Big Brother, one of Jack’s guilty pleasure returned to TV this week for another season of exhibitionism and voyeurism. For those who aren’t familiar with CBS’ summer series (now on its 8th season) it’s based on an international TV phenomenon of the same name. There are versions all over the world all with the same premise. A group of individuals from all walks of life are put into a house for an extended period of time and where cameras follow their every move. Week after week, “houseguests” engage in competitions to determine who is the “head of house”, a position with many perks and responsibilities, the biggest being nominating two fellow houseguests for “eviction”. This game play goes on until there are two contestants left and jury of evicted houseguests votes to give one “deserving” player $500,000.  The premise itself is simple but there is plenty of strategizing, alliances & adversarial relationships formed, sometimes romances. etc as the houseguests battle to get to the final two.  CBS has altered the rules over the course of 8 seasons and added various twists to throw the contestants (and hopefully the audience). Some twists have been rule changes such as introducing a “power of veto”  which if one buy a contestant can be used to remove someone from the chopping block and get someone else to be nominated. Twists have also involved putting people in with their exes, having twins play along  and trying to avoid detection, revealing that contestants are related, bringing ousted houseguests back into the house and last year’s “all-star” edition.
  This year, aside from the Alice in Wonderland theme in the décor, the twist is that some players are in the house with people from their past that they consider their enemies. These include a skuzzy guy and his estranged daughter, two former high school rivals, and two gay men who are former boyfriends and had a nasty breakup. Plus, there’s a contestant in the house this year known as “America’s player”. His objective: to follow the directions of the viewers who see more than he does. He may have to vote a certain way or perform other tasks. The more tasks he performs the more money he makes ($10,000 for
each task!) and obviously he has to avoid detection or elimination. AND, this year Showtime is airing three full hours nightly of live feeds of the show.
    So you ask, why talk about this here on a site whose main concern is amateur porn? Well, let’s start with the voyeuristic aspects of the show. In addition to the edited CBS show, viewers can follow the houseguests with a 24/7 cam on the Real Player Network. Thus, you can see just about hear everything  that goes on in the house. Believe me, there are two hot guys (albeit straight) this year that are easily  as hot as many guys on the amateur site. Nick & Mike have no qualms about going shirtless and flaunting  their sculpted bods. Wish it was the same for the gay exes. Of the two, Joe is perhaps the epitome of a bad gay stereotype—a nelly, bitchy, whiny mess who thinks he’s entertaining. His ex Dustin fairs better (especially when it comes to being better eye candy-Joe doesn’t look like he’s lifted anything heavier than a martini) with a friendlier albeit talkative demeanor. Dustin also seems to be the one who was most wronged by his ex. Joe proclaimed (on the air) that he got gonorrhea from his ex who cheated on him. As careful viewers have learned Dustin tested neg for the std and it was Joe who was the cheater.
    Naturally it’s a bit early in this to say whether this will be a season worth watching, but it’s as close as you can get to watching amateur porn for free, especially if you watch the unexpurgated Showtime feeds known as “Big Brother After Dark”. Strange how that brings back memories of a late night show  in the 70s called “Playboy After Dark” which was as provocative as a cocktail napkin. Lets hope the Showtime series is more satisfying. It’s also too early to make our picks of people we’d like to see go  further. Obviously for eye candy alone we have to go with Mike & Nick (although hunks have big targets on their backs), Dustin, and the little mole, Eric who is also cute in a jack rabbity sort of way. Our two least favorites (so far) are Evil Dick (yes that’s his name!) and Kail, the mom. Why? Well Dick is probably  as close to a lowlife as we can see. We’re not exactly sure why he and his daughter are estranged but after watching this tattooed, smoking bar owner act for just an hour, we sympathize with the daughter.
   As for Kail, she appears as a sweet spiritual mom to her fellow houseguests. But she’s already told us she’s pretty well off in her small town so this is obviously less about needing the money than the publicity. Second, she’s a homophobe. Not one of those obviously hateful ones, but one who considers being gay to a “choice” issue. Plus, we’re still waiting for her to drag out her Bible and start preaching about her Christian values while lying, strategizing and doing decidedly un-Christian things to try and become the winner. More to come.