The series Big Brother is not at all unfamiliar with failure. There’s plenty reason for its fanbase to not exactly be the most positive bunch. Producer decisions relating to casting, twists, and game structure have consistently been questionable at best for around half of the show’s life. Nowadays, whenever it does deliver a good season, it often feels that it occurred in spite of itself. Often, the show doesn’t appear to know what it’s doing. Just take a look at Big Brother 19, the show’s worst season, and how obvious it was even before episode 1 aired that this would be a failure.
The main face of Big Brother 19 is Paul Abrahamian, who also happens to be the main mistake of the season. He originally competed in the prior season, where he lost in the final two by one vote; in that season, Paul was a fresh, excitable character who was willing to play ball with the wackiness of Big Brother in the best way. Bringing him back so soon though, and as the only veteran in the season, was never going to work. The second it was announced, so many people who loved Paul were already groaning.
Having veterans play with newbies in any of these shows is already a flawed concept that’s far more likely to fail than succeed. As much as the idea that the newbies have seen the returnees play before might seem like advantage since they know their game, it’s just not true. Looking at the 12 total times that Survivor and Big Brother have had seasons mixed in this way, only once has there not been at least one returnee sitting at the end. On top of simply having experience, they also offer clear familiarity to any newbie who watched them play before. Everyone else is a stranger, but the other players felt like they knew Paul in this scenario. They were fans, so they were drawn to him within the game. He was already a capable player, but this gave him an even bigger step up on everyone else. The season was just begging to be steamrolled by him.
Also a player being handed a power position on a silver platter by producers with this setup and transparent twists - such as the pendant of protection - was never going to endear them further to the audience, especially in Paul’s case. A huge aspect of why Paul was beloved originally was because he was a constant underdog being caught on the back foot every other week. He had to fight to stay alive every day, but that wasn’t going to be the case in season 19.
Paul was allowed such predictable dominance that his alliance was almost similar to a cult with the way everyone trusted his every word and berated those who went against him. Along with Paul, this casts holds some of the most