Board 8 > Top 5 Worst Rigjobs in the History of Big Brother US

(+) Yeah! (+)

Reality TV.

To those who know they are my audience, welcome! In this topic I'm going to be covering the Top 5 Worst Rigjobs in the history of Big Brother US (America Edition).

Why am I doing this? Mostly because I want to shine a light on the darker parts of this show to anyone out there who's interested in the subject. In actuality I like Big Brother a lot, I like the game and social strategy it demands, I like the kooky antics and strange snippets we get from real people who aren't reading scrip--well. I like the show, but sometimes it frustrates me. Particularly in these moments I'm about to list. I'm OK when someone I like (or dislike) loses the game fair and square -- it happens, it's a part of the game. But I do not like it when someone I dislike (or like) gets removed/weakened in the game unfairly due to production interference, cheap twists, or general fuckery by influences beyond a players control. It cheapens the integrity of the show and wastes my time as a viewer. It disrespects the audience and treats us like toddlers who can't handle not getting their way.

A part of truly enjoying something involves the demand to be critical of its flaws. These rigjobs are the worst of this shows flaws.

So without further ado I'm going to prattle on, hopefully not for too long, and get this over with. Because I guess it's a thing I care about doing right now for some inane reason. And there's an endurance HoH happening right now.

I hope you enjoy.
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Tag
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fyi by 'rigjob' i really mean heavy amount of production manipulation. they are not outright rigging the game, but they are heavily slanting the game to one persons/an alliances favor.

to the casual observer it seems innocuous and circumstantial. but to the trained eye its the bane of our existence as fans.
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tag
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I wonder if anything I didn't list in the topic will make your top five.
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tag
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I thought this said rimjob.

tag anyway
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Rigjob #5: Big Brother 14, Week 3

Synopsis: Frank is the house pariah, everyone wants him out, he gets nominated post-veto and is going to be evicted in a glorious blindside. The votes are locked in and the front door is wide open and ready to be walked through. Frank has no idea. And then production cancels the vote.

Yeah, you read that right. They straight up cancel the entire vote. What?

If you've ever ventured to a BB wiki page, you might come across the vote history at the bottom. Well, this is what you see when you reach Week 3 of BB14: http://i.imgur.com/dDyjqIc.png?1

The hell am I looking at? It's a color palette of production interference. It's basically an entire synopsis of the first 3 weeks of BB14 in one image. It's horrifying to make sense of.

BB14 brought in returning players as coaches to draft the newbies of the season. Like fantasy Big Brother but actually in the game of BB. The idea was they were playing a separate game of BB alongside the actual game. In actuality they were eventually going to join the game and everyone knew it (except GOAT Boogie). Everyone expected the coaches to enter the game, the fans saw it coming a mile away, but what nobody saw was the utter blindside by production to straight up save their fan favorite newbie player from being evicted.

On the night of the eviction production asked the coaches if they wanted to join the game. Naturally, of course, if they did, for some random reason the vote would be canceled and the entire week would be for nothing. The HoH, the nominations, the coaches competition, the coaches save, the veto competition, the ceremony, and the formality of a live vote would all be canceled so 4 more players could enter the game. The fuck? The soundest explanation was the easiest to understand: Frank was far-and-away the most popular newbie houseguest of the season. He made waves, brought in fans, everyone had an opinion on him. He was destined to play again (and he did several seasons later). Production didn't want to lose Frank. Frank was 100% going out the door, and it was going to be a major blindside too. Frank didn't see it coming. Production couldn't have that.

So why not have their cake and eat it too? That's exactly what they did. They got the coaches to enter the game, Frank to be saved, and the entire week to be null and void in one instant. It was clear and blatant favoritism that likely wouldn't have been reserved for a lesser castmember.

When I watched this happen live after following the entire week of strategy on the feeds, I was flabbergasted. What the fuck was the point of even having the week in the first place? What was the point of going through any of the formalities of a usual BB week, with the 3 episodes to be edited and all? It felt like a rushed, sloppy, last minute decision once Frank was placed on the block post-veto (as he wasn't originally nominated) and was in clear danger of leaving. I would bet that if Frank wasn't nominated post-veto, or wasn't going to be evicted that night, we'd have ditched one more cast member to make room for FOUR more players entering the game.

This ranks at #5 mostly because it's a less damning rigjob. The stakes weren't tremendous, it was still early in the season, it basically just saved one player from being humiliated. Frank did have a big impact on the game moving forward that he otherwise shouldn't have, and in some cases I do think he improved the season by still being there, but overall it was a total farce of a week that made no sense happening other than to save a fan favorite.

