open/close all folders
General
- Anyone who volunteers to go up on the block and be evicted; unless the attempt to knock someone out of the game via backdoor is very transparent and has the numbers behind it, and no one equipped with items that could influence the eviction chooses to interfere, it seldom works out well. Lawon, Dustin, Pooch, and Nicole come to mind note .
- Multiple editions have rules against discussing nominations.
You'd Expect: That they would know that the punishment is penalty nomination, and perhaps try not to even discuss this with anyone.
Instead: Multiple people break this rule every season, often resulting in a penalty nomination.\\ - During the "counting" Veto competitions (in which the houseguests must guess how many of a certain item there is):
You'd Expect: The contestants to pick a number that's reasonable, and to stick with the game if they make it to the final round.
Instead: There's usually one person in the group that picks a ludicrously high number that has no chance of being correct, and another person who folds during the final round. Season 14's Ashley manages to do both of thesenote .
As a Result: The contestants in question cripple their chances of winning the challenge and the golden Power of Veto. - People who self-destruct their game because they run their mouths and earn themselves a Hate Sink. The best thing to do is study the housemates passively and be careful around those who are moody, and if someone doesn't like you, just be chill and get people to see you're not an ogre. It would be best not to rile up the other housemates. Give people space when they need it, and just not say anything that could piss off anybody else. As long as a contestant stays civil and fairly quiet and docile, they won't incur the wrath of others. As for making a big impression on the jury, playing the game fairly and honestly is the best move to make. But then you have people who must satisfy a need to snip at everybody when their nerves are being worn on as a vent instead of holding their tongues, and it invariably leads to infighting- at which point, the rest of the contestants will want the nuisance out of the game just to restore peace to the walls of the house. Nice guys finish first, jerks sink right to the bottom.
Big Brother US Version
Big Brother 1
- The producers get one moment for daring to introduce a twist quite late into the game that would bring an eleventh player into the competition in return for a benefit, slapping the twist on the group with absolutely zero tact or wit. The remaining houseguests obviously said no to that. Later seasons would be more clever about invoking these twists, yet ironically, Season 19 would try to pull it in secret and suffer a sharp decline in quality as a result of said addition to the house completely consuming the game.
Big Brother 3
- Marcellas and Amy are both up for eviction. Marcellas wins the Golden Power of Veto, giving him the power to guarantee himself a spot in the Final 4.
You'd expect: Marcellas would decide to save himself.
Instead: He declines to use the Golden PoV, stating he doesn't want to force Jason (the current Head of Household) to choose who to put up in his place between the two remaining girls. Marcellas ends up being evicted, by a vote of 2-1, the 1-1 tie being broken by Jason. And what reason does Jason give for evicting Marcellas? He didn't use the Veto on himself.
"What were you thinking?": As soon as Marcellas sits down for his post-eviction interview, Julie smacks him over the head with her interview cards.
Big Brother 4
- Big Brother 4's producers themselves get one for the very poorly thought up decision to place a group of people who are reeling from broken engagements together with their exes.
You'd expect: The producers to tell these people right away what they were getting into so nobody is there with their ex against their will.
Instead: It turns out to be a surprise twist to both male and female exes entering the house, and it obviously creates a very bad stir.
Worse: One contestant, Scott, cannot bear to be put beside his ex, Amanda. After a few days, he slips into an extreme state of depression, begins ratcheting between moods at the drop of a hat, and finally has a genuine mental breakdown and goes ballistic, trying to wreck up the living room, terrifying his housemates. He ultimately leaves the game due to falling apart at the seams because he's being forced to accept that his ex has gone on with her life, but he's been stuck standing still since they split up.
Result: You get what is widely regarded as the most unhappy house of the entire run of the US version, with everybody in a state of malaise due to being stuck in the awkward proximity of their exes and a season that is just one drawn out moment of cringe and regarded as a disaster among the fans. Everyone behaves so unpleasantly it's a wonder they didn't just throw out the entire competition and apologize for overlooking basic human decency by, well, not pouring salt in old wounds.
Big Brother 6
- In Maggie's HOH, James promises Ivette that he will target Howie & Rachel when he win HOH. After the POV competition, Ivette goes to James for assurance.
You'd expect: James to keep his promise, and throw next HOH just to cover his bases.
Instead: Without hesitation, he decides to tell Ivette his plan into targeting Maggie, thus losing Ivette's trust in him.
What's worse: He made the promise while swearing to the Bible. This, along with Ivette telling everyone, made him extremely untrustworthy with everyone. - After Kaysar was successfully voted off in Maggie HOH, Howie wins the next HOH:
You'd expect: For Kaysar to have a meeting with his alliance (Janelle, Rachel, James and Sarah) first before nominating and targeting a member of the Friendship, preferably Maggie, the leader of the alliance.
Instead: He makes numerous deals with everyone, including Maggie without permission from his alliance. She then manages to convince him to to put up James and Sarah, thus losing his alliance numerical advantage. - Then the Pressure Cooker HOH comes in, and it is now down to Jennifer (Friendship) and Kaysar (SOV). Jennifer begs for Kaysar, who'd returned to the competition, to let her win the HOH, so that she can help evict James, everybody's target.
You'd Expect: Kaysar to tell her to let it play out and see how it goes and probably win, since believing someone from the other alliance is too risky.
Instead: Kaysar just gives Jennifer HOH, thus giving Kaysar the unexpected revolving door treatment. - Then Jennifer wins the Pressure Cooker HOH.
You'd Expect: For Jennifer to obey everybody's orders and take James off, since the Friendship still holds the majority and she will be targeted later over higher profile targets like Maggie and Ivette in the house.
Instead: She breaks the promise and nominates Kaysar after the Veto ceremony. Thus, making herself the biggest target for the SOV instantly, and will have a hard time winning votes from the SOV members if she somehow made it to the finals. She is then evicted at Janelle's HOH reign. - Janelle wins her first HOH, then wins the Veto; currently the nominated candidates are Maggie (the leader of the majority alliance) and Jennifer (a high profile target after the events of the last week also from the majority alliance).
You'd Expect: Janelle to realize that April and Ivette have a hard time working with each other without Maggie. Plus, Maggie is harder to be voted off than Jennifer. She is now in a position where she can take one of two options. She can either not use the veto, which keeps the nominations the same, securing April's (Jennifer's partner) vote against Maggie, or use the veto on Jennifer and put Ivette up, securing both Beau's (Ivette's partner) and James' (Ivette's ally) votes against Maggie. She then needs two votes (one if she takes the second option) to cause a tie, which she can then break and evict Maggie, and one more to evict without a tiebreaker vote. She can get two votes to evict Maggie from her alliance members, Howie and Rachel. The third vote (if she takes the first option) comes from James, who is going after Maggie anyway. By a vote of 4-3 (if there's a tie) or at least 4-2 (without a tie), Maggie is evicted. After that, The Friendship has no leader capable of making strategic decisions & the glue that sticks The Friendship together, making it easier for a SOV member to win.
Instead: Janelle vetoes Maggie instead and Jennifer is evicted 5-1.
As A Result: Maggie is totally untouchable for the SOVs until the Final 3. - The Final 3, when Ivette (Friendship) and Janelle (SOV) are competing in the Final HOH:
You'd Expect: After Janelle outright saying that she would take Ivette to the Final 2 before the competition started, Ivette to try and throws the challenge and let Janelle evict Maggie without letting Maggie know their deal. Since the jury would consist of 4 Friendship members (Jennifer, Beau, April and Maggie), 2 SOV members (Howie and Rachel) and James, Ivette would have had the winning edge against Janelle.
