Big Brother Season 26 has been a season unlike any fans have seen in quite a long time, and that's thanks to the A.I. Arena. It's been a while since the show's motto, "Expect the unexpected," has actually rang true, as this new change made every Thursday from the premiere must-watch TV. Now, some are advocating for it to be a permanent part of the game. So CinemaBlend asked Houseguest and franchise superfan Joseph Rodriguez for his thoughts on that, which he shared.
The final pre-juror of Season 26 recently took some time away from streaming Big Brother's live feeds to speak to me and share his experience on the game. I wanted to know his honest thoughts as a longtime fan of BB who also experienced the A.I. Arena. I expected that he'd have some bias considering it led to his eviction. That said, Joseph surprised me with his response, as it included some positive feedback on the twist:
I do think it's a good idea, and I remember thinking that while I was on the season. Being like, ‘Man, this is probably some good ass TV.’ I think that it does go on for too long for my taste. I think that maybe for the first five evictions, I would really like that. I don't really like [it] when you're nominating like half the house. And, also, sometimes I'm like, 'What was wrong with regular Big Brother? What was wrong with that? Why did we have to [change it]?' You know what I mean?
It's interesting that even Joseph recognized that he and his co-stars were making great TV while he was in the Big Brother house. Then again, how could he not when Angela Murray kicked off Week 1 with a brutal blow-up on Matt Hardeman that set the tone for all the chaos that would follow.
Something I also find fascinating was that Joseph was a fan of seeing nearly the entire house nominated ahead of jury. His questioning of what was wrong with regular Big Brother also gave me pause. His quiet play style would've probably pushed him much further in a regular season, as he was more or less using the same strategy those who want to win modern BB employ. During our chat, Joseph shared even more thoughts on the A.I. Arena, also mentioning if he thinks it should be used every year:
I did think it was a good twist and everything like that. I don't know if I would like to see it every season. But I did think it was a really great idea, and the production value, I find I've complained about production in some interviews, but the production value of the challenges and the stylization of it all was just really impressive, especially being there just looking at some of the set pieces. They were really cool.
One surprising detail Joseph mentioned during our conversation was that while the A.I. Arena stirred up a lot of chaos and felt much more eventful than the average season, he still had a lot of downtime in the game. It's good to know there were still moments for the Houseguests to relax, though the fan/contestant admitted to me that he didn't have anything to compare it to.
For now, the A.I. Arena twist is over, and it's looking like there's a good chance we'll see some Houseguests backdoored in the coming weeks. In fact, the results of the Week 8 veto competition have already set the wheels in motion for that to happen, but we'll see how it all shakes out on Thursday. I'm eager to see that as well as whether the twist might return in future seasons.
Big Brother airs on CBS on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET and on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET amid the 2024 TV schedule. So far, the NFL season hasn't impacted the episode start times, so let's continue to cross our fingers and hope that people aren't being kept up late on Sundays in the future.
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