Here’s the deal. I’m tired of people saying that Big Brother is A) Difficult to understand and B) Trashy reality TV. I don’t watch the latter and Big Brother is not reality. Just ask the people who were eliminated for trying their hardest to keep their morals and be good people in the house instead of playing hard and getting their hands dirty. This is a competition. Who you are as a person in the real world will serve no benefit to you in the house if you don’t have the skills and know how to play this game.

Now, Big Brother is not hard to understand. If I could sit down and start watching the middle of an episode, in the middle of the season, in the middle of a big family summer barbecue and understand what’s going on (yes, this is how I got hooked to the show), you can understand it with no distractions. I started watching Big Brother during season 8. Here’s what I’ve learned since then…

12-15 people are sent to a sequestered house (on the CBS Studios lot in Studio City, CA) to fight for a chance to win $500,000. They’re called “house guests.” While there might be 1 or 2 “trashy” house guests, let’s not make them the face of the show because they’re not. Oh you just wait and see who will really surprise you in this game.

The show airs three times a week, Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday or Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD

Sundays highlight the Head of Household or “HoH” competition and Nominations. Every week, the house guests compete to win the title of HoH so they can hold the power for the week. The power includes nominating two house guests (season 15 had three house guests for a limited time) for elimination which is called, “eviction.” For example, I am the HoH for the week and I’ve nominated you and Jane Doe for eviction.

Viewers find out who the HoH nominates at the end of these episodes. Every week, there is a new HoH, two people are nominated, there is a PoV competition, and someone is eliminated, or evicted from the house.

POWER OF VETO

Episode 2 of the week highlights the aftermath of nominations and the Power of Veto or “PoV” competition. This competition gives the two people nominated for eviction, also known as the two people “on the block” (as in chopping block) a chance to get “off the block.” This competition involves the two nominees and a handful of other house guests (usually picked by a random draw of the hat). This is where it pays to have alliances.

If you are on the block and you win the PoV, you have the power to keep nominations the same, take yourself off the block, or take the nominee sitting beside you off the block. The obvious and most popular option is taking yourself off the block. At this point, the HoH must decide who to REPLACE you with since there must always be two people on the block in order for the house guests to vote for who is evicted each week.

If you are on the block and do not win the PoV but the other nominee wins, they have the same powers I mentioned above. If you’re not aligned with that person, they’ll take themself off the block without question and you still have a chance of going home. If you do have an alliance with the person beside you, you have to talk it out between the two of you and your alliance(s) and decide what’s best.

In the end though, the nominee who won PoV gets the final decision, so no matter how much alliances talk, you’re never as safe as you think you are. You don’t know if they’re playing both sides and have been trying to get you out of the house the whole time. They could take themselves off the block and say that you’re safe because they made a deal with HoH to nominate someone everyone would rather see out of the house (because they are a stronger player or a nuisance) which could be a complete lie. Or they could take themselves off the block and put a “pawn” up, someone the house would never vote to evict against you and you could be blindsided and evicted that week. Or the pawn plan could blow up in someone’s face because as we have seen so many times, the pawn always goes home. And that may or may not cause all sorts of drama. Never be the pawn.

If you and the other nominee do not win the PoV but someone else does, they have the power to take you off the block, the other person nominated off the block, or choose to keep the nominations the same. No matter their decision, because they won the competition, they are safe and cannot be the one the HoH chooses to replace if they decide to take you or the other nominee off the block.

EVICTION

Episode 3 of the week highlights the aftermath of the PoV competition including the two nominees campaigning for votes to stay in the house before the live eviction. Eviction episodes are live, so for the first half hour, we’ll see footage of the house guests campaigning and for the second half hour of the episode, we’ll see the house guests vote live to evict one of the two nominees as well as compete to become the next HoH.