Instead: Ivette does her best and wins the Final HOH, and has to take Maggie to the Final 2 due to a promise the group had made (where if one member of the Friendship betrays another at the end, they vote for the other person in the final 2). Maggie then wins 4-3.
What's worse: She also gave a rather nasty message to Rachel in her goodbye message. Which prompted Rachel to convince Howie (who is Rachel's partner) to vote for Maggie instead. Since Howie was convinced by Maggie to nominate two of his alliance members, it was even easier for Rachel to convince him.
Big Brother 8
- Dick and Jen are the last two people standing in a Veto competition where the other contestants can make an attempt to distract the competitors and have them be eliminated. Keep in mind that Dick is the Head of Household and Jen is one of his nominees that week. When it is only them around, Mike attempts to distract Dick as much as possible in hopes that he gets eliminated from the competition. Once Dick realizes what he's doing, he tells him that if he attempts to get Dick eliminated from the competition one more time, then he will eliminate himself from the competition and make Mike his replacement nominee.
You'd Expect: For Mike to shut up and not try to get Dick eliminated from the competition anymore.
Instead: Mike states he does not care and afterwards Dick does exactly what he stated.
As A Result: Mike gets evicted from the Big Brother house that same week. - Around the final five, Dick wins Head of Household again and nominates Eric and Jameka for eviction. The Power of Veto winner was Zach around that time.
You'd Expect: For Zach to use it on one of the nominees forcing Dick to nominate his own daughter Daniele. He then should try to get Daniele evicted afterwords.
Instead: He doesn't use the Power of Veto and waits until he wins the Final Four Head of Household as an attempt to get rid of one of the Donatos despite how the Power of Veto holders hold way more power then the Head of Household at the Final Four.
Big Brother 9
- Jacob. In the first week, the house guests were paired into "couples". The couple that won the first competition (Jen and Parker) was named the "Power Couple", and they cast the only eviction vote. Whatever couple they wanted gone, was gone.
You'd expect: Jacob to kiss up to the Power Couple and try to align with them. Or at the very least, keep his head down and try not to cause trouble. Adam and Sheila (Sheila hated being paired with Adam and he fired back at her for being so snobby) were already causing enough drama that it looked like they would be going home, anyway.
Instead: He goes around telling everybody, including Parker's partner, Jen, that "Parker is a snake" and "he seems gutless... heartless." He adds, "He's in here for the money," and just for good measure, "Wait till I get HOH, his ass is out." He never even considered that Jen would tell her partner what he'd been saying!
Naturally: He and Sharon are sent packing, entirely because of his idiocy. His partner, Sharon, did get to return to the game a few days later because of an unforseen twist though.
Big Brother 11
- Jessie (for both 10 and 11). The king of Never My Fault, whose game runs on arrogance and narcissism. If you're a man, criticize him one time and you get an instant Cock Fight, especially if you're Russell. If you're a female, criticize him one time and he'll start Playing the Victim Card.
You'd expect: Jessie to actually learn to admit when he's wrong.
Instead: Jessie picks fight after fight after fight after fight in desperate attempt after desperate attempt to appear flawless.
Predictably: This makes Jessie an instant target both times he plays the game. - Ronnie. He's tried to ally with a majority of the house, but made one fatal error in that he also aligned with Russell- a dishonest player, who has become a major target of this majority rule, especially by Chima. Crossing any of the people in Chima's ring is an immediate Drama Bomb, hold the fries. Ronnie gets exposed.
You'd expect: Ronnie to own up to the alliance and admit he felt like he could talk Russell into doing things the others couldn't because appearing to be his ally would make him easier to manipulate and get out of the house because he wouldn't feel threatened by him and he was trying to set things in motion for them in advance and they witnessed him at a bad time during the plan. He could also say he feels like it's hard to work up the nerve to throw him under the bus by himself because Russell is extremely intimidating and needs his alliance to help push him out of the house instead of performing a backstab, so he will appear loyal to his original alliance first and foremost.
Instead: Ronnie makes comments about Hitler being an effective speaker, then later follows up by lying repeatedly about his ties to Russell, and lying so much he can't even remember lying moments ago about what he said, which Kevin points out as absolute proof he's such a fucking liar he can't be trusted at all.
As a Result: This kills any possibility of his allies trusting him. Ronnie has essentially told everyone he is a thoroughbred rat in the house who covers his own butt before anyone else and thinks in a dangerous fashion.
Worse: Ronnie starts laughing smugly like a wannabe supervillain with a maniacal attitude about him and trying to out-talk Kevin who is rightfully calling out Ronnie for all his BS and still lying, calls him the F-word, and says he's wrong. He even calls Kevin the liar. Fuming, Kevin gets all up in Ronnie's grill, howling, "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU SAY!!!", now refusing to listen to anything Ronnie would say and angrily writing him off, and spindly little Ronnie has the nerve to claim he initiated physical contact as if to get the house to kick him out- with Jordan, Lydia, and Chima there to call BS on him. This also makes him look like a HUGE Dirty Coward. - We have maybe the shining example with Chima. She has to obey the rules of the game just like anyone else does. That includes little things like wearing a body mic at all times (aside from showering) and participating in Diary Room recording time when the announcements are made to do so. And after a massive tantrum when the Coup D'Etat is used against her, she could care less about the house. Here's when she finally loses it. Once her Arch-Enemy Russell has dodged eviction after she was HOH, she feels like the producers are rigging the show to work in his favor (which arguably happened to Rachel in Season 13 so it isn't totally unfounded to think that). Chima loses all sense of respect and decency for the game and decides to incinerate her run by going on rebellion as long and as hard as possible.
You'd expect: Chima to have enough sense to actually follow the dang rules.
Instead: She behaves like a total diva her entire time in the house, making numerous rule breaks, and back-talks the polite nudgings of the announcer reminding her to do what she's told, choosing to do what she wants to do, refusing to obey instructions, covering up the cameras with blankets, threatening violent acts if Russell wasn't evicted, and even swearing to bring the FCC down on the game by having a fit so bad that it will result in such unless she's placed in a fish tank to contain her for an hour. Chima then tosses her body mic into a pool, willfully destroying a piece of vital production equipment (and is presumably fined for ruining it and likely refuses to pay the fee), and still has to exchange it for a new one in the storage room, and ignores her houseguests' attempts to give her a new one. Chima simply hops in bed and becomes a swirling vortex of insolence. It finally culminates with executive producer Allison Grodner addressing her personally instead of the announcer, who has realized Chima is going to bitch the walls of the house down if she stays inside any longer. Grodner urges Chima to make her way to the DR, and when she finally goes to the Diary Room, instead of even getting to sit down in the chair, she's met by a group of people who escort her out of the house. Allison sounds very on edge and uncomfortable in having to directly speak to Chima, and later, the houseguests share in this discomfort, regarding what is now going to happen.
Result: Chima is expelled from the game for multiple rule violations and gets ultimately banned from the show. And to show just how bad her infractions were taken, she did not get to return to the house to pack her things and she was not invited back to the jury and the vote was given to America in her placenote . - Jeff plays in a Veto competition to find Scrabble-like pieces and use them to spell out a word.
You'd expect: For Jeff to attempt to correctly spell-out an actual word.
Instead: He winds up incorrectly spelling out "Technotronics" (which is not an actual word) as Techtronics.
What's worse: Had he removed the R in the misspelled word, he would have spell out "tectonics" which is an actual word and has more letters then Russell's seven-lettered word "shotgun", thus he would have won the Power of Veto.
