of eating baby food. And look, I am not here to quite literally yuck anyone's yum, but I will say the people I know who eat baby food, there is a 100% connection between that and running a drug ring and eventually getting incarcerated. That's all I'm going to say.
[01:52:57] That's all I'm going to say. Mike, I'm texting you after this. I need the story. Adult babies who do crime. Exactly. Um, it's just what, what a wild quirk of our winner of the season. I, yeah, I insane. It was so funny. I also recall Natalie was in support of the baby. Uh, she, she thought it was like, so I, I don't know. I don't know what was going on there. I think, I think this is, it's,
[01:53:26] it's kind of relevant to the contrast of Adam and Ryan, I think. And one of the reasons why Adam really, uh, you know, gets, gets all of most of these votes, uh, at the end. Um, Ryan is really like the, sort of, he, he's, he's a little more normal feeling. Uh, and, and, and little might be there too. Um, like, uh, Adam is such a character. Uh,
[01:53:54] he is so out there. Um, whereas Ryan is a little more understated and, uh, certainly also a character and probably, you know, uh, on a, on a season where on a regular season, Ryan is probably one of the more, you know, wacky out there characters, but on this season, he's one of the more understated characters. Uh, and I think because of that, uh, Adam, because of that and,
[01:54:24] and other reasons, Adam gets away with a lot more than Ryan does. Yes. Ryan, you kind of feel like this guy knows better, you know, like this guy, he, he shouldn't have betrayed me in the way that he did. Adam, I knew what Adam was up to. I knew who Adam was day one when he started using words. I didn't like, uh, you know, when he, and then he certainly reminded me of it when he ordered baby food. Um, you know, like this guy,
[01:54:53] he's so, so out there that like, of course he's not trustworthy. Uh, in many ways, his game is one of the more closely, more closely resembles, Dr. Wills than most players. Uh, wow. Oh, of the show. Um, not, I'm not going to say it's intentional, but, but in, but in, in, in perhaps an unintentional way, everyone was looking to take Adam to the end because of who he was,
[01:55:23] because they thought he was an easy beat, but everybody voted for Adam because they knew they couldn't trust him. Uh, and some of them did anyway. Uh, and they knew that he was a wild and wacky character, uh, but he, he succeeded anyway. Um, and so he was able to leverage those things and he certainly was also working, uh, for those kinds of things. Um, just not quite as I think methodically as say a Dr. Will was. Um, but, uh, but that was kind of,
[01:55:51] I think why Adam ends up walking away with the win where, where I think normally you'd look at Ryan's game and say, Oh, that guy really kind of did the most. Like that guy kind of played the game, but Adam came away looking better overall. Um, and it's largely because of his personality, but also, you know, ultimately he also, he has a charm. He has a charm to him that you cannot deny. Uh, and that combination, little, little bit of Dr.
[01:56:21] Will, I think it goes a long way. Well, yeah, I mean, much like Dr. Will asked the entire house to go on a fast. Adam asked everyone to go on a baby food diet. Uh, but I do think to your point, like this is kind of on the nose. Adam kind of has a bit of that, like big brother charm to him, or he like kind of acts like a little kid to the point where one of the luxuries he asked for from outside of the pressure cooker of the big brother house was baby food.
[01:56:47] Like this guy is presenting this very kind of youthful energy to him that I think to your point, Tara, not only made him more unsuspecting, but also made it, you know, much more of a, uh, I would say a more wholesome image compared to someone like Ryan, where it's like, yeah, this guy's a snake and he doesn't necessarily have the personality to help, you know, talk me out of the big betrayal. He just committed. Adam had that, like, I can't stay mad at you kind of vibe. You know what I mean? It was like, look at you,
[01:57:17] look at him, you know what I mean? It's like he, he was, and he emotionally connected with people. Like he was aloof. He, he was the original crazy eyes. Um, and, but I mean, I would say actually that the Matt on this season also had noticeable eyes as well. Yeah, no, there were actually a lot of crazy eyes on this season. Uh, but, um, you know, he had like all of these emotional connections. Like he was a little bit all over the place. Um, but, but when he crossed people,
[01:57:46] like he had this way of like, they couldn't stay mad at him. Whereas like, I just don't think that Ryan, like he had bonds with people, but I just don't think that he emotionally connected with anyone. And like that does, um, matter, especially when it's two people that were, you know, a part of a lot of the same moves in the same Alliance. Like that, that is the difference maker. Um, in a pairing like this, there's a chance that some of the jury members were saying, they're saying like, Ryan's current girlfriend said he was racist, like a month and a half ago.
