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Katie from We Love Big Brother has released details of her experience in the Big Brother house, during the media faux competition. I'll reprint here, with all source props going to WeLoveBigBrother.com Go over and pay a visit and bookmark for future BB News!
Big Brother Media Day Part 1: The New BB11 House
WeLoveBigBrother.com’s Katie Neal:
When I went into the Big Brother 11 house to represent WeLoveBigBrother.com, I was joined by eleven other journalists. They were Jen Johnson from MSN.com, Gunther from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Rosanna Tavarez from the TV Guide Network, Reagan Alexander from People.com, Dennis Luciani from National Lampoon, Melissa from CBS2 LA, Stella from CBS.com, Carrie Moten from Johnjay and Rich, Ben from BSideBlog, Ann Murray from Fancast, and Jay Schwartz.
After going through security and arriving at Big Brother, all of the journalists were instructed to sit in a room together. We were not allowed to talk to each other at all during this waiting period.
We met with the executive producers and they led us to the stage where Julie hosts the show. We were instructed to stand on the stairs just like the houseguests do before they enter the house. The producers ran through a list of rules and things we weren’t allowed to do in the house. Chewing gum and breaking house items were off limits! Allison Grodner told us that we would be able to choose a bed upon entering the Big Brother house. However, there weren’t enough beds for all of us because one of the rooms was locked. Allison said that since we were there for 12 hours, we didn’t all need a bed. She wouldn’t tell us why the bedroom was locked other than it was involved in the twist.
Eventually, our names were drawn at random and we were allowed to enter the house four at a time. I was picked to enter the house with Gunther and two others.
When we first entered the house, I noticed that the one big wall on the side had been changed. It had tons of plants and all the walls had been changed to different colors of plywood. It looked really cool. The interior decorating looked really nice. When I turned to my left, I noticed the kitchen had an oriental theme with Buddha statues and Chinese heirlooms.
I remember there were plastic chopsticks and the plates were actually made out of bamboo. The plates were really thin and almost looked like paper plates. The cabinets were made out of bamboo as well. There were a lot of orange and red colors in the kitchen. It looked like the houseguests will have to grow their own spices because there were garlic and thyme plants in the kitchen. The oven, refrigerator, and all normal appliances were still present.
Before entering the house, Allison Grodner informed us that the house was going green. She told us that there were two compost machines in the house. One was in the backyard and we weren’t allowed to use it. There was also a compost machine in the kitchen, but none of us ever really figured out how to use it. Also, the garbage cans in the kitchen had a side for paper and plastic and another side for glass.
Once we became acquainted with the kitchen, we ventured down the hall to the bathroom. It had an industrial look to it. The couch was still in the corner. The bathroom had its normal setup with no major changes, other than the walls looking industrial. As far as online rumors go, there were no urinals on the wall! The shower door was clear with a little portion of foggy glass so you can’t see the midriff of anyone. There was a sliding shower curtain in the middle to split the shower in two. There was another online rumor that the sinks were had motion sensors. Jen actually thought this was the case and waved her hands under the sink, but no water came out. Then she figured out she had to turn on the handle!
The exercise / spa room has two bicycles that have light bulbs next to them. When you pedal each bike, the light bulbs light up. At one point, Gunther and Jay were riding the bikes to see who could get the brightest light bulb. We joked around that it would be funny if the houseguests had to continuously ride a bike to keep the lights on. Half of the gym has the tops of bottles on the walls in interesting designs. The other side of the room is decorated with giant bubble wrap. The green recycling symbol is painted on the walls.
On the other side of the house, there were two bedrooms that we were allowed in. The first was straight down the hall and had no doors to it. There were three really cool beds in there. That room was painted with reds and the headboards were really tall. Those beds looked really nice and comfortable. This first room didn’t really have a theme to it.
But the other room had a swimming pool theme. The first third of the wall had wallpaper that looked like water. Above the wallpaper was a cement border that looked like the edge of a pool. The last two thirds of the wall were designed to look like the underside of a pool. So it felt like you were literally under water. There were safety ropes running along the ceiling to make it look life-like. The beds actually had giant floats on them so it looked like you were floating on water. Coming out of the wall was a slide that was complete with a ladder. There were extra sunglasses and floats around the bedroom to make it feel like you were actually at the pool.
The diary room looks similar to the way it looked during Big Brother 10. There wasn’t a theme or anything to it. It is just a dark and dimly lit room with a comfortable couch to sit on.
The living room still had a similar setup with two couches that were a shade of purple. There were two green nominee chairs that faced the monitor where Julie Chen talks to the houseguests. The walls were different shades of plywood. I know “plywood” doesn’t sound really nice, but it did look really cool.
One strange thing I noticed was that in the living room there was a random dish of keys. At first we thought maybe there was a twist and we had to use the keys to unlock a secret room. But we ended up just making up games of hiding and searching for the keys.
Back to the kitchen area, the spiral staircase is painted orange to match the kitchen theme. There are a lot of cool pictures upstairs. They were hung up high with lights shining behind them to light up the pictures. In the Head of Household balcony, there was a large comfortable couch that was sage-green. Oh, the chessboard it still there too. When we first walked in the Head of Household room, the one wall had glass over it and behind it there was an outdoors picture. So it almost looks like you’re looking out a window. So that part of the room has a recreational or outdoors theme. There was actually a big, comfortable chair in the HOH room that swiveled around. Everyone took a turn spinning around in the fun, new chair. The spy screen in the HOH room looked the same. It had a looping Big Brother 11 screensaver on it.
The HOH bathroom had a big surfboard on the wall with a wetsuit attached to it.
The first time the door opened to go into the backyard, I right away noticed that there was still a pool table. There was new patio furniture. The hot tub, pool, and hammock have all returned this year. The mural on the back wall was of a windmill field and looked really cool.
Another online rumor is that the clothes washer has disappeared. However, there was definitely a washer there when I lived in the house.
The compost machine was set off in the corner and we were told not to use it. I’m not sure how it worked, but I saw it over in the corner
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Big Brother 11 Media Day Part 2: The Competition
WeLoveBigBrother.com’s Katie Neal:
Everyone who entered the house with me was really nice. The people I enjoyed the most were Rosanna and Carrie. We all spent a lot of time together. Nobody really split off by themselves. However, Gunther was really strange. Within five minutes of being in the house and exploring each room, we turned around and Gunther was wearing a leather suit and has a leather strap around him… not to mention his leather hat and boots. It was really strange and he ended up wearing that the entire day.
Our first competition was the Head of Household competition. We played the HOH game “Majority Rules.” They would ask us questions about the other houseguests and the twist is that we couldn’t answer what we thought the correct answer was. Instead, we had to answer with who we thought the majority of the house would answer. It was hard because we each thought we knew the “correct” answer but you had to think about if everyone else would know the same answer. So we had to guess how the majority of the house would answer. One of the questions was about Gunther and asked what he liked more about being on Craig Ferguson’s show. Option A was “Kilt Fridays” and option B was “meeting a lot of famous people.” I guessed that Gunther liked to hang out with famous people, but I should have known he had a thing for Kilt Fridays. Another question asked “who is more likely to go topless in the Big Brother pool?” Option A was me (Katie) and option B was Melissa. That question had a split vote, 3-3. Thanks guys! Reagan won the final round of Majority Rules and became Head of Household.
After the HOH competition, we went in the house and Reagan had to nominate two people for eviction. We didn’t know who he was going to nominate because we hadn’t been in the house that long. Eventually we had the nomination ceremony and Reagan nominated Jen and Jay.
One of the first things Reagan had to do as HOH was put four people on Big Brother Slop. He had us all sit in the living room and plead our case as to why we should not be put on slop. It was funny because as soon as Dennis stood up and opened his mouth, Reagan shut him down and told him to sit down because he was going on slop. Dennis didn’t even get a chance to plead his case. I chose an emotional approach and asked Reagan how he would feel if he had to put his two dogs on slop. I guess it paid off that we discussed his dogs earlier in the day. Melissa’s excuse for avoiding slop was that she had low blood sugar and she would be a cranky bitch if she didn’t eat regular food. Reagan must have wanted to see a cranky bitch because he put Melissa on slop. Stella and Gunther were also placed on slop. Reagan actually felt so bad that he put himself on slop as well. Everyone ended up giving it a taste-test. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it was just tasteless. It was basically slimy oatmeal.
After the nominations, Reagan spent a lot of time in the Diary Room. Eventually, he came out and was wearing a pink scarf and a strange hat with a propeller on top. He told us we need to “get our heads out of the clouds.” We all entered the storage room where we found matching propeller hats and scarves. We were instructed to find someone we trusted and choose them as a partner. Carrie was right next to me so we looked at each other and become teammates. We became the purple team for the Veto Competition. Reagan was paired with Jen, Rosanna was with Jay, Dennis and Gunther were together, Ben and Stella paired up, and Ann and Melissa were paired off.
When the back door was opened, a blue tarp was all over the ground. There were tables that had white fluffy stuff that looked like clouds. Each team had to stand on buckets and pick up two pies at a time. Each team had to use their buckets one at a time to “walk across the sky” while alternating partners one in front of the other. Carrie and I were on our second trip when we saw Jen and Reagan get to the finish. When you got to the end, you were supposed to pie yourself in the face. Jen actually jumped forward and pied herself in the face because she really wanted to save herself from eviction.
After the Veto competition, there were four extra pies off to the side. We were told that the four people who were placed on slop had the chance to get a slop pass. Each person chose one of the four pies. One of the pies had a slop pass inside, but each member had to pie themselves to reveal if their pie had the pass inside. At the last second, Stella backed out and didn’t pie herself in the face. Of course, her pie actually had the hidden slop pass!
Later on, Power of Veto winner Jen ended up removing herself from the chopping block. That meant that HOH, Reagan, had to nominate a replacement for Jen. Reagan nominated Gunther because he wanted to see Gunther wearing his ridiculous outfit in one of the nominee chairs.
Gunther didn’t have a lot of time to campaign. About 10 minutes after the Veto Ceremony, we were called to the Diary Room to place our votes for eviction. I stuck to my agreement with Jay that I would save him. So I had to vote to evict Gunther. He ended up being evicted by a vote of five to four.
After he was evicted, Gunther was instructed to get up and leave the house. But he forgot which door he came in and he tried to leave via the storage room. The producers had to come over the speaker and tell him to leave through the front door.
This year for the media in-house day, the producers gave us an incentive to play our hardest. We were informed before we entered the house that the best player would win $500. At the end of the game, we had to vote which houseguest played the best. I voted for Reagan and he ended up winning this special prize.
If someone told me I had to do this again for 12 hours, there would have to be some bribery involved. It was a really cool experience, but man, even being in there for 12 hours you get bored out of your mind. We were only in there for 12 hours, but it felt more like a week. Now if someone told me I was going to live there for three months, I would likely say absolutely not because after only 12 hours, I felt like I was losing my mind. I can now understand why everyone who goes in there starts to go crazy so quickly.
Source: WeLoveBigBrother.com
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