Big Brother 13
- Brendon and Rachel returned with 2 other veteran (and more well-known) couples that could potentially shield them. Given their (really negative) reputation in their original season:
You'd expect: They would realize that they shouldn't be putting a huge target on their back and actually try not to get people to hate their guts and want them out not just because they're annoying but because they're threats.
Instead: Although they did learn to be more sociable to everyone in high pressure, Rachel still had the same mindset that makes her eliminated before, throwing the word "Floater" around without knowing what it really means, accusing everyone of having "Bad gameplay", and only has allies out of a couple sycophants (Porsche and Shelly) and two people who happened by fate to be put in a similar group to them (Jeff and Jordan). Brendon proceeds to immediately start playing hard from week one and paints a huge target on their back. Then, after Daniele flips for greener pastures, he tries to get her back on their side to save himself and Rachel... and tells Daniele that if he or Rachel made it to the finals that one of them would win. He apparently never took into consideration that Daniele is another returning player, finished in second place in season eight, and that he essentially told Daniele to align herself with him and Rachel because they could win in the finals. Essentially, he was telling Daniele why she should evict them, as that is the exact opposite type of thinking you want to encourage. - Multiple nominated houseguests during this season are either told to or plan to throw the veto competition.
You'd Expect: That the nominated houseguest would instead give it their all, to win and use the veto on themselves
Instead: Porsche, Keith, and Dominic all throw the competition, despite being nominated
Worse: When Brendan is nominated, he wins the veto and uses it on Rachel, in a sacrificial gesture.
Result: Keith, Dominic, and Brendan are all evicted. Only Porsche benefited from this move, as she was able to make it far in the game. - In the final five, Adam won the veto and could use it on either Kalia or Porchse (who are both nominated) forcing Rachel who won HOH to nominate Jordan which gives the newbies a shot at evicting another veteran.
You'd Expect: Adam to use the veto and Rachel would be forced to nominate Jordan.
Instead: Adam fanboys over the vets and does not use the veto out of respect for them.
Big Brother 14
- During the Phat Stacks coach’s challenge, Boogie is on his way to victory, having stacked all his money and just needs to hit his buzzer to win. As was clearly stated at the start of the challenge, touching the ground meant automatic disqualification.
You'd Expect: Boogie to hit his buzzer before jumping off the balance beam.
Instead: In a premature celebration, he jumps off the balance beam first.
Result: Boogie is disqualified and hands the contest to Janelle, who was seconds behind him. - Willie. He became the season's first Head Of Household and was actually quite well-liked at this point. He had two easy targets set up: Kara and Ian, Kara being a player Dan wanted to keep, and Ian being a general nuisance to the house in the first week. He also went to Frank and cut a deal with him to make sure he wouldn't get evicted. However, Boogie won the Coach's Competition and chose to save Ian, forcing Willie to choose a new target, and he decided on Frank at the urging of Britney and Janelle. From here, three idiotic things happen.
1) Frank catches word of the dissent caused by Willie and decides to go against him entirely and fend for his safety in the house, even though Willie hasn't done anything personally to go against Frank and never planned on doing so. Willie, now out of patience, loses his cool and erupts on Frank, blowing smoke from his cigarette in Frank's face and declaring he wants Frank to go home. Boogie tries to mediate the dispute, only for Willie to go off on him as well, and then drag his teammates and allies into it as a result, all of whom are watching the fight in the backyard. Britney, Jojo, and Shane now want no more to do with him. Even though Kara gets evicted as planned, the damage is done and there's no salvaging the man's game now. Tugboat Willie has blown his stack in front of everybody, and all involved are through with him.
2) Britney, when given the chance to be kind, chooses to deal sarcasm and barbs at her teammate and give up on him. She does not try to do damage control or show any sympathy to Willie, who is a more a victim at this point than an enemy, simply because she's sick of his temper tantrums, and she begins to insult him. Willie only continues to get angrier and begins to take it out on her and his teammates even more, and now the whole house is against him, culminating in Willie being declared a Have-Not after the next competition, where he is on the losing end. Willie has finally had enough. He is fed up with a house full of people who won't cooperate and deny him any chance of even hearing him out, and even people like Jojo who like him don't want to go near him.
3 Willie is pissed off that he's on the losing side of things after finding himself powerless. His situation is similar to Chima's- went from being HOH with all the cards in his hands, only for things to break down at the last minute.
You'd Expect: Willie to simply go blow off some steam out in the backyard and steer clear of everybody until he's not surly anymore, and for pity's sake, to stop jumping down everyone's throat all the time!
Instead: He wants to get expelled just because he's that much of a Sore Loser. Willie stays in the vicinity of the people agitating him and shoots his mouth off in front of everyone, causing another bad exchange between himself and Brittney.
Worse: Willie concludes by calling the house a bunch of cunts.
Even Worse: Joe counters the insult by calling him the only cunt in the house.
Worst of All: Willie's temper cracks and he barrels down on Joe, completely out of control and demanding a fight out of him, followed by Willie inflicting a headbutt.
Result: Willie is automatically expelled from the game for violating the nonviolence clause of the houseguest contract.
Irony: There is a clip of Willie post-expulsion online answering questions for another show in web video format, where he calls Chima a cunt... the very same houseguest who got herself expelled in a similar way he did. - Dan needs to win the Coach's competition, which allows you to save one player, or trade them for another.
You'd Expect: That he would realize the stake he's at (being down to one player, and if Danielle goes, then he's eliminated from the "Coach's game.") and would try to win the coach's competition, giving him the power to either save Danielle from nomination or trade her for another player, thus throwing a wrench into the plans on who to get rid of
Instead: He throws it, allowing their Plan B to remain unfazed, then when Danielle isn't even picked to win the Veto, just manipulates her emotions.- In the same competition, Boogie. He finished the competition but either out of ignorance or pride, hit the ground before he touched the button.
Big Brother 15
- Judd has managed to win re-entry into the house and has no outstanding targets on his back because he's already been evicted and is now a low-priority target. Andy, Spencer, and GinaMarie have formed an alliance called the Exterminators to get out the last few players who could pose a threat to their run, and manage to trim the house all the way down to McCrae. However, McCrae wins the Golden Power of Veto and is able to avoid the eviction block, with Spencer going up yet again after several trips to the block, knowing his chances of victory are low.
You'd Expect: Judd to assume he will be safe in the house as long as he keeps his cool, and the Exterminators will pick off their last target and let Spencer's game gracefully come to an end with this vote and keep their ace around to tackle the other ace in the house.
Instead: Judd finally succumbs to a season that was one of the most negative in the history of the US run and goes on the warpath.
As A Result: This causes his allies to see him as a big issue and change their minds to vote him out.
Big Brother 16
- Cody wins the Final HOH, which means that he's able to choose who he wants to take to the Final 2. His options are either the biggest threat and most dangerous player in the game yet his closest ally (Derrick) or someone is considered to be a coattail rider and got dragged to the end but whom Cody doesn't like (Victoria).
You'd Expect: Cody would choose Victoria.
Instead: He chooses Derrick out of loyalty, and wastes no time evicting Victoria.
As a Result: When it comes time for the jury to ask the two of them questions, Cody is both shocked and surprised to hear how the jury really views him: as Derrick's loyal lapdog or puppet. Cody ends up losing to Derrick in a 7-2 jury vote. note
Big Brother 17
- Shelli has been behind almost every eviction in the house, knows that the house is catching on to her and her showmance Clay, and knows where the line is drawn between houseguests that trust her and those that don't. After helping to evict Jason, who was friends with most of the people on the other side of the house, she competes in an endurance comp for HOH.
You'd Expect: She'd stay on the wall and wait it out until she'd won, since she's done well at endurance comps before, and because she's the last person in her alliance to be up there.
