Big Brother 15 Power Rankings - First Eviction Preview

The biggest Big Brother game in US history finally gets a little smaller tonight, with the first live eviction episode and some seemingly legitimate drama as to who's going home. 

Memo to aspiring actors: Perez Hilton not
the guy you want in charge of headshots

Until then though, the biggest loser in the House remains Aaryn, both in personality and in potential personal appearance fees. She was dropped from her Austin-based talent agency for the character that she's revealed on the live feeds, even if Big Brother producers remain stubbornly consistent in their policy of covering up just how ugly a beautiful Texas girl can actually turn out to be. If I was her, I wouldn't have wanted to be called "the Paula Deen of Big Brother" even before Paula's career went down in flames, so you can imagine how it's got to feel right now.





At least CBS did issue a statement to deal with the wave of online headlines that exposed what's really going on with some of the jerkstores in the House. The power of social media just continues to amaze, eh folks? 

The truth is, Aaryn's now former agency, Zephyr Talent, looks relatively small, and it's possible some bigger group might even take a chance on her based on the whole "bad publicity is still publicity" idea. Let's hope everyone in the industry is smart enough to take the same strong stance that Zephyr did.

Since it's basically the calm before the storm, let's keep it short and sweet and get straight to our check on the power structure before the vote and the new HOH competition reduce it all to rubble once again.

Bottom Tier - Building Cases


16. David
15. Elissa
14. Aaryn
13. Jessie

It's really down to David and Elissa as far as who is going home. The editing of Tuesday's Veto episode made it look like most of the votes were up in question and that predicting an outcome will be tough.  It probably doesn't happen too often, but the spoiler blogs that follow and break down the live feeds obsessively seem to agree - it's tough to know where the majority is going to fall.

David's reaction to getting put on the block was absolutely priceless...just pure shock and awe. This is of course a guy who knows the water by heart, but when it comes to navigating the world of air, I'm surprised he doesn't forget to breathe sometimes.

The Spelling Challenge Veto is always one of my favorite annual BB competitions...no fan of this show should ever forget the epic tale of "Technotronics," after all. 

Of course everyone always screws it up by going for some specific word they have get preset in their minds, instead of just using the bulk of the time to gather as many letters as possible, then descrambling them into the biggest word they can come up with in the final few minutes. I swear I would win Big Brother.

Anyway, in the early stages of this breakfast-themed spell-off, I turned to Eunice and said "I wish I could bet every dollar we have in our savings right now that David will not spell his word correctly." But good ol' Dave did me even one better, failing to launch any kind of word at all, spelled correctly or not. 

It's ridiculous that Nick and the rest of the Moving Company are targeting this guy as a power player they want to get out early when the truth is he's the ultimate floater, thinking he can just coast through the game like he coasts through life. I hope he goes tonight, and I wish I had that life double-up, for real.

Truthfully, anyone with long-term intentions in this game should be much more scared of Elissa than of David. Not only does she have the built-in fanbase that comes with being a Reilly sibling, she actually seems like a very smart, thoughtful, empathetic and yet still strategic person. I really liked her moves in telling McRae what was up with her MVP status, even though they blew up in her face it was probably the right thing to do. 

Elissa seems a lot nicer than Rachel,
but it may not help her survive

If Elissa has any power left, it's to try and use her brain to stay alive. She's definitely appeared to be more of a Campaigner than David, which could come back to bite her, but here's hoping McRae is honest in wanting to keep her, and that the MC remains paranoid of that beautiful blond-haired surf-loving welfare bum for one more day.

Meanwhile, if McRae pulls off this very complicated HOH move he's going for, then Aaryn will be totally isolated. I really can't see who could take over as HOH that would help her, except maybe Jeremy (who's just as likely to turn on her and double-down on his other alliances). BTW, when she finally is expelled, it's really going to be funny to get her delayed reaction to the Zephyr news.

Jessie stays in the bottom tier because not one single person in the House takes her seriously at this point, but she does earn minor props for reading her current block situation right and realizing she is a legit pawn. "Stay quiet, stay in the game" will work for her, for for now.

Third Tier - Building Sandcastles

Visual representation of Jeremy's
chances of winning BB15

12. GinaMarie
11. Jeremy
10. Kaitlin
  9. Spencer


This bunch makes up the rest of the Friendly Neighborhood Bigots crew, and I really don't have a ton to say about them anymore, other than that extreme negativity may get you a ways in this game but it very rarely gets you to the end. For the very near future, it's pretty vital that one of these guys win HOH tonight or they will all continue to get marginalized.

If you don't mind a minor spoiler that will make you hate Jeremy even more than you probably do already, check out what he did to Elissa late last night...I don't think the elders in the Cherokee tribe would approve, J.


Second Tier - Building Identities

Believe it or not, this man is competing on Big Brother 15

8. Judd
7. Helen
6. Candice
5. Howard

This group continues to just kind of float on by...I can't even remember if Judd has had one Diary Room interview make air yet this season...but like I said yesterday, in a group this big, being in the middle will serve your purposes well for a while. 

Howard hinted in the last episode that he's intentionally laying low, especially in the challenges.  I think he called his real self a "challenge beast" or something like that in a confessional.  We'll see if he can back that up.

Loved the two contrasting approaches taken by Candice and Jessie when it came to the old "just-nominated Houseguest goes up to confront the HOH" trope scene. While Jessie just meekly and non-confrontationally sat there and let McRae weasel out of any responsiblity, Candice just laced into him with the fire and brimstone. Each way seemed to suit the respective woman's purposes, but Candice's approach is the one that earns a much higher spot in the power rankings.


Top Tier - Building Legacies

4. Andy

Honestly, Andy is still just one of the floaters in the previous group but since I committed to this whole "tiers of 4" format, he goes here. I will say that reading live feed recaps makes me feel confident he's fixing to become much more of a game player than what we've seen on the CBS episodes so far. Gotta respect someone who lays back for a bit to read the situation before getting majorly in the mix.

3. Amanda

Amanda has established herself as McRae's closest confidant, and to say that "feminine wiles" have been utilized would be an understatement. It's tough to say if this showmance will continue past McRae's tenure as HOH...I guess it's just because I think McRae's a closet psychopath and Amanda appears to be a relatively alpha type personality, for whatever reason they just don't go together for me. She supposedly had a boyfriend before entering the House, and I feel like she's just more "Ruthless Power Broker" than "Hopelessly Smitten With a Pizza Boy She Just Met," IRL. We'll see, I'm expecting her to drop him when he's no longer of use to her.

2. Nick

Nick is still doing everything right, pulling strings while staying under the radar and lining up bigger targets in front of himself, but he can no longer be considered the most powerful player in the game since he couldn't convince McRae to leave the nominations the same, post-Veto competition. Nick's main target is still probably going home, and Nick remains one of the serious favorites in the game, but he may need to tweak his one-on-one convo skills to take home the big prize at the end of the summer.

Love the way Nick is thinking, but can he put those thoughts into action?

1. McRae

McRae is playing so well that he's got to be considered a favorite for the next BBMVP, a power that would definitely keep Amanda by his side and under his blankets for another week. What he's attempting is tricky: He appeased David's side of the House by putting Elissa up, but ultimately hopes to use Elissa's side of the House to evict David...I love it, and if it works he avoids almost all the proverbial "blood on his hands," and remains a power player next week almost regardless of who wins HOH. If it doesn't work, he'll be a major target for at least one if not both of the groups he's playing around with.