Warning! The following contains spoilers from the live feeds of Big Brother Season 23 as of Thursday, July 8th. Read at your own risk!
Big Brother Season 23 just started, and alliances are already being made, and deals struck. That's thanks in part to a cast that's about the most well-versed in the show that we've seen in a long time, but also thanks to some folks in the house potentially over-playing. First Head of Household of the season Brandon "Frenchie" French is one of those people, and it could be the biggest mistake he makes during his HOH.
French snagged a competitive HOH and made some quick friends within his team and through a select few in the house, and that was fine until he kept going. Now he's in big danger of an overplay, and the classic mistake so many HOH's of the past have made in forgetting that their power in the house is finite.
The Many Alliances Of Frenchie
As of Monday afternoon, Brandon "Frenchie" French has forged alliances with nearly all the house. Specifically, he's worked out deals and alliances with Azah Awasum, Derek Frazier, Britini D’Angelo, Claire Rehfuss, Kyland Young, Tiffany Mitchell, Whitney Williams, and Xavier Prather. That's literally half of the house that he's talked game with, shared his personal thoughts and feelings on the game, and his strategy going forward.
And when I say talking strategy, I mean French has shared his big game plan with almost all of these people. For example, he's stated he does not intend to nominate a person of color or woman with his first nominations, which really only narrows down his potential nominations to Brent Champagne, Christian Birkenberger, and Travis Long. At least 8 people in the house can deduce that, and more importantly, can share that with anyone out of the know at any point. Obviously other folks in the house are going to work with others outside of Frenchie, and his plans will leak out.
Why Frenchie's Alliances Could Be A Huge Mistake
Majority alliances typically aren't a bad idea in Big Brother, unless of course someone outside the alliance captures the Head of Household the following week. Brandon "Frenchie" French may be sitting pretty right now with everyone in the house ready to align with him, but the true test of this alliance will be how it stays together after the veto is done. Week 1 alliances fall apart all the time. It's only natural to believe this mega alliance could be nonexistent a couple of weeks from now.
The reason why that's dangerous for Frenchie is that if someone outside of his group gets the next Head of Household, they'll start to find out just how many deals the farmer struck. Then other people will find out and try to distance themselves. Finally, someone will bring up that he won back-to-back competitions (plus a 3rd unofficially with the fake double or nothing Competition), and suddenly the "most powerful player" in the game just became Big Brother Season 23's sacrificial lamb.
Could This All Work Out For Frenchie?
There's certainly a chance Brandon "Frenchie" French can pull off the majority alliance and dictate power in the house and get far in the game. With that said, most of the houseguests are seasoned Big Brother fans and literally just saw Cody Calafiore do something similar the prior season.
The difference is that Calafiore played his cards close to the chest, whereas Frenchie has spilled his secrets to far too many people that he doesn't even know he can trust. Hell, he even talked game with Brent Champagne a fair deal, even though it sounds like he'll be one of the nominations here later in the week. He's going to have to pray that someone he's aligned with gets next week's HOH, or I think there's a good chance we'll see him on the block while his "allies" scatter for safety.
Big Brother Season 23 airs on CBS Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Do you think Frenchie is overplaying his HOH, or is he fine for now? Sound off in our poll, and for more on the season, check out our list of things we love about this season's house.