[01:58:16] Should we take that into account at all as we're voting? Yeah. Who are we enabling right now? And it's quite literally the lesser of two evils. Yeah. Um, before we get too far away, uh, from the season, we will certainly talk about the, uh, the drug ring, uh, that we've been alluding to. Um, Kendall's camera is talking about the test. We will briefly mention the orgies. Apparently there was a big orgy after the season with Matt and Natalie and Ryan. And I think Matt's brother and Natalie's sister.
[01:58:44] So maybe that was the other preexisting relationship. It's a family affair. There was also, um, a, a scene, uh, that, that, that occurred on the live feeds. It wasn't, it wasn't quite an orgy, uh, but it was certainly, there was some sexual activity going on. That was, uh, at least semi public with, uh, a few different people. And, uh, like everyone was naked on the feeds at some point. Oh yeah.
[01:59:12] And we should also mention that in the midst of Ryan, uh, Ryan and Jen getting in a fight. And again, her slanderous campaign calling him racist to try to evict him in the house. They did have a fair amount of sex in the bathroom that was broadcast on the show for some reason. Yes. Yes. And, and, you know, Ryan said, Oh, it'll be quick. It'll only be 20 seconds. And then Kyle, uh, said, hold my beer. Yeah, exactly. Let me quarter that for years. I'm the,
[01:59:41] I'm the doge of sex. I don't even have time to make it 75% efficiency. So, Um, so Adam wins, he goes on to use his winnings to, uh, now, you know, sort of the, the, the story is that he uses the winnings to like, uh, like start up a drug ring. Um, he, he was a dealer prior to entering the game. The money just allowed him to like, I guess, uh, grow his venture.
[02:00:12] Yeah. I'm an entrepreneur. Well, wasn't this, we talked about with another winner tearing down the line. We're like, wasn't he also an addict as well? And like, what, if we talk about his erratic behavior was going through a noticeable sign of withdrawal towards the end of the season. Yes. Uh, it was actually a little bit earlier in the season because basically, uh, he, yeah, I mean, he, he was not able to continue to take his pills. Um, and so, uh, went through withdrawal, uh, on the show.
[02:00:42] Um, and, uh, as a have not, uh, he was sort of like disguising his symptoms. Um, and so, and this is all according to him. This is, uh, what he has said after the fact, nobody really knew at the time. Um, at least, uh, nobody watching knew. Uh, so, um, he, uh, he gets out of the game, uh, gets out of the, the, the house and, uh, he's just, he's just dealing. Uh, he links up with Maddie, and, uh, they, they're just,
[02:01:11] they're dealing some stuff. Uh, and then, you know, uh, gets caught. Um, I believe gets caught. Uh, I don't remember. He's told a couple of different stories of getting caught. Cause he was also, he went to, he went to jail, uh, before, for, for, for, for dealing before being on the show. Uh, I think it was in like France or something. Um, and, uh, so like, you know, we're not vetting, maybe could have checked, but, uh, no, I'm saying they, they wanted the opposite.
[02:01:40] They said, we want criminals or future criminals only. No, I mean, what I sincerely think they're like, oh shit, we need to put another season together. Like, we get out the recycling bin right now. Can we thumb through? You know, Adam, fine. It's one minor drug misdemeanor in another country. We're not enabling anything. Are we? To, to hear Adam tell it, uh, I believe it went down, uh, that he got a call from, uh,
[02:02:09] Robin Cass and she said, uh, Hey, uh, we want to be famous. Uh, he said, sure do babe. And that, and that's, I think also what kind of allows us to, you know, speak more jocularly about this is yes. So Adam was busted with what I think like 2000 oxycodone pills with the intention to sell. And distribute. He obviously had funneled his winnings into it. And he ended up getting sentenced to,
[02:02:37] I think 20 years in prison. And Matt, who was a part of this entire ring, I think got four years in jail, but like, I think Adam only served for, ended up serving for, he got, I think he got out in like 2015 or something. No, I think he also, uh, as Wikipedia says in a, in a, in what has been described, it's an ironic twist. Uh, the lawyer recommended that he get a sentence of house arrest as well. Uh, but since Adam has really turned his life around, uh, and that would be an understatement. He has gotten clean.