Instead: She makes a deal with James to protect her and Clay, despite the fact that James was obviously going to go after the two of them regardless, and then throws the comp.
Even Worse: She brushes off Vanessa's attempts to console her, turning Vanessa against her and making the latter support James when he decides to put Shelly and Clay beside each other on the block, having really no reason to keep his promise for idiocy.
As a Result: Clay and Shelli are subsequently evicted, one after the other (Clay is the last houseguest to go straight home, and he has no further involvement with the game, while Shelli became the first juror, but missed out on an opportunity to reenter the house), breaking their Sixth Sense alliance and resulting in them needing to regroup. - Later that season, Austin and Liz wind up on the block courtesy of Steve, and the Austwins plot out the Veto to have Julia win it, since she could then remove her sister from the block, and as the Veto Holder, she cannot be backdoored, forcing Steve get the blood of one of his alliance members (most likely Vanessa) on his hands. The Veto comp is another pick-your-opponent challenge, and Julia has won a duel, gaining the next choice, while Vanessa attempts to convince her to not go after one of her intended targets.
You'd Expect: Julia to blow Vanessa off, knowing what the Austwin plan is and the fact that they need to look out for themselves.
Instead: She listens, and challenges Austin, blowing their plan and forcing him to win the Veto instead.
As a Result: They realize the trick Vanessa played on them, but Austin ends up removing himself from the block and Steve puts both twins on, with Julia paying for this bad move with her game; she campaigns to keep Liz safe, and gets evicted 3-0.
Big Brother 18
- Paul wins HOH and has a huge opportunity to get out Bridgette who he's been targeting for a while. However, Paulie (who was aligned with Paul at the time) wants Da'Vonne to go home after he found she was targeting him.
You'd Expect: Paul to ignore Paulie so he can target Bridgette and she would be sent home.
Instead: Paul listens to Paulie and gets out Da'Vonne instead of Bridgette.
What's worse: This move hurt him in the Final 2 where Da'Vonne was unimpressed with this move and caused her to vote for Nicole over Paul in a close 5-4 vote. Da'Vonne also stated that she never went after Paul and she also added that she was upset at his poor judgement. Many jurors that voted for Nicole cited this move as the reason for voting for Nicole over Paul. - Paulie won the POV and has the golden opportunity to veto his showmance partner Zakiyah off the block and convince the house to go after another houseguest that is not in his alliance.
You'd Expect: Zakiyah is vetoed and another houseguest goes home.
Instead: Paulie doesn't use the veto and Zakiyah went home that week.
What's worse: Bridgette blew up Paulie's game and got him sent out of the house the following week. When Zakiyah got to the jury house Da'Vonne told her Paulie was against her by not using the veto on him causing them to have a huge argument (they did make up later).
* It is the final 7, and Nicole has won HOH. She has nominated Michelle and Paul. Michelle, believing that Paul is the target, feels comfortable (even more so when James encourages her not to campaign as he believed Nicole had his back), unknowing to the fact that Nicole made an alliance with Paul.
You'd Expect: Michelle to at least talk to Nicole and try to campaign to stay.
Instead: At the eviction, the vote is tied 2-2. Nicole breaks the tie, sending out Michelle, who was absolutely shocked. - From the same season, it is the final five. Paul and Victor have a final four deal with Nicole and Corey.
You'd Expect: They would be wary about this naturally.
Instead: Nicole and Corey target them and Victor goes out. They are shocked. - Paul wins final head of household - he can evict Nicole, or James. He can evict someone who has hidden behind people most of the game, or someone who has made moves and avoided nomination for over 90 days.
You'd Expect: He would take James, who has mainly gotten this far in the game by "floating".
Instead: He takes Nicole.
As A Result: Paul loses first place to Nicole.
Big Brother 19
- Ramses is trying not to get on Paul's bad side and win friends in the house. He also has been cursed by Paul's choice to take the Pendant of Protection and must put himself up a special exclusive third nominee elimination in the upcoming three weeks after Paul took it. The problem is, if he wins a Power of Veto competition, he can take himself off the board and lock in the pawns Paul is trying to use to backdoor Cody by winning the POV and swapping one out for his real target, allowing Cody to revive his game.
You'd Expect: Ramses to steer clear of Paul's coup against Cody by not putting himself up as a nominee when he has two more weeks to burn.
Instead: Ramses springs his curse and proves to be a Spanner in the Works to Paul, furthering the rift between them.
Worse: He walks into a room with Paul, then hastily darts back out the door, making it painfully clear he's trying to avoid the man. Even Paul says, "What an idiot!" verbatim about this incident in the Diary Room.
Even Worse: Ramses doesn't really trust anybody in the house, and Paul knows it. Paul tries to talk Ramses into throwing the POV challenge with the guarantee he will owe Ramses one. Ramses initially tries to adhere to an honor code where he promised his family he would not throw a challenge, but decides rather half-heartedly to throw it anyway. He still ends up with the second-best time out of anyone else while trying in earnest to fail, only beaten by Paul. Paul calls BS on this, assuming Ramses was playing to win, and now Ramses is stuck up the creek without a paddle. Even though Paul is able to get Cody on the chopping block as planned, Ramses has painted a huge target on himself for simply getting in the way.
Worst of All: Ramses blew up his gameplay all because he was too paranoid to sit still and avoid attracting attention to himself. And Cody still made it back into the game through the Battle-Back Showdown, after defeating Paul, Jessica won the next HOH following this, and put Ramses up as a pawn next to Josh. He ended up being voted out when Paul got the house to flip. In short, Ramses annoying Paul was the reason he was kicked out. And because Cody undid his eviction, Ramses was technically the next to go after the fact he annoyed Paul.- A corollary to the above: Jessica wins the Head of Household, and wants to go after Josh and eventually Paul. she also wins the power of veto, giving her full control over the nominations. However, she's been rattled by the house getting increasingly nastier with her and fears their retaliation if she puts up a big target.
You'd Expect: She would nominate Josh and someone on his side like Paul, Raven, Alex, Jason, Christmas, Matt, or Kevin...
Instead: She nominates Ramses and Josh... and then doesn't take him off the block. She debated long and hard over doing so, but when it came down to it, she choked.
Result: Paul obviously works over the house to flip the vote.
- A corollary to the above: Jessica wins the Head of Household, and wants to go after Josh and eventually Paul. she also wins the power of veto, giving her full control over the nominations. However, she's been rattled by the house getting increasingly nastier with her and fears their retaliation if she puts up a big target.
- The entire house proves to be among the stupidest series of houseguests since Big Brother 16.
You'd Expect: That since Paul, as a returning player, is subject to mysterious twists of luck, and even got the first temptation that gave him several weeks immunity, they would know that they would be cast as pawns in the show that lets Paul win, and the second his immunity is up, get him right out.
Instead: They align with him in a big group, multiple people making a "Final two" with him.
Worse: Paul is actively rotating between alliance and trying to pick people off without drawing attention to himself, hoping the sub-alliances will implode and the hangers-on will either be forced to rely on him to further themselves through the game or less likely to beat him in the competitions/jury vote. The head of households state multiple times to the evicted player "You weren't my target", and nobody sees anything wrong with this. - Alex, Paul, and Jason try to cast a rogue vote at an eviction block pawn, Matt, that makes Kevin look bad in 19. The duty ends up passed onto Jason.
You'd Expect: Only Jason to cast his rogue vote.
Instead: Alex botches her vote by having a deer-in-headlights moment on live TV and also votes for Matt.
