Big Brother 16 Introduces ‘Team America’ Interactive Voting [POLL]

This season of Big Brother introduces a new twist, one of many, that will keep viewers voting and the Houseguests sweating the outcome. In fact, it’s already begun.

Team America
Team America – Putting The ‘F’ Back In Fixed

On Wednesday Julie Chen revealed a Big Brother 16 twist called “Team America.” Of course that is the same name as the 2004 movie from the South Park guys which means I’ll have the unsuitable jingle in my head every time I type “Team America.” Yep, see there it went again.

While BB16’s version won’t involve marionettes trying to save the world, there will still be plenty of strings being pulled. Hopefully just by us. How does it all work? Online voting will get viewers engaged in making decisions that are going to effect the house, but how that’s going to work inside the game we do not know.

The first vote was open briefly yesterday and in the rush of working all the Big Brother 16 cast content I completely missed my chance to vote before the polling closed. No worries though, I’m putting up our own poll here so vote below and we can see how this could all turn out.

Round one of “Team America” (jingle, jingle, jingle) asked Big Brother fans “If you had to form an alliance with one of the Houseguests, who would you select? Choose wisely, your vote will impact the game.” Now that’s pretty vague and open for what the result could be and how it could possibly influence events inside the house so they’re definitely right to suggest a careful answer. Then again, if you don’t know what might happen, how can it be an informed choice?

Anyway the Team America vote could run the whole season, or flop and fail early on like we’ve seen before. We don’t know that either. However, we do also know that there will be other online voting exclusive to the Live Feeds subscribers. Maybe Team America will shift from “open to everyone” to “open to Feed subscribers” once the season starts rolling. Maybe. Or these two game-influencing online votes could run in parallel. Hmm.

As for viewer control on Big Brother 16, let’s take a moment to discuss the elephant in the room. Frankie Grande has a sister, a very, very famous sister. How famous? She has more Twitter followers (16 million) than Big Brother shows have average viewers. About double. And that’s just her Twitter fans. On Facebook she has 19 million followers. If she asks her online fans to do some online voting and a tenth of those collective 35 million take action, then Frankie’s got it in the bag. Sigh.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my interview with Frankie and think he’ll be a very entertaining Houseguest. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do in there, but I would have preferred to see what he could do on his own merits and not through the influence of a celebrity sibling.

All the same, that’s where we are with this season’s Big Brother twist “Team America” so let’s hold hands and ride it over the cliff’s edge together.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

Commenting Rules: Keep the conversation civil and on topic. If your comment does not add to the conversation, it will be removed. Debate intelligently. Insulting the author, Big Brother Network, or other commentators will result in comment removal and possible ban. Any comments with links or flagged words will go into moderation before approval. Anything we deem as spam will not be approved. Comments left in ALL-CAPS will be deleted regardless of content.

47 Comments

  1. Hmm…marionettes trying to save the world. Compared to Team America, that doesn’t sound too bad.

  2. I voted for Donny, although I fear he could fall into floater category in the long-term (I know floating is a legit strategy but much of the “floaters” we’ve seen in past seasons tend to be boresome and are often utilized for numbers)

    • I liked Donny a lot too. Incredibly nice guy, but I’m not so sure I’d want to rely on him as an ally when my back was against the wall. But maybe he’ll surprise me!

      • I see him fall in the non-threatening category which will allow him to survive until at least jury.

      • I either see him in three potential situations: The Chef Joe-type who didn’t do much game-wise but is fairly entertaining enough for us to bear; the Spencer who actually had power but lost his hold on it and never recovered and ended up being a pawn star until seasons’ end (and not a really likeable guy as it turns out in the feeds); or he could be someone else who could be a consistent clear observant of house movements/dynamics before making a move when the need arises.

  3. Sounds like Frankie is going to end up being the MVP whether we like it or not. Technically of course there is no MVP. But if you put someone in the house that is already backed by millions then you’ve officially handed over the reigns from Elissa to him. I see the same outcome. Why even bother having the Team America twist. Just tell Frankie each time that America has voted for him for __________(fill in the blank). I hate this twist.

  4. Of course, we haven’t seen the HGs in their main habitat yet, so opinions could (will) change once we seem them interact on the feed, but I voted for Nicole and if I could vote a second person, it’d be Cody.

    Nicole simply because based off her interviews she seems very sweet, innocent, and down to earth. She’s pretty, too. I think that if my back was up against the wall, she could make deals and come across as genuine if I couldn’t myself.

