Will New Big Brother Twist Become ‘Battle Of The Weakest Block’?

Big Brother fans waited and speculated and waited some more this preseason in anticipation of discovering just how this new “Battle of the Block” twist would work. Now after last night’s premiere conclusion we have the answers, but that just raises more questions.

Battle of the Block
Battle of the ‘Weakest Block’ – Source: CBS

As Julie Chen explained last night on Big Brother 16, the Battle of the Block twist will involve each week’s four nominees in a duel battle to escape the chopping block. Despite earlier suggestions otherwise, the HoHs will not be participating in this new competition, only the noms. Here’s how it works.

Each of the two Head of Household winners will nominate two HGs. Those four HGs will face off and work as pairs, grouped by the HoH who nom’d them. The winning pair will be free from the block, but they’ll also get to “dethrone” the HoH who put them there.

Example: “HoH A” nominates “HG B” and “HG C.” “HoH X” nominates “HG Y” and “HG Z.” HGs B&C compete against HGs Y&Z. HGs B&C win the comp and are no longer on the block. HoH A, who nominated HGs B&C, loses his role as HoH. HGs Y&Z remain on the block since they lost and HoH X, who nominated them, becomes that week’s sole HoH.

Confusing enough for you? Yeah, it seems a little complicated, but I think we’ll get the flow of it before too long.

Here’s the sticking point for me though and it was immediately obvious on what we should expect as a result of these rules. If you were HoH and wanted to remain safe for the week, would you put up strong competitors who would have a better chance at winning and dethroning you, or weak HGs who are more likely to lose and let you stay safe? The latter, of course.

So what happened this first week? Frankie nominated Victoria and Brittany, the two HGs who fell first and second in the second group’s comp. Caleb nominated Donny and Paola, the first male and female to fall in the first HoH comp. Of course they did. The HoHs wanted their best odds at staying safe by seeing their noms lose. It’s the Battle of the Weakest Block.

The nice part is we’re more apt to see the weakest players eliminated first this season. That will make it more difficult to see a repeat of last season’s F3. It’be fun to see the more competitive players duke it out at the end, so that’s good. The downside though is that it nearly forces the hand of the HoHs on who they’ll nominate. I mean, sure, Caleb could have picked Devin and Hayden, but why would he take that risk?

All hope isn’t lost though for any HoHs wanting to target a bigger player. They can still try for the backdoor or renom route and get someone out that way. So there is an option, but I’m thinking we’re going to see a trend of four less competitive players nominated in the first round each week. Welcome to, Battle of the Weakest Block.

What do you think of this new twist for Big Brother 16? Like it or want to see it gone soon?

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34 Comments

  1. It could be a good set up, always making the weaker players compete… i was never a fan of floaters… i still predict an interesting season. Looks like powpow’s on the block.

  2. That’s exactly what they were trying to achieve last year when they said no floater season. Didn’t work last year. Look like it might work this year.

    • captain my captain oh my god is it you. its buffalobill and you know who is going to win victoria. she is my beautiful jewish princess. it will be great to talk with you and reply to your great comments. you are my friend forever. go team victoria!

  3. Zach, Paola, and Victoria are annoying. I am going with Caleb and Amber this season.

  4. I still don’t understand how it is possible for the losing HOH to be nominated, is there a POV after all this?

      • Unless the POV competition takes place AFTER the 4 nominated HGs have their competion…in which case, the dethroned HOH could win POV and be safe.

  5. What I’m wondering is how do they decide which HOH gets to make their nominations FIRST? Because what if both HOH’s want to nominate say… Donny. Only one can nominate Donny, meaning the HOH who can’t nominate him has to piss someone else off and get more blood on their hands. They should have the winning HOH’s do a quick competition to see who gets to make their nominations first.

    Just a thought… Because the HOH nominating second IMO gets put at a disadvantage.

    • Unless of course, the HOH’s are decided by one big competition, and the first two to finish (or last the longest… whatever the comp is) are the two HOH’s, with the winner of the competition getting first crack at noms, and the second placer gets second crack at noms…

  6. Did I hear that the POV is tonight? I’m hoping someone will save Donny. Also,

  7. Are any of you watching BB after Dark? Interesting bond between Frankie and the professional liar.

    • Frankie and Zach,(the professional liar who openly stated to the viewers that he doesn’t care at all about anybody but himself), are not “bonding”. Frankie actually seemed quite perturbed by Zach, although he played it cool in front of him, but later remarked that it wasn’t so smart for Zach to piss the HOH off right out of the gate, so to speak.

      • … But the spoilers from the live feeds earlier said that Frankie has since made a final 2 deal with Zach. So much for being pissed off.

  8. With all the twist one thing is for certain, there WILL be fireworks real soon. All the claws will come out. The women will not like being targeted.

  9. Has anybody noticed how much Nicole looks like Jordan (prev winner)? Could they have sneaked in a few relatives?

  10. I think this is the best twist in years. What I would do is, nominate my main target and somebody who is weak than that way chances are they might lose BOTB. But also I think this could be the season of the backdoor as people might use that option. Do we know if the winners of the Battle of The Block will still be eligible for post veto renom?

      • ohh well that kinda sucks. I would kinda like it more if the BOTB winners were still eligible for post veto renom.

  11. Then Frankie is setting Zach up because they struck a deal last night and thought it was so funny because they said that no one would expect them to have an alliance. They said “Final Two” and shook hands..although we’ve seen that before haven’t we?1

    • And Zach just compared his final 2 alliance with Frankie as liking to Dan and Memphis’ Renegades.

      Like, Zach, no….

  12. I can see players throwing the comp to the nominees just to dethrone the HOH and possibly end up on the block. I would love to see that happen.

  13. Ok so here’s my question. Haven’t seen an answer anywhere yet.
    Did Julie say that whoever won the BOB would be safe for the rest of the week or can they also be renommed after the POV? I keep hearing the winners of the BOB say they are safe for the week but I didn’t hear Julie say that was the case. Anyone know??

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