Result: Two rogue votes looks suspicious as hell and gets unwanted attention, and gets a rise out of Kevin when he gets questioned that leads to Alex and Jason getting into deep trouble.
Worse: Alex becomes even more determined to get Kevin out of the house and forces Jason into a plan that he doesn't like, and he ends up turning against his own alliance in a very unpleasant Catch-22 situation when he wins the Power of Veto and would rather send a showmance packing over Kevin, and chaos erupts as houseguests start crying foul at Jason and Kevin. When Matt goes home, Jason is ultimately targeted over Kevin and taken out in a blindside orchestrated by Paul and Christmas. - Jason is supposed to target Matt and Raven as Paul's ally, but Alex, his closest ally, wants him to target Kevin, and Paul claims this is what he wants, too (when in reality, all he wants is for Matt to go out this week). He also promises to Raven that she's going to be taken off the block in a passing whisper. Jason later wins the Golden Power of Veto.
You'd Expect: For Jason take Raven off the block and put up Kevin.
Instead: Jason lets his friendship with Kevin interfere with his responsibility and doesn't use the Veto as planned. This, after willfully working to win this POV.
Worse: When Matt and Raven are about to have a falling out with him, Jason delays the inevitable, cowers in the Storage Room, and spends most of the rest of the day trying to avoid them.
Even Worse: When Jason finally mentally prepares himself to handle their wrath, Matt and Raven call him out on not delivering on his promise, and further questioning on their part on if he remembers that he told Raven she'd be taken off the block reveals that he ENTIRELY FORGOT that he promised her that.
Result: Paul uses this as his chance to get Jason out of the house after Matt gets evicted by playing up his apparent untrustworthiness next to his competitive threat to Josh and Christmas, manipulates all his allies, including his backstab targets, to all throw the next HOH to Christmas while Jason is ineligible to compete, then instigating a tie (Paul and Josh versus Alex and Raven) that Christmas uses under his instructions to blindside Jason with when she breaks it. - The Big Brother 19 house is widely considered to be one of the stupidest houses to ever play the game. One notable instance that happened multiple times, culminating in the week 10 eviction.
You'd Expect: That since people were asked to be on the block or were nominated as a pawn and kept nominated on Eviction day, that would be a red flag, since being nominated means that there is a possibility of being evicted
Instead: Matt and Jason end up evicted, and they're shocked when it happens. - Paul and Josh are competing in the final leg of the final HOH Competition and a question about Alex comes up. They are asked what they think Alex said made worse moves in the game. It's either A: Herself, or B: Jessica.
You'd Expect: Paul to answer "B", because Alex is the type of person who is too vain to own up to her failure in the house, and obviously hated Jessica's guts.
Instead: Paul answers "A" (probably assuming rather arrogantly that Alex regrets her own stupidity after he played her like a fiddle) while Josh answers "B", causing Josh to pull ahead with enough points they don't even need to go to the final question (about Kevin), because Josh now has enough of a lead that he wins automatically.
Result: Paul has no control over his fate in the game anymore. He could've gone to the end with Christmas, but must go to the Final Two with Josh (because Christmas has decided to take third and bow out gracefully, albeit tearfully), and Josh turned out to be his worst nightmare. Because of what he did in the background to blow up Paul's game, Paul looks like a fool in front of most of the jurors while Josh looks like a genius. As a result, Paul suffered the same fate as Vanessa Rousso when she bombed a trivia question on Johnny Mac at her final HOH competition in Season 17- the Big Bad is punished for getting rid of one of their biggest targets in the house in an obsessive, vicious, and unsportsmanlike pursuit (Jessica), only his case is also Laser-Guided Karma for backstabbing Alex. - Paul himself. His plan is to evict a threat (Jason) without it being traced to him. However, this plan involves a tied vote... and the tiebreaker is Christmas, his number one ally.
You'd Expect: That in order to not annoy Alex, someone who he is afraid of, he would maybe consider tossing Kevin.
Instead: Christmas casts the tiebreaker vote, and Jason immediately traces it back to him. Furthermore, Paul, having thrown the HOH competition himself to get Christmas as HOH, does not take the heat for this blindside, but due to winning the Golden Power of Veto and electing to not use it, Jason is able to finally connect the dots upon being evicted and recognize he's been played for a sucker (after spending the night of the eviction thinking it was just playing up the drama for good TV, as revealed in his exit interview on the live feeds... how gullible can you be?).
Worse: In the act of targeting Jason, Paul broke Josh, his number two ally, by forcing him to go through with a coup he really didn't want to enact, and once Alex wins HOH and tries to get Kevin out, Paul hijacks the vote and gets Raven out because all of his allies are the ones voting- and even while Josh is feeling too low to have the heart to help evict Raven, Paul is able to use Christmas to get the majority of the three. Paul thus makes the night even more painful by getting Raven out, worsening Josh's already downhearted state of mind, and when Josh wins the very next HOH, Josh is highly inclined to take Paul out of the game. It takes a lot of talking down and skillful reasoning from both Paul and Christmas to make him simmer down.
Even Worse: When Paul has an opportunity to evict Kevin without getting much blood on his hands, he prunes Alex herself directly. Paul actually cannot bring himself to do it behind her back because, as her friend, he himself is against this, but wants to take her out of the game much in the same way he did to Jason- before she surpasses him. Alex spends every waking moment after the betrayal HATING the living daylights out of Paul for doing this to her, perhaps even worse than if he did it covertly, and continues to hate him through her eviction and long after it is over, on the Jury, and finally throws it back at him when she casts her vote.
Result: Alex and Josh both effectively kill Paul's game. Josh commits the ultimate below the belt move and explodes Paul's game through the goodbye messages to the Jury. As in the one thing not even Paul is able to know about until the end of the game, which takes him for a shock when he realized Josh managed to outplay even him, and ends up being one of the most ingenious power plays in the history of the show. The Jury is left feeling so embittered by Paul's lies that once again, they get thrown back in his face and he suffers another 5-4 loss. Why? Alex (much like Da'Vonne) flipped on him for stabbing her in the back while Josh had the integrity to come at her from the front, and the other four votes came from half a showmance (Cody, whose partner Jessica went out the week before Jury started), the showmance Marlena (Mark and Elena), and Jason (Alex's closest ally) who were fed up with him after he plotted to kick them out. - Paul's own actions in the final five prove his ability to play the game is limited to how stupid everyone else is. He wants to get Alex out due to seeing her as a legitimate threat. However, he wants to do it without it being traced to him and to keep selling her on the fiction that Jason and Raven went out the previous week because Josh and Christmas went rogue on him.
You'd Expect: That Paul would throw the veto to someone like Josh, Christmas, or Kevin - further taking responsibility away from his hands.
Instead: He wins the veto... meaning his choice to use it or not use it would easily raise a red flag, even to Alex.
You'd Then Expect: That he would accept the risk of taking Alex into the Final four, and sacrifice Kevin or even Josh to continue to sell Alex on the fiction that Josh and Christmas had gone rogue on them all. Because after all, if Alex goes out fourth or even third, she couldn't compare notes with Jason. A gesture of using the veto on his supposed "final two" with Alex would ensure that he and Alex control the votes... meaning Alex will not go after him.
Instead: He tells Alex he's not sure what he should do... and doesn't use it - meaning Alex is evicted in a tied vote.
Resulting In: Paul not only making it obvious-as-day that he backstabbed Alex, but he made himself look like a total idiot, letting himself get outsmarted&outplayed by JOSH and CHRISTMAS literally two weeks in a row.