[02:03:07] He is, uh, no longer an addict. And he actually has like gone on to truly become like someone who, who dedicates their life in the realm of addiction recovery, who has tried to help people, you know, not go down the same path that he did. And he's really devoted a lot of his life. I recommend really people check it out. Cause like he's to Terrence point, he's really for lack of a better term, come clean about everything that he experienced before, during and after all this.
[02:03:34] And he has absolutely transformed his life to make sure that nobody goes down the same road that he did back in 2008. Specifically. I believe, uh, he talks a lot about like helping parents, uh, recognize and like deal with, uh, children who might be going through, because that's what he, he, he, he got into this very, very young. Um, and so, uh, he is trying to help, uh, others, which is, uh, you know, very, very nice to it's, it's a, it's a happy ending. Uh,
[02:04:04] you obviously don't want someone to have to go through all of this, uh, to get to that point, but at least, at least, you know, he's able to, uh, come out on the other side of this and change, uh, the trajectory of his life from, from here on out. Um, and, you know, try to actually, um, educate people. Hey, I think you wrote, yeah, like you said, Taryn, like you wrote a book, um, about, about helping parents figure out if their kids are struggling with addiction. So,
[02:04:34] um, you know, I'm glad, I'm glad that it, it ended up working out in, in a way where, where he learned something and was able to get out, get over, um, you know, his addiction. And I believe Matt is also out of prison and is doing well. Um, yeah. So I think he, he, his sentence was less, uh, in the first place, I believe. I believe he actually like sent, sent in a few blogs from prison, like talking about everything that happened. But yeah, I read a lot of the stories. Like, didn't he get like busted at like an airport or something? Or like,
[02:05:03] he told like a story about how he had drugs on him at an airport. And he was like sweating profusely thinking he was going to get caught. I remember it was like a gripping story. It was like a blog or something. So interesting. But yeah, I mean, yeah, all that is to say, it is incredibly wild, yet. It's so fitting for big brother nine that this happened because it is like, just thinking about survivor 46, right? When like at least one juror predicated their entire million dollar vote on,
[02:05:32] I trust you're going to do what you said with the money. And this guy does what so many people joke about of like, Oh, what are you gonna do with the money? I'm probably going to blow it on like drugs and strippers and everything. Like this guy made a drug ring out of his reality TV winnings. There are a lot of people that you could assume they would do that with, but this is the one that did. This is the one simulation within the Dr.
[02:06:00] Strange infinite number of universes where he actually used $500,000 to make a criminal enterprise take off eating baby food on big brother for 10 weeks. And I think that there has, I think, I think it took a little while. I would say at least like five to 10 years before people, I saw people really start to talk about big brother nine. I think in the way that both Mike and Jenny talk about it, which is like, that was camp,
[02:06:30] you know, like that was television. Yeah. At the time from my recollection from where I, when I, when I was looking at jokers, when I was looking at different places, people's opinions on the season, it was full on negativity. Oh yeah. For a while it was the worst big brother season. Yeah. Very, very much. So it was like, like people tried to disown the season in the same way that they disowned season one. Like that season didn't count. It wasn't even in the summer.
