July 10, 2025, marked the debut of Season 27 of the CBS reality show, Big Brother, a show that since 2000 has seen a group of contestants, known as HouseGuests, living together in the Big Brother House for approximately three months under constant video surveillance.
The only thing I knew going into the season 27 premiere of the show comes from another CBS show, Yes, Dear. In the fifth episode of Season 4, the episode, “Big Brother-in-Law” see’s Jimmy being invited to be a contestant on the show’s season.
Season 27’s theme is one of mystery, as the house on the CBS production lot is known as “Hotel Mystère”, which is described in the description of the episode as “a place where secrets lurk behind every door; the premiere is filled with unexpected twists and turns, including a masked visitor, a secret accomplice, and the arrival of a mystery HouseGuest.”
Production wise, I really liked the way the show introduces the HouseGuests with the videos. We, as the audience, get to know the HouseGuests pretty quickly into the show, and we also know their motives for winning the grand prize of $750,000. I did not like how the HouseGuests entered into the house only four people at a time. I would have preferred for all 16 HouseGuests to have a mad scramble, I did think the show overall did a good job at balancing the screentime of all the participants.
One of the most interesting aspects of the show for me was the concern of the threat level among HouseGuests. They were so fearful of being a threat in the game that some of them did not even want to win the challenges in the episode, which I thought was interesting strategy.
Speaking of challenges, the first two challenges of the season saw the 16 HouseGuests split into two groups. One group was forced to find host Julie Chen Moonves by listening to a voice that described what she was wearing in the intro while the other group was forced to find the real Head of Household relics among fake relics. Zach won 10,000 for winning the Julie challenge while Jimmy won the right to choose the four houseguests to compete in the first Head of Household Challenge for winning the relics challenge.
Jimmy ends up choosing himself, Vince, Ashley, and Adrain in the Head of Household Challenge, where the four players had to balance six cores on their Big Brother Blaster for 10 seconds to destroy “The Mastermind’s Lair”. Vince ends up winning the challenge and when the participants gather in the living room, Chen Moonves’ reveals there is another player entering the game and in comes Season 12 runner-up and Season 13 winner Rachel Reilly. It is revealed that Reilly is playing the game, but that one of the HouseGuests is secretly The Accomplice, not a real player and that if a majority of the HouseGuests correctly identify The Accomplice, that person will be immediately evicted. If they fail, The Accomplice will officially enter the game, and that’s how episode one concludes.
I’m a big fan of twists, and I do think this mystery twist on this season of the show will make it memorable. Overall, I liked the show (I’m not going to say LOVE yet). It was a good premiere. My biggest gripe was the challenges themselves. Maybe I’m just used to Survivor, but the lack of music and dramatics on the challenges was a let down, and they felt a little random. I want more intensity and drama out of the challenges.
My favorite HouseGuests right now are, Keanu, Katherine, Lauren, and Zae. Their fandom and passion for the show resonate through the screen. One of the best parts I think production did was showcase how historic of a player Reilly is and the impact she will have on the season.
I know one of the big things about Big Brother is the live feeds, and from what I hear, the live feeds are very different from what is portrayed on the episodes. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to watch the live feeds due to my day job, so I will be judging episodes based off what is shown during the episodes. I’m excited to see the first live vote next Thursday. The social media aspect of Big Brother also seems like a fun time.
For a 90-minute episode, it felt like not a ton happened, and episodes could be cut back to 60. I’m interested in comparing the difference in episode lengths come next week.
My introduction of Big Brother did not turn me away from the show and has me intrigued for episode two on Sunday evening. That’s all I could have asked for.
Grade: B+