On Top Of That: He still tries to sell Alex and Jason on the fiction that Josh and Christmas went rogue on him and managed to outwit him twice. Resulting in the above entry in which Alex and Jason decide to vote against him... and vote for the player who he all-but admitted outplayed him. - Final four. According to the Jury? Paul was outplayed by Josh and Christmas two weeks in a row. He has Veto.
You'd Expect: He'd send Josh to the jury house. Between josh and Kevin? Josh was apparently able to go rogue on Paul two weeks in a row, and Kevin hasn't won a single head of household or veto the entire game.
Instead: He honours his original final three deal with Josh and Christmas and sends Kevin to the Jury house. Who has every chance to tell them that it was Paul who sent him there.
Resulting In: The idea of Josh and Christmas going rogue on Paul (enough to intimidate Paul into not using the veto!) being even further reinforced, though by this point it was just salt in the wounds and Paul had already secured a five person voting bloc against him no matter who he sat against.
Big Brother 20
- Faysal commits a rather minor one in Big Brother 20. He is the "least trending" houseguest and has to pick a punishment.
You'd Expect: That, as a person who cannot eat pork due to it being against his religion, he wouldn't pick the one called "Hamazon".
Instead: He picks Hamazon... meaning he has to eat whatever is delivered to him. Which includes ham.
To Be Fair: Big Brother isn't THAT evil - so they made sure to order a vegetarian substitute for him to eat instead. What makes this so embarrassing is that this imitation ham tastes WORSE than real ham and makes him sick enough to puke at a later point. - Scottie gets ahead of himself when he holds the power of HOH in Week 3 of Big Brother 20. He does a good job of scouting out the players to go after and nominate, and narrows his choice down to Brett and Winston, the house bromance.
You'd Expect: Scottie picks one target out of the bromance to evict and plays it safe.
Instead: He picks both as his HOH nominees, and now no matter what he does, at least one will not be evicted and be gunning for him the following week, he's given them both a chance to save themselves because they will both participate in the Veto competition, and Scottie has sent them a clear message he's after their alliance. Sam also secretly maintains use of the Bonus Life advantage and could use it on one of the two guys if she disapproves of the results of eviction night #3 and give them a shot at winning back safety. Ultimately, Sam doesn't use the Bonus Life on either one and Winston goes home.
Worse: Brett uses this opportunity to throw Rockstar under the bus and blame her for Winston's eviction, causing Rockstar to erupt in outrage, and it upsets even more players and breaks lines of trust everywhere, which sends the house spiraling into chaos the following week. Scottie's poorly-designed plan effectively destroyed a lot of order in the house because it gave the biggest jerk in the house a chance to blow up the game in front of everyone. - Rachel makes a bad mistake when she's used as a pawn by Bayleigh with no apparent danger of going home, and knows Brett is the overall target, even though he's a member of the Level Six alliance. Tyler scoops up the POV and keeps nominations the same because he learned from Rachel that Bayleigh has a Power App that will give her the power to hijack the HOH nominations the following week.
You'd Expect: Rachel to understand Tyler did this because he cannot defy Bayleigh and expect to see no blowback next week. She should play it cool and sit through the upcoming eviction without raising a stink against anyone in her alliance and she will be kept in the house over Brett.
Instead: She puts Tyler on blast. Angela dislikes the way Rachel is turning against Tyler because he hasn't shown any clear signs of distrustful behavior, and Tyler now has incentive to keep Brett at this display, and convinces the rest of Level Six to evict Rachel in a blindside.
Worse: Rachel relied on Bayleigh's word that Tyler is working for her, not even considering that Tyler may be trying to turn the tables on Bayleigh later, and assumed she was now the target, and ironically put the target she could have avoided all along on herself, through herself. - Bayleigh gets a moment of her own for confiding to Rachel about the Identity Theft Power App as a trust move to make her play the role of a pawn, and believes Rachel will not tell anyone else.
You'd Expect: Bayleigh to know better than to reveal this advantage to someone who could easily go blabbing to someone else.
Instead: Bayleigh tells Rachel about her advantage.
As A Result Bayleigh, just like the many others to come before her who can't keep their mouth shut, later learns once you've told one person, you've told them all, as Rachel feeds this information to Angela, who goes to Tyler, who goes to Brett, who outs this info to the whole house in his speech prior to the fifth eviction vote.
Worse: Bayleigh has gone on a reign of terror as HOH and wonders why people, such as Brett, are so willing to go against her afterward and sell her out, like she's the victim. She is swiftly backdoored, has a volcanic meltdown, and leaves the house looking like a fool. - Move over Marcellas and Metta: we've got a real skunker of a blunder to address. Rockstar is in the OTEV competition for a Veto she desperately needs to win to escape the block and Tyler's overwhelming control of the game and Level Six's stronghold on the house. Everyone is rooting for her and counting on her to win. While she has a terrible competition record, this is one time where she's actually hanging on to the very end and could redeem herself. The challenge involves finding OTEV the Sneezing Skunk the correct medicine based on evicted houseguest trivia. Tyler got picked to play for the Veto by Kaycee as the H@cker, which means Level Six has their ace playing against the floundering FOUTTE alliance. Tyler and Rockstar survive along with Hayleigh to the penultimate round, and it looks like FOUTTE might actually pull through the win. Tyler goes up to a podium with what he believes is a correct medicine for OTEV, which really isn't, but he doesn't know because he misunderstood what houseguests were being referred to. Rockstar makes it up to the podium next, while Haleigh doesn't have her medicine.
You'd Expect: Rockstar to keep her big mouth shut around Tyler and not do anything to jeopardize her shot at a Veto, or at least wait for Haleigh to finish before going back to check for a correct medicine just in case Tyler is compelled to leave his spot so at least one of the two can make it through the round and Rockstar can be taken off the block.
Instead: Rockstar, blinded by a combination of haste, exhaustion, and nerves, spaces out and asks if Tyler has the same medicine aloud and both realize it's wrong. Rockstar causes her worst enemy in the house to resume looking for the right medicine, and he does find it and gets back to the podium before Haleigh, while Rockstar also gets through the round. Haleigh is eliminated. Rockstar is hoping to win so none of this will matter, but Rockstar must now pull her own weight to survive. The final round sees Rockstar get to the podium first, and Tyler climbs up a bit later thinking he's lost. Then OTEV indicates Rockstar got the medicine wrong... and Tyler's is actually right this time. Tyler wins the Veto and rescues his ally Angela from the block, and Rockstar stays put.
The Aftermath: The house, Rockstar included, can't shut up about how fucking stupid that was (and they do say "fucking stupid"... a lot), Haleigh and Faysal spending a good half-hour post-competition trashing the stupidity of that move, with Haleigh remarking that it's the dumbest thing she's ever seen on the show, and none more angry than Rockstar herself, who hates herself and cusses for hours. Rockstar is easily evicted from the house on Thursday, and on Haleigh's HOH as a final insult.
Irony: Even if Tyler lost, he still had the Power App the Cloud and would not have been backdoored as Haleigh wanted, forcing her to restore her original nominations of Kaycee and Angela. - With the "Five Of Us To The End" reduced to only three people (Haleigh, Faysal, and Scottie), Faysal wins head of household. It's a good chance to do some damage control and take a swing at the other side. However, Faysal apparently saw what Jessica and Alex did and said "Hold my drink".
You'd Expect: That he would remember what Rockstar warned him about last week - that Tyler, Kaycee, and Angela were the ones getting their way, and that he should consider either going after them (In all fairness, he does not know that Tyler has the power app that can save him from being backdoored). Or if he is targeting Brett, he would put him up against someone like JC or Sam - who have been consistent votes for Level 6's side the entire game - so that even if his target doesn't go, he weakens Level 6 by removing a vote for their side.
