BB FANS

By Paul J. Gough

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - CBS outshined the competition in primetime ratings Thursday with another episode of "Big Brother" and a repeat of "CSI," according to data released Friday morning by Nielsen Media Research.

"Big Brother" (8 million, 2.9 rating/10 share in the adults 18-49 demographic) towered over the competition at 8 p.m. It was the only non-rerun entertainment program the entire night, with the exception of UPN's "WWE Smackdown."

"CSI" (12 million, 3.8/11) beat the competition at 9 p.m. and was the most-watched show of the night in total viewers and the highest rated in the demographic.

"Without a Trace" (10.2 million, 3.1/9) outpaced the competition at 10 p.m., ahead of ABC's "Primetime" (6.1 million, 2.2/7) and NBC's "ER" (4.3 million, 1.8/5).

Big Brother's Rachel is evicted. Will partner Howie be far behind?
CBS

Aug. 23, 25

What happened?

New head-of-household Beau nominates partners Howie and Rachel for eviction, a decision that veto-holder James lets stand. The remaining houseguests vote unanimously to hand Rachel her walking papers .

Worst moment

The perpetually shirtless Howie boasts, "With my build and my income potential, if I leave a bar alone, call the police, because a crime's been committed."

Best decision

James consolidates his power with a fifth veto-competition win, keeping him safe from both alliances.

What to watch for next time

What will happen when Beau hands April the keys to the HoH bedroom? Plus, viewers bestow a phone call from home on one of the houseguests.

August 29, 2005
RTVMagazine

Big Brother Contestant Kaysar Ridha To Become a Soap Opera Star?

Big Brother 6 evicted houseguests Michael Donnellan and Kaysar Ridha have been communicating to fans through message board postings. While normally someone posting on a message board claiming to be a reality TV star would be suspect, these postings are occurring on an official message board for Michael Donnellan’s website and appear to be legit.

On the message board, Michael Donnellan made an appeal for fans to vote for Janelle Pierzina in the America’s Choice poll so that he will get a chance to talk to her via phone. Big Brother fans have also been clamoring to see more of Michael and Kaysar on television. Many fans have suggested that the two should do the Amazing Race.

While there has been no official word on a possible Amazing Race appearance by Michael and Kaysar, Kaysar Ridha has also posted a couple of times on Michael’s message board and has made mention of at least one possible future television opportunity. Kaysar posts “I have been asked to appear as a guest on a day time soap, should I take the offer?”

If Kaysar does take the soap opera opportunity, then he will not be the first reality TV star to do so. Jeff Wilson from Survivor: Palau has appeared on The Young & The Restless, Tom Westman from Survivor: Palau has appeared on The Bold & The Beautiful, Joyce & Uchenna Agu from Amazing Race 7 have appeared on The Guiding Light, and Drew Daniels from Big Brother 5 has appeared on The Bold & The Beautiful.

Kaysar also mentions that he is working on his own website and has posted thank you messages to the fans who voted him back into the house. One of Kaysar’s posts says “I wish I could put into words how much I appreciate each and every one of you. This experience has been a blessing.”

afterellen for the FULL ARTICLE by Sarah Warn,
August 30, 2005

When the contestants chosen to remain sequestered in a house together for 12 weeks on the sixth season of the CBS reality series Big Brother were unveiled in early July, America was introduced to 25-year-old Ivette Corredero, the first out lesbian houseguest ever to compete on the series. A houseguest has been eliminated each week since then, and the last person left in the house on September 21 will win a large cash prize.

Now more than halfway through the game, Ivette has managed to avoid elimination, but in the process, become one of the least popular contestants on the show--on-screen and off. In polls across the Internet asking which housemate is the most annoying, Ivette has been the clear winner for weeks (although fellow houseguest April is not far behind).

Even in polls on AfterEllen.com, the number of voters saying they dislike or outright hate her is 70%, with only 15% holding a positive opinion of her. And despite the fact that Ivette is one of only 7 remaining houseguests, only around 8% of voters think she's likely to win ("the only way she could win is if the rest of the houseguests die," commented one voted).

This is in spite of the fact that Ivette's less-than-desirable behavior has only been shown in very limited fashion on the CBS broadcasts, with the worst of it seen only on the 24-hour live feeds, which has a much smaller audience.

Ivette has asserted all along that that she plays with her heart, and unfortunately for her, she's right. Her emotions drive almost all of her decisions, and she wears them on her sleeve. Loudly. She got off on the wrong foot with viewers and other houseguests almost immediately by repeatedly voicing ill-informed opinions on a variety of subjects, most notably Muslim houseguest Kaysar, whom she called a "fake Muslim" and compared to Osama Bin Laden (she eventually toned done the anti-Muslim rhetoric, reportedly at the request of the producers).

A few weeks into the game, the house split into two alliances, and Ivette developed an inexplicable devotion to one of her fellow alliance members, Eric (whom she calls "Cappy"), that quickly became tiresome. If she wasn't gay, you'd have thought she had a crush on him, so out of proportion was her attachment to him given the limited amount of time they'd known each other (even Eric's official partner in the game wondered aloud at one point whether she'd have to push Ivette out of the way to give Eric a hug).

After Eric was eliminated, Ivette attached herself to James, the only person both alliances distrusted, and proceeded to defend him when everyone else wanted to vote him out. She has even started to alienate her own official partner in the game, Beau, by spending so much time with James--who is almost certain to be eliminated this week.

To say Ivette is not exactly a strategic player is like saying Janelle is not exactly a feminist.

In an interview taped prior to entering the house, Ivette declared she wanted to go on the show to offer "a different perspective of what gay women look like."

