Big Brother 14 – Coaches Rule The House

Typically on reality show I quickly find myself pulled towards the underdog, and it’s probably why I’ve bounced around the house rooting against the power alliance of the week.  That being said, for some reason I am having an awful tough time pulling for whatever the hell the current power alliance is.  At some point, you have to simply tip your cap to the best players, and in this case it’s Dan and to a lesser extent, Britney.  The “alliance” as a whole is a joke, but the head of that alliance (Dan) is very impressive, and I’ve gained a ton of respect in him as a player this season.

Here is how I see it… Once Boogie is gone, there is only a matter of time until Frank and Ashley are evicted due to aligning with Boogie.  They made a good effort, and they may take 1-2 out before they go, but the numbers are heavily stacked against them moving forward. They’re sitting ducks unless a few more newbies wake up to what’s happening (unlikely).  While I’d like to give the newbies a pass, there is no excuse… here is what they could have learned from:

• Survivor: Fans vs Favorites – Vet won
• Survivor: Redemption Island – Vet won
• Survivor: South Pacific – Vet should have won, talked his way out of it in finals
• Big Brother 13 – Vet won

Four very notable experiments where veterans of their shows played against newbies, and a veteran won in all but one of those seasons.  In the 4th, the vet (“Coach”) dominated the season but had the social game of Shane and never owned up to his cutthroat behavior costing him votes.

There is no excuse for Ian, Joe, Shane and Danielle to ride on the backs of the coaches unless they are content with finishing 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.  Willie had it right, if the coaches entered the game, the newbies needed to stick together and peg them off one by one. That failed when Frank, Shane and Danielle all became enamored with their coaches.  Now, two of the remaining coaches have a very firm grasp of things heading forward, and I don’t see enough independence in any remaining newbie (Frank aside) to turn while they still have numbers.

Because of that, I simply cannot root for any remaining newbie once Frank is out the door.  It would take a Willie-style awakening and betrayal of the vets for me to hope one of them wins if things keep moving forward.  I mean logically, how can anyone be pulling for Ian, Jenn, Shane, Danielle or Joe at this point?

During the piece where Ian tried to lump himself in with ‘villains’ if there was an all-star season with that theme, it made me realize that’s how he wants to be seen. He’s trying to be sneaky and clever so people will look at him in the ‘evil mastermind’ category, but I simply look at him in the foolish category. Reality show stars who have earned that title typically do so because they’re willing to do whatever it takes to win.  Ian is doing whatever he thinks it takes to earn the title, regardless of the prize.  Therefor his title as ‘villain’ is nullified to me.  You need to try to win in order to obtain such a title.  (note to Ian:  Dr.Will, Russell Hantz, etc never cried when they had to betray someone to move forward.  You’re not a villain, stop trying to pretend you are)

Jenn and Joe are nonfactors in the discussion.  I simply cannot root for pure floaters. The only way either will win is if they’re sitting next to each other in the finals.

Danielle and Shane have at least somewhat tried to play the game, but they’re both pretty mediocre at it. Shane really seems like a good guy, but I don’t think he even knew of BB until late May when he was picked to play.   He has no experience at the game whatsoever and it shows whenever he’s hung out to dry by his alliance to explain why he put people on the block.  If a newbie had to win at this point, I’d want it to be Shane.

Danielle takes a lot of heat in the game for her clinger status, being a compulsive liar, etc so I’m not going to be too hard on her.  I’ll simply say that she’s not a very likable character to watch at this point. Hopefully that changes because she seems like a nice person.

That leaves Dan and Britney who have managed to enter the game with huge targets on their backs, stick with the huge targets throughout the season yet continue to avoid threat of nomination by anyone other than those about to walk out the door.   Dan sat back and took a beating this week because he didn’t want to give up his source.   He has coached his alliance to do what he says and has managed to get the entire house hating each other while he sits back quietly.  It’s quite an impressive season for Dan, and for that I’m definitely rooting for him at this point.

At some point when you root for underdogs, you have to realize that the favorite is a favorite for a reason.  Dan is showing it, and you have to respect it.