Big Brother Season 23 Week 1 Recap: A Summer of Twists Begins

It’s not officially summer until Big Brother returns.

Season 23 begins with 16 completely new contestants entering the house to battle it out for the increased amount of $750,000. Exciting new twists and an overbearing Head of Household highlight this interesting week.

Big Brother Season 23 brings back the stellar Julie Chen as host. She is absolutely on her game this week. Since it is live TV, Chen sometimes makes a mistake in the delivery of her content, but not in the season opener or Thursday’s eviction episode. Julie is amazing and still brings an interesting dynamic as host. 

One of the things that makes Julie such a great asset to the show is her understanding of the game. She watches the feeds and stays up on all the antics in the house. This is extremely helpful when she questions the houseguests after they are evicted, including her interrogation of Travis. 

Plus, Chen is a journalist, unlike other reality show hosts. Her resume includes eight years as co-host of The Early Show and eight years as co-host of The Talk. She clearly knows how to inform fans what is happening in the Big Brother house and keep them engaged for 23 seasons.

The season premiere shows the houseguests placed into teams, which is not uncommon. However, Big Brother steps it up a notch this season and the houseguests pick who joins their team.

A great move by CBS! This twist already makes for an exciting game. Reminds me of picking teams for kickball in grade school all over again.

Also, what a surprise seeing the jocks not getting picked first. Travis, one of the more muscular contestants, being picked last was enjoyable. These houseguests are already playing a strategic game, which is a nice change of pace compared to last season.

So far, the Queens (aside from Travis) are the superior of the four groups. They have strength and intelligence which will get them far in the game. Another positive for this team is no one appears to be a big threat, which means Claire, Tiffany, and Kyland could last all Summer. Is it too early to secure them for Final Three?

Now let’s talk about the plethora of competitions on Big Brother season 23. The Wildcard competition takes away screen time for us to watch the scheming, manipulating, and backstabbing of the houseguests. Let’s hope more gameplay conversations can make it on air next week as opposed to filler with houseguests explaining the rules of competitions. 

Also, the Wildcard competition can keep an additional four people safe every week. This means the Head of Household only has a handful of contestants to choose from to evict.

Though it is entertaining to watch a smaller group of people pleading for safety, it is exciting and less predictable when more houseguests are at risk fighting to survive. 

Speaking of the Head of Household, Frenchie is a total train wreck. He is digging his own grave making alliances with almost every person in the house. If his goal is to get out a “jock”, why is he making deals with those types of houseguests, too?

He considers himself a super-fan but makes dumber moves than someone who never watches the show.

Playing too hard too fast is never a good idea in the Big Brother house. It will be no surprise if Frenchie is a nominee next week. At this point, no one will be sad to see him go. He may have a million alliances but he has the biggest target on his back. 

Frenchie even threatens Derek X after the nomination ceremony, but before the Veto competition. Of course, Derek is going to fight his heart out to win that game knowing he is a target for replacement. Frenchie needs to keep his mouth shut if he wants to survive past week two. 

Now do we all think that CBS does not put all the names in the bag pulled to play in the competition or is that just me? It is awfully convenient that Alyssa picks Derek X to play after Frenchie announces he is a  potential replacement target. And to top it off, Derek X wins the competition and saves his pal Kyland, which is the least surprising move of the chaotic week. 

Going forward it would be great if Big Brother showed viewers and the houseguests that all names are being added to the selection bag. That would settle some of my doubts that production rigs the game in order to keep viewers interested.

Also, how many “Houseguest Choice” tokens are placed in the bag? That one gets pulled too often to be a coincidence.

Since Derek can not be a replacement nominee, Frenchie nominates Travis as the replacement.

To be perfectly honest, seeing Alyssa or Travis leaving first isn’t really that upsetting. Neither proves to be someone worthy of cheering on to win the game. 

It makes sense the house votes out Travis. He is a stronger competitor than Alyssa with a better social game. Kudos to the houseguests for making a good choice in their evictions. This almost makes up for Keesha going home instead of Kevin last year on Big Brother All-Stars. 

Kudos to Kyland on his Head of Household win. So far, he is one of my favorite houseguests. He needs to target Frenchie and get him out of the house since he is aligned with almost everyone. Christian is another worthy candidate to nominate. 

Three additional highlights from week one

• Travis gives Kyland a sexy lap dance for his 30th birthday. 
• Tiffany wants to solidify the French Kiss alliance with an actual French kiss.
• The houseguests create more alliances than all previous seasons combined.

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What did you think of week one of Big Brother Season 23? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Big Brother Season 23 airs Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8/7c on CBS.

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Everything We Know So Far About ‘Big Brother’ Season 23