Big Brother Season 26 has stood out from previous years in several ways. It's rare a season has some major confrontation, split vote, or blindside eviction, and getting all three so consistently is just flat out unheard of. And yet, those streaming Big Brother are looking for what changed with this season that made it so entertaining, and I think it's the A.I. Arena.
I can't deny that the casting team for Season 26 is part of the reason I'm absolutely glued to the feeds via my Paramount+ subscription, but it's also because of this season's big twist. Having three nominees with a second safety competition the night of eviction has been a game-changer in the following ways, and I'm not sure I want to go back to a standard season ever again.
The A.I. Arena Keeps Houseguests Actively Engaged In The Game
If you watch or stream Big Brother and only pay attention to televised episodes, you may think the game is spaced out over an entire week. In reality, live feeders know the typical season contains this weekly schedule:
- Thursday- HOH competition
- Friday - Nominations
- Saturday - Veto competition
- Monday - Veto meeting
Typically, the veto meeting happens, and many Houseguests tend to slow down their gameplay tremendously and coast until Thursday's live eviction episode. This is usually because all decisions regarding eviction are typically made by the time the Veto meeting happens. Sure, there are instances when a vote flip happens, and someone is blindsided, but not at the level we've seen in Season 26.
With the A.I Arena in play, there are just too many possibilities on the table for any Houseguest to phone in the rest of the week. Those who want to win Big Brother are constantly angling to have their targets thrown on the block ahead of the live eviction and working out multiple scenarios for what to do if someone else wins.
Kimo Apaka and T'Kor Clottey did exactly this, and it moved them from toward the bottom of an alliance to a Final Four with one of the most powerful players in the season, Tucker Des Lauriers. This twist is really giving everyone a chance to play week to week and takes some of the absolute power of the game out of the Head of Household's hands.
It Makes It Much Harder To Escape Being HOH Without "Blood On Your Hands"
Modern Big Brother has a playbook for being Head of Household, and the cardinal rule, above all else, always seems to be not to get "blood on your hands." No one wants to be the exiting HOH that has one or possibly two targets gunning for them the following week when they're most vulnerable.
Those who want to win Big Brother, at least in the modern era, repeatedly nominate those who have been nominated in the house previously and try to keep everyone else safe so as not to ruffle feathers. It's a tired strategy, but it's stuck around because it's largely effective.
The A.I. Arena has made it much harder for any Houseguest to do that during their HOH reign in Big Brother Season 26. The HOH has frequently had to nominate around four people a week, which means three nominees initially and then one replacement when the veto was used.
From the very start, there was a solid probability that Angela Murray's Week 1 HOH would end with her nominating a fourth for eviction. When things start off with that kind of pressure, it's no wonder Season 26 quickly turned into a blow-up following the Week 1 veto. No one is safe this season, and I think it goes without saying that it's more or less impossible to avoid getting blood on your hands as HOH.
It's Allowed A Lot Of Surprising Vote Flips To Happen
Watching the Big Brother live feeds is a blessing and a curse at times. In previous seasons, you usually had a good idea exactly who was going to stay and who was getting evicted by Monday. It was great for making accurate predictions on who would be sent home, but it led to a lot of lackluster feeds by the time Monday evening rolled around.
By Tuesday, Houseguests had shifted to looking ahead and strategizing for the next Head of Household competition, and the eviction was more or less an afterthought. Full transparency, I never saw that as a huge problem up until now, just because of how normalized it had become.
The reality is that everyone in the house should be worried about who is going home on Thursday beyond the two nominees. The A.I. Arena has rightfully shifted the tension back to the live eviction episodes and forced each Houseguest to remain dialed into the game until it's officially time to move on to the next HOH competition.
Because Houseguests can't look too far ahead, we're seeing a lot more gameplay happening where Houseguests are thinking long and hard about who is best for their game. We've seen the veto used every week, scenarios being talked out depending on who wins in the A.I. Arena, and even some last-minute game moves made minutes before eviction.
This twist has broken Big Brother, and it's done so in the best way it possibly could. Houseguests had previously found the playbook to navigate the modern game in a way that was boring and created lackluster gameplay. After watching Big Brother Season 16 for the first time, I understand why so many wanted to replicate what Derrick Levasseur did. At the same time, I can only watch someone blend into the background and quietly make game moves so many times, especially when multiple people in the house are doing that. You can't do what Derrick did in this season, which is why the A.I. Arena should be a permanent fixture in future seasons.
Big Brother airs on CBS on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET, and on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. As always, check out the live feeds on Paramount+ or on Pluto TV, where there also is a 24/7 BB channel for when the feeds are down.