Canceling an entire week is inexcusable. It'd be like canceling an entire week of a sporting event and wiping the results. How can you take the game seriously after that?
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Eddv posted...

I thought this said rimjob.

;)
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nominate 'the entirety of bb13'
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Tag
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Just correcting something really quick. Jodi was booted night one, Kara week 1, Willie was ejected Week 2, and Jojo was evicted week 2. So there WERE already four players out for the coaches to replace by the time week three rolled around.
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Rigjob #4: Big Brother 9, Week 10

Synopsis: We're at the Final 4. Three people are competing: Sharon, Ryan, and Adam. The competition is True/False, there is one question left, Sharon is up on Ryan by 1 point. The last question is asked, the answer is obvious, Sharon gets the answer right, Ryan gets it wrong, Sharon is clearly the next HoH, but then Julie Chen tells us Sharon got it wrong, Ryan got it right, and all hell breaks loose.

Here's the tape:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MJMCNEEDeo

This one is truly tragic as it results in what should have been a clear win for Sharon as the HoH to then suddenly be the next one evicted instead.

To put this in context, Big Brother 9 is the sloppiest season of BB and it's not even close. To say it was a trainwreck would be a disservice to actual legitimate wreckages with lives lost along the way (RIP BB11). BB9 was full of horrible people who did horrible things, and I truly don't feel bad condemning them when there's live feeds to hold them accountable for their atrocities.

There really were no heroes this season, so in some way production had very few people to even bother slanting the game toward at any point. And yet despite this they still found a way to fuck around and cause one of the most illegitimate F4 HoH's in the history of the show.

Sharon was not a favorite of production by any means. There was a season-long storyline between two cast members in Matty and Natalie, it was a tale of unrequited love. Matty didn't want Natalie but all season she chased him. And then along comes Sharon who plays the 'other girl' and hooks up with Matty out of nowhere, getting all kinds of frisky in the HoH room, basically sullying her image.

Truth be told, I don't get why production didn't like Sharon. Maybe it was her hookup with Matty, maybe she was difficult at times, I don't know. I do know her competition in Ryan was marginally likable and in BB9 that went a looooong way.

The F4 HoH should have been Sharon's. It's pretty absurd that production does what they do here. The question: "True or False, there's still a pre-existing relationship in the house?" Given they were at the F4 and none of them had a pre-existing relationship, the answer was CLEARLY false. Sharon gets it right. Ryan realizes he's got no chance to get this right by saying false so he says true. And then somehow the answer is TRUE (or fact).

Production then has to pop up a quick text saying "(The Guinea Pigs)" to remind the viewers that this IMPOSSIBLE ANSWER is actually TOTALLY LEGIT. As if there was any way the houseguest could know or be expected to know that the guinea pigs kept as pets inside the house had a "pre existing relationship". How production can think this is an OK question to ask, is a reasonable question to ask for the very last question of the penultimate HoH is absurd. It's so fishy.

What's worse is that if you listen to the video linked above, right after Julie asks the question, she has a long pause to figure out the answer (that production wants to give) based on where the houseguests stand. You can hear her fumbling around with something, there's some scribbling or shifting being had. There's no live audience during BB9 so it didn't matter what she did. I don't get why this is happening, why Julie needs to take a long 10-second pause after they land on their answer for her to respond. She stutters with her words and then we get this quick "oh by the way it was a trick question LOL" text at the bottom. As someone who had worked in editing, that's very easy to produce. I'm not fooled into thinking this was a pre-determined answer.

Sharon goes on to be evicted at the F4 when she didn't deserve it. This rigjob isn't higher because it's not as influential or impacting across the season as the top 3. Probably the most fitting rigjob to BB9, really.
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It still amuses me that the the winner used his money to start a drug ring.
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i still find it ridiculous that there was any expectation for the houseguests to know the two guinea pigs had a pre-existing relationship. there's no way to even prove that it's true.

what a shitshow.
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Well, I mean, there wasn't really an expectation. That was their trump question to use at their escape hatch.
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Peridiam posted...

what a shit show.

you said it
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Rigjob #3: Big Brother 13, Week 8

Synopsis: Final 6. It's 4 newbies vs. 2 returning players. A newbie wins HoH, nominates both returning players. Then a twist called 'Pandora's Box' happens where if the HoH opens the box, something good or bad might happen - it's exactly like the BB19 Den of Temptation. Except production made the newbie HoH open the box and so the cast was paired up, 2 v 2 v 2. The veto competition favors one of the returning players, she wins, pulls both herself and the other returning player off the block, and thus both are saved another week. Kill me.

