Big Brother 18: Julie Chen Reveals “Battle Back” Twist

CBS has announced that Julie Chen will deliver a “shocking surprise” during tonight’s episode of Big Brother 18 where three Houseguests are facing eviction that will send one of the out the door.

Update: Julie revealed these first two evictees aren’t out of the game yet! More details to follow… Yes, first 5 evictees will be fighting for a chance to get back in. Each week the evictee will battle the previous evictee. At the end of 5 weeks the survivor (read: Survivor Redemption Island) will go back in the house.

Read all the details from CBS on this Battle Back twist for BB18.

Big Brother 18 host Julie Chen outside the house

So what could be going on with this “surprise” and just how “shocking” could it be? We won’t know for certain until after 9/8c tonight, but there seem to be a few likely scenarios.

Since before the season started I’ve been predicting one of the first evictees of the season to get a chance at returning to the game. We saw this in Big Brother 13 when Brendon won his way in over Lawon so this wouldn’t be out of BB possibilities. It might be a little early to announce this in the first live show, but it’s also the second elimination already.

Another possibility is the rumor from preseason that Julie Chen wouldn’t announce the actual vote count this season. This would cut down on HGs’ fear of retribution for not sticking to the plan and would also eliminate the function of a hinky vote. I actually like the hinky vote, but freeing up HGs to vote how they want would be nice as well. Everyone outside the house would know how the vote went, so we wouldn’t miss out on the info but it’d certainly get a mystery going inside and that’s what we want, right? Maybe.

Then there’s speculation that other former HGs could be joining the game. Well that’s a new one to me and I think it’s a terrible idea considering those HGs have already been at it for more than two weeks in there. This rumor seems to be based off Donny posting a picture of the foyer luggage and saying “more things to come.” Ugh. I hope they don’t do that no matter who it is.

Don’t forget that Grodner, BB exec producer, teased that we should expect the return of Pandora’s room this season (the room, not the Box twist). I thought we’d see that in conjunction with the returning Vets, but they’re here and the room isn’t. Maybe we’ve got a new twist being added on that will play out in that room.

Of course the most likely surprise is the obvious one. Jozea will be announced as the new host of Big Brother when he exits the house tonight. He will then immediately take over for Julie Chen and declare himself the winner, thereby ending Big Brother 18. I just don’t see any other way for this to go, right?

What do you think the “Shocking Surprise” will be when Julie Chen makes the announcement tonight on Big Brother 18? We’ll be back here for the live show at 9PM ET so join us then for our spoilers, results, and complete coverage!

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43 Comments

  1. if the shocking surprise is that she won’t announce the votes at eviction, then that is one shitty non-shock surprise, to me that will do nothing but protect huge alliances

    • I agree, this “not revealing the votes” twist won’t change anything. They will still vote for how their allies tell them to.

      • Sure it could change votes though maybe not results (tip the balance differently). Natalie is voting out Paulie because she knows she’d be out’d as betraying her promise thanks to the vote count reveal. If she changed her vote it wouldn’t change tonight’s anticipated outcome, but it would still allow votes to go differently.

        Plus without the count being revealed HGs will have to spend more time guessing and speculating which we know they do a horrible job at attempting.

      • Agree .. I think not revealing the count makes bad players really bad and good players really good, so I like it just fine. A good player can use it to their advantage and a bad player will look like just that.

      • Plus they won’t be all out of sorts with the vote reveal when going into the HoH comp and can place their focus more on the comp than the evicted hg.

  2. Every year we hear “its a season of surprises” or “the biggest twist ever”. I just don’t get the excited anymore when the tease us with this.

  3. The “shocking surprise” is that the election has been cancelled, Josea is the new POTUS effective immediately.

  4. Would it be shocking twist if the houseguest vote to safe a nominee instead of vote to evict and the houseguest with the lowest votes to stay is evicted. I think this would be a good twist with three people nominated.