[02:07:01] And you know, like Adam getting busted for a drug dealing after the fact was just, I think confirmation to a lot of people like, yeah, exactly. That's exactly what we thought of that season in the first place. Now. And, and as I said, like the ratings were dropping during that season. Uh, I believe season 10 starts with the lowest ratings, uh, that any season has started with to that point. Um, because, uh, you know,
[02:07:29] largely you could say because of the decline in interest from season nine, it's also like two seasons in a year for the first time. And that's weird. Um, and so this, this starts to feel like a little bit of a crisis point for the show. Um, and, uh, uh, it's, it's a very interesting one. It's, it's such a strange season. And, uh, and I think that it, you can kind of go back to it now and be like, wow, what a time capsule. What a,
[02:07:56] what a wild series of events that happened here. Um, but, uh, I would say not one that you'd want to repeat, uh, personally. That's a one and done. You don't want to replicate, uh, this season. You, but maybe, maybe you want to replicate like, you know, messy game because here's the thing. Obviously we want to see, see incredible gameplay, but sometimes every once in a while,
[02:08:23] you want to see a bunch of really bad players and see what, what comes of it. Um, you know, just, just for funsies. Um, but you don't want to replicate the whole energy and vibe, uh, of this particular season. And, and I don't think, you ever could. I, I just don't think this is going to be a season. This is, this is a one and done, very unique season. But like I said earlier, I think it,
[02:08:50] I think it's easier to separate yourself emotionally and watch it as like a wild entertainment experience, especially because everyone on the season feels so much like a character and not like a real person, which I think helps with like the separation. Um, and, and like I was saying earlier, like there's not like a couple people that are, you know,
[02:09:20] falling victim to a lot of other people's bad behavior. It's kind of like everyone can get it. And everyone has had moments in this season that were not good. And they're all kind of to blame at, at certain points. Um, so I think that maybe that helps a little bit. It's not quite as uncomfortable to watch because you're not like feeling incredibly bad for a certain person because it's like across the board. It's like watching just like, again, we said it was the scripted. Yeah.
[02:09:49] I think that it also helps once you actually know what it is. And it's odd to say, but I think one of the caveats that comes with big brother, pretty much being a live to tape series is that like both the players and we as fans don't necessarily know the direction that the season is going to go. Right. What's the tone going to be where the prevailing narrative prevailing players are going to be. So when you're watching me, brother nine to Terrence earlier point, you're sort of expecting, okay, there will be these big players that emerge. There will be these next level strategies.
[02:10:18] And with maybe one round exception, big brother nine never necessarily hits that. I think it definitely benefits from being able to see the picture as a whole and be like, my God, this might be just like, this is like the, the fast food of big brother where it's like so greasy and heavy and low key. Disgusting, but there are some points when just your simian brain craves that, you know, you're like, I know what this is. It's like, don't tell me where the good time. It's like,
[02:10:48] no, I know this baby food of big brother. Exactly. Like, I know this is bad for me, but at the same time, like there's some part of me that craves it. And I feel like it's a very distinctively different flavor. And it's a very acquired flavor. Again, I would not be surprised if some people feel like this is absolute trash season with trash people. I don't want to watch that in my big brother. I don't want to watch that in my reality TV. There are some people that's like, this is so stupidly messy.
[02:11:14] And so much time has passed that I can just sort of look back on it with not necessarily fondness, but certainly more observation than like your hotheaded feelings in the moment, much like these characters. And so it's really interesting to look back upon it. Cause I do think this is not one of those seasons where it's like, well, actually you need to check it out because it's much better than it was thought about in the moment. I still think it is a bottom tier season, but it really stands out,
[02:11:42] especially as we get further and further away from it as probably one of the most unique seasons in big brother history between timing, twists and tone. The three T's were all vastly different from both of the seasons that it's in the middle of in terms of the sandwich. Yeah. Very neat in the U S. I would say one. And I mentioned this last week as well. I think probably one of the more like most similar to international versions of the show that, that big brother U S ever kind of got to.
[02:12:14] But we have to now make a case. Who are the three people on the poster for big brother nine? This is like those, those DVDs you find somebody selling on the street where they have a blanket laid out, like outside your gym on eight. Exactly what we're doing here. Hey, he wants to buy a DVD and it's like, Oh, like, do I want that? Like, yeah, I have $2 to spare, but even that feels like too much money. Yeah.
[02:12:45] I feel like, I feel like there are some, there are some options. I feel like you got to have a baller. Yes. Um, crazy James. I'm sorry. You got to have James. And dare I say, you might want to have Sheila. I think that's Sheila. I think Sheila and Sharon are both. Yeah. Good options. I think that here's the thing. I think from the narrative,
[02:13:11] I would probably choose Sheila just because I think that she was more in more of the story. Like she was more of a major player in a lot of the plot lines and a lot of the drama. So, um, from like a face, uh, it makes more sense, but I also can see the fan base, um, favoring Sharon here, which is very understandable. Like she was like,
[02:13:37] she represented something totally different in this cast compared to everything else. And obviously like the big controversy, um, um, at the final four, I think is important. Um, so I, I think that, yeah, it's probably between those two for the third spot, right? Like, are we in agreement at Adam and, uh, crazy James, but quite, quite honestly, for me, I'd probably put both Sharon and Sheila and crazy James might be struggling to make mine. Uh, but,
[02:14:07] but I, I think I can definitely understand why he'd be, I never, I never fell into the crazy James, uh, fandom myself. Wow. Listen, you weren't a 21 year old, um, lady like me. That was looking for, yeah, like the pink, the pink hair and the, talk about one in the pink. Oh my God, Michael. Look, it's a two hours and 12 minutes. Okay.
