‘Big Brother 17’: Will Live On-Air Game Of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ Determine The Next Evicted Houseguest? [Spoilers]
Thursday night Big Brother 17 viewers will learn who is the newest member of the jury. But leading up to the live eviction, the houseguests are still wavering on who should be their target. Tuesday night, a powerful alliance floated an interesting idea: using a game of chance to determine who gets their vote and who doesn’t. It would make for a dramatic live episode, if the CBS production team even allowed it to happen.
Warning: Spoilers from the Big Brother 17 live feeds to follow.
As live feed viewers know, Vanessa Rousso won the Power of Veto and declined to use it. The final nominees this week are Steve Moses and John McGuire. All of the houseguests have gone back and forth as to whether Steve or John is better for their game. The decision is further complicated by the returning juror twist, which will have one of the jury members re-enter the house. The contestants know the returning juror twist will happen eventually; they just don’t know for sure it will happen this Thursday night.
There are five votes this week: Vanessa, Liz Nolan, Julia Nolan, Meg Maley, and James Huling. If Vanessa and the twins vote together, they will determine who goes to jury. As Big Brother Network described, on Tuesday night Vanessa, Austin, and the twins considered using rock, paper, scissors — in lieu of eviction-night speeches — to decide between the two nominees.
“The other idea thrown around is to use Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide the eviction during the live show. I’m not kidding and they seem serious. The discussion is to make the noms skip their speeches and do a quick game of RPS with the winner staying. Austin thinks this is great because if either came back then all would share the blame. I don’t even know what to think of that and it seems very unlikely to happen.”
The idea seems crazy, but it might have been serious. Although the Big Brother Network summary does not say who first brought up the Rock, Paper, Scissors idea, at least one member of that conversation has analyzed that game before. In an article for All In magazine last summer, Vanessa Rousso used Rock, Paper, Scissors as an example to explain how “exploitative play” works in poker.
Rousso’s basic argument is that all options in Rock, Paper, Scissors have an equal advantage. Optimal play would have each player choose equally between Rock, Paper and Scissors. But in reality, players tend to favor one sign over another. To win successive games of Rock, Paper, Scissors, a player should begin to favor the option that beats whatever option their opponent favors — e.g. paper if their opponent favors rock. But the player who has shifted strategy to exploit their opponent then herself becomes exploitable, Rousso explains.
Of course, Steve and John would not be playing successive games of Rock, Paper, Scissors during the live eviction. So the Rousso article is more a point of curiosity and insight into her game play. But the idea of being open about essentially choosing an evictee on the basis of chance would probably be a first in the U.S. version of Big Brother.
Pre-eviction speeches are likely in the game rules and CBS production might be hesitant to do away with them in favor of a game of chance. However, Big Brother 17 producers have already presided over a significant rule deviation at least once this season. Audrey Middleton chose not to attend the veto ceremony when she was named as a replacement nominee. It had never happened before.
Regardless of how it happens, with the returning juror twist, Thursday’s eviction could all be for naught.
Big Brother 17 airs Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays on CBS.