    Cody because, well, obviously he’s one of the alpha-males in the house. And a gut feeling I have is that he’s going to be the new Shane and win every competition he needs to. So if he wins the POV, I come down. He seems to be extremely trustworthy if all feelings/goals are mutual.

  5. In all fairness, Frankie’s “famous sister” is more than likely only famous to little boys and girls who aren’t even old enough to vote or purchase a season pass to the live feeds anyways. I honestly don’t think she and her Twitter/Facebook followers will have that much of an impact on this season. At least lets hope not. In my opinion (not that it matters) there should never be influences in the game of BB from outside forces. That’s not how the game was designed… However, I’ve watched all the spoilers and I think it just might be an interesting season. Certainly anything or anyone is better then season unmentionable!

    • there could be legions of frankie j fans holding on to a hope and a prayer that he’d be famous again…lol….I actually remember him when he had a hit single and was toted as the next big thing….before he disappeared into internet obscurity it seems

    • That’s where you’re wrong. Ariana is loved by a plenty of teenage and semi adults, who will be able to vote for Frankie. With almost 16 million Twitter followers alone, even if 2% of those followers decide to participate in aiding Frankie’s game, it’s really going to be Frankie winning, until he’s evicted.
      Even with Frankie’s 150K Youtube Subscribers, it’s fair to say Frankie is going to win every competition that America decides.
      I don’t even think if we BBFans, collectively voted for 1 person topple Frankie’s fanbase. These Ariana lovers have done it before, where they find ways to spam votes for their idol. Whether that be the Teen’s choice awards, the People’s choice awards or Big Brother 16.

      • Sadly, you may be right. Again, lets hope not. I actually never heard of him (but who am I, and I’m only 1 of many who doesn’t have a clue who he is) I only know Ariana because my daughter went through a phase where she watched Victorious. I didn’t even know her name until someone pointed out her brother was famous and I googled her. I only know her as Kat, lol. As a subscriber, and someone who may have a say (haha, I say that with apprehension because we all know production interfers) lets hope he’s evicted before we get to voting time. I watched all the bios including his and didn’t care for him. As much as he “doesn’t” want his or his sisters “fame” to have an influence or hinder his time in the house, you know secretly that if he can use it to his advantage he will. It will be another Elissa/Brenchel interference all over again. Not impressed. In my opinion she lasted 76 days longer than she should have (imo) and I fear Frankie will receive the same favourable treatment.

  6. I didn’t vote because by the end of the first week the majority of them are totally different from there interviews. And am I missing something? Who is Frankie’s famous sister?

    • Ariana Grande she’s a singer and was in the Nickolodeon show named “Victorious” where she played the ditzy red-headed girl.

    • Ariana Grande. I had to google her. She is a pop singer, very popular with the teen crowd.

      • I never heard of Frankie (and I go to Youtube very often) but I know about his famous sister. She’s a decent singer, hopefully not going off the rails anytime soon.

      • Exactly. People would probably care less about this cast if he was never revealed as so and so. I just have to laugh off some of the comments on FB upon their reaction of the cast.

        “Why are all these people famous?!”
        “No regular people, no watchey!”
        “They’re picking models now?”
        “Like Elissa, he’s gonna get AFP.”
        “Too many young people. This show is AGEIST!”

        They complain about these every season yet some of the best-loved seasons tend to be filled with mostly under-30’s.

        And I believe Elissa earned her win as AFP. As much as many disliked her at the start of the season, she practically the only good thing about last season. If Frankie can play his cards well in this game, then he can probably win over us BB fans.

      • although I respect what you posted, I have to disagree. But that’s why we are entitled to our opinions, lol. I didn’t think she earned AFP. How could she, she didn’t do anything but be a Reality TV personality that just won’t go away’s sister. She attained that status because of it. She started out mean, catty and nasty. It wasn’t until she lost control of AFP and realized she might have to change her tune a little bit because she no longer has backing to save her. But when the tables were turned and some of the players verbally challenged her actions, she boo hood and in doing so made the other houseguests look bad. I watched the live feeds when possible, BBAD and it was rare to see her being nice to anyone except Hellen and when she “needed” to be. Also, if you watch her Twitter feed, she still only communicates with a few choice houseguests and ignores the rest who do attempt to converse with her. She lives in an entitled bubble and I don’t believe anything will ever change that.

