Big Brother Is Back: Find Out How an Interactive New Twist Will "Change the Course of the Game"

After a controversial season 15, the CBS reality hit is back with a few changes, including an interactive voting feature

By Lauren Piester Jun 26, 2014 5:00 AMTags
Big Brother, Julie ChenBill Inoshita/CBS

Big Brother is back and, hopefully, better than last year.

After a controversial season 15 filled with racism, homophobia and other such unpleasantness, the CBS reality show has returned with a brand new treehouse-themed BB house and a few new major twists.

In Part 1 of the two-part Season 16 premiere, we met eight of this year's 16 contestants, while the other eight will be introduced tomorrow night in Part 2. Of course, tonight's contestants have already formed an alliance, given themselves a name (Crazy Eights), then divided up into smaller alliances with names like "El Quatro," so it will be very interesting to see how it goes when the second half of the cast is added to the fold. 

Tonight's 8 contestants included Amber, Cody, Devin, Donny, Frankie, Joey, Nicole, and Paola. Frankie, who just so happens to be pop star Ariana Grande's brother, won the first Head of Household competition of the season, but the honor got a little scarier as host Julie Chen revealed the first of the season's big twists: there will be two Heads of Household, and each HoH will nominate two houseguests for eviction. However, only one HoH will be "left standing" at the end of each week. Dun dun dun! 

The houseguests were shocked, though we bet Amber was fairly glad she chose to throw the HoH competition and allow Frankie to win. 

The other big twist, known as Team America, allows viewers to vote online for the contestant they would most like to be in an alliance with. The three contestants with the most votes will get to go on secret missions throughout the season, which will apparently "change the course of the game." One vote took place tonight and the first member of Team America will be revealed tomorrow. We're not sure what exactly this means, but we're sure it will be entertaining. 

Just based on his intro, we're kind of already rooting for down-home Donny. He packed a pair of jeans as his fancy clothes, you guys. He wears them to church! He doesn't have fancy britches! He feels like he's been shot out of a cannon and landed on Mars! He doesn't fit in at all and we love him already. 

Part 2 of the Season 16 premiere airs on Thursday, and we kind of can't wait to see what other big changes Julie has in store for us.

Meet all 16 contestants in our gallery, and head to the comments to let us know your picks for Team America.