From an emotional standpoint, this would be my #1. I hated this moment and it's likely my least favorite moment in all of Survivor/BB/TAR. It's so blatant, so obvious, so mind-numbingly stupid, that I can't fathom how anyone can look at Rachel Reilly as the winner and not slap a big asterisk next to her name. I don't blame people for quitting this season at this moment. Somehow I made it this far and still reached the end.

Big Brother 13 is one of the most heavily manipulated seasons of BB, it's so slanted in favor of one alliance from the beginning of the season to the end, just about every single week, and it's disgusting to watch as a fan of the show. The outcome of the show is worthless, it brings nothing to the table, and yet many fans are OK with the season existing because the narrative crafted by the edit went only in favor of one direction: toward the returning players. So of course when a returning player, the main star of the edit, goes on to win, it's a SAVED season-long story of her trials and tribulations that makes the season somehow bearable as a result.

No. It's bullshit.

The cast of BB13 is actually pretty good, too. But the pairs twist, the golden key twist, the BATTLEBACK 1v1 with a fan vote with a veteran propped up by the edit versus a bunch of newbie nobodies who held no power all pre-jury and accomplished nothing, was pretty shitty from week to week. We lost a great bunch of newbie players in favor of a bunch of overrated vets who sucked at the game and oftentimes sucked as people too. But hey, "fan favorites" means all bets are off with production.

How I'm expected to care about a heavily-slanted, season-long, multi-faceted rigjob of a show is quite a task, but somehow I still did.

So we get to the Final 6. Rachel Reilly and Jordan Lloyd are two of the dumbest returning players in BB history. Chicken George would give them a run for their money. Somehow Porsche wins HoH and naturally nominates both of their sorry asses. Then Pandora's Box appears, of course, and Porsche is forced to open it (as she's said post-show). Either way, it's quite clear that every HoH has to open the box. I don't expect otherwise. It's never not been opened for a reason. It's bullshit, but nothing new after BB11 & 12.

Because Porsche opened the box, the new ~*random*~ twist is that everyone in the house is now paired together again! WoWOowoOWowOw!!!!1 WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?! That's so convenient! Thank God Porsche opened the box, am I right? So now Rachel and Jordan are a pair, and despite both being nominated, if either wins the veto they BOTH GET SAVED! THERE'S A BB GOD AFTER ALL!!

I'm fucking done with this shit.

So of course the veto competition is THE EXACT COMPETITION AS THE FIRST HOH, THE ONE THAT RACHEL WON AND WAS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD AT. You know, the one where she does nothing but cling to a giant banana (Brendon) for as long as possible? Her competition is rapidly-gaining-weight Porsche, overweight, out of shape Kalia, fucking Adam, and Shelly, the 41-year-old leatherfaced, inactive chainsmoker from the marshes of Louisiana. Oh, and Jordan. I guess.

So Rachel wins easily. As expected. She takes herself and Jordan off the block, up goes Shelly and Adam, and Shelly gets evicted because she just took out fan fave Jeff.
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It's just so obvious this was not pre-planned in any way. Pandora's Box is blatant production interference because it's never told to the audience what it is ahead of time, so it can be changed at any point to aid whoever needs it the most. It's one of my least favorite twists for this reason. And it's at its worst in BB13 at this moment.

So bringing back the pairs was clear favoritism to save both Rachel and Jordan, because the narrative and the fanbase preferred them over the unknown, not-so-likable newbies. Production had favored the vets all season and this was absolutely the worst example of it. Under a normal week of Big Brother, Rachel and Jordan were 100% screwed, one of them was going unless they managed to strategize their way out. The problem? Production, as well as everyone at home, knew that neither Rachel nor Jordan were capable of doing that. They're both shitty players who don't understand what it means to have a social game (despite Jordan being friendly).

There was no hope for either returning player, so production had to force their hand. The pair twist, along with including a reused asset in the first HoH comp that was clearly going to see Rachel win, was a hilariously obvious slant toward the returning fan faves that everyone in the community recognized as bullshit. Everyone knows it was shit.

As far as comparing it to my top 2, I think this rigjob is just as apparent as the next two, but the next two have a larger impact on their season than this one did. This one was definitely bullshit, but it happens at the F6, whereas the others have a wider impact, and I believe are even a little more insulting than this. Somehow.

