Big Brother: Celebrity Edition spotlight: Can Marissa Jaret Winokur win?

When the cast for Big Brother: Celebrity Edition was first announced, Marissa Jaret Winokur was one of the names that we were the most surprised about … by and large because we hadn’t heard her name in quite some time. The Broadway icon is known for Hairspray and she also appeared on Dancing with the Stars, but it was quite a long time ago.

There are two things that we are somewhat excited about when it comes to her participation in this season beyond her claim to fame.

1. She knows Julie Chen rather well – Winokur has been a contributor on The Talk in the past, so she’s probably closer pre-show to Julie than almost any other contestant who has ever been on the show. While we don’t think that this helps her out in the game even a little bit, there is something relatively interesting to us about getting to see someone in this game with some sort of relationship with the host on the outside. If nothing else, it could introduce a different dynamic to the show.

2. She is a Big Brother fan – There are a number of people on this season who we are absolutely confident have never seen a single second of this show. Marissa, however, is actually pretty familiar with it. That could be a huge advantage on a season like this, largely because you’re probably going to have a lot of people taking part with reasonably-delicate egos. They don’t want to be embarrassed and as a result of that, they could look towards someone like her for some sort of advice as to how to handle it. She just needs to be there to be a shoulder for people to cry on if they are freaking out.

The thing we’re most excited about – Seeing how someone like Winokur can translate some of her enthusiasm for the game into the season. What’s so interesting here is that she is probably too famous to ever be a part of the regular version of the show; with that, she considers this to be more or less her big opportunity to see if she can live up to some of her expectations. We think she’s got a reasonable shot at winning, and more than that her excitement for being there should make her fairly fun to watch.

Related – See all of our Big Brother: Celebrity Edition spotlight articles

What do you think are the chances that Winokur ends up going really far on Big Brother: Celebrity Edition? Share now in the comments, and be sure to also like CarterMatt on Facebook in the event you want some more insight on the show. (Photo: CBS.)