So what do lesbians look like, based on Ivette's example? Uninformed, highly opinionated, borderline racist, overly emotional, frequently hypocritical, self-absorbed women who talk a lot without thinking. Which in the end, doesn't really mean much, because, aside from the racist part, that description applies to almost all reality show contestants, to one degree or another--especially on shows populated by 20- and 30-something men and women living in close quarters for weeks at a time.

RTVMagazine
August 31, 2005

As head of household, April Lewis puts emotions aside and makes a very smart strategic move. The emotional choice for April would be to set Howie Gordon up for eviction as revenge for all the insults he has directed her way. However, the better strategic move for April is to go after James Rhine.

The first reason it is a great strategic move to go after James is that he is probably the strongest player left in the game. April wisely realizes that this is the last chance to back door James. With Jame’s skill at winning power of veto, he could very well keep taking himself off the block until the final two if he isn’t eliminated this week.

The second reason it is a great strategic move to go after James is that it virtually guarantees that April will not be nominated by the next head of household. If James had won head of household, then he would likely have nominated April and Maggie. It’s also possible that Howie or Janelle might have nominated April. In one move, April will be eliminating James and gaining the favor of Howie and Janelle. If either Howie or Janelle wins head of household, then they will probably target Ivette and Beau now to break up the last team.

James realizes he is being back doored when no one selects him for the veto competition. The veto competition is called “Playing It Dirty.” The houseguests have to dig through mud for keys in order to open locks to get power of veto symbols to put in a panel. The first houseguest to get four veto symbols in their panel wins power of veto. There is also a special silver veto that carries with it the combination of one of the safes in the gold room. Janelle gets the silver veto and wins a trip for two to the Bahamas from the safe. April wins the overall competition and the power of veto.

Janelle also wins America’s Choice and gets a phone call from Michael. Maggie tells Janelle to ask him what the world’s like, and Janelle asks him “Did Britney Spears have her baby?” “The Friendship” is fuming over Janelle winning the call but they try to hide it and congratulate her.

When we first heard that the America’s Choice vote was for someone to get a phone call from home, we thought it was pretty lame. On further reflection, it still is pretty lame, but it played out perfectly. By Janelle winning America’s Choice, it made “The Friendship” alliance realize that they aren’t as popular with America as they thought they were.

After April’s head of household win, Ivette screamed “America loves you April.” After Janelle’s America’s Choice win, Ivette comes to the realization that America might have a different opinion of “The Friendship.” Ivette bawled all week about how important the phone call from home was to her. She probably firmly believed America would vote for her because she wanted it the most. When America voted for Janelle, it was like a slap in the face. Ivette realized America would rather have Janelle get a call from a guy she barely knew, than for her to get a call from an important loved one.

Even though America was showing their support for Janelle, the win almost backfired on Janelle. Because Janelle has won the PB&J pass, a 42 inch plasma TV, and a free vacation already, the phone call from home win came close to pushing many of “The Friendship” over the top.

Maggie says “How could America pick Janelle to get a phone call from someone that she knew for two weeks versus her get a phone call from someone that she’s in love with.” Maggie and April don’t believe that American voted for Michael to call Janelle. April says “If America did honestly pick her then the fans that watch this show are all pieces of ****…. bottom line.” April goes on to say “I think America if they really voted for Janelle, they made a bad, stupid decision.”

Even though April had harsh words for America and Big Brother viewers, April stuck to making the good strategic decision. She uses her power of veto to save Janelle. April then nominates James in Janelle’s place.

By JOHN POWELL -- JAM! Showbiz


Checkmate. James Rhine, the all-time Veto winner and 'Big Brother' chess guru, was finally booted on last night's live eviction broadcast.

After miraculously escaping the threat of expulsion time and time again, James' luck ran out when he was nominated by April and his attempts to rally the HouseGuests failed miserably. Unable to shake his reputation of being the most devious player in the game, James was handed the opportunity to sit with Julie Chen on the infamous Couch of Shame by the unanimous vote of his fellow HouseGuests.

"These HouseGuests are crazy," James told Chen of how he was able to survive so long in the hostile atmosphere. "They wanted me out real bad and they just kept making worse mistakes than I did. They screwed up more than I so that kept me there for awhile."

Seeing that the surviving Outcast members - Janelle Pierzina and Howie Gordon - are still in the house and he is not, James felt his eviction was not a personal attack but a strategic vote by the HouseGuests to get rid of a serious threat.

To Chen, James maintained that he and Sarah would have remained loyal to The Outcasts Alliance if Howie had not turned on them weeks ago.

"That was one of the turning points. It was probably one of the biggest mistakes he could have made in the game and obviously it hurt my chances," said James, who was arguably the most manipulative and sly player to appear on the series since 'Dr. Evil' Will Kirby and Danielle Reyes. James is now the third member of the 'Big Brother 6' jury. Viewers were treated to footage from the ranch-style house the jury is sequestered in. Jury members Jennifer met Rachel as she arrived and they both watched the events which led up to Rachel's eviction on tape.

Also on the live eviction broadcast, Chen revealed that this week is another double eviction phase. Howie Gordon won the first Head of Household Competition and had to make his nominations immediately. Howie's picks were the last official pair in the house - Ivette Corredero and Beau Beasley. Howie is the first 'Big Brother 6' player to hold the HOH title twice. Chen announced that a "special guest" would be visiting the 'Big Brother' house too. That and the Power of Veto Competition will air on this Saturday's edition of the series.