Instead: He nominates SCOTTIE - a person who may be in the middle, but is the ONE person who is still on his and Haleigh's side after all these weeks.
The Aftermath: Brett wins veto, ensuring that Scottie will be on the block come eviction day and leaving only Haleigh to vote against whoever Faysal's replacement nominee is. Come eviction night, Scottie is unanimously evicted. Angela wins the next HOH, and to nobody’s surprise, nominates Faysal and Haleigh, and after Kaycee wins veto, Faysal himself is the next one evicted, followed by Scottie (who returned to the game only to be immediately re-evicted) and finally Haleigh, finishing off FOUTTE. - Brett joins the list when he actively mentions plans to turn against his own alliance to Sam and JC, who are on the outs. They are both communicating to the rest of Level Six. Brett gets ratted out very quickly. Tyler, Angela, and Kaycee blindsided him in the Double Eviction.
- Scottie wins the Battle Back, and Tyler wins the Head of Household. To no surprise, he nominates Scottie and Haleigh.
You'd Expect: Tyler would probably consider using this as an opportunity to save face with Scottie - and maybe send Haleigh out instead, letting Scottie be evicted under a different circumstance.
Instead: Level 6 proceeds to ghost Scottie and target him the entire week, resulting in him saying some very mean things about Angela and Tyler.
The Result: Scottie decides to join Bayleigh, Faysal, and Rockstar in an organised voting bloc against Tyler.
Big Brother 23
- The Cookout Mission is nearing its end. As Claire is evicted, she spells out to everyone how big of a threat Xavier is and makes it clear that if he doesn’t go soon, he will easily win the whole game. Alyssa still remains as a non-Cookout member, so she is targeted and evicted during the double eviction to complete the mission. And then Kyland wins HOH...
You'd Expect: He would put Xavier on the block next to either Derek F or Azah. With the three of them always thinking and voting together, it’s clear that their half of the Cookout needs to be broken up for anyone else to even stand a chance.
Instead: He takes Claire’s warning as a challenge, and thinks that he needs to be the one to personally beat Xavier in the final two to prove that he’s the best. So he puts Tiffany and Hannah, the only other houseguests who would ally with him against Xavier, on the block. Tiffany gets evicted as a result.
Even Worse: With Kyland making it clear that he wants “the two best players in the final two seats”, and there being two houseguests that won zero competitions up to that point (along with doing almost no strategizing) still in the game, it’s clear that even by his own bad logic he still should have put Derek F and Azah on the block. Instead, he chooses to write Tiffany off as an “undeserving winner” and Hannah as “the weakest competitor” (he later changes this statement to her and Derek F being tied for that position, which isn’t much better), despite them both winning multiple competitions and even talking the most strategy with him, which rightfully causes him to end up getting called out by both other houseguests and the fans for either obvious lying or obvious delusion in his attempts to claim that they were somehow less worthy of winning the game than the two houseguests who didn’t win any competitions or even talk strategy with him. Then it’s time for another Double Eviction. This time Azah wins HOH...
You'd Expect: As one of only two women remaining against three men, and Hannah making it clear that she’s desperate for allies and would not put her up (Hannah even intended to take Azah to the Final 2 after losing Tiffany, although she was unable to tell Azah this because Azah had shut down Hannah’s attempt to talk about the future earlier in the week by insisting Hannah could only talk about why she deserved to stay that week), Azah would target Kyland to keep Hannah as an ally without burning bridges with Xavier and Derek F, and then have an extra ally giving her an edge at the end of the game. If Kyland won the Veto (as he does), then it would be the perfect opportunity to take the shot at Xavier instead and prove herself as a serious contender to win the game by eliminating the biggest threat.
Instead: She deliberately targets Hannah by putting her on the block against Xavier (who is obviously safe), and gets her out. The Jury House clip shows that they were unimpressed by this, and saw the move as essentially doing the men’s dirty work. Sarah Beth even lampshades this trope by saying “How could you drop the ball this hard?” Even worse, Tiffany and Hannah had both told Azah their (correct) suspicions that the men were working together for a Final 3, but Azah ignored them, and then seemed completely surprised when she found out that the men did in fact have an alliance together. While she manages to outlast Kyland, she is unsurprisingly defeated by Xavier in the final competitions, and then gets left in third place due to Xavier choosing Derek F over her for final two. During this same HOH, Kyland is the one who wins veto.
You'd Expect: With Xavier as Kyland’s biggest threat in the endgame, and Kyland himself being completely aware of this, he would leave Xavier in his vulnerable position on the block for an easy opportunity to get him out, dramatically increasing his odds of winning the game. Better yet, use the veto on Hannah to ensure that Xavier would definitely be voted out since Derek F and Azah would likely still choose to send Hannah home if she remained on the block.
Instead: Kyland does use the veto... on Xavier! Yes, he really used the Power of Veto to ensure that the biggest threat going home wouldn’t even be an option. Also doubles as an unnecessary Kick the Dog moment to Hannah, because it was clear she was going home with the current nominations anyway- Kyland only used the veto on Xavier to pit her against Derek F instead, and with his vote make it clear that he considered her an inferior opponent to someone who won zero competitions. Now it’s time for the final four, Xavier wins HOH, and puts Kyland on the block next to Azah, leaving Derek F as the sole vote to evict.
You'd Then Expect: Kyland would make a final two deal with Derek F, whether he means it or not, to keep himself in the game. His time in the game is on the line here, and having already gotten Tiffany and Hannah out, he is without allies.
Instead: He flat out tells Derek F that he won’t take him to final two because he isn’t a “Worthy Opponent”, and then just spends the rest of the week assuming that he’s safe. Naturally Derek F evicts him and he’s somehow shocked by this.
Big Brother 24
- It's week 4 and there is a twist in the game that forces two people to be nominated as a duo and the eliminated houseguest will be between one of them. Daniel has been beefing with Taylor and has just won the veto while Alyssa and Indy are nominated for eviction. Daniel and Nicole hatch a plan to use the veto so that current HOH Monte can put up the duo of Nicole and Taylor in hopes of Taylor going home. Monte tells Daniel that using the veto will ensure that Taylor and Nicole go up but Nicole will go home.
You'd Expect: Daniel to listen and not use the veto.
Instead: He uses the veto on Indy and Alyssa.
The Result: Monte puts up Taylor and Nicole. Nicole is then eliminated in an 9-1 vote, with the sole dissenting vote being Daniel. The next week Daniel is eliminated with an 8-1 vote.
To Add Insult to Injury: Taylor eventually wins the entire season with an 8-1 vote after six nominations on the block.
Celebrity Big Brother US
- Metta World Peace, period. It's bad enough that he doesn't know what a "backdoor" is and needs it explained to him. At least he can be excused for that one, as that's an unusual bit of jargon in this game. However.... there's something he can't be excused for, and it's not paying attention to how an eviction works, and he commits one of the worst moves in the history of the game since Marcellus's insane blunder, and was last seen on BB Canada. He pulls a Topaz. A move so dumb it went beyond borders!
You'd Expect: That he asks how to evict someone because he doesn't want to vote for Chuck Liddell.
Instead: He votes Chuck thinking he is casting a vote to save him from eviction. In other words, Metta votes to evict his own ally by accident.
Worse: Metta facepalms immediately after Omarosa and Keshia explain what he did. The editors milk the moment by throwing up the hashtag, #RegrettaWorldPeace.
