Big Brother USA 2018 - Launch part 1

So it's goodbye Arisa, and hello to Julie Chen as we kick off the 2nd half of Big Brother season for 2018

Usually it would be Emma Willis before Julie, but as the UK bosses don't know their ass from first base at the moment it's straight into BB USA business first and a whole 99 days of USA goodness or 91 as they went in last week and this launch is entirely pre-recorded

Down to business as Julie welcomes us in for another season from inside the house, where she gives us a few facts and figures as in 240 houseguests have gone through the doors and have played over 600 challenges and $10 million in prize money has been given away

#butfirst

Let's meet the 16 contenders for 2018

First 8 are:

Complete with intro VT's much like the UK housemates do before they go in

Bayleigh - Miss Congeniality winner and Flight Attendant from Missouri
Tyler - Lifeguard from South Carolina
Sam - Female welder from Virginia
Steve - Former police detective from New Jersey
Kaitlyn - Life Coach from New York
Angela - Fitness model from California
JC - Dancer and bodybuilder from California
Winston - Medical sales adviser from Kentucky

Back to the studio where the above houseguests are waiting and Bayleigh is first in....For those who don't know there is a sort of first in doesn't win curse so more than likely Bayleigh will not be winning the whole thing in 3 months time

The customary getting to know you's all round as the first 8 mingle for a bit, before we cut back to Julie in the studio

And without further ado, let's meet the other 8 contenders via their intro VT's

Rachel - Las Vegas showgirl from Las Vegas
Chris - Former college basketball player and babysitter from Conneticut
Angie - Stay at home mum from Maryland
Brett - Cyber security engineer from Boston
Kaycee - Football player from California
Scottie - Nerd from Chicago
Haleigh - Student and farm girl from Texas
Faysal - Football coach from Florida

Rinse and repeat for the first 8, and we have our class of 2018

Thankfully no veterans, at least not yet

The executive producer Allison Grodner said there would be no veterans as in past players this year, as it kind of backfired last year when the returning player basically took over the whole show, and still didn't win despite all the advantages he got

Anyways, back to the show and Steve spots the hidden bedroom to much excitement from everyone else. Sam is commenting on how JC is as cute as a button. Champagne is flowing as everyone does their hellos and introductions to each other.

After a while, Julie appears on the plasma in the living room and she announces the first challenge for the night

CHALLENGE #1

First challenger for this season is called BB Supercomputer. The houseguests will be split into 2 groups of 8, but it has to be equal in gender as in 4 men and 4 women on each team.

Team 1 - Angela, Bayleigh, Brett, JC, Kaycee, Tyler, Rachel and Winston
Team 2 - Angie, Chris, Faysal, Haleigh, Kaitlyn, Sam, Steve and Scottie

Immediately there is a system crash and Team 1 are plunged into darkness. Basically to cut a long story short, there are 6 cards with ESCAPE on them and another 1 which is ESCAPE AND PLAY. The last houseguest left faces a punishment which will be revealed later in the show.

After several minutes, Angela finds the ESCAPE AND PLAY card and continues on in the overall challenge, but Kaycee is the last houseguest and, as stated by Julie, will get her punishment later in the show.

CHALLENGE #2

Again, to cut a long story short....

This challenge is called Not a Bot

Team 2 were suspended from cables and had to stack letter blocks on top of one another to spell the word HOUSEGUEST. If any houseguests stacks collapse then they have to start from scratch.

First to finish goes on to play Angela in the final challenge, and like the first challenge the last placed houseguest will get a yet to be revealed punishment

Winner - Chris
Last to finish - Sam

Chris v Angela in the final challenge, and Sam for the punishment later in the show

FINAL CHALLENGE

Surfing the BB web is the name of the final challenge and whoever is left standing out of Chris or Angela wins the overall challenge. Lots of BB themed obstacles come at them very quickly.

Winner - Chris

For his prize, Chris has to choose two each from the entering groups of four and he chooses:

Angie, Brett, Rachel and himself
Faysal, Haliegh, Kaycee and Scottie 

These 8 will be immune from the first eviction

And now for the punishments.....

Kaycee is first out of the diary room and she is wearing a multi coloured costume with a pinwheel hanging from her neck. Basically, whenever the pinwheel starts spinning she has to remain in the room she is in until the pinwheel stops

As for Sam, she has been 'transformed' into a robot and can interact with everyone else as the robot. She can be herself when she gets the signal of 'Robot Offline', and back to the robot when 'Robot Online' is played into the house. These punishments will run up to the first eviction

Before the end of the show, Julie announced BB App Store was open for business and the viewer can decide which houseguest gets a reward and who gets a punishment, the first result will be announced on this weekend coming.

She then plugs the shows that are incoming, which will be Head of House and the first nominations, then the App vote result, then it's Power of Veto and finally the first not so live eviction

And that's the end of the first part of the launch, and the second part will be typed up shortly

Final thoughts - In short I really enjoyed it, and no veterans so far which can only be a good thing. I really hope Grodner sticks to this, and veterans are only used for competitions only. Really looking forward to the second part of the launch.

In closing, if you want to find out some more about the houseguests click on Hamsterwatch's link on the right

And as always if you would like to listen to podcasts for this season or indeed past podcasts for Canada, UK or USA the links on the right are your friend

Be sure to catch Big Brother Radio straight after episode 2 has aired at 3am as Dr. Detroit, Garry, Erica and Sarah will be reviewing the 2 part premiere, or if that is too late for you be sure to click on the respective link on the right when the next recap on here is posted and listen then.

BB on Blast at time of writing are uploading their take on the premiere so be sure to catch them when that is ready

Like with BB Canada, Rob has a Podcast will be broadcasting shortly after each televised episode so be sure to catch them

Thanks for reading this if you have popped in and go this far :)

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And remember someone is always watching, good night for now