Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Big Brother Season 24 live eviction that aired on Thursday, July 28th. Read at your own risk!
Big Brother Season 24 just delivered its second blindside of the season, and wow, what a time to be a fan. It seems like we’ve finally gotten a group of Houseguests who are willing to buck the trend established in Season 16 with the success of Derrick Levasseur, and people are ready to play early and play often. That is to say, the trend of laying low and “going with the house” to remove non-threats from the game is not happening this season, and I think there’s a case for future Houseguests to abandon it entirely.
CinemaBlend continues to track the game events with a Paramount+ subscription, and if there’s one thing I noticed this week, it’s that there are so many Houseguests who are actively making moves to advance their game. Following Derrick's success with the more passive strategy in Season 16, Houseguests too often operate as if the early weeks of the game have little impact on their chances. The reality is that more often than not, passive players often kill their chances at winning long before they’re gone.
Imagine if this week played out like Matt Turner originally planned, and he ended up putting Nicole Layog and Taylor Hale on the block side by side. Taylor had sympathizers in the game for sure, but I’m not sure she would’ve survived the block for a third consecutive week. No one’s game would’ve suffered with Taylor leaving, but I’d argue no one’s chances of winning would’ve been any better.
Conversely, The Leftovers’ mission to blindside Ameerah Jones effectively changed the course of the game and put the entire newly formed alliance in a much better position to win. (It also made Indy Santos puke.) What’s more impressive, however, is that it came from all of the people feeling on the outside of the game coming together and saying, “Hey, let’s play the game.”
The "lay low" strategy advises against playing hard early because it often puts a target on a Houseguest’s back. Season 23’s Brandon “Frenchie” French is a great example of playing too hard, but too many people confuse playing quietly with not playing at all. There’s a reason the term “furniture” is used to describe Houseguests, and it’s because too many think keeping to yourself is playing the game.
One change I love about Big Brother Season 24 is that we aren’t seeing Houseguests who are “furniture,” and even if you aren’t on board with how a Houseguest is behaving or treating another one, everyone is playing the game. They’re also taking risks early on, and those risks are already altering the trajectory of this game in Week 3. For any future Houseguests reading, this is why it’s beneficial to play early and not lay low.
So many Houseguests just gave themselves an exponentially better chance at winning, and all it took was asking each other why the house was pushing out a player who wasn’t really a threat. Now the people who were controlling the game are caught off guard and scrambling, and it’s all because no one in The Leftovers tried to assert the classic in-game phrase, “It’s too early to make moves.” I love to see it, and I hope it’s a trend that’s here to stay.
Big Brother airs on CBS on Sundays and Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET and Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. Season 24 is certainly one where watching the live feeds is a great time, so beginners should check out our guide and maybe join in as the game continues.