Irony: Metta actually prevented himself from becoming a target at the time by voting with the majority and his vote made no difference as Chuck would've still been outnumbered without it. - The finale of the season sees Metta do something SO stupid as a juror the whole audience groans at him and even the other jurors show their disapproval. After feeling bad about mis-voting earlier and putting up with jokes about it, he gives up on trying to figure out who to pick to win the grand prize He casts his Jury vote at random, completely defeating the purpose of... well, the entire game. This one doesn't even need a "You'd Expect/Instead" section- what he did was so dumb there is no way of rationalizing it. In fact, while Marcellus's blunder is the original Big Brother stupid move, this may very well be the stupid move to end all stupid moves.
- In the second season of CBB, Ricky has a final two promise with Lolo. He breaks that promise and makes himself look like a snake, causing everyone to vote for Tamar and Ricky screws himself out of winning the season.
- The third season of CBB isn’t immune to this either. In a nutshell, Miesha and Todrick are an obvious Big Bad Duumvirate who have openly and repeatedly targeted Carson and Cynthia. On top of this, Miesha is a huge competitive threat who wins nearly every competition that she’s in. Shanna, initially a Double Agent, ultimately chooses to side with Carson and Cynthia by winning Veto during Miesha’s Head of Household reign and using it to take Carson off of the block, burning her bridge with Miesha in an obvious display of loyalty to Carson. Then Carson wins the next Head of Household.
You'd Expect: That he makes Miesha and Todrick his targets, considering they are obviously out to get him and have targeted him at every possible opportunity so far.
Instead: Miesha and Todrick manage to convince Cynthia that Shanna is untrustworthy and should be Carson’s target instead of them, and then Cynthia convinces Carson of this as well, leading to Carson deciding to make Shanna his main target. How Carson and Cynthia allowed themselves to get duped so easily into targeting an obvious ally rather than their obvious enemies is anyone’s guess.
Big Brother Canada
- The entire Big Brother Canada house during a task Peter is given. The task basically consisted of Peter planting some of Tom's items and changing his black and white picture, with a coloured one. Everyone goes into panic and Emmett and Jillian assume they have to find all the items as part of a game. Naturally, this is Played for Laughs.
- Alec and Peter. Alec for one throws a veto to keep Peter in the game. Arisa immediately tells him "Why did you do that?". Then during the second double eviction... Peter wins veto. He has such an opportunity to throw a wrench into Jillian and Emmett's plans and use it, forcing Emmett to put up Andrew. However, he doesn't and evicts Topaz. He paints a huge target on his back and proceeds to remove any possible ally.
- In the final four, Emmett has the final power of Veto. He and his ally Jillian are pretty much bound for the Final Two at this point.
You'd Expect: That he would take the sure bet and evict Gary, who had shown himself to be capable of winning competitions and who had time to schmooze to the Jury.
Instead: He tells Talla that he's evicting her, and does it.
Subsequently: He puts himself in the final three with Gary, who is capable of winning competitions. Gary proceeds to win the final Head of Household and evicts Emmett. And had it not been for Topaz's misunderstanding the rules of voting at the end, would have won.
Big Brother 3
- In Season 3, everyone is Head of Household, and make nominations on the first day based off of first impressions. Whoever wins Power of Veto gets to name the replacement nominee. Sindy (With an S) does this.
You'd Expect: Since she's there to win the game, she'd put up a physical threat or maybe another mental threat like Naeha.
Instead: She nominates Pilar. - From the same season, Jordan nominates himself to go on the block as a pawn to disguise his and Zach's alliance. This is commonly seen as a bad move from the start (pawns go home), but it goes further.
You'd Expect: He'd compete hard for the Veto to take himself off, since that's what anybody nominated would do.
Instead: He throws the Veto, trusting that somebody else will take him off.
Unsurprisingly: Zach decides he'd rather keep the nominations the same, and Jordan is evicted soon after. To his credit, it wasn't a unanimous vote (Godfrey was the target all along) but putting yourself in danger of eviction is still one of the dumbest things ever. - Season 3 has been a veritable conga line of these: Bobby doesn't realize he's the target, but in order to keep himself safe, he invents a fake veto.
You'd Expect: That he would keep his mouth shut about it.
Instead: He tells everybody about having it, and then volunteers to get nominated. To be fair, he at the very least tried to compete in the veto. - During the triple eviction, Brittnee wins head of household, nominates Pilar, Kevin, and Zach. Bruno wins veto, and takes off Zach. The votes go to save whoever is left.
You'd Expect: That if any girl had to go, she would nominate Ashleigh, since that would remove a potential ally for the Diaper alliance, and securing an ally, and that Sarah would vote to save Willow, since Willow had grown to be her closest ally.
Instead: She nominates Willow, and Sarah votes to save Pilar, resulting in one of her closest allies besides Brittnee leaving and keeping someone who would follow Zach to the end. - Godfrey wins the final Head of Household, the only one he's ever won. He has a choice between taking Ashleigh or Sarah.
You'd Expect: That Godfrey would take Ashleigh, who had a strong finish (Three consecutive veto wins) but ultimately was never gunned for and seen as following Zack's lead the entire game
Instead: He takes Sarah, getting a crushing 7-2 loss in the jury vote.
Big Brother 9
- Victoria is the secret Head of Household. She can nominate whoever she wants (besides herself) in secret.
You'd Expect: That she would make a safe choice and gun for the Beth-Jedson-Tychon trio, who had become public enemy number one after the whole incident with Latoya. Being a secret Head of Household, she could easily blame this on someone like Austin, Rohan, Kiefer, or even Tera, while still being able to play to both the Beth-Jedson-Tychon trio as well as Austin. Doing so would also allow her to slither her way in so that they won't dump her first chance they get.
Instead: She nominates Austin and Breydon, with intention of targeting Austin.
Resulting in: Beth deciding to backdoor Victoria first chance she gets the following week, since Victoria had become too powerful of a threat. - Kiefer is on the block next to Tina, because the intended target, Tera, had won the veto
You'd Expect: That despite Kiefer's obesity, he has managed to win several challenges and got himself in very good with multiple alliances in the house, it's a good time to toss him
Instead: The houseguests allow Kiefer to talk them out of voting him out, and thus they vote out Tina, who has at that point not won a single competition and had only one bond in the house outside of the Tychon-Jedson-Beth alliance, Tera - who at that point had only won a veto.
Resulting in: Tera goes right for Beth and Jedson, the head of this alliance the following week. - Jedson shows easily the biggest amount of this in week 8. Tera, the sole outsider besides Breydon, had won Head of Household. Jedson has veto. Him and Beth are on the block as the head of the Beth-Jedson-Tychon alliance.
You'd Expect: That he would use the veto on himself, thus ensuring his safety, and possibly allowing Tychon to go on the block (Meaning he could break up the duo of Tychon and Breydon) or even risk tossing Kiefer, who had the previous week talked the house into keeping him over an easy-to-beat Tina.
Instead: He uses it to save Beth. Which meant he was on the block, and this also provided Beth, Tychon, and Kiefer a chance to get out a very strong competitor.
Resulting in: Jedson being voted out, and Tera gains the credit for not only doing this, but Beth, Tychon, and Kiefer even got her in on it.
To Make Matters worse: It was a fake double eviction, and while Tera was out next, she took him by surprise once again by beating him head to head. - Beth herself made a mistake with her plan to evict a competitor. Jedson agrees to use the veto on her.
You'd Expect: That since Breydon has been getting closer with Tychon over the past couple weeks, she'd try to get in Tera's ear to try and nominate Tychon as a replacement for her or Jedson.
Instead: She happily decides to go for Jedson instead, since he is a threat, but does not think of separating Tychon and Breydon.
Resulting in: Beth being targeted alongside Tera in the mock double eviction... but when Tera returns, ends up being the next to go.