In order to maintain secrecy of the first double eviction, the producers blacked out the live 24/7 feeds from the 'Big Brother' house last month. It is unclear at press time whether the producers will employ the same strategy this weekend.

Posted Sep 2, 2005, 8:12 PM ET by C.K. Sample, III
Filed under: Reality, CBS, Big Brother

So, Thursday's Big Brother 6 wasn't shown until 2:05am here in New York, and I forgot to set my ReplayTV to grab it. I missed the whole thing, although I am looking to grab a copy via bittorrent.

In the meantime, since I haven't seen it and therefore cannot write up my normal review and recap, I'm turning to our loyal TV Squad readers: What did I miss? What happened? Please tell me in the comments.

My guess: James was evicted. Janelle won HoH. Am I right? No matter how it played out, I'm just glad that April is no longer at the helm.

realityreel
Date: Sep 02, 2005 - 01:23 PM

So... Busto got her HOH room, where there was a picture of her hubby Matthew and their "child," i.e.; the dog Pepperoni; and life is good. For James, however, it was the continuance of a "summer of hell" where his long drought from winning the HOH crown lumbered-on unabated. As did Howie's rather miniscule efforts in securing it for himself (and his lone-remaining acolyte) once again — getting knocked-out from the HOH Competition in the first round. This would change soon enough (thank God) but for now Janelle remained the only stiff competitor — as has become her way; her ambiance of wit and will — drawing down with April in the final "tie-breaker" round and missing victory by the happenstance of the quick stab at a jumble of numbers on a poster board.

By David W. Taylor (Email Me)
Reality Reel Media
09.02.05

For their part, HOH April and her hens (with Eric sending remote sensory commands from Vegas) continued their delusional obstinacy in the Big Brother House, which soon extended far beyond Eric's feeble tentacles and into the Realm of the Almighty. It was April winning her first HOH role and defining it as "prayers" that were listened to, mulled over, and ultimately granted... all the way over to Ivette, Maggie and April — and to a lesser, possibly strategically motivated extent, James — who all crumbled under their own pathos when Janelle won the America's Choice Phone Call reward.

But let's start with April who won HOH and immediately placed her upward trajectory as a Sign from God and that "my prayers have been answered" and soon knuckled under to deliver additional dripping sentiment: "Thank you Lord. Thank you so much God..." This hysteria only further insulating these Eric-The-Fireman apparartchiks from the outside world and thus reinforcing themselves psychologically into their preferred, persecuted cult-like status. Surely it is so! That God is now sitting in Heaven making sure April scratched the correct numbers on her poster board — while a hellish Hurricane cleaned out humanity from the Gulf Coast or our U.S. Soldiers are dying overseas...

Yet, in a strange transformation, April quickly succumbs to the earthly flesh and warms eventually to take full-credit for her HOH win — as much a flip-flop con as her irksome clone, Jennifer. I suppose once the flush of victory subsides, the ego takes over and God fades into the smog. This was really a personal waterloo of sorts, of course!; a surge of April's human will... remaining dormant and untapped for weeks, her intestinal fortitude finally sprang forth like a magic fountain. After her profs to God, April was soon offering this pedestrian explanation: "Just to prove to Howie, and James — I know he thinks I can't win crap. And just to my, you know, even the friendship and stuff, that, when I really want somethin' I definitely get it." Hmm.

It's an interesting switcheroo: before last week April couldn't win anything. Now that cast numbers are dwindling into a handful, she won HOH because God stepped in and, well, Hallelujah! But since savoring the sweet heady elixir of an HOH tenure she's decides it was, in all seriousness, a personal blitz to show a thing or two to her fellow House guests; to show her own "friendship" that April can "really want something" and then "definitely get it." That's a huge jump. The logical rewind on this is that all her past losses must have been the result of her not "really" wanting to win them. One can only be impressed with how all-powerful April really is.

But this was nothing when compared to the high-heaven stink that boiled within the Nerd Herd (and James) when confronted with Janelle's quirk in snagging Big Brother prizes. Soon Bible verse was being quoted; the word "evil" was being considered; Big Brother was thought to be corrupt; America was thought insane; and there was lots of boo-hooing. It just proves what clear-headed, objective, fair-minded good sports these Eric-The-Fireman zombies really are.

A PB & J Pass and then a 42-inch plasma television and then a Travelocity vacation to the Bahamas. Janelle won them all. Ivette stated, "As long as Janelle's in this house nobody else is going to win a prize." Of course, if she had been listening to April a few hours before she would have known that if April had "really wanted" that vacation she would "definitely get it." I guess Ivette should have convinced April to "get it."

So, a few weeks ago America voted Kaysar back into the Big Brother 6 game with a crushing, head-butting 82% landslide vote. America to Nerd Herd: We Don't Like You. The Nerd Herd's spiritual moloch — their troll-like Rasputin — Eric-The-Fireman — was embarrassingly turned away at the steps of the BB House with such disdain and contempt (this, in turn, reflecting upon his entire gang) that his approval votes barely reached into the double digits. You would've thought this huge message might have reached into the Nerd Herd's synapses and turned-on a few light bulbs (even if they weren't aware of the actual vote totals) but, alas, apparently no such luck. A second America's Choice was about to hit them like bad acid.

The America's Choice cell-phone activates and Janelle gets a hello from Michael. April freezes in horror. Ivette melts into a glum funk... she was all set to snuggle with her lesbian lover (later she says she just wanted to talk to her "mom"). Maggie looks like she just swallowed a Pepperoni: "I think almost everyone's voting for Ivette to get it..." she earlier croaked. Hello. Kaysar won America's Choice... Janelle was Kaysar's second partner... Eric was sent on a shuttle back to Nevada. Your big cheese was sent packing! Remember?! And, THEY STILL DON'T GET IT!

