Big Brother Season 27 (2025) / Survivor Season 49 (2025) / The Amazing Race Season 38 (2025)

[Timewalker]

Apologies for not getting this thread up on time. I misread the start dates.

The first two BB episodes have been shown already.

The discussion so far:

I've heard Survivor Australia is worth seeing but I'm not sure where I can watch it besides Youtube maybe.

Not sure how I feel about the Big Brother cast yet. There's nobody I dislike but something just kinda feels off so far. Everyone has podcaster energy, like they're all salesmen of themselves. We'll see how it develops.

I don't get the point of the accomplice twist since it was over in episode two and didn't amount to anything. No ongoing sabotage. What was the point?

Sorry, I have no idea how to watch anything from Australia. Agreed that the accomplice thing was pointless unless they can salvage it some other way. The women seemed to have better thinking skills on this, but why didn't they speak up if they thought it was a woman? It's not like their votes weren't secret.


Normally I would have checked out the cast to see if I get any impressions. There wasn't time, so my impressions from the episodes will have to do:

Honestly, not very many give good impressions right off the bat, and I'll admit some are for what people might consider shallow reasons, but we'll see.

Riley: I would be using earplugs to avoid listening to his accent. Sorry, but my Canadian ears find some accents really grating to listen to.

Any of the women who are pretending to be blonde: Stop it. Your natural ethnicity isn't a Halloween costume, right? Well, neither is mine.

Ava seems nice. She also looks like she's about 14 years old. Tentative good first impression. Hopefully she doesn't overboard with talking about "auras" because anything like that tends to put people on the "too weird, must evict" list.

D&D player. Should be interesting to see if DM strategy translates into good BB strategy. Just don't go into either Lawful Evil or Chaotic Evil territory and my jury will be out for now.

Amy: Stop using half the contents of your makeup kit at once. You look like a clown.

Rachel: Would they please just vote her out ASAP? I didn't like her in her previous seasons. She's just gotten worse now. She might have strategy, but that insincere fakery and posing (she's really not all that) started annoying me inside of 2 minutes. I pity the people having to live with her.

Ashley: Who takes 2-hour-long showers and then gets annoyed when other people get annoyed about it? Please let her be the first to be booted.

Vince: Tentatively makes a good first impression and is trying to be a good HOH.


The design of the house isn't bad. It's really interesting, like a combination of Clue and several other early 20th-century mystery-murder settings. Actually, having a Clue theme for BB would be a fantastic idea.


The Amazing Race Canada started last week. Opening leg was in Edmonton, AB. The second set of tasks happened in my city. Pretty underwhelming, in all honesty. Really annoying teams, for the most part, so I won't bother watching.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

With Ava it's hard for me to get past her completely absurd career focus on "Auras" and phony spiritualism scams, but she hasn't done anything wrong in the house yet.

My early pick this season is Zach. He seems level headed, well liked, and good at comps.

I kind of liked Amy at first but now she's starting to annoy me, she seems weirdly entitled but no game besides allying with Rachel.

Jimmy feels like he's already written his ticket out of the house. Keanu feels like he's a permanent go to target for a lot of people now, those two might destroy each other.

Vince seems to have played his HoH well and didn't make many enemies.

I also don't really mind Rachel so far this year but I don't think she'll be able to stay under the radar very long.

Spoiler: Veto

Kellie seems cool but I do not get her offer to be nominated. Nobody knows much about who's voting for who yet, I think she's in the most danger and only through her own dumb move.

 

[Timewalker]

Jimmy went from decent first impression last episode to disgusting jerk this episode, in less time than it takes me to type this.

I want Ashley gone. Doesn't BB have some sort of penalty for houseguests who are late for meetings and competitions?

Seriously, Rachel: Quit prancing around in your underwear and put some real clothes on.

The woman who lists her job as "fine dining-whatever" (can't be bothered to learn her name yet): It's called being a waitress. Doesn't matter if it's a fancy restaurant or the local diner. She's a waitress.

Oh, good grief. Has whatsername never seen the show? Pawns usually get sent home. About the only season I can remember when it took a long time for that to happen was the one where the pawn was the dentist (can't remember his name).

Agreed about Zach. So far, so good. I have nothing bad to say of Keanu, either. And yes, Vince is still doing a good job as HOH.


I will be disappointed if they don't have at least one competition with an Edgar Allen Poe theme. The house decor this year is fantastic.