  5. More HG’s related/married or connected in some other way. Maybe a long lost sibling like Cowboy and Nakomis S05

  6. If they’re going to continue to let evicted HG’s come back into the game year after year I’m going to become less interested. It doesn’t make it fixed, but it sure does look like they’ll do whatever they can to keep TV Viewer appealing guests in the game longer

  7. May the HOH can play. That would mean that Nicole would have a shot a winner a 2nd week as HOH. Now that would be a twist.

  8. I’m glad she won’t be announcing the votes this season! I didn’t think this was a good idea from the get-go anyway. It just causes more chaos onto what’s looking like a rather chaotic season already…unlike past seasons. I believe the surprise is after saying goodbye to Jozea, seeing Glenn return for a second chance, his odds more in his favor as well, placing him on Jozea’s former team! Or back on his team again…we shall see!

    • I think if they do stop announcing the vote count, leaving everyone to wonder just how close was it? – That the HGs will have to campaign more and work on their social game with everyone, then ‘I have to vote with the house for my own safety/game” becomes just something one says. ;)

  9. I think that the HOH should have a private vote and votes not be counted allowed.

    • I’ve been wondering if nominees will get to vote now since there are three of them. With 2 nominees it’s obvious who they would vote for but with 3 there’s actually a choice that could be made.

  10. Jozea got to go! Wearing his underwear around the house makes my stomach sick! Come on vets, take this back!!!

  11. bahahaha. perfect matt. i have no idea what it will be. i rely on this site to give me the scoop.

  12. What if the 3 on the block have to compete with each other and the winner is instantly off the block and then the house guest have to choose between the 2 that are left. That could really put a spanner in the works especially since everyone, me included, wants Jazea gone.

  13. There’s going to be a second chance to get back into the house. Not sure how many people will have to have been evicted before they do some kind of challenge to get one or more of them back in there. I know that’s a long shot but if it is the case I hope they will also have cameras on that group so we can see their reactions to evictions.

  14. OK, I’ve been around a LONG time, so why do I not know what a “hinky” vote is? Anyone?
    Also, don’t you think the former HOH bedroom from BOB years is the Pandora Box room? That’s where it’s been in the past.

    • “Hinky” means weird, or strange, or unusual. The earliest usage I know of is Pete Malloy saying it from time to time on Adam 12.

  15. GAG !!
    I truly hope no one gets to maybe return, at this point only because I don’t want to ever see josea again or hear him again! And secondly, Big Brother Canada just finished doing that. When they throw in too many twists and turns or I should say “expect the unexpected” it starts to get a little bit too much in my opinion!
    Survivor has been going strong for many many many years and they haven’t switched things up too much. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a good twist but constant twists just make it completely unfair to play the game Imo….
    you can’t have much of a strategy and what not because you never know what’s around the corner that’s going to screw you over. It just ends up making people lucky they got to the end. Again IMO :-)
    But I also don’t like change LOL so maybe that’s my problem haha

    • BB needed to change things up, because the last 5 or 6 seasons have really started to become stale. Last season I almost stopped watching because it was the same thing over and over again. Fortunately this year it’s a much better show. It would have been much better had they gotten away from what’s become the standard houseguest formula.

      • and it would’ve been much better if they didn’t piggyback from survivor with the first five houseguests competing to get back in each week. There are just so many things I personally could suggest to production to make the game the same but much more interesting!
        & some of these people I do not understand why they cast of them. And to be honest with you all the twists they have, more and more each season and big brother Canada having quite a few I feel are a little too much and make the game unfair to the people playing it. some of them have went home because of the stupid twist and they had no chance whatsoever to fight to stay. I just really am over all these silly twists. Maybe if they were better ones but in my opinion they’re quite boring for the most part.

    • Exactly. I hated it then and I hate it now. If that Josea guy somehow gets back in, I hope they evict his insane ass out of there pronto!

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