Ivette storms up to the HOH room and collapses into a sobbing jag. Maggie soon follows. She kneels down and pets Ivette like she just lost her family to an axe-murderer. "Ivette, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," she coos. "I hate her. I hate her," groans Ivette. "Ivette's feelings are really, really hurt right now," yaps Maggie. "How could America pick Janelle to get a phone call from someone that she knew for two weeks versus her get a phone call from someone she's in love with..." Gee, let's see... she's a Cappy zombie?

April soon marches in and joins the Support Group for the Phone-less. Maggie starts blabbering about how Janelle picked Michael over "her own mom" (egads!) and April sighs, "Uh um... Uh um! That's sad." Ivette's still weeping into a pillow. "Well, that says a lot about her...," sniffs Maggie. "I choose someone I've known for two weeks over my own mother!" Quick! Call the Spinster's Temperance Auxiliary. Run for the hills!

The reality may have finally seeped-in and began staring them in the face. Let's see... 1) Kaysar Back In, 2) Janelle Wins Phone Call... Hmm. America hates US? It's either facing this monster or going delusional. "There's no way America picked Janelle," says a befuddled Maggie. April: "There's no way America liked Michael... and there's no way America picked Janelle... We don't believe it!... No. There's no way that could have happened. There's just no way!" On and on it goes! "I'm married. I am a newlywed. I have a husband... and you're going to tell me that America picked someone who knew each other for two weeks...?" Tears, tissues, disbelief! MY BRAIN HURTS!

"The house guests are missing their loved ones and your going to friggin' get Michael to call Janelle? I mean that's just crazy. That's stupid!... You know what, if America did honestly pick her... the fans that watch this show are all pieces of ****. Bottom line." Whoa. April is NOT getting a Christmas card from me...

Fence-straddler James strolls in and like a great Shakespearean thespian starts commiserating along with his "Girl Scouts" and takes a few gentle taps at Ivette's heaving torso. He serenely speaks of a Bible verse in Ecclesiastes that tells a tale of "He seen the wicked get all the rewards of the righteous and the righteous suffer like the wicked should." And all the Eric-hens jump up and down and cluck the big cluck: "You know, it's proven in this house that evil will prevail," howls Ivette. April, apparently still undrained from calling millions of people "pieces of ****," concurs but with a bristling footnote, "I feel that we've got a lot of evil out of this house." The church service is over. The wrath unleashed. Janelle's phone call from Michael goes down as an unfathomable sin.

But, verily, April is a special case. She cursed us all, and Janelle, because Janelle was awarded a phone call which was used to talk with an ex-Big Brother 6 cast member whom she'd cultivated a love affair over a two week period. Funny, really... when Julie Chen asked April, during a (supposedly) viewer initiated question segment, "What is the one thing you wish you had brought into the BB house from the outside world?" April responded in this way: "Oooo, um... uh, My PEPPERONI! My doggie!" Julie Chen then joked, "Not Matt, your husband?" April momentarily became unglued and began looping herself: "Yeah, him too, him too... I want both. I want both. They're both the men in my life. They're both the men in my life, so..." Odd. Maggie nor Ivette became rigid with contempt. No sobs. No shouts of "evil!" I guess Janelle choosing a paramour over a non-existent husband (or a mother) is one thing, but April choosing her "doggie" over a very alive husband is something else altogether.

So... then... James got voted out. And Howie reaches down deep and somehow snatches HOH from Beau by one point. "They stuck a fork in me and said I was done!" Incredible. He does it just as Janelle's lucky streak seems to be waning... and, again, thank God. Howie seemed to be guiding those balls down that plank by inner radar, closing his eyes as he set each ball into a smooth spin. After his fingers let loose and the balls slipped away, Howie bowed his head to the ground, sightless — he was doing the Jedi Knight thing. It worked out well. Better than I expected or wished for. Howie allowed the chance of redemption on behalf of Kaysar and his troupe to be nosed-along an inch closer to realization. I doubt it will happen... but it's a solid 'maybe' as things have currently hatched.

We were then afforded a distasteful peek at the gutless liar, Jennifer, holed up in some vineyard sequester retreat in an area that reeks Napa Valley. Rachel soon joins her and after a short tour of the house and the grounds, Rachel pulls out her secreted videotape and the two sit down for a televised rehash of Rachel's demise. Jennifer's stepford-wife perpetual grin is eerie and as cold as a dead fish... and she says things like, "This looks so fun and colorful, I love it... it's like a real television show." Robot?

As the video whirs on and Rachel's reign begins its slow drip into doom, Jennifer has the grace and tact to continue to rah-rah her Herd in front of someone who was just sacked by them. Jennifer gleefully chants unctuous swill throughout, only further showboating her reptilian character: "Good job team. It's all coming together now... April, miss you... I love my group." Good job team??! Yuk!

I thought it was rude to have Howie make on-the-spot nominations while Janelle was given the benefit of a commercial break during her "Double Eviction" HOH run. But Howie made the right choices though he seemed a bit too accommodating with Maggie, Ivette and Beau — "Do... one of you have recommendations? You.. Oh, man..." — while mulling over his "hard" choices. He should've been eyeing Janelle, knowingly, with a victorious whoop. But, that's Howie. Let's hope he's steady as concrete this time.

I'm sure CBS could've found a way to give Howie a few more minutes to contemplate his moves. Julie Chen didn't spare us from another batch of innocuous, banal questions ("Maggie... What have you been doing to lose weight?") supposedly gleaned from CBS.com and filtered through Julie's drab, softball interview technique. We didn't learn anything much... and learned nothing of what we should...

