By Matthew Lutey
Joe “Pooch” Pucciarelli found out the hard way you shouldn’t volunteer to be nominated for eviction in the Big Brother house.
The Boca Raton resident was sent home in a 12-0 vote on Sunday’s episode of the CBS reality show. Pooch’s eviction happened Thursday, and typically would have been shown live, but coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings changed the episode schedule for the week.
The objective of Big Brother is to be the last houseguest remaining, which results in a $750,000 prize. Houseguests are cut off from the outside world, followed by cameras and vie for power to be the Head of Household and nominate two players they would like to see eliminated. A weekly vote is conducted to evict one of the nominated houseguests.
Pooch originally volunteered to be nominated, thinking that the house-wide ostracism of fellow nominee Taylor Hale would be enough to keep him around. Instead he didn’t get a single vote in his favor, and apparently was never clued in that he was going to be voted out.
“It’s shocking. That they were all on the same page,” Pooch said in his interview with host Julie Chen-Moonves after he was evicted. “There’s no jury, so I figured at least bring it up. I thought I would have at least heard from one person. … they did what they felt they needed to do, so I understand that from a game point. I heard 12-0 I genuinely thought that OK cool I’m straight.”
Julie revealed to Pooch that an alliance of five women spearheaded his eviction and asked if he underestimated the women in the house.
“Absolutely, absolutely.” Pooch said.
After seeds were planted in last Sunday’s episode, Wednesday’s episode showed the target further shifting from Taylor to Pooch, with most of the women in the house deciding that getting rid of Pooch would be best for their games.
“Although we wanted to get Taylor out last week, I think our best move is to get Pooch out (of) this house,” Jasmine Davis said. “We know he’s going to be a big threat to us later on down the line, and we’re really trying to make it to the end.”
Pooch had the chance to remove himself from the block by winning the Power of Veto, but came up short in a competition that involved dressing up as a mermaid and pushing balls across a lane into holes.
Even though he didn’t win the veto, Pooch seemed confident there was nothing to worry about, despite being warned by his friend Joseph Abdin not to get too comfortable.
“I’m feeling pretty good to be honest,” Pooch said in the diary room at the end of Wednesday’s episode. “I’m still sitting up there on the block next to public enemy number one Taylor. I think I’m playing a great game. I’m great for this house, great for Big Brother. I’ll let you in on a little secret, you don’t got to be too nervous, I think your boy Pooch is staying another week, and you’ll have a little bit more of Pooch.”
The guys that were close to Pooch didn’t vote to keep him because they didn’t have the numbers in their favor. It was revealed to Kyle Capener by Alyssa Snider that there may be an all-girls alliance, which set off red flags for him, but that wasn’t enough to spring a last-ditch rally for Pooch.
The second half of Sunday’s two-hour episode unveiled a new twist called “Festie Bestie,” meaning the houseguests will operate as seven duos for a portion of the game. If a houseguest wins Head of Household, their partner is also safe that week. In addition, the duos are nominated for eviction together and both removed from the block if the veto is used on them.
Matthew Turner, who goes by Turner, won the Head of Household competition. Turner was probably closest to Pooch in the house, and he was the last one to be clued in that Pooch was getting voted out.
“Going into this HOH competition, I’m doing this for Pooch, and I’m doing this for power to secure my safety,” Turner said.
Turner decided to nominate the duo of Brittany Hoopes and Michael Bruner, but with the veto having the potential to remove both nominees, a lot could change before Thursday’s eviction.