By: Matthew Lutey
An old-fashioned double eviction took place Thursday night on the CBS reality show “Big Brother,” dwindling the number of houseguests left in the game to just five.
Attorney Michael Bruner was the victim of the double eviction, and was sent to the jury house by a vote of 3-0. A double eviction takes place when an entire week’s work of normal gameplay – a Head of Household competition, nominations, Power of Veto competition, veto ceremony and eviction – takes place within the course of approximately an hour.
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.
After Chicago city bus operator Terrance Higgins was voted out 4-0, host Julie Chen-Moonves surprised the houseguests with the double eviction news.
Matthew Turner (who goes by Turner) won the double eviction HOH competition that involved memorizing color sequences, and nominated Alyssa Snider and Brittany Hoopes for eviction. Monte Taylor won the veto competition and decided to use the veto to remove Alyssa from the block.
The beauty of the double eviction is that houseguests have to scramble to make decisions at a rapid pace. After the veto competition and as the show was cutting to commercial, Monte and Turner were discussing a plan to send Michael home.
Michael was a target for a lot of the remaining houseguests because he has been winning competitions at a record-setting pace. And while there’s more to being considered a good player than winning competitions, Michael has also shown good strategic ability, and would likely have been a lock to win if he made it to the final two.
“Everyone knows the only way to win this game right now is to take out Michael,” Taylor Hale said in the diary room on Sunday’s episode. “Whoever takes out Michael is getting a huge resume booster and probably coasting to the end of the game. And I wouldn’t mind being the person that takes him out.”
Leading up to Terrance’s eviction, Michael was the week’s HOH, and wanted Terrance evicted. He nominated Terrance and Alyssa for eviction. His top ally Brittany tried to convince him that he should go after Turner, because he was more of a competition threat and overall threat to win the season.
Michael did not want to nominate Turner, because Turner helped evict Kyle Capener last week because of comments he made, even though it was against Turner’s better interest from a game standpoint.
“Despite viewing Turner as a huge threat, I don’t want to put him on the block this week. As a superfan I always say put your game first, but actually being here in the game, it’s different, and some things transcend this game, and I think this is one of them.”
Michael then won BB Comics, a classic veto competition, to break the show’s all-time record for veto wins in a season with six.
“Surprise, surprise America. Michael comes in with a super-fast time that blows all of us out of the water,” Monte said on Wednesday’s episode. “He’s an animal. He’s a comp beast. If I win HOH next week, best believe I’m taking that shot at Michael.”
While he didn’t win HOH, Monte helped get Michael out through the veto. And while Michael played an impressive game, it turned out to be too impressive.
Michael didn’t go out without a fight, though. Earlier in Thursday’s episode, it looked like Monte and Turner wanted to pull him into a guys’ alliance out of fear that the three remaining women were aligning together. Ultimately, Monte and Turner decided that they needed to get Michael out when they had the chance.
In his speech before voting, Michael made a pitch to Alyssa and Taylor to save him, saying that he will keep them safe and focus on Monte and Turner. He also threw Brittany under the bus, pointing out her leaking information and making deals with most of the house.
“I feel so bad, I love Brittany, but I had to do it. I would have regretted it forever if I didn’t try,” Michael told Chen-Moonves after he was evicted.