Julie Chen, to earn her fat Big Brother paycheck, should have asked some really dicey, probbing questions. Like asking Maggie, Ivette, April and Beau what they collectively think about the first America's Choice being won by Kaysar — by 82% — and the second America's Choice being won by Janelle. Does this tell you guys anything? I... I need an answer...

Or, then, asking April and Maggie if they still believe CBS and Big Brother corrupted the America's Choice polling. Or asking April if she might be bothered by calling millions of Big Brother viewers "pieces of ****." Now that would be a question! I wonder why all that bloviating and caterwauling about Janelle's America's Choice Phone Call from Michael on the previous show was all glossed over. Like it never happened. Like we were never called "pieces of ****" by April of the Eric-The-Fireman Jim Jones Kool-Aid Cult. What gives? Is Julie Chen, gulp, one of them?

RTVWORLD
By Steve Rogers, 09/02/2005

"Backdoored" and denied a chance to compete to save himself, "Veto King" James Rhine finally met his demise and was voted out of the Big Brother house during last night's live broadcast of the CBS reality series.

James, a 29-year-old loss prevention manager from Atlanta, GA, had been nominated for eviction by April Lewis, Big Brother 6's ninth Head of Household. Fearful of James' uncanny ability to win the show's Power Of Veto competitions, April had initially nominated Howie Gordon and Janelle Pierzina for eviction. Then, having gotten Howie and Janelle to agree to not select the five-time Power Of Veto winner as their challenge partner, April won the Power Of Veto competition herself, giving her the ability to take Janelle off the chopping block and instead replace her with James.

James was evicted unanimously from the house, with Janelle, Ivette Corredero, Maggie Ausburn, and Beau Beasley all casting their eviction votes live during Thursday's broadcast.

Once James was evicted and interviewed by Big Brother host Julie Chen, the remaining houseguests competed in "Playing It Straight, " Big Brother 6's tenth Head of Household competition. Despite having the same name as Fox's canceled 2004 reality series, the competition had nothing to do with sexual orientation and instead simply required the five eligible houseguests (as outgoing HoH, April was not eligible to compete) to roll two bowling balls down a thin plank. The houseguests received between one and six points depending on what bin the ball rolled into after falling off the plank (with the bin points increasing the further down the plank the ball rolled.)

After all three of the eligible "Friendship" alliance members had rolled, Beau topped the leaderboard with eleven out of the twelve possible points. Janelle went next, and although she rolled a six with her first ball, her second roll came up short, leaving only Howie standing between Beau becoming the first Big Brother 6 houseguest to win HoH twice.

In a development straight out of "we couldn't script this if we tried," Howie proceeded to roll consecutive six's with both his bowling balls, destroying the "Friendship" alliance's plans to oust another of Big Brother 6's two remaining "Sovereign" alliance members.

After winning the Head Of Household competition, Howie demonstrated that he might not be quite as dumb as his behavior sometimes leads viewers to believe by -- before Julie could herself surprise the houseguests with the announcement -- correctly speculating that the current Big Brother 6 week would feature a second eviction ceremony. Forced by Julie to immediately name his two nominees, Howie put Ivette and Beau -- the competition's last remaining not-so-secret pair -- up on the chopping block. CBS will broadcast this week's Big Brother 6 second eviction on Saturday, September 3 at 8PM/ET/PT.

:Posted Sep 4, 2005, 9:20 AM ET by C.K. Sample, III
TV Squad

Well, I finally managed to grab Thursday's show off of bittorrent, so I'm caught up. Thanks to all the TV Squaders who weighed in in the comments of my last post, especially LC, who wrote a great synopsis.

Last night's episode was the second double eviction night of the season, but the show seemed better paced and not as rushed as the last double eviction, most likely because there weren't nearly as many people left in the house to keep track of this week. This episode started by recapping what had happened at the end of Thursday's night show, showing Howie winning HoH then immediately putting Beau and Ivette up on the block. Howie seemed distraught over the decision, but as they walked away, Janelle rightfully pointed out that that team has been putting up Howie's friends and allies week after week, so there was no reason to feel upset about putting them up. Right before Howie nominated them, Ivette said, "It's okay, Howie," because she knew they were the two going up. I personally think, pair or no pair, this was a mistake. Howie should have put up one of the pair against Maggie, which would have played the quasi-pair against the real pair and caused much dissent amongst the members of the Friendship (especially with April and Ivette crying and whining).

Check out more after the jump...

One highlight of this episode was Howie getting his HoH room. He got lightsabers! It was fun and funny to watch all the HouseGuests playing with the lightsabers, and turning off the lights then attack each other with them. My wife and I looked at each other and exclaimed: "We have to get those!" It was also funny to watch everyone in the confessionals call Howie a nerd for wanting lightsabers, yet to see that juxtaposed with them gleefully watching him play with them.

After the nominations, we immediately get April and Ivette positioning with Maggie to stay in the house: April talking about Maggie being her new partner and how everything was clearly falling into twosomes now and Ivette proposing that Maggie play for her in the veto competition, take her off if she won, so that April would go up and be voted out.

For the veto competition, Holly from Big Brother 5 entered the house and Howie was overjoyed that she knew him by name. Since Holly and Jayce (sp?) never worked out, I have to say, I hope these two find each other outside of the house. Holly and Howie. It's the perfect Big Brother couple. Their children would be such spastic dumbbells that it simply must happen.