I hate this season. I don't hate Rachel or Jordan for gaining an unfair advantage. But I do hate this season.
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i'll post the final two tomorrow.

i'm spent.
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T
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i've only followed a few season of BB, but i remember how blatant the rigging was in that pairs-game-that-rachel-winds-up-winning. the girlfriend was rooting for rachel/jordan, and she felt pretty embarrassed at that point. i also seem to remember that porsche lost in the finals to rachel, and i couldn't figure out why the fuck the jury would do that, and that adam, i think, made a really weird vote that pissed me off. you've reminded me of this, and i don't even remember what adam looks like.

really enjoying this topic!
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BB2-7 is like the golden age for the show, with 7 being the ultimate series finale imo.
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biggest rigjob was denying bunky his rightful win
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Tag
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Tag
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The Veto comp is also NEVER straight-up endurance. BB8 had the one with the other houseguests choosing who to distract. BB10 had the flower garden with "closest to an hour without going over." But BB13's was the first one where it was "last as long as possible in a how bad do you want it" scenario. That's usually done as an HOH.

FFDragon posted...

BB2-7 is like the golden age for the show, with 7 being the ultimate series finale imo.

BB10 is equally amazing to that era. But everything after BB10 is mostly painful to watch. It's why I barely care about the show in its modern form.

I like this list so far. There's also:
-ANOTHER BB14 moment, with the two "Houseguest's Choice" veto chips (probably #2)
-AmERICa's Player (probably #1 - it's why BB8 is so polarizing)
-The fan vote Coup d'état in both BB11 and BBCAN3
-Brendon returning in BB13 and getting jury (thank you ,Daniele Donato, for not allowing him in the house for long)
-BB15's MVP being easily skewed to a terrible player with a preexisting fanbase (but the good players used that to their advantage)
-The hand tapping BB15 Helen's ankle, implying they paid her off to jump (but she was already out of the game at that point, so... is that really top two material compared to the two above?)
-The $25K bribe to get Paul into BB19 (too recent to know its impact)

Note how every "incident" has occurred since Grodner got outright control of the show (BB8), instead of sharing it with Arnie Shapiro. Hmmmmmm...
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KujikawaRising posted...

-Brendon returning in BB13 and getting jury (thank you ,Daniele Donato, for not allowing him in the house for long)

this one is doubly bad since without that, that's when rachael goes out
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Man, BB13 was bad.

Didn't Lawon "think" that by being evicted he would magically return to the house? And then after being evicted, it was a competition to return to the house where he looked so bad that I can't think of any way he wasn't throwing it? I wonder how much CBS paid him for that
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Lawon was convinced that he'd get some sort of special power if he got evicted and returned.

Also I don't believe that Brendon was the one with the most votes, but there's no evidence either way. From what I heard at the time, it was more likely Daniele's husband Dominic (I voted for Cassi, who I felt had been screwed only by the jealousy of an unattractive hag). If Dom returns, Daniele still wins HOH, Rachel goes out, and we could be looking at a Dominele domination.

Way better than the BB13 shit show we got. That was the season that started to kill my interest in the show. But again, while it's awful if it was rigged, there's no way to know for sure. I could be allowing my personal feelings regarding Brenchel's insufferable presence to taint my view of the situation. Knowing Grodner, though...
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KujikawaRising posted...

But everything after BB10 is mostly painful to watch.

BB14 is amazing because /sp/ found a way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAROV_kt1nw
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Brendon definitely won the vote, probably in a landslide.

It's one of those things where he would have won a "Who shouldn't come back into the house" by a landslide too, but yeah.
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i remember rachel being near-catatonic until brendon came back

i don't think she actually did anything that game other than win that veto competition and just lie around while jordan tried desperately to motivate her
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JetJaguar posted...

Brendon definitely won the vote, probably in a landslide.

It's one of those things where he would have won a "Who shouldn't come back into the house" by a landslide too, but yeah.

so basically you're saying... "fucking casuals" right?
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Tag for later. I hate BB US so much because of this, why do I keep watching it?
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Everything about Big Brother is absolutely horrendous. I hate this show so, so much. Everything about it is terrible, from the obnoxious editing to the rehearsed DRs of morons screaming their lines out, to the constant production meddling and rigging.

...and yet here I am, watching BB19 and watching production rig it for Paul. Woop dee doo.
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BB13 and BB15 were the only seasons I watched any of, and mostly only at 2am on Showtime's After Dark. I didnt understand a lot going on, but i liked seeing people chilling out, playing games, having conversations, napping by the pong table. Any time I tried watching the main cut-and-paste, super-obnoxious confessional show, I absolutely could not stand it.

