I've also noticed that Arisa Cox seems to have relaxed into her role as the host and doesn't seem anywhere near as grating as she was in season one. Granted she continues to be compared to Julie Chen who's had a lot more experience to fall back on but even bearing that in mind she does seem to be more natural in the role this season.
The first six houseguests are:
Zachary (22), a university football quarterback,
Ashley (21), a Calgary cowgirl,
Jordan (21), a classic manipulator who has studied the show,
Godfrey (22), a psychology major,
Sarah (27), a disbelieving pot head, and
Brittnee (25), a plus size New York model formerly from Calgary
It's a big surprise when they walk into the house and notice there's no furniture. When they check the kitchen there's no food, and they don't even have access to the bedrooms, which are locked off.
The next five houseguests are:
Willow (26), lives in Calgary,
Greg (36), a ginga ninja who loves baseball (he's not that ginger),
Naeha (29), a chiropractor and entrepreneur
Johnny (26), a Big Brother SuperFan from Winnipeg, and
Bruno (31), a married Ottawa construction worker with two kids
The second group enter the house and are equally surprised to find there's no furniture, no food and no bedrooms.
The final five houseguests are:
Kevin (21), a professional poker player from Calgary,
Risha (41), a Toronto cougar
Bobby (27), a rock climbing skateboarder,
Sindy (25), an assistant cruise director, and
Pilar (22), a cheerleader from Dartmouth
The last group enter the house with the same reaction as the first two groups. Without actually checking the numbers there seems to be a lot of Calgary connections. The usual assortment of narcissists all pretend to be friends. Sindy "with an S" is already getting annoying, as Jordan is quick to point out. At least it's not just me.
Once again it seems to be cast to be the Big Brother Sex House of Canada, which is why I gave last season a pass after the first episode. Pretty sure I didn't miss much. Almost everyone is in their early 20s and the oldest player is the 41 year old cougar. Seriously? You couldn't get a better cross section of Canadians than this?
Time to start playing the game as Arisa brings everyone into the empty livingroom. When she informs them that everything is in lockdown, including their personal belongings, the houseguests are less than amused. Arisa assures them they'll get it all eventually but they're going to have to work for it.
The first twist of the season is that they are all HoH and must each nominate two people for eviction and the houseguests with the most votes will be put up on the block. Everyone goes in and makes their choices without any real information and I'm not even going to bother tracking it other than to note the final results. Some of the houseguests give a lame excuse for their choices but overall it's like pulling straws. There are a lot of votes for Bruno, Risha, Sindy and Pilar overall. The final results are . . . Risha and Sindy.
Time to immediately pick players for the PoV challenge. Risha picks Bobby and Kevin out of the bag while Sindy picks Zach and Naeha. Off they go to get ready for the first challenge of the season. There's no actual strategy at this point and it has to be frustrating for the players but it is a different way to start the season.
The PoV challenge is to be the first person to assemble their 14 piece V-Shaped puzzles after transporting it one piece at a time across a cargo net, then decode a three digit lock to release the final piece from the vault and win the Power of Veto. Neither Sindy nor Risha know why they're on the block and there's really no reason for either of them to be there. Well, Sindy's already proven herself to be a little annoying, but Risha's only reason is her age. The boys are dominating the event racing back and forth with their pieces and it looks like Risha is running out of energy already. Come on, at 41 she's not that old.
They all get their pieces back across the net, even Risha, and now it's no longer a muscle challenge. Kevin finishes the puzzle first and then races back to unlock the vault. With only 64 combinations and knowing the math he should be good to go as long as he can move through the numbers quickly. Sindy finishes her puzzle next and decides to try the "listen for the click" method on the lock . . . and it works. So much for knowing the math. Sindy wins the PoV and will obviously be taking herself off the block.
Time for the instant PoV ceremony. Sindy uses the power to remove herself from the block, big surprise, and chooses Pilar as her replacement because Pilar hasn't said two words to her. I guess that's as good a reason as any at this point but Jordan's not happy with that decision and feels Sindy should have used the opportunity to blindside one of the muscles. Even less happy is Risha who feels she's only on the block because of her age.
Arisa bids them farewell and let's the houseguests know they'll be sleeping on the floor for their first night. That goes over so well. Risha storms off on her own, which isn't going to help her bond with the houseguests but it's a moot point as the next twist is that Canada decides who gets evicted, not the houseguests. Hopefully this season is being viewed by those over 40 or Risha may not have a chance of staying in the house. Then again, maybe those under 40 are getting annoyed by Sindy "with an S" already. We can only hope.
I can't guarantee I'm going to blog more on this season, but it could happen. I'm actually hoping that Bruno goes all the way but that's probably because he's a family man. He also seems to be the least full of himself so far, but only time will tell. So that's it, my quick review of the premiere episode of season three. Feel free to leave comments and I'll get back to you, . . . and remember to come back for my weekly Survive=or review until Amazing Race returns on April 3rd.