Anyway, the Veto competition was a game of craps, and Maggie won. She then met with the other three members of the Friendship and asked them what she should do. Beau said, "Do what you need to do for you in this game,' to which she replied, "I already did that. I won this veto. Now it's up to you all." Cop out? Maybe. Anyway, the sheepish friendship, as they always do, just sort of shrugged, but then after the meeting was over April said "Thanks for not using it." Maggie replied, "I haven't decided yet."

Queue five of the most annoying minutes of television ever: April crying and whining and talking about how much it hurts that the one person she thought she could trust (I thought she was the member of a team...) wasn't sure if she would keep her.

It really looked like, going into the veto ceremony, that Maggie was going to save either Ivette or Beau and put up April instead. Her nose was red and it was clear that she was emotional and had been crying. She said that morals get in the way of the game, and that if she were being strategic she would use the power of veto, but instead she was going to follow her heart and not use the power of veto. Boo! I was all excited at the prospect of getting rid of April.

Anyway, Beau was unanimously evicted. And Janelle severely dropped the ball on the HoH competition, leaving the tiebreaker between Ivette and Maggie. Either Maggie gave it to Ivette or she was playing the "I'll guess one and hope she goes over" Price is Right strategy. I'm guessing the former, as the show opened with Ivette lamenting how she was going to be evicted without ever winning HoH.... wait a minute. Could we have predicted that she would be the next head of household based on that little bit of editing? Wow, these producers like to toy with us.

Anyway, Howie and Janelle are going up, I would guess, but if either one of them gets the Veto, they may not necessarily be going out. It all depends on whether they could convince Ivette that April needs to be removed from the game to prevent Maggie from becoming a threat. Do they have a chance?

September 3, 2005
canoe

Beau? Who dat?

The Invisible Man of 'Big Brother 6', Beau Beasley, disappeared completely out of the house on tonight's not-so live special eviction broadcast. Beau, who stayed under the radar most of the series and probably had less air time than host Julie Chen, was kicked by The Disciples Alliance who were forced to pick between him and his official partner, Ivette Corredero.

Beau's expulsion put the nail in the coffin of this year's secret partnership twist, as there are no official couples left. Unless the producers alter the rules, no one now has a chance at winning the special 1 million dollar prize. Before the season had begun, the producers announced that the players were actually pairs who knew each other in the outside world and if one team could end up being the last two people in the house, the winner would take home 1 million dollars and the second place finisher $250,000. The producers stated that if a twosome did not make it to the final two, the winner of 'Big Brother 6' would score $500,000.

In his interview on the Couch of Shame with Julie Chen, Beau stated that he didn't regret voting out James Rhine rather than Howie Gordon who eventually nominated him for eviction this week.

"You have to do what you have to do when business is on the line. Business is business and you have to do what is best for you and your group. Sometimes it bites you in the butt but you gotta do what you gotta do. I am not regretful for what I have done in the house at all," said Beau.


"She has an amazing chance of getting to the end. She has an amazing knowledge of the game. She plays it with her heart. She plays it with strategy as well so it is going to take her far," Beau said of his partner, Ivette. Beau is now the fourth member of the 'Big Brother 6' jury.

The not-so "special guest" hyped at the end of Thursday's episode was revealed to be none other than the highly irritating 'Big Brother 5' HouseGuest Holly King. She hosted the crapshoot Veto Competition won by Maggie Ausburn. Maggie waffled about using the Power of Veto to the point of telling new alliance mate April Lewis that she might end up being nominated if Maggie elected to save Ivette. The news brought the habitual crier to tears. In the end, Maggie did not use the Veto and left Howie's nominations intact.

As part of another double eviction week, a second Head of Household was crowned. In a shamelessly biased competition, it was Ivette who brought home the victory for the Disciples during a tiebreaker round against Maggie. The majority of questions asked by Chen during the challenge favoured the Disciples in some fashion based on the everyday conversations held over the course of the season on the 24/7 live Internet feeds.

CBS blacked out the 24/7 Internet feeds from the house from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning to keep the happenings of Saturday's broadcast under wraps. The live feeds did not return until hours after the 12:00 a.m. EST deadline. When they did, feed watchers saw that Howie and Janelle had been nominated and that Janelle won the Power of Veto. Howie was seen talking to Janelle after the win about how he thought Janelle had no chance during the Head of Household Competition because the questions favoured The Disciples and not her. Howie also stated that only certain players would have known the answers because some of the questions were taken from private chats.

"The HOH Competition was ridiculous. They (The Disciples) all knew the questions," said Howie to Janelle.

Ivette's nominations and the Veto Challenge will air on Tuesday's broadcast.

RTVWorld
By Steve Rogers, 09/05/2005

Completing a journey in which he went from Big Brother 6's Head Of Household penthouse to the jury's lakeside sequester house in a little more than a week, Beau Beasley was voted out of the Big Brother house during Saturday's broadcast of the CBS reality series.

Beau, who fell victim to the competition's second surprise double eviction week, had been nominated for eviction by Howie Gordon, Big Brother 6's tenth Head of Household. A 25-year-old personal shopper from Pembroke Pines, FL, Beau had been responsible for the previous week's eviction of Rachel Plencner, Howie's one-time secret partner.

Forced by Big Brother host Julie Chen to immediately name his two nominees after winning Thursday's live Head Of Household competition, Howie had put Beau and Ivette Corredero -- the competition's last remaining not-so-secret pair -- up on the chopping block.

With only six houseguests left in the competition, everyone was allowed to compete in the tenth Power of Veto challenge, a house trivia/gambling hybrid that was hosted by Big Brother 5 houseguest Holly King -- the first outsider to visit the houseguests since they entered the house back in early July.

