The Golden Failure
Last night concluded the failure that was the golden key experiment on Big Brother 13, and it couldn’t have come sooner. The concept sounded harmless enough at first, but it was quickly realized by the houseguests that there was some confusion over the keys that were never answered until last night when the 4th promised key was never handed out to Adam.
The way it worked was that 7 teams were formed from the start of the game, and every time someone was eliminated, their partner was given a golden key which allowed them to cruise to the final 10 without competing in challenges. The problem with that is by the time the 3rd key was handed out, that would have meant 11 people remained in the house. The next eviction, which happened last night, is the final 10, so Adam’s key became irrelevant and it was never handed out or even mentioned. In fact, the only thing that was mentioned last night is that the keys are no longer in the game, and partners are split up.
So why was there 4 promised keys and only 3 handed out?
Was this a last minute decision that was not very well thought out? That would certainly coincide with the rumors of the houseguest who was supposed to enter but never did, which would have made it an odd number.
Was it because Big Brother realized too late that the game was very quickly becoming stale? Because of the key situation, two teams were guaranteed to play the power of veto competition leaving a 50% chance for the third team being the same exact pairings as the week before. If Adam had received the key, that would have meant there would be no drawing, and the veto competition would have been arranged the second nominations were handed out.
Was it because a combination of the two were hurting ratings? Not surprisingly, they have done nothing but drop ratings on the power of veto night, and for the most part have remained the same or dropped ratings from the prior week every episode but one heading into last night.
What we did learn from the golden keys is that in the future, no contestant should be immune to challenges or nominations for more than a week, and that should be a reward, not simply because their partner was more disliked than they were (Porsche). Nearly a month of the most athlete female sitting on the sidelines because her father left the game early is terrible for the game, and it showed.
Is there still time for Big Brother 13 to be saved? That’s too early to say, but I can tell you right now that last night’s episode and sequential HoH challenge that everyone was allowed to play drew the most interest I have seen all season. Now, if they can find a way to get back the actual game players like Dom and Dick back into the game, we could be looking at a great finish.