[02:14:37] You're still listening to the BB nine. Yeah. You are, we all know after two hours and 12 minutes, Mike loses all filter. It's like the substance, you know, the balance must be retained. But I, to your, to, to what you said, Taryn, like maybe not for you, but he, for a lot of people, especially for the, he won America's favorite juror, I think is what they called it back then. Um, and he,
[02:15:04] he was kind of like the foil in, in, you know, team Christ for, for many weeks that they spent so much time. Yeah, he was the, no. And they literally talked about him like that. They're like, we got to get out this devil because he was like this, like alternative guy that like probably doesn't believe in God. And he's got tattoos and he lives this like weird lifestyle. Like they talked about him like that. Um, but I feel like the, the TV fan base, especially because of his edit,
[02:15:33] he was the underdog. Like, I really think that there was a big amount of people that were behind him. Um, and also just for a look for like, yeah, for the, for the cover. Pretty sure you had to pay money before the season to see people. Could you get that on DVD? That might be, that might be honestly, you know what? Maybe I get the big brother nine DVD. If there's the bonus features of like James's extracurricular activities. I can, I actually, I do agree with that.
[02:16:02] Aesthetically. I think that, uh, crazy James on the poster makes more. Yeah. Get him in like the baby pink shirt and his, his pink Mohawk up. Like, I just think like nice, like visual balance there. But plus I support any of those four. Plus it would be great if it was Adam, James and Sheila. So you could look at that lineup and you're like, what season had these three people on, let alone three of the biggest faces of the season. Yeah.
[02:16:32] Well, um, that was big brother nine. Uh, this has been, uh, by far the longest. Okay. Okay. You might say what they did, uh, over two hours of big brother nine, but also there's two of us. And yes, two of the biggest yappers in the game. So that's why we're soulmates. That's why we're soulmates. Yeah. Yeah. That's, this is what, which one of you is Adam. One of you is Sheila.
[02:17:02] I'm Adam. So, I mean, uh, I mean, I probably over here. Listen, I may or may not be having a red unit heart in my costume closet for the upcoming season. I will. Sheila was a formal model. I will wear that with pride. You can call me. I mean, Mike, Mike is a parent, but I'm the older woman. So I don't know. This is very confusing. We're both, we're both Adam and we're both Sheila. I mean, Adam did technically work with children more,
[02:17:30] just maybe not in the way that he should be a parent. Yes, that's true. Anyway, so sorry to everyone. We did over two hours on BB nine, but I think if you were the kind of person that wanted to listen to a podcast about big brother nine, you were also the kind of person that wanted to listen to Mike and Jenny talk about that. That is a good point. And look, listen, if this was not your taste,
[02:18:00] allow a spoonful of baby food, like a nice sorbet to cleanse the palate, because coming up, I mean, to your point, Taryn, I don't know if this was coincidental, but the whole back to basics aspect of big brother 10. I wonder if it was in lieu of like, Oh, we did way too much in way too many areas with big brother nine. It really does. It, I mean, we'll certainly talk about it next week, but definitely feels like such a turnaround for the show. So there's certainly a lot to talk about next week, big brother 10.