After the initial competition ended with a four-way tie among Ivette, April Lewis, Maggie Ausburn, and Janelle Pierzina (the competition's last four female houseguests), the foursome competed in a series of tiebreaking rounds that left Maggie and Janelle as the competition's final two competitors. With only two competitor's left, Maggie came closer to correctly answering how many keys were under the mud in the previous "Playing It Dirty" Power Of Veto competition, making her the challenge's winner.

Despite feeling that her own chances of winning Big Brother 6's grand prize might be better served by keeping both Beau and Ivette (the last remaining pair) in the game and instead putting April, her "adopted" partner up on the block, Maggie ultimately decided to remain loyal to her new partner, leaving Howie's nominations unchanged. Beau was evicted unanimously from the house, with Maggie, April, and Janelle all deciding to instead keep Ivette -- the only remaining houseguest who had never won a Head Of Household challenge -- in the competition.

Once Beau was evicted and interviewed by Julie, the remaining houseguests competed in "Magnetic Attraction, " Big Brother 6's eleventh Head of Household competition. As the outgoing HoH, Howie was not eligible to compete, leaving Janelle to compete alone against the "Friendship" alliance's three remaining members. Another trivia challenge that tested the houseguests' knowledge of each other, the eight-question competition ended with Maggie and Ivette tied for first place.

Knowing that the fact that she was the only remaining houseguest who had yet to win a Head Of Household competition had been upsetting Ivette, Maggie threw the tiebreaker (a question that required them to calculate the total number of points scored in the "Playing It Straight" tenth HoH competition won by Howie), making the 25-year-old Miami Beach waitress the show's eleventh Head Of Household.

TVSquad
Posted Sep 6, 2005, 10:37 PM ET by C.K.

So, we begin tonight's episode with Ivette as HoH. Actually, we began with Howie and Janelle talking about how Janelle was going to trample the nerd herd in the HoH competition and Ivette saying to her team that it is time to stop pretending that they are friends and friendly with the other team. Then a recap of the HoH competition in which Janelle totally bombed, and they made it very clear that Maggie gave the HoH to Ivette by throwing the competition.

Ivette didn't care. She was gleefully running around the house like a two year old screaming "I'm HoH!" over and over again. Speaking of child-like: this weeks episode featured much more fun with Howie and his lightsabers. I never would have thought that watching a 34 year old man play with lightsabers would be entertaining television, but man was I wrong. It's better than the Star Wars Kid. There was even a 'saber fight between Howie and Janelle, with a nice confessional scene where Janelle confessed that lightsabering comes naturally to her as she's never been a Star Wars fan.

Of course, Ivette put Howie up against Janelle with her guns aimed at kicking Janelle out this week. Everyone competed in the veto competition this week, and it was the morph machine from last season. That morph equipment must have set CBS back a pretty penny, so they had to recycle it this year. Everyone did fairly well at guessing which three faces composed the morphed monstrosity before them, except for Howie, who barely finished in under 10 minutes. Janelle won and removed herself from the block. April went up in her place.

What's interesting is not that Janelle and Howie were planning on approaching Ivette with a deal to save Howie and evict April, but that Ivette approached Howie by the pool and suggested nearly the same thing. We also received several soul-searching bits of Ivette wondering if she should play the game smart or with her team. I'm ecstatic with hope over the prospect of April getting the boot on Thursday. What do you think?

September 07, 2005
RTVMag

For the third time this season, BIG BROTHER 6 will put the power back into the hands of the viewers on Thursday, Sept. 8 (8:00-9:00 PM, live ET, delayed PT) when host Julie Chen announces a third America's Choice vote on the reality series

In the ultimate fall premiere promotional crossover, BIG BROTHER 6 houseguests and viewers will get the chance to cast their ballot for their favorite remaining Houseguest to leave the Big Brother house and spend the day on the set of the hit comedy series TWO AND A HALF MEN. Viewers can vote on CBS.com or via text messaging on their mobile phones. Votes will be tabulated during a specified time window following the episode's broadcast. CBS will offer the text messaging option as well as downloadable wireless applications relating to BIG BROTHER 6, through a partnership with GoldPocket Wireless.

TWO AND A HALF MEN, currently the Number One comedy on television, is about men, women, sex, dating, divorce, mothers, single parenthood, sibling relations, surrogate families, money and, most importantly, love. More specifically, it's about the lives of two brothers, one brother's son, and the many women who surround them. Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen) is a well-to-do bachelor with a house at the beach, a Mercedes in the garage and an easy way with women. His casual Malibu lifestyle is interrupted when his tightly wound brother, Alan (Jon Cryer), and Alan's son, Jake (Angus T. Jones), come to stay with him. TWO AND A HALF MEN will have its third season premiere on Monday, September 19 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

As part of the TWO AND A HALF MEN set visit, the America's Choice winner will be whisked out of the Big Brother House and taken via limo to meet Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, Angus T. Jones and the rest of the cast and watch a taping of the show. Following the taping, the houseguest will return to the Big Brother house and rejoin fellow contestants.

During the Saturday, September 10 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) broadcast of BIG BROTHER 6, voters will be informed of the outcome and watch a special broadcast of two and a half minutes of TWO AND A HALF MEN, as well as a recap of the winner's visit to the set.

tvguide
by Angel Cohn

James Rhine of Atlanta kicked off the sixth season of Big Brother with shady playing that included plenty of lying and deceiving. Doing so made the 29-year-old loss-prevention manager (who claimed he was a teacher) a huge target for the houseguests. They tried to evict him multiple times, taking out his beloved show partner and real-life girlfriend, Sarah Hrejsa, in the process. But the tough player kept winning the Power of Veto and used his skills at manipulation to pit the two alliances against each other. After his luck finally ran out a week ago, he spoke with TVGuide.com before heading to the sequester house — and showed off a surprisingly softer side.

