‘Big Brother 16’ review: The first eviction and new Heads of Household

We almost appreciate that “Big Brother 16” wasted little time to start the live eviction, mostly because this seemed to be such a formality from the get-go that a certain someone would be going home.

So was the eviction of Joey unanimous? It was, but there’s no real reason for Devin or Caleb to be happy about this “victory.” Everyone knows that these two are the big threats in the game, and they will be targeted in the future provided they lose competitions. Joey just was way too crazy with her campaigning, and while her “Alex” alter ego was funny for us, it was more terrifying for some people in the house. Alas, the first member of Team America goes home before she can do a single thing.

The post-eviction chat with Julie Chen was fun, but a tiny little complaint here: Why not give her names? Julie told her that one of the houseguests was an undercover cop, and another was a sibling of a famous pop star. We missed out on the responses to those, and that’s a shame since they would have probably been very entertaining to watch.

As for the HoH competition, it was remarkably easy since you basically just had to transfer barrels, and we are pretty sure that a good 75% of them really didn’t want to win the power anyway. Amber won it, which really just means more trouble for the people not in the Bomb Squad. Personaly, we expect to see Hayden / Donny as her likely nominees to help ensure that a guy is in jeopardy.

The irony here is that Hayden almost saved himself from an initial nomination in the second part of the challenge, and then bungled it at the very end … maybe. After reviewing the tape, it was determined that Cody bungled this, as well, and Devin actually won. Ooh boy, is this going to be interesting.

As for Team America, the next (or we suppose first now) member is none other than … Donny! He managed to beat out Frankie despite a tweet from Ariana Grande for her brother, which may be proof that we’ve overrated her social media pull.

This episode wasn’t the best of the season, mostly because the HoH competition was lame and Joey’s eviction was predictable. It’s still a likable cast, though, and that has to mean something. Grade: B-.

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Photo: CBS