Spoilers from the Big Brother 2019 live feeds ahead.
Big Brother 21 had its first target in the crosshairs, but -- after some second thoughts from Christie Murphy, the 2019 season's first Head of Household -- it turns out Kemi Fakunle will not be taken out! Christie's initial nominees were Cliff Hogg III and Kathryn Dunn. However, it was clear after the live feeds turned on that Kemi was the majority target.
The Big Brother 21 schedule is weird for the first two weeks and the Power of Veto competition was actually held on Thursday, June 27 afternoon.
Sam Smith won POV.
Sam is not in that six-person alliance that Big Brother showed in the second episode. However, he said on the live feeds that he would do whatever HoH Christie and the house wants. He said he'd prefer to take Cliff off the block, if he used the POV. So that's what he did during the Veto ceremony held on Sunday afternoon. Sam took Cliff off the block and Christie replaced him with Ovi Kabir.
The final nominees going into Wednesday's first live eviction of the season are Kathryn vs. Ovi. Ovi is 99% likely to be the one evicted.
Kathryn is paranoid and feels like the house wants to take her out. Ironically, they didn't want to take her out, and everyone has been convincing her that she'll be fine. She may still be fine, but it's not so clear cut. Kathryn has even started threatening to self-evict -- (Honestly, PLEASE DO) -- which may end up being an issue. We'll see.
The original plan was for Sam to use POV on Cliff, and Christie would nominate Kemi to take Cliff's spot. The house planned to vote to evict Kemi over Kathryn. However, there's a long time between Thursday's POV comp and Wednesday's live eviction. Christie started feeling bad about backdooring Kemi. Nicole Anthony and Bella Wang did their parts to help defend Kemi, too. Christie came to see backdooring Kemi as doing what Jackson Michie and Jack Matthews wanted instead of playing her own game.
So on Saturday, Christie had a tearful conversation with Sam and seemed to change her mind, wanting him not to use the Veto on Cliff. She wanted him to keep the nominations the same and not backdoor anyone. They'd both like to backdoor Jack, but they don't think they have the votes. (For the love of Zingbot, TRY.) Christie wasn't really into the idea of a Week 1 backdoor move on her watch anymore. But Sam had already promised to take Cliff off the block, and he worried the house would want to keep Kathryn around as a floater.
Sam pushed to take down Cliff and for Christie to nominate Ovi Kabir instead. That made the nominations Kathryn and Ovi, and Ovi will most likely be evicted ... unless Kathryn irritates everyone too much or just goes ahead and quits.
Big Brother 21's first Whacktivity competition was seen on Sunday, June 30, and Ovi won -- but it doesn't sound like his power can save him at this point. It doesn't work for replacement nominees.
At one point, HoH Christie had said she would say that Kemi just played too hard, too fast. (As if Jackson Michie isn't right there seeming to control so much of everything.) The argument was that Kemi only talks game and had a lot of names coming out of her mouth. Since there are already alliances forming, including the six, if Kemi said some of those names, Christie and company would see her as an early threat.
It sounds to me like maybe Kemi just didn't fit in with the rest of the summer camp crowd and when she talked to people it was about Big Brother rather than bonding with the cliques.
If Kemi had been voted out, she would've been the first houseguest evicted and the second to leave the house, after David Alexander. That's the two black HGs out the door first. Fans noticed that idea, and they were not happy about it.
Fans are also not happy about the house seeming to also be against Ovi. It sounds like he gets kinda touchy-feely with people, which can be an issue, but people seem to only care if Ovi does it. There's also been the suggestion that HGs have been bullying with their comments about Ovi, especially Jackson.
Back to David, though. It sounds like his Big Brother 21 story is not over. Julie Chen(-Moonves) hinted to as much, suggesting we'd hear more about that in Wednesday's episode, which is also when we'll see the first live eviction:
Don't forget the funky schedule in the first two weeks has the show airing Tuesday-Wednesday-Sunday. Then we finally get back into the usual Wednesday-Thursday-Sunday groove. Big Brother Season 21 continues Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CBS. Watch the CBS live feeds yourself. Are you happy that this latest change-of-plans saved Kemi? Are you worried about Ovi?
