Celebrity Big Brother Season 2 premiered Monday night with 12 new famous/famous-ish houseguests, a redecorated house and another unnecessary twist. Overall, the one-hour premier was entertaining enough, but we didn’t get a lot to go on in that fast hour. But there were some things I liked and didn’t like, so let’s take a look at my first impressions of Celebrity Big Brother 2019.
The House
We will always long for a brand new house in a new studio, but we know CBS is never going to foot the bill for that, so we will just always have to judge the decor. Honestly, this might be my favorite house design ever. I love the art deco approach and all the nods to 1940s New York City. I think there are some tacky pieces in the house, but it’s much more high-end looking than last season. Last season’s design for the celebrity house was just too much. It tried too hard to look glam and just looked really cheap. I especially love the kitchen and think the caricatures of the first season of celeb HGs is my favorite part.
The Houseguests
I like the cast. I already reacted to the cast after the announcement, but now that we have one episode down, I can get a better feel. I was surprised at how much I wasn’t annoyed by Tom Green and Kato Kaelin. I thought I could take them or leave them before the season started, but I liked them. And Ryan Lochte was as entertaining as I expected. Some of his Diary Rooms were obviously scripted, but when he’s being himself, it’s really ridiculous and funny.
Jonathan Bennett really needs to clam down and cool it with the “Mean Girls” references. Tamar Braxton needs to back off a bit on forcing drama (this isn’t Bravo or E!…) Big Brother is best when they let the drama come organically. Joey Lawrence seems kind of like a stick in the mud, so expect him to ruin a lot of fun. Kandi Burruss has no idea what she’s gotten herself into. Dina Lohan is annoying already. Ricky Williams had a few good weed references, so I’m looking forward to how he plays the game. Lolo was entertaining and I like her rivalry with fellow Olympian Ryan. Anthony Scaramucci was pretty boring, but I think we’ll get a lot more out of him than what we saw Night 1. And Natalie Eva Marie was also pretty boring and then she annoyed me when she was talking to Kato about how he was rooting for the HGs during the HOH. So I’m not a NEM fan right out of the gate.
The cast intros were kind of boring and had no cohesion. It almost seemed like five different production companies were sent out to shoot those … or maybe the celebrities’ teams put the packages together. At any rate they were weird and boring. But the cast itself is pretty solid, so I’ll stop complaining now. Well, until we get to the next section …
The Twist
First of all, let me just say that this is basically a three-week show. We do not need any damn twists. The fact that celebrities are playing Big Brother IS THE TWIST. And the twist itself is just stupid and adds nothing to the game. If you missed the episode then you didn’t see that the HGs played HOH in pairs and the winning pair then has to face off to decide which of the two will be the first HOH. That’s fine. We’ve seen that before. But this time around the losing HG becomes the first nominated houseguest automatically. That’s just bogus. You win practically an endurance competition and might end up being the first person nominated. This is right up there with the AWFUL Battle of the Block. Hopefully this was just something for the first week. But who knows. BB producers love their twists.
I liked the Celebrity Big Brother season premier. I was a little less excited than I was last season, but I think the twist just kind of bummed me out. I’m hopeful that we will have another great season on our hands. What did you think of the episode? Who are your favorite celeb HGs? Who do you hope wins the first HOH between Ryan and Jonathan?
Don’t forget to join us back here Tuesday night for the second part of the season premier. And be sure to tune in later Tuesday night as the Celebrity Big Brother 2 Live Feeds kick off!
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Big Brother Live Feeds are set to launch Tuesday around 9PM PT (12AM ET) after the second episode. Grab your Free Trial now and be ready to watch! Then the next episode will follow on Wednesday (8/7c). The episodes will come fast so be sure to review the Celebrity Big Brother 2019 schedule.
