Say goodbye to the good ol days of a giant round block holding the HGs’ hopes and keys. As of Big Brother 16 it’s been retired in favor of a new nomination reveal system.
Along with the all High-Def cameras and brand new Memory Wall screens this season we’re seeing a whole new way for the Heads of Household to reveal their nominations. Of course several of these changes were necessitated by the existence of twice the HoHs in the first place.
Here’s how the Double HoH nominations work. To avoid nomination overlap, the HoHs must draw a number for draft order. These numbers are drawn from within small wooden eggs kept inside a little glass house. Why not just use the old Pov draw bag? Good question.
Once the order is decided the HoHs move to their separate quarters. HoH who drew #1 gets to pick his or her two noms first. Opening the suitcase of keys, all options are before him or her. The HoH picks out two keys and puts them in a small key holder box.
The briefcase of keys is now handed off to the second HoH who repeats the process albeit with two fewer choices. This way the HoHs can’t pick the same HGs.
First HoH has the advantage of picking from all the HGs, but second HoH has the advantage of seeing who the other HoH already selected. You could adapt your decision based on this information. I’d much rather go second.
Once all keys are placed in the little boxes the HoHs head downstairs together where more changes are waiting in the process.
As I mentioned, the large go-around key block is no more. Each HoH has a small little box and again in order as drawn, the HoHs turn the keys in those boxes and faces appear on the Memory Walls.
This change to the process means there’s no strategic ordering or HGs sweating bullets as the keys slowly vanish and the last three HGs hope theirs is the final draw. That’s disappointing.
Maybe Big Brother will go back to the old way when they either have one HoH later in the season, if that happens, or next year when this twist is gone. Sadly I’d guess we’re on this new method for the long haul as the last way went on for fourteen seasons. America voted by phone back in the first Big Brother, so no key block then.
What do you think of this new method? Is it a welcome change or would you rather see the old way return with key reveals?