TVGuide.com: For a bit, it seemed like the two alliances were more concerned about taking each other down than in ousting you.
James Rhine: Unfortunately, they didn't completely forget about me. [My plan] was working for a while. [Later] I felt deep inside that it was a lost cause, but I felt like I was going to try to take out as many people as possible.

TVGuide.com: You sound defeated, but on TV it didn't seem like you gave up hope.
James: Oh, I would never give up hope. I knew that, as bad as it sounds, I was dealing with people who weren't really that intelligent, so they made some of my work easy.

TVGuide.com: At least you made it to the jury, which is pretty good.
James: [Sighs] If I had been knocked out in Week 3, when they were trying to get me out the first time, at least I would have lost competing. That's what bothered me about this backdoor plan — I lost because I was going up against cowards, six people who were scared to compete with me. That is the part that sucks. I didn't go out on my terms; I went out because they were scared of me. HOH is a big responsibility. If you are going to nominate somebody, you'd better have the b---s to stand behind your decision. This backdoor plan.... [Pauses] I'm trying to be nice.... I love competition and I hate poor sports, and I think that was a display of poor sportsmanship.

TVGuide.com: Did you feel that there was anyone in the house who could outmatch you in terms of strategy or competition?
James: No. The thing that hurt me was that Sarah only became my partner three days before we were supposed to go to the show; I had another partner who backed out at the last minute. One of the issues I had was that I took [things] personally because a lot of people were attacking my girlfriend in order to get to me. If I weren't with her, it would have been a lot different. With this other [original partner], we would have destroyed that house.

TVGuide.com: You would have been even more aggressive?
James: Oh, completely. In the beginning I was doing things to create dissension among everybody. The whole reason Ivette and Janelle hate each other is because I told Ivette on Day 2 or 3 that Janelle told me she was coming after her. That was completely made up, but it gave me an ally. I had the dumb alpha male with my original partner, Eric; he could take heat, I could place heat on everybody else. But the moment Sarah found out what I was doing, she got all upset with me for playing "dirty."

TVGuide.com: Sarah does seem very nice.
James: She's an amazing woman. There is not a man luckier. I mean that sincerely. She doesn't belong in that game.

TVGuide.com: That's so sweet. We didn't get to see this side of you.
James: When you have 12 people attacking me personally and physically, you aren't going to get the sweet side of me. One of my mistakes in listening to Sarah was that she wanted me to be that nice guy.

TVGuide.com: What did you think of your alliance falling apart?
James: Howie made the biggest mistake in Big Brother history. In his own words, he's the biggest dumbass in this entire show. I almost feel bad for him in a way, because when he gets out people are going to rip on him. We had a very, very powerful team with the Sovereign Six. After [they evicted Sarah], I wasn't going to trust people. It was an emotional ass-kicking [and] I wanted to take as many people out before these idiots figured out how to backdoor me. It only took them seven tries.
TVGuide.com: I was surprised that it was April who managed to take you out.
James: That is the most disgusting part about this. Her and Jennifer I have no respect for, because of what they did to Mike. When they retracted their sexual-assault accusations after he left the house, that really, really struck me. I was an adamant supporter of getting Mike out of the house, and I said some horrible things about him because who would make up something like that? That is the most deplorable tactic I have ever, ever seen. April and Jennifer are just vile people.

TVGuide.com: You said you'd like to keep in touch with Ivette. Is there anybody else?
James: Kaysar. When he came back in the house, I know he had no idea what was going on. He made a very stupid mistake. Aside from [that], Kaysar is a very smart person, idealistic, and I enjoyed the conversations I had with him. He was the only person in the house I could have a discussion with that wasn't about outfits or plastic hair falling out. And I owe Michael a huge apology.

TVGuide.com: Are you dreading going to the sequester house?
James: Yeah. I'm with two of the worst people: Jennifer — I think she's a vile creature — and Rachel, who is just not very exciting. She doesn't stray from her schedule at all. There will definitely be some arguments at the sequester house. If they allow me to tell Jennifer what I think of her, then she's got something coming. The first thing I'm going to do if she asks me what [getting ousted] was like is to tell her it sucked, but that it was great to see Sarah and that she got to spend the night with me at a hotel. It is all bulls---, but I'm going to ask her if she got to see her boyfriend, Dan. I'll derive some enjoyment from that.

TVGuide.com: Among the guest who are left, who would you least like to see win?
James: April. She's a disgusting person.

TVGuide.com: Would you be happy with anyone winning?
James: Really, I don't care. I have to vote for someone, but I wanted to vote for someone who was a good competitor. Right now I'd have to say Janelle, who has been herself from Day 1. She's put up with a lot of crap... but her goodbye message really p----d me off. She is the one who approached me about selling out Howie, [it was] not me approaching her. I'd vote for Janelle because it would drive the rest of them crazy. If Ivette won, I'd be happy for her.

TVGuide.com: What are your plans after this is all over?
James: I don't know. The houseguests, or the "guinea pigs," used to say to me, "They are going to put you on Survivor." If there was an opportunity to do something like that, I'd do it.

TVGuide.com: And hanging out with Sarah more?
James: I'll never leave her. She's amazing.

TVGuide.com: OK, good luck in the jury house!
James: Thanks. They can't vote me out of there.