How does voting work? The house guests go in the diary room one at a time to vote in private. So we see and hear who they vote for but the other house guests have no idea who voted for who. Julie Chen, the host will say “With a vote of 5 to 2” or whatever the votes are that week to the house guests, so they can look around the room and guess who those 5 were and who those 2 were but sometimes they never find out who those 2 were. With alliances, everyone usually is on one accord about who to vote to evict but if you’re playing both sides, don’t like a certain contestant, are secretly related to or dating the person nominated, are privy to information about a house guest that no one else is, etc… your vote might stand out. Sometimes it’s good if you come out and say you were the odd vote out, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes when you don’t tell, it can blow up in your face. Oh the drama!

As for the HoH competition at the end of the eviction episodes, some HoH competitions are quick, while others can last hours. If the HoH competition is long lasting, viewers will find out who the HoH is come Sunday night’s episode. If you like spoilers, follow people on Twitter, fan sites who follow the live feeds, or watch Big Brother After Dark to find out who the HoH is before Sunday. More on that in a bit.

THE FINAL THREE

The last HOH competition takes place once it gets down to the final three houseguests. It’s broken down into three parts. The house guest who wins part one is guaranteed a spot in part three. The other two house guests must participate in part two. The winners of part one and part two compete in part three. The winner of part three decides which one of the two house guests remaining will go with them to the final two. This is a tough decision because if you make the wrong choice, you could be responsible for getting second place instead of first. Second place is a great prize but the point of the competition is to get first. So you have to choose the person who either played a game not as well as you or is less likable, preferably both. But as we’ve seen in the past, as much as the house guests talk about voting for someone who has game play to win…some votes are purely emotional. So, that’s frustrating. But second place gets a pretty grand monetary prize too so you can’t be too mad.

The seven house guests evicted before the final three are sequestered in the “jury house” for the remainder of the competition once evicted. Each week, they’re given a DVD to watch the HoH competition but aside from that, their information about what goes on the house is limited. On finale night, these house guests from the jury house ask the final two a variety of questions, including why they should vote for them to win the game. After all is said and done, the house guests from the jury house vote and the winner of Big Brother is crowned.

OTHER NEED TO KNOW INFO

The HoH and PoV competitions are not the only competitions in the show. There’s also the Have and Have Not competition (previously known as the food competition). The house guests are “randomly” (and I use quotes because we can talk all day about how sometimes the show seems rigged, especially in the later seasons) placed into two teams to compete to eat all of the awesome food in the house, sleep in their comfy beds, and take hot showers until the next Have & Have Not competition. If you’re on the losing team, you can only eat slop and the two types of food that America has voted on, take cold showers, and sleep in the “Have Not” room which is specially designed to be the most uncomfortable room in the house. Imagine being on the block and being a have not. It’s not fun! There are also Luxury competitions. There are no consequences for the losing team. The winning team can win a movie screening, an extravagant dinner, etc… Among these competitions, house guests can also win phone calls or letters from home, set visits to CBS shows/upcoming CBS Films movies, etc…

I’m not going to get into Pandora’s Box and all of the many twists that can take place throughout the season because that’s fun to watch play out, especially when you’re watching for the first time. Expect the unexpected is the theme of the show, so anything can happen. If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer!

WANT MORE BIG BROTHER?

Because the show is edited down to 3 episodes a week even though there’s 24/7 game play, TV Guide (previously Showtime 2) will air Big Brother: After Dark nightly which is a live broadcast from the house from 12-3am ET. I love Big Brother: After Dark but once it gets towards the end of the competition, it gets boring since not as many people are in the house and at that point you’re just watching them eat, sit around, exercise, do laundry, and sleep. No drama at that point. If you’re a super fan, you can pay for the 24/7 live feeds. Instead of watching the live feeds, I just keep up with Joker’s Updates and BB Dish. You’d be surprised what goes down in the BB house that never makes it to air. It’s like a totally different game when you know all the rest! It’s wild!!!

So if you do watch Big Brother for the first time this season, I can’t wait to see what you think!