Around the Web: Scheming Edition

It's been an eventful couple of first days on the feeds, with fights, hookups, secrets, lies, and the power lines beginning to be drawn in the house. Those lines, however, seem to be written in smudge pencil, or maybe polka dots, with some players, like Jeremy and McCrae, in multiple alliances within the house.

The game to watch right now is McCrae's. Crae-Crae the pizza boy is emerging as the unlikely competition beast so far this season, with both the first HOH and first POV wins under his belt.

Whereas the sense of the house previously seemed to lean towards booting MVP Elissa, things shifted overnight, with members of the "Moving Company" alliance beginning to consider keeping Elissa and booting comp threat David this week.

From poster sunfunguy on Jokers Updates comes an interesting analysis of what's on tap today on the live feeds. Jeremy may be the player to watch today. After yesterday's passive aggressive blowout with Elissa, he's unlikely to be down with the plan to keep her, and this may push him out of the Moving Company crew and into the Blondetourage crew downstairs in an effort to sway the votes to prevent it.

Jeremy's strategy, for what it's worth, seems to involve winning HOH every other week. Because, that's proven to be an effective strategy in the past.

I wouldn't necessarily say that Nick's strategy, which is driving the potential David eviction, is any better. In spinning his scheme last night on Big Brother After Dark, he was positively giddy about their ability to secretly pull this off, and yet wasn't even sure if nominee Elissa would be able to vote. Confidential to Nick: Figure out the rules of the game first, then figure out how to play it, and then start hatching the big power moves.

Either way, this crew seems to be on a path to splitting the house on the first eviction of the season, and there are still six full days of game between now and then.

Buckle in and get your popcorn ready - it's shaping up to be another crazy summer in Studio City.

Around the Web: #BB15: The Countdown Begins

Haha, just kidding, the countdown has been all over Twitter since, like, Christmas. OK, so it's now the final countdown.

So, it's almost here! The houseguests have been revealed, and are already plotting and strategizing away in the house (apparently, though CBS has yet to release the traditional entry photo and cast photo to confirm.) I watched interviews on Big Brother Network mostly for their lack of Jeff.

For what it's worth, I believe that it's almost impossible to tell anything from preseason interviews. I've almost never liked the same houseguests in the house that I like in the interviews, and the real gameplayers never emerge until they're under the wire. Why? Well, because most of us don't really know ourselves that well. It's all well and good to fire "what if" questions at them, but most houseguests don't actually behave in the house the way that they think they would, and the way they act is far more important than what they think about themselves.

So, that said, I thought it would be fun to record my initial observations before they slide off my Twitter timeline, and maybe later this season we can revisit just how wrong I was.

I hear Aaryn was less likable in other interviews, so this might be a fluke. 

Andy is an early contender for my favorite, based solely on interviews. I remember on Season 12, when Matt and Ragan would frequently discuss the casting process ("You are not allowed to talk about Production") and refer to doppelgangers they'd seen in casting, people who were clearly in contention for the same spot. Andy and Ragan, without a doubt, are doppelgangers of each other - energetic gay speech professors. Can Andy manage to do what Ragan couldn't? 

(I was a fan of Ragan, for the record.)

Girl alliance! I could root for some of these apparently vapid girls if they could get their act together and get some girl power rocking in the house this year without letting it dissolve into cattiness and backbiting, as usually happens. Some of them seem to want to do that, but can they pull it off? 

Elissa Slater is, of course, Rachel Reilly's sister. I'm willing to give her a chance on her own merits, especially if she dicks around with deals less than Rachel did. Also, her eyes:

David might be great for the lulz, though. 

I'm not sure I'm going to like Howard, but I see him wanting to play hard. Also, I agree with the countless folks who have speculated about a Howard/Candice showmance - it seems like they may have been cast with that in mind. (Robyn Kass, Matchmakers Inc.)

And finally:

So, which ones will I be right about? Oh, probably approximately none of them. We'll see their true colors once we get to see them scheming and competing. Some of these people we will love, some we will loathe, most of them will surprise us. I do think we have a number of potentially interesting characters and group dynamics on tap, and 

I've got some great things planned for the site this summer, which I can't wait to reveal. And I'll be watching the premiere at the BB NYC party on Wednesday with the New York area houseguests - if anything good happens, I will report back! 

Happy summer, everyone!