This was compounded with 15's editing around the heavily racist and mean "main characters"


Did I get two of the worst seasons? It's good to see and know that the Rachel rigging is an outlier.
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15 is the last one I watched, and no one has told me I've made a bad decision.
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Mega Mana posted...

It's good to see and know that the Rachel rigging is an outlier

I wouldn't call it an outlier, really. It's one of the most blatant cases for sure, but rigging happens basically 24/7 in BB.

I don't think even the jurors are safe from it; it's amazing how often their votes land on the production pet yet are completely inexplicable given the characters' histories and relationships.
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-FFDragon- posted...

15 is the last one I watched, and no one has told me I've made a bad decision.

You made a bad decision to skip BB17.
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It's less skipping and more they wore out every last bit of goodwill I had for the show that I just completely dropped it. And assuming this topic was brought on because of a recent example of rigging, I'm going to assume they still haven't learned anything.

BUT if enough people vouch for for 17 maybe I'll put it on the to-do list.
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I can't think of any blatant rigging off the top of my head regarding 17 (not saying there wasn't any necessarily, just that I don't remember). It was supposed to be a huge twist season with some new theme each week, but they realized they actually had an interesting cast that could carry episodes on their own so they stopped it after only three weeks. And hey, no veterans!
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I found BB15 entertaining, because watching horrible people give each other comeuppances can be quite fun. That was the best thing that season had going for it. The only "rigging" was a twist that was clearly beneficial to Rachel's sister and paying Helen off to "fall" during a jury battle back. She was not pushed. The hand just tapped her ankle. Still not sure how someone got under there.

BB17 was a more organic season once they dropped the "TAKEOVER" twist and the Battle of the Block. I actually stopped watching the season when ChenBot announced that the "old favorite" twist was a much-reviled twist from the prior year, as opposed to the actual old favorite (the twin twist). No vets, no rigging, no Fankie, and little boredom. I mean, that season brought us Vanessa, Johnny Mac, Train Wrecky Becky, James, and Oddrey. I mean, yeah, it also brought us pieces of shit like Jason Roy and Jeff Weldon, but what reality show season doesn't have at least one asshole? Oh, and the winner did make that questionable move that required him to win an HOH in the next two rounds, but that's gameplay.

BB19 is either going to end up as a BB16 (incredible drama in the first two weeks, then mostly a snoozefest) or BB17 (character-driven and great the whole way through). Let's hope it's the latter.
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-FFDragon- posted...

15 is the last one I watched, and no one has told me I've made a bad decision.

16's first three weeks are must-watch. you can skip the rest of it.

17 is pretty good too as others have said.
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KujikawaRising posted...

JetJaguar posted...

Brendon definitely won the vote, probably in a landslide.

It's one of those things where he would have won a "Who shouldn't come back into the house" by a landslide too, but yeah.

so basically you're saying... "fucking casuals" right?

Well to be fair he was probably the most intriguing potential returnee even if he wasn't a vet. The other 4 didn't give people much of a reason to want them back in the house. I voted for Cassi because she was nice to look at. It was that dire basically.
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Minimizing spoilers if you can, how can the first three weeks of 16 be worth it if it goes off the rails after that? Wouldn't that just be a mountain of unused potential at best?
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I actually really like Season 12. Maybe I'm biased because it was the first season I watched start to finish (I had seen most of All-Stars and 8) and has my favorite HG ever (Britney) but whatever. I guess people hate it because of The Brigade? IDK, it's a unique alliance in that they stayed super loyal to each other (minus Matt) and it yielded a very good winner IMO. I would love to see Enzo play again as I think he is super underrated as a strategist and pretty entertaining. Rachel is a great villain too.

If Lane had won that F4 veto to save Britney it would have been amazing.
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(I also voted Cassi, but I thought she had the most potential)
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Eddv posted...

I thought this said rimjob.

tag anyway

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-FFDragon- posted...

Minimizing spoilers if you can, how can the first three weeks of 16 be worth it if it goes off the rails after that? Wouldn't that just be a mountain of unused potential at best?

Season 16 doesn't go off the rails, some people just think it's boring because an all time great dominates pretty thoroughly. I think it's a pretty entertaining season because of the cast, but I'm pretty alone in liking Frankie I think. Like, yeah, he was annoying, but he was also super into it and a very motivated and capable player. He got screwed by a twist and might have won without it unless people thought he didn't need the money. I would actually love to see him in an All-Star season.
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