      • Perhaps because she learned about some of the HG’s backstabbing sessions about her and her family. The house basically didn’t want to be near her unless she is needed. That’s all she is to them.

        I can’t blame her if she only keeps in touch with only a few of those she was really close to.

      • It’s BB, everyone backstabs, complains and bitches about each other. Even at times when you are in an alliance with someone. She was ready to throw Helen under the bus and vise versa. It’s a game. Perhaps she should have grew a backbone before entering. Sorry, no sympathy here. Not a fan of hers or the Brenchel army. The same goes with Frankie. I’m not a fan of his sisters so it really didn’t gain any points in his favour from me and I’m certain a crap load of other fans as well. I hope neither of their fame interfers with his progress and when it’s his time to go it’s his time to go and he isn’t kept around because of who his family is.
        As for talking to past houseguests, I honestly don’t know how any of BB15 can look at each other in the face and be friends. A fiasco at best of a season.

      • My point is that, with the disaster of the season that was, with most of the housemates too afraid or plain stupid not to go against the “house”, at least Elissa at that point in the game when she finally had power had the guts to go against the dominant alliance that eventually ended Aaryn and Amanda’s stay in the house (which eventually got her out afterwards sadly).

        With all the ruckus that BB15 caused, is Elissa Slater really a contributing factor to that season’s mess? I doubt that she is.

        I say let people who are siblings to someone known play the game and judge them with how they played. I’dll reserve judgement for Frankie because honestly, I don’t even know who he is despite him being a “Youtube personality”. Could he become the worst part of BB16 or could he be the underrated surprise of the season?

        Time will only tell.

      • Excellent points for sure. I guess the question should be in Elissa’s case, would she have made it as far as she did had she not been Rachel’s sister? I personally don’t think so based on the fact that she rubbed so many people the wrong way from the start.
        Based on their bio interviews though I all ready don’t care for Frankie. He’s not the only one I don’t care for he’s just who this blog is about. I’ve never been a fan of the flamboyant, over the top people that need to make grand entrances when they enter a room (so to speak, if you know what I mean by that) But, if he makes it far I hope it’s on his own merit and not because American teens and young adults like his sister and follower her Twitter/Facebook feed. I don’t care if people enter the house, or go on Survivor if they themselves are famous or are related to fame, I just think outside forces shouldn’t be able to advance their game because of it. Advancements should be because they worked at it like everyone else and they did so because of their love and respect of the game!

  7. CBS needs to produce a “Big Brother Seniors”, — perhaps during the winter — where house guests aged 40 and above compete for the $500K.
    I have a funny feeling that would be a hit with the “older generation”, like me :)

    • I like that concept. But in that same vein, it could be a celebrity BB, where half the contestant are celebrity that would compete for charity. There’s plenty of celebrity around 40 that are sitting on their hands these days. Look how many sign up to be on Trump celebrity show. Would certainly be entertaining.

      • It should be all, not half, celebrities fighting for the cash.
        And I would throw in another “twist” of pitting “flaming Liberals” against “flaming Conservatives”.

        Flaming Liberals like Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore against flaming Conservatives like Adam Corolla and Ted Nugent.

        Wouldn’t it be fun to be a fly on the wall watching to see how each team works together to eliminate the other team?

        Getting to see the Liberals scheming to get rid of the Conservatives, and vice versa, would be so much fun, and revealing of the true nature of both types of people, eh?

      • No, no, no, now I draw the line, no politics in BB. I’m sure we can find 16 celebrities that never advertise than political leaning.
        .
        Plus who want to see Michael Moore on TV. He’s better suited for a circus in a clown outfit. LOL

      • But this way, we get to see what Liberals and Conservatives say behind closed doors, when they don’t think anyone is watching.

        It would be a huge ratings hit with viewers from both parties pulling for “their guy”.

      • The vast majority of people are right smack in the middle and don’t care much about politics.

  8. I honestly don’t mind “celebrities” even if they are not as famous as others, playing the game. However I do mind when America is given the task to vote and help their favorite house guest (which I greatly disagree with, the game should be played with no outside interference) with advantages. Because the popular one is going to get it every time (elissa last season). It’s just pointless, not a big fan of this team america thing. I guess the only time I thought it was enjoyable was back in season 10 with america’s player.

  9. Christine, because trying to do ALL the work and carry a clueless idiot recruit would suck.

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Live Feeds Bonus: Feedsters-Only Voting To Impact Big Brother 16 | Big Brother 16

Comments are closed.