Househappenings

Just to clarify: what I posted yesterday doesn't really have much to do with any negative attitudes I might have towards James. I thought he was an interesting part of the mix early on--granted, male nudity isn't really my thing, but I appreciated that somebody was actually bringing it for once in the U.S.--he but he became more of an irritant during his HoH reign, and since he returned to the house he's spent most of his time wallowing in self pity. But I had ambivalent attitudes toward Jun and Drew, who won their seasons, and didn't really care at all for Maggie, the winner who followed them. The difference was that they won in ways that seemed to follow logically from the interactions of people inside that house.

Maybe I'm naive and scripting was going on back then, but if you look back at BB4, there's no script in the world that would have have had the likable (and first ever BB haver-of-sex) David evicted in the first month, and the charmless, homely Robert lasting all the way to the final week. And Maggie wasn't even very interesting by the low standards set by her alliance. Ivette and even April would have been more entertaining winners of BB6.

Do I think James was scripted to win BB at the start? Not exactly; in fact, I've mentioned that this season has followed a typical Big Brother pattern whereby the more colorful players tend to attract attention by virtue of all that color and wind up getting voted out, leaving a relatively drab crew behind. BB4 and even the halcyon BB6 are examples of that--Kaysar was evicted twice in the first half of the season, and the rest was anticlimactic, at least from a game perspective. I don't think Allison Grodner wanted Amanda, Allison, and Matt to leave when they did, but there weren't any shenanigans to keep it from happening either.

But I do think the producers see James as "colorful", if only in a superficial way (most of the color we've seen on the feeds has been left off the TV screen--it's hilarious that the TV people don't know the first thing about the one aspect of James that anyone who's seen him naked sort of noticed right away). I'd probably prefer Sharon and Ryan as neighbors, but there aren't many ways to make them good TV. More importantly, James is the main source of conflict left in the house. And for that reason, the powers that be were hoping to keep him in there and tried to arrange for that to happen (let's be real--James's fight to save himself is going to be edited into a nice little drama for Sunday's show, for the benefit of those who don't get the feeds).

This has been a pretty good season for feeds--better overall than last year, although this season doesn't have people staying up all night and doesn't have a single focus of attention like Dick. But the ratings haven't been there, whether because of (even considering the strike) increased non-summer competition, or people not being in the mood to watch BB outside the summer, or just fatigue with a show in its ninth season. Remove the last source of real conflict and drama, and the last few weeks will be even less exciting than usual. Thus, we got yesterday's apparent interference from the DR.

I think you can make a case that in the absence of anyone stepping in to keep James safe, there would still be a potentially interesting story to be told about the last days of the game--watching what has become a fairly close group have to turn on each other has potential that a BB6-like fixed battle may not have. And for all that effort that was put into keeping Dick safe last year because he was the star of the show, once it became clear that the viewers via Eric weren't letting him go anywhere, the last half of the season became a foregone conclusion from a game standpoint. But the producers of the show disagree with me there.

But enough of my whining, right? Ryan has won the veto, meaning that scripting obviously has its limits. James is likely to go back on the block, and once there is likely to leave. For now.Swaying one vote would be one thing, but he'd have to sway two. James leaving would make it Sharon vs. the house, and turning that into a struggle for the ages won't be all that easy.