‘Big Brother 18’ rankings: Why Natalie Negrotti, Paul Abrahamian are in best spot

We’re going into the week 8 eviction on “Big Brother 18,” and facing the possibility that nobody could be going home at all. Blame the Round-Trip Ticket twist for that.

While we do feel as though evidence points strongly towards Paulie having it — largely because the Friday show is being set up now as a fairly-useless party with Ziggy Marley as opposed to a Battle Back show or whatever it could have been — for the sake of this article it’s not right to dwell. Our focus instead is on trying to rank the remaining houseguests in terms of who has the best odds to make it to the end and win. We’re judging these mostly on the live feeds as opposed to the air show, and on a criteria that includes challenge wins, social game, strategy, and overall threat level. After all, if you’re too big a threat, odds are that you’re not making it there.

8. Paulie Calafiore – There is actually a decent case to be made to take Paulie far at this point. Who would vote for someone who threatened to quit? Unless this is the “Survivor: The Amazon” of “Big Brother” seasons, we don’t see it. He’s also too much of a poison-pill to keep around, though the Round-Trip Ticket may buy him one more week (and that’s it, unless he wins a competition).

7. Corey Brooks – Do we think there is a reasonably good chance he makes it to the end as a animal-we-shall-not-mention-because-of-what-Corey-did-one-time? Yes, but we cannot imagining a jury voting in a million years for a do-nothing guy who followed Nicole’s orders.

6. Victor Arroyo – Kudos to Victor for resurrecting the show much like he was resurrected himself. It’s too bad that we don’t quite see him getting a lot of votes given that he is A) Paul’s puppet and B) was previously evicted week 2.

5. Nicole Franzel – If she makes it to the end against anyone mentioned above her on this list, she wins. Otherwise, she’s burned too many people with her wishy-washy attitude and devoting the majority of her time to Corey. She has the capacity to be a good player, but seemingly has learned nothing from two seasons ago.

4. Michelle Meyer – To think, one month ago nobody had her winning the game or potentially even getting more than a vote or two. This is what calling out Paulie will do to you! While she may have still burned too many people, there’s something to respect about her confident actions and blunt talk. Yep, she’s just like Patrick Stewart!

3. James Huling – It’s easily to imagine scenarios where James makes it to the end against someone like Nicole / Michelle and gets the votes from most of the guys. Or, it’s possible that he goes there against a Corey and a Victor and runs the table. He does have issues (he’s somewhat spineless strategically + he’s already won $5,000 and could be an easy eviction scapegoat in a few weeks), but his gameplay overall doesn’t include haven’t people on the jury who would shy away from giving him the money.

2. Paul Abrahamian – If you were asking us who is playing the best game, it’s him. Despite winning a limited number of competitions he’s worked from the bottom into multiple dominant alliances, he’s survived the block, and he’s also proved to be incredibly well-liked. If he makes it to the end against anyone, he wins. Getting there is the challenge given that next week it seems like Nicole and Corey could target him.

1. Natalie Negrotti – While she’s not playing the best game and has faltered at times this season (we still think telling Zakiyah about Paulie was a dangerous strategic move, even if it was a nice one as a human being), there’s something to be said for being in the best spot. She has a Jordan Lloyd sort of quality to her where she can be an appealing option to almost anyone, and there’s no one seemingly ready to target her for several weeks.

We’ve laid out our case, so let us know yours! Vote in the attached poll, and head over here to get the latest from the “Big Brother” live feeds going into tonight’s show! Meanwhile, sign up at this link to secure some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)