Season 35 of the fifth major pro sport was really the only big "sport" that was going on in the course of a spring and early summer of 2020 of this COVID world, and just shortly after came a rite of summer. After five seasons of having those who have stepped inside its famous house, CBS stalwart Big Brother took center stage among avid fans of the non-scripted space and those who watch the show every year. That includes those from Challenge Nation who joined the party watching the episodes with Julie Chen-Moonves and the live feeds if they're lucky to fork some money for CBS All Access, which added past Challenges, Real Worlds, other MTV shows and the UEFA Champions League to their lineup.
This was the first Big Brother season to take place in the new ViacomCBS, but the first since summer 2005 that the Eye network and MTV have been on the same team under the same corporate umbrella, and twenty years after that first season during the summer that helped put the Eye network back on the map. Of course, the seeds of the eventual integration of the two networks' parent companies can be traced back to when The Challenge needed to add some fresh blood to the competitor list, and they looked to former Big Brother houseguests to help pave the way for other reality shows outside the MTV fold to join in. Since then, seventeen of them have crossed over to doing not only the past four Challenges, but also three seasons of the U.S. version of global sensation Ex On The Beach.
Those of you who followed the fortunes of Josh, Natalie and the rest of those former houseguests from Vendettas to Total Madness joined with them and everyone else to watch BB All-Stars, the show's 22nd regular season but the second to cast an entire group of past alumni to take up residency in America's most heavily-watched summer house with over 100 high-def cameras to watch their every move 24/7. And you can tell from everyone buzzing about it on your social media feeds that, once again, things were back to normal in how your fellow followers got to analyze every move from their couches as once again, it took over our lives. And there were a couple familiar faces as after five seasons of it invading The Challenge, it was time for Big Brother to return the favor.
Those of us in Challenge Nation saw Bay get into it with the eventual champ of that 2018 season, Kaycee Clark, in the bunker and then make it to the marathon in the snow before an injury dropped her out after day 1 of the final. But those who watch Big Brother more intently know her for more than her being one half of #Swayleigh: her first alliance which included her husband was backdoored several times, then squandered her chance to take control of the game when Bay was Head of Household, and got into a big blow-up with Tyler Crispen that led to her getting booted at the start of the jury phase.
Fresh off of that Total Madness finals appearance, Bayleigh returned to the Big Brother house (and one that she pledges is her finale on reality TV) with lots to prove after what went down two years ago. During the first month in those familiar confines, she felt comfortable being back in where she first became a household name... but when she told houseguest Christmas Abbott about her plans to make it all the way to the end with her biggest ally (more on her shortly), it led the Season 19'er to nominate the both of them after a big argument and led to Bay getting evicted unanimously in Week 5.
That first stint was only a warm-up to when she came into BB18 a year later where she formed several alliances to try and take down some of their targets... but it only made her a target herself, eventually being evicted midway through the season and was part of the jury that made three-time houseguest and eventual all-star Nicole Franzel champ. Of course, we got to see Mama Day on Final Reckoning in being partnered with Jozea going back & forth between the Redemption and main houses, followed by War of the Worlds partnered with another Big Brother alum: Celeb UK champ Bear.
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| Bayleigh & Da'Vonne with BB21's David (center) |
However, the biggest moment of Da'Vonne's third stint in the Big Brother house came when she & Bayleigh open up about their encounters with racism, where as BB All-Stars took place it came during the year of upheaval and renewed support for the BLM movement, and with CBS pledging this week to cast more persons of color on future Big Brother, Survivor and Love Island seasons. That conversation saw Day get emotional in talking about how important conversations like these have been a bright spot in an otherwise dark year, and it was one of the reasons why the public made Mama Day "America's Favorite Houseguest" with an early $25,000 holiday present. And this came two weeks before Kamala Harris was elected Vice President as part of the Biden Express that toppled the Trump White House.
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| IG @MTVTrey |
The former kicked off a little less than two months later than usual in early August and provided the bridge to a later than usual start to the fall TV campaign. Bay, Day and the other houseguests entered into an extended two-week quarantine with regular testing to make sure that they have no symptoms of COVID before entering the house. And testing continued on a weekly basis throughout the course of the season with limited interaction by behind-the-scenes personnel and with no live audience for the live shows including the premiere, weekly evictions and finale night.
The picture you saw at the top featured Josh Martinez, who won it all on Season 19 and made his way to the past three Challenges... but he was not chosen to be in this cast as the list of probables also included possible replacements in case someone returned a positive COVID test. But those who did make the final cut spanned many Big Brother summers from Season 6 in 2005 (represented by All-Stars I alums Kaysar Ridha and Janelle Pierzina) to last year's Season 21 bronze medalist Nicole Anthony, who was the second houseguest to get her eviction notice.
The field also included two past champions - both with MTV ties: Nicole F. won Season 18 and where two years later she got engaged to fellow houseguest Victor Arroyo, who himself was part of Vendettas. Nicole was among those who were buzzed by the social sphere getting caught on the live feeds making fun of the revelation made by Season 14 winner Ian Terry, who revealed that he is on the autism spectrum. One who met up with him at a Vegas reality all-star event years ago, RW St. Thomas and 2-time Challenger Trey Weatherholtz, posted a picture above to show his support to Ian.
Paulie got into the MTV door by way of being on first American Ex On The Beach season prior to competing on Final Reckoning and the two War of the Worlds, and he similarly got into Big Brother by being a sibling to a former houseguest. Cody Califiore went onto Season 16 two years before his brother did when he came to the 2014 house as part of the Bomb Squad alliance that turned into the Hitmen when he and Derrick Levasseur made it to the final two. Cody did get a consolation prize in winning 6 challenges that summer, but might be known to the fandom for the infamous choice of evicting Victoria Rafaeli that led to Cody finishing runner-up.
Cody returned to the Big Brother house with plans on finishing that unfinished business of six years ago, and just as he did then he formed a final two alliance with Memphis called The Commission, and with those who they invited to join their Committee alliance they controlled the game all season long. Once again, Cody showed his competitive meddle in winning eight competitions for Head of Household and Power of Veto, and did not face the prospect of getting evicted. It's combining both the strategic and social games necessary for any houseguest to win a Big Brother season that Cody mastered en route to being the series' first castmate to make it to the end without going onto the nomination block - and it was no surprise that the jury made him their unanimous choice to receive the $500,000.
Just a simple glance over at the Big Brother Wiki page on Cody will give you more context to how perfect this season was for him than we could here, but we could have seen Cody on The Challenge had it not been for a last-minute change: he was slated to join brother Paulie on War of the Worlds I last year but dropped out before the flight to Namibia. But the new champion does have MTV experience: in the same season of Celebrity Fear Factor that saw those from The Challenge and both U.S. Shore series compete, Cody competed alongside BB16's Zach Rance and Caleb Reynolds in an all-reality battle. And when his brother came out victorious, his brother was watching back home...
With Cody now the king, there is always the possibility of which houseguests in this class -- or someone else from the Big Brother family -- could make a case for a future Challenge crossover. He will no doubt be at the top of that list thanks to what we saw then and this summer/autumn... provided that there is space in his gigs of modeling and other TV work we should see Cody in the not too distant future. Whoever makes the next jump from America's most scrutinized summer house to the fifth major pro sport will be in for a huge task, just as his brother, Day, Bay and a few others have done.
- I AM DC @DC408Dxtr
#TheEscapeYouDeserve
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