'Big Brother Celebrity Edition' Recap - You aren’t supposed to quit the game

Big Brother Celebrity Edition has concluded and Broadway star Marissa Jaret Winokur is its winner.

This abridged version of the regular show was a welcome diversion for those who wanted some variety beyond the Olympics and network repeats.  It featured twelve celebrities, a three-week time frame and regular host Julie Chen.

Even though this show featured plenty of lies, deceit, tears, broken alliances, pettiness, manipulation and gross competitions, the viewing experience was not as satisfying to superfans because the cast didn’t play fair and there was a preachy quality to it that one can do without in their trashy TV.

First, we do need to address the elephant in the CBS studio as the term “celebrity” is really a relative one.

The celebrities in question are not all household names.  While most may be known in certain circles, all would require a modifier or two like TV host, former child star, MMA fighter, Housewife, NBA player, beauty queen, etc. before they are instantly recognized by the general population.

The HouseGuests included: Ariadna Gutiérrez, Brandi Glanville, Chuck Liddell, James Maslow, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Mark McGrath, Metta World Peace, Omarosa Manigault, Ross Mathews and Shannon Elizabeth.  Most of them considered themselves to be superfans of the show.

Now, this is a game where people aren’t expected to play fair.  Winners have to be masterful liars, as well as excel at challenges, but they must have a solid alliance or two in order to make it to the end.  Any perceived threat has a big target on his or her back, and that was no different in this show.

However, two of the players broke the biggest rule:  you aren’t supposed to quit the game and Keshia and Metta found a loophole and did.

Now the reason why Keisha asked to leave seemed genuine as she was worried that her breast milk was drying out and she was concerned about her ability to feed her child, but she begged to be voted out rather than just leaving.  That changed everyone’s plan causing everyone to regroup.  In a way that is masterful playing of this game, but it is awful sportsmanship.

And then there is Metta who was homesick and also asked to leave.  While watching this big man cuddle a stuffed owl was cute, his request to leave wreaks of bad sportsmanship too.  Had he been doing better in the game, I’m not so sure if he would have been so quick to run away.

Both of their premature departures, regardless of their reasons, sucked.  They signed up for this.  And while it is much harder to actually play Big Brother than it is to watch it from the comfort of your living room, they were playing for $250,000 (as well as getting paid a bit better than normal House Guests, rumored at a starting place of $200,000 with it going up depending how long they stayed in the house) and I just wanted to say to them, Didn’t your parents ever tell you not to be a quitter?

One thing that did remain the same was the strongest competitors were instantly regarded as threats.  Even though Shannon was doing well at challenges, though was having a tough time on her social game, but she nailed her own coffin when she went on to spell the word responsibilities to win a challenge.

Enter reality TV supervillain Omarosa...

Something is not surprising is that Omarosa could always be found stirring the pot, as that is what she does. That is what she has done on all of her other TV appearances and it isn't a stretch to report that this is how she rolls.

While the whole house and most viewers were interested to see what she had to say about her year-long tenure with President Trump, what isn’t widely known is that she also had previously worked with Vice President Al Gore and had hostile things to report about that work environment as well.

It doesn’t seem like this woman can hold a job, but by watching her in the Big Brother house, one can see how she is a master manipulator who has no issue using religion, lies, a well-timed hug and general mean girl behavior to get what she wants.  It can be assumed that Omarosa would be a coworker from hell, as everything is always someone else’s fault.  It was a relief when they actually voted to get her out on day 26.

This resident of Jacksonville, Florida did come off very well during her final interview with Julie Chen, but that is what master manipulators do...

Something to add was how likable some of the people were despite the nature of the game. Ariadna stands out as being a lovely human being and one that I hope we will see more of in the future.

On the night of the finale, Melissa was praised for actually keeping her word and bringing Ross to the final two with her.  Ross actually was considering flipping over to a final two with Mark because he thought he could beat him, but that wasn’t meant to be.

Marissa won in the finals with the vote being 6 to 3, but Ross did take home the prize as America's Favorite HouseGuest.

Big Brother Celebrity Edition has concluded, but the next season of Big Brother is only a few months away.

What did you think of Big Brother Celebrity Edition?