Big Brother season 24 players pitch new twist ideas for the show

Dalton Ross
·5 min read
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Expect the unexpected. That is the self-proclaimed motto for CBS' reality competition series Big Brother. And it has earned that reputation thanks to a seemingly never-ending assortment of random twists and turns that permeate each and every season. (Festie Besties, anyone?)

The series loves to keep players and viewers guessing with new wrinkles that often seen to arrive (or quietly disappear) willy-nilly. It has become part of the show's charm over 24 seasons. But what if we gave the players themselves the ability to come up with new twists for the game? Well, that's exactly what we did when we asked the current cast of season 24 to pitch new ideas for the show.

Before the season began, EW asked the entire group of 16 players to come up with a new Big Brother twist, and there were some interesting proposals put forth. Sure, not everyone was spinning gold. For instance, Paloma Aguilar suggestedbringing someone back "who got voted out in the first three weeks," which sounds suspiciously like a pre-COVID Battle Back competition. And we're not sure if Indy Santos' suggestion of "I want to see more reality and people can relate to us" really qualifies as a "twist", but there you have it.

Big Brother
Big Brother

CBS The cast of 'Big Brother' season 24

However, there were some intriguing suggestions as well, including a surprising one from… DJ SHOWTIME! "I would love to see a parallel HOH," says Terrance Higgins. "I would like for someone to have an HOH, but there's an invisible HOH that is really going to make the nominations and make the decisions. So while the HOH in play thinks that they're making the decision, it's actually another HOH behind the real thing, like a Wizard of Oz type of vibe that's really going to put the people up. And they really get to hear a lot of key things why they nominated these people but then when it comes up, there are actually going to be two different people sitting in that seat."

Interesting. Nicole Lyong actually pitched a variation on this herself, advocating for secret Head of Households where decisions are being made, but nobody knows who is making them. (For example, imagine a timed Head of Household competition where only the winner is informed he/she/they won and they then make nominations in secret.)

Also, this just in: The cast of season 24 may indeed be psychic! That's judging by how a few of the players had pitches for pairs or secret pairs that somewhat ended up mirroring this season's Festie Bestie situation. And then Ameerah Jones actually brought up a concept that touches on what producers just did by splitting up the house into two groups.

"I would like there to be more than one Big Brother house," says Ameerah. "So two kind of houses that are separate. We're living in these houses and playing our own games and all of a sudden, we have to combine houses and we live in one house together." Ameerah's idea could actually be a fun way to begin a season, where the inhabitants of each house having no idea there is a completely other houseful of players ready to be integrated at some point à la the Survivor merge.

BIG BROTHER Wednesday, MONTH, DAY (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT on the CBS Television Network and live streaming on Paramount+. Pictured: Big Brother Cast. Photo: CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Highest quality screengrab available.
BIG BROTHER Wednesday, MONTH, DAY (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT on the CBS Television Network and live streaming on Paramount+. Pictured: Big Brother Cast. Photo: CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Highest quality screengrab available.

CBS The cast of 'Big Brother' season 24

Of course, the best reality show twists are ones that usually force a player into making a difficult decision that could easily backfire. Which brings us to the pitch from Michael Bruner. "I think a really great twist always has an element of 'Am I going to be selfish and do something for myself, or kind of keep the peace,'" says Michael.

Okay, we're listening. So whaddya got? "I think a great twist would be that the HOH, they make their nominations, and after the nomination ceremony they can pick: I am going to take safety for the rest of the week and for next week, but in doing so, I can't play in the Veto competition, and the golden power of Veto becomes a diamond power of Veto. So whoever wins it is now in control of making a replacement nominee."

In the spirit of Big Brother always forcing players to restate the rules of a HOH or Veto competition immediately after the Head of Household has already done so, I will now sum up Michael's proposal for no apparent reason. Essentially, Michael is saying that an HOH would have to choose between a regular Head of Household reign, or taking two weeks of safety in exchange for allowing the Veto winner to have the power of naming a replacement nominee. But why, Michael?

"I think that would make for a lot of really tough decisions," says the season 24 Veto dominator. "'Do I be selfish and take safety for myself for next week and put my alliance at risk by someone pulling themselves off with the Veto and putting one of them up who would have been safe if I had kept power, or do I stick to my guns and keep my power and leave myself vulnerable for next week because I can't play [in the HOH]?' I think that would be really cool. Any chance to mix up the game where 'Am I going to be selfish or am I going to do what's best for my alliance?'"

We can't help but agree. Don't know that we'd want to see it every week, but certainly a fun way to mix things up. To see the twist pitches from the entire season 24 cast, watch the video at the top of the post, and then weigh in with your own Big Brother twist. What's a new wrinkle you would like to see added into the house?

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