[02:18:30] So make sure you're, you're staying tuned for that. And, and if you're especially a big brother nine lover, you still have to stay tuned to see who's on the poster. Next week as voted by the audience, you can of course vote at Rob, is a website.com slash BB retrospective. Get those votes in and let us know who should be on the poster for big brother nine. But for now, that is it. That's what we have for you for big brother nine, the winter season, the orgy season,
[02:19:01] the drug deal. That really should have been the subtitle. Big brother nine, the orgy season. The orgy season. Um, all right. Well, stay tuned. Um, you can find me over on Twitch. I'm hanging out watching survivor, which just premiered. So, uh, that's a good time. I'm actually also now streaming on YouTube as well, doing a bit of a multi stream. So, uh, if you want to find me on YouTube to watch the stream there, you can do so as well. Um, and check out the tastemakers. We talk about scripted TV,
[02:19:31] uh, over on, we know scripted TV, uh, Mike, what do you got going on? All right. Let me out of the cage here because as Karen said, survivor just started. Uh, and I had the great pleasure of I said many times over the past month or so of getting to go out to Fiji to interview these castaways and to attend the very events of the episode we just watched. So I have up right now, a bunch of articles detailing my experience there,
[02:20:00] including a major medical incident that happened that, uh, maybe it was a little bit underplay due to being cut for time last night in the episode. It was more intense than you might think, maybe bordering on the levels of the Allison and, uh, Amanda stuff. So you can check that out. I actually, uh, maybe a little bit of a teaser here for patrons of Rob has a podcast. You might expect, uh, something in your feed coming tomorrow where I talk about my experiences a bit more coming this week.
[02:20:28] And of course we are reopening the B and B myself and Liana Boris. And would you believe it? Our first guest this season is none other than Taryn Armstrong. Oh boy. Very excited. You're going to have a baller. Listen, if he's watching, I'd be very intrigued to see his thoughts on the season. Um, very excited Taryn to get your thoughts on what I thought was a very emotional premiere and see exactly where the hell we're going from here. Talk about people playing very brazenly and very sloppily. Of course,
[02:20:58] everything I do is over at parade.com. I just tease it, but the amazing race is also coming back next week for season 37. Myself and Jess will have podcasts coming your way every Thursday, as well as exit press there over at parade. And last, but certainly not least the reality flash. It's our breaking news reality TV podcast here on RJP, where if there's any pertinent reality TV news in the sphere, applying to any number of shows, I'll be in your eyes and ears telling you what you need to know,
[02:21:26] who you need to know about why you need to know it. So be sure to check that out. Be sure to be subscribed. Cause you never know what might happen. I put out three back to back to back podcasts this weekend. And certainly if the reality flash was around, you know, at the time of Adam's conviction, like I would have covered that like the wazoo. So be sure to follow that as well. And I'm sure plenty more come down the pike in terms of reality and script to television, but Karen,
[02:21:52] thank you for granting me an opportunity to step back 17 years in the past before we look forward at what's coming. Did you have to do the math? I didn't mean that. Surely not 17. Please, please. I said I was in university. If a child was born at the same time as this season, they would be graduating high school right now on their way to run their own drug ring. And maybe there could have been one with all the orgies. All right, Jenny, how about you?
[02:22:21] What do you got going on? I am still covering deal or no deal Island season two. Dondi over at we know Dr. Will. Geez. Yeah. Dr. Will Parvati, David from Australian survivor. And then a bunch of normies that are actually very, very entertaining. They're not that normie. Let's just say that. Really, really fun season. Chappelle, Rob, and I are still covering that over on. We know, Dondi.com. Um,
[02:22:51] and follow me on social media at Jenny autumn. And that's basically it for me. This was really fun. Um, like again, you know, this just felt right. This felt right. Cause we felt like we gave this season. The energy, uh, that it gives us. Yes, exactly. Um, so thanks, Perrin, for putting up with us tonight. Yeah, Big Brother 9 is certainly about giving and receiving. You're very right, Jenny. Of course. All right. Well, let's,
[02:23:20] let's wrap this up before it gets any further. Uh, thank you all so much for joining us here today for Big Brother 9. We will be back next week to talk about Big Brother 10. We'll see you then. We're going to be back next week.
[02:24:12] We're going to be back next week. And so we're going to be back next week. The platform, the we've ever used Shopify, the platform that we've used before Shopify, has used to have regularly updates, the have sometimes caused to have to have a drive, that the shop didn't work. Endlich makes our Nemo Boards Shop dadurch also on the mobile devices a good figure. And the illustrations on the boards come now very, very clear up, what's us also important is and what our brand also makes us want. Start your test now today for 1 Euro pro Monat on Shopify.de slash radio
