USA’s Snake In The Grass is bringing some legends from Big Brother and Survivor into its game. Big Brother’s Janelle Pierzina and Rachel Reilly will duke it out alongside Survivor’s Cirie Fields and Stephenie Kendrick for a shot at some big prize money. Snake In The Grass is a game of challenges and strategy, but how does it measure up to the iconic CBS shows these women played?
I spoke to the contestants ahead of the premiere of their Snake In The Grass episode and wanted to know how their experience differed from the gameplay seen in Survivor as well as Big Brother. Cirie Fields, a 4-time Survivor player and widely regarded as one of the greatest to ever play the game despite never winning (and getting super unlucky one time), pointed to the short amount of time and the fact that one player is secretly working against them from the jump as a major difference:
It’s so quick. You have to jump right in with both feet. You have to start interrogating people. You don’t even have time to make a friend, right? And then the friendly face that you do see is like, everyone’s a suspect! So there’s no comfort zone timing. It’s just go, go, go, identify who it is, and let’s win this money.
Should the “Snake” manage to remain undiscovered through the entirety of the game, they’ll win $100,000. The other players have the ability to get clues about the snake by completing challenges, and should they discover their identity, will then split the $100k three ways. As such, it benefits the Snake to try and sabotage the challenges, though subtly, as to not accidentally reveal themselves.
Fields is good at analyzing her performances in these sorts of games, and she pointed to the brevity of Snake In The Grass as a difference-maker. Janelle Pierzina echoed that sentiment. Janelle, who played Big Brother four times and had strong performances in many of those outings, hinted that a lot of her past experience in reality television went out the window when it came to this new game:
Yeah, it’s so condensed. I mean, Big Brother is one of the longest reality shows still on the air. You can’t compare almost 90 days in a house to 36 hours in the jungle. It’s just impossible. You know, Immediately start playing the game and asking questions. Don’t even worry about the other crap, you gotta figure out who the snake is. So, not a lot of time to strategize and like really pull people in and start one-on-one with them.
Big Brother is a game players have to feel out as it progresses, and Janelle Pierzina noted BB can change a lot from season to season, as she indicated to CinemaBlend. In the new show, with only 36 hours to discover the identity of the Snake, it’s hard to sit around and strategize effectively. With that said, Janelle has been a player who will be blunt and tell things as she sees it, so I’d imagine the Snake might want to avoid her at all costs. The same could be said for all of these women though, especially one of the most notable Big Brother winners of all time, Rachel Reilly.
These reality show veterans are just the latest to join Snake In The Grass, as other notable Survivor alumni have participated as well. Winners Yul Kwon and Earl Cole have played, as have notable contestants Malcolm Freberg and Trish Hegarty. Naked and Afraid fans may also be interested as Jeff Zausch and Lacey Jones compete as well. This is a great show for reality TV fans to jump in on and see if their favorite players are just as adept at other games as well.
Catch this special episode of Snake In The Grass on USA on Monday, August 29th at 11:00 p.m. ET. Those looking for more from these ladies following the episode would do well to pick up a Paramount+ subscription and see their greatest moments from Survivor and Big Brother.
