Part of what makes Big Brother so unique is that it's rare that one season feels similar to another. Part of the reason for that is that the producers come up with various twists to shake up each season and prevent Houseguests from knowing what to expect. Sometimes it works and, at other times, the creative decisions crash and burn. We're here today to talk about the latter situations -- the twists that just didn't work out.
With CBS' Big Brother 26 right around the corner, it feels like a great time to revisit the worst twists from years past. That's right, you probably don't have time to stream these seasons with a Paramount+ subscription, so we're providing you with a brief rundown of some seasons that let fans down over the years with one twist or another.
Season 21 - Camp Comeback
Big Brother Season 21 is one of the most controversial seasons of the game and one that ultimately sparked big changes for the franchise casting-wise. Camp Comeback was a good idea in theory. As part of this game element, the first four evicted Houseguests remained in the house and could play the social game for a chance to win their way back in later. Unfortunately, in practice, the white majority Houseguests sent three minority Houseguests (David Alexander, Ovi Kabir, and Kemi Fakunle) out first, and the fourth white Houseguest (Cliff Hogg) immediately re-entered the game after winning the competition. It was a rather boring result, especially since no other evicted Houseguest would've lasted long otherwise.
Season 12 - The Saboteur
Season 12 featured a master plan that would theoretically turn the season upside down and provide incentives for Houseguests. Big Brother introduced the "Saboteur," twist in which a Houseguest had to complete challenges sent to them in exchange for cash. Unfortunately, the best-laid plans always go awry, and the secret Saboteur -- Annie Whittington -- was evicted during the first week. Ultimately, Ragan Fox was able to be the saboteur later in the season but, by that point, the pranks didn't do much to shake up the house.
Season 17 - The Takeover
Why just have one twist when you can have all the twists? That was essentially the idea of Big Brother Season 17's Takeover Twist, in which a guest host introduced a new twist every week. The twists were wildly powerful, and there was one that added two new Houseguests and allowed a player to nullify three votes during the eviction. They were solid and impactful twists but, frankly, the season was already interesting enough without them. In Week 4, Julie Chen Moonves officially announced that the twist was ending, and it was the right call because it was unnecessary to begin with.
Season 25 - BB Zombies
BB Zombies is without question one of my least favorite twists of all-time because it ruined the most exciting part of each season, the double-eviction. It was decided that during Big Brother Season 25 that when Jared Fields and Cameron Hardin were evicted, they'd actually immediately re-enter the house as "Zombies." Ultimately, this meant nothing more than they had to wear all-black rags and had to compete to stay in the game a week later. This ultimately meant fans went two weeks where no one left the game, which really just killed all the momentum of the season, and I'm desperately hoping we never see it again.
Season 19 - Tree Of Temptation
The Tree Of Temptation involved the presence of a tree that was visible and available to all Houseguests with, you guessed it, a twist. Any Houseguests could pull an apple from the tree to reveal a positive or negative twist. There were more positive than negative twists and, while this aspect of the game wasn't that bad, its arrival was ill-timed. Had it shown up at a time where Houseguests were more willing to take risks, it would've lasted longer than it did.
Multiple Seasons - Night One Evictions
Night One evictions are one of the most pointless twists of Big Brother, and yet they've popped up multiple times in the show's history. Seasons 9, 14, 18, 19 and 21 have featured a Houseguest leaving on the first night, and it always just feels so unnecessary. The audience doesn't know the Houseguest well enough to be invested in their exit, so it just feels like someone went through the grueling audition process and two-week sequester from their family for absolutely nothing. It makes not sense, so I hope someone behind the scenes realized this too and nixed any idea of reviving it.
Season 22 - The Safety Suite
Big Brother Season 22, or All-Stars 2, tried to do something fun with The Safety Suite. This twist allowed all Houseguests the option to play for safety, with the winner being able to choose a "plus one" to also be safe with them. Unfortunately, this twist was really ineffective at protecting the side that needed it most. An example of its ineffectiveness would be when Janelle Pierzina and Kaysar Ridha were quickly targeted by Cody Calafiore's majority alliance and burned their chances to play in it after their first week of competing against each other.
Season 24 - Backstage Boss
Backstage Boss might go down as one of the show's worst twists of all time, but not because it was necessarily bad. Season 24's Joe Pucciarelli won the ability and was free from eviction in Week 1. He then chose three people to join him, though one or two of them were presumably going to be nominated to be evicted by the end of the week. Viewers never really saw how that would pan out as Houseguest Paloma Aguilar ended up leaving the game. The eviction was canceled, and "Pooch" ended up losing all his power and being the first person sent home. Ultimately, the twist was abandoned.
Season 22 - Triple Eviction
Was Season 22 of Big Brother so bad that it warrants two mentions on this list? I would say yes, especially since I tore All-Stars apart immediately after the finale. The triple eviction was just the icing on the cake of an already bad season as this big twist was immediately spoiled when production forgot to hide the giant graphic announcing it when Julie spoke to the Houseguests. In fairness, some of them had already figured out something like that was happening based on how many days were left in the game, but still, why go to all that trouble just to have a twist spoiled in such a simple way?
Big Brother Season 26, hopefully, will not feature any of the twists on this list moving forward. Tune in to CBS for the first night of the premiere beginning on Wednesday, July 17th at 9:00 p.m. ET as part of the 2024 TV schedule, and get ready for what is hopefully a fun season!
