Warning! The following contains spoilers for the season premiere of Big Brother All-Stars. Read at your own risk!
Big Brother is a show that has had its fair share of controversy over the years, so it's only fitting that one happened in the opening hours (as opposed to pre-game) of Big Brother All-Stars. No, I'm not referring to the hilarious malfunctioning door that barred the Have-Not's from entering their room for the week, but they are involved in it somewhat. Fans far and wide (and the one writing) are a little unhappy with how the first competition went down and question whether Cody Calafiore had an unfair advantage in his win.
The first Head Of Household competition involved players stepping on pegs to get to the goal without falling as fast as possible. The twist was that not all the pegs were solid and would buckle under the contestant's weight as soon as they set foot on them, thus forcing the contestant to start over. Memphis Garrett learned that the hard way and took some hard falls on his way to the finish, leaving many wobbly pegs in his wake. He got a time of 1:12, which was all but destroyed by Cody immediately after.
Cody zoomed through the course and got a time of just over 22 seconds. It was a time that only Ian Terry came remotely close to beating, but even then he, Nicole Anthony, Christmas Abbott, and Kevin Campbell fell well short of matching him. I've reviewed Cody's run on the competition a couple of times now, and while he did trip up at the start, there were definitely some moving pegs leftover from Memphis' run when he started.
To be clear, I didn't immediately view the situation as a controversy. I assumed that after Cody at least one other player would get the same advantage due to another player messing up and leaving wobbly pegs. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case as after the show returned from a commercial break following Cody's run, Julie Chen (who appeared in person) instructed that the next contestants not be brought out until the pegs had stopped moving. To me, it signaled someone backstage already picked up on what the fandom was thinking, or they were watching the tweets roll in one after another.
I think if anything, production interfering after Cody's run is the real controversy. Cody would be dumb not to use any advantage he had, and while he may have had some help in finding that path, he still did a pretty good job navigating that course as quickly as possible. Some, like Nicole A., stepped on the same peg twice in a row and timed out. She may be a former America's Favorite Houseguest, but it doesn't look like she's any better at competitions!
And really, I don't think the fandom at large should be raising their pitchforks quite yet. We all know the first HOH can be a curse just as much as it is a blessing, so some of those houseguests are probably thankful they avoided contention for that competition entirely. Plus, we have no clue how this incoming "safety suite" will impact Cody's HOH, though details on that should be revealed in the coming days.
For those details, as well as all the latest chatter happening on the live feeds, be sure to stick with CinemaBlend all throughout Big Brother All-Stars. Do you think Cody Calafiore got an unfair advantage? Vote in our poll and be sure to tune into the next episode on CBS Sunday, August 9 at varying times depending on when the PGA tour wraps up.
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