 

[Danny99]

Just got caught up on the PVR.

How after 27 seasons are there still technical issues during live shows?

And we're still allowing shout outs!

And why did Julie keep saying by a vote of 5 to 9?

Who decided it would be a good idea to have a 90 minute Wednesday episode full of clips like Adrian vs. the washing machine and the amazing appearing Keanu and then losing the HOH competition in a Thursday episode where we still had more pre-vote stuff going on? I understand they were probably given the time slots without much negotiation, but why don't you move the Blockbuster and pre-vote stuff onto Wednesday? Then you don't have that awkward moment before the vote where Julie tells them they can strategize when most of those choices have already been made.

I will give Rachel credit. She has been pretty quiet for the most part and actually plans on staying that. Hard to believe Rachel and quiet can be used in the same sentence, but here we are.

Is Jimmy supposed to be a super fan? Doing his big dramatic performance at the veto meeting was silly, especially in the first week. Way to put a target on your back.

If he and Ashley could be evicted ASAP, my enjoyment of the season would increase.

 

[Timewalker]

The shout-outs are annoying, but what I can't fathom is the little dance thing they do in the hallway between the living room and diary room. That's a perfect opportunity to stack the vote by the one who just voted, whispering who they voted for (or indicating it in some other way).

Rachel needs to be gone. Good grief, she's obnoxious. Does she own even one article of normal clothing that isn't sparkly? I get that she's made $$$$$$$$$ off of BB by now, but couldn't she just wear a normal shirt and pants? That whole schtick about "wearing a gown" is just stupid. WTF does she think she is, royalty?

I'm glad Kelley won the Block Buster competition, but I can't figure out how. I had two words figured out, but couldn't make out the rest. Does anyone know what the whole thing said? One word was "with" and another was "least".


Julie appears to be math-challenged. Either that, or saying "9 to 5" might have struck her as weird?

I should think the 90-minute Wednesday episodes might be due to either Survivor or TAR taking another 90 minutes later on, when they get going (I'm not sure when their premieres are).

Jimmy's a jerk.

Adrian is so forgettable that when he came into the diary room, I couldn't remember seeing him before. There are still a few of them that I'm fuzzy on, and might not be able to match names and faces until they actually do something.

At least the first evictee was a good sport about it. "How many can say they came in 17th on Big Brother?"

 

[Timewalker]

Okay, I'm confused about the powers the three non-HOH winners got. It sounded like they can't be used until there's a jury?

Or did it mean they can only be used before the first jury member is picked?

 

[Danny99]

I think the powers are good until jury.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Spoiler: Evictee

I'm glad Amy went home. I don't dislike her as a person but she added nothing to the game. Whereas I like Adrian and Wyll. What surprised me a little more was how it seemed Wyll was untouchable no matter who won the challenge, everybody in the house sees him as good for their game and would have only voted for him to save their BFFs.

My first week pick was Zack but now I'm starting to like Mickey and Morgan. They seem to be super smart and completely under the radar. They might be able to sit back, watch the big threats and big personalities dispatch each other and then be left in the house with a bunch of airheads. Vince is in a great position too, he somehow pulled off being first HoH without making any enemies.

Jimmy, Rachel and Keanu's games all seem DOA, Kellie seems like she's going to be a pawn until someone gets her. But everyone else seems very much in play to have a shot.

Rylie seemed based on first impressions like he was going to be more of a factor but he seems like King Floater now. He'll roll any which way with the tides and even if he makes it to the end will get no creidt. Ava also seems like big floater, she has her adorable cartoon reactions but isn't doing anything. And Katherine I keep forgetting exists still.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm still seeing some of them and my first reaction is "Who are you?"

Rachel can go any time. Like now. How about RIGHT NOW?

So we're going to get two weekly installments of the Taylor and Whatsisname Show, as well as this?

 

[Danny99]

I can't stand Jimmy, everything has to be done, as Kelley said, theatrically. I'm going to go after Rachel, wait I'm going to align with her.

Rachel has actually played a decent game. She has somehow managed to play the Cirie game and slide into the background. She has toned down the aspects that made her such a target her other two times playing (the loud, grating parts) and I doubt anyone is going to make a run at her until jury.

As an autistic person, I thought Kelley and I would vibe, but I can't wait for her to go. Jimmy first though.

Amy was never going to go far and it is alright to cut her now.

 

[Timewalker]

Can't stand Rachel or Jimmy.

Anybody watch the show on Friday, hosted by Taylor and Derek (sp?)? Good grief. I just finished it 2 minutes ago and already I can't remember the title.


Anyway, about Survivor. It's supposed to premier September 24.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I thought the fan show was entertaining but probably won't keep watching it. Unless I'm really bored on Friday. It gives another perspective on the game at least.

I don't mind Rachel this game. Her narcissistic moments are a bit annoying but her extreme confidence at least makes her entertaining, and she's managed to socially position herself okay and duck the target so far. Yeah Jimmy can go away.

And yeah I think I just finally learned everyone's name. Lauren and Katherine just weren't on camera until Lauren won HoH. And she has no game, she talked about proving she has her own game and then just made the obvious nominations the house wanted.

I agree this is a pretty mediocre cast so far but it's early.

I don't think anyone else here watches The Challenge but it starts tomorrow. And it's a "Fresh Meat" style season which means that they have teams of two with one veteran paired with one newbie on every team. And Cedric from Big Brother and Dee from Survivor are among the newbies.

 

[Timewalker]

I don't watch much TV anymore. I've been trying to wean myself away from it, since I'm probably going to have to drop the cable portion of my telecom services. Thanks, rent increase and charging a flat rate for water even though I'm one person and paying the same as suites where anywhere from 4-5 people live.

 

[Timewalker]

So Mickey's activated her secret power. Should be interesting to see where things go from there.

 

[Danny99]

Goodbye Jimmy! Don't let the door hit you on your way out.

 

[Timewalker]

I haven't seen either Wednesday or last night's episodes yet.

I'll catch up today.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Blue from BB25 was in this season's Challenge and she was the first female to go home.

Cedric is still in, I'm rooting for him.

I've been rewatching old episodes of Survivor and I'm currently on season 18 (The season JT won). I'm thinking of doing 39 next just because there are three season 39 people on season 50 and I don't remember any of them, then go back to where I was.

I have no idea who's doing well this season because nobody seems to know what the hell they're doing. My week 1 pick was Zach and that seems like a solid pick so far just because he seems to be not seen as a threat but on good terms with everyone. Ava might win just because she's so unthreatening she might get dragged to the final two with someone the jury is angry against. And for some reason nobody is targeting Rachel. Whereas last season I first picked Cedric but when he lost I picked Chelsie, I have no real idea this season.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm caught up now.

I don't watch the show Blue was on, but if she's gone, that's less time she has to annoy anyone she's with. I really didn't like her.

As for this one...

They have got to stop that crap in the hallway leading to the Diary Room. Letting people communicate last-minute instructions or telling who they voted for before the next person votes just has to STOP. What made whatsername (still trying to differentiate Ashley and Morgan sometimes) think she could change her vote after talking to someone who hasn't voted yet?

I didn't catch what Jimmy said to Ava that made her angry. Hopefully Kelley will stop volunteering as a pawn. She's no longer a pawn for some people.

I guess some people see Rachel as a source of advice, still. But mistaking her friendliness for genuine friendliness is a mistake. She said it herself: Her reason for being there is to become the first two-time winner of Big Brother. I guess the extra money won't hurt, either (she and Brendan must be fairly well-off by this point).

I still like Vince and Kelley, both as people and players. Ava is a bit strange, but so far she hasn't shown any objectionable personality traits that would make me dislike her.

Riley? Nope. He can go. So can his showmance, Katherine. She's a snippy one.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Keanu was the one who made her angry. After he won the veto, Ava who was announcing the comp was supposed to follow the script and say "Congratulations Keanu". He said "I believe you have a prompt", urging her to follow the script, and she took it as some kind of attack.

Also a correction to my previous post, it's season 37 I need to watch, David Vs Goliath, not 39. So I can remember what Christian, Mike and Angelina are all about.

 

[Timewalker]

Thank you for clarifying. I figured they have some kind of prompter off-camera, as nobody could possibly remember that whole spiel about the ceremonies, and the show has to make sure that there are never any grounds for mistakes that could end up causing a lawsuit. I just didn't connect that to anyone actually referring to it. It seemed like some random thing someone would say and I wondered if something got cut.

Haven't seen the "Taylor & Derrick Show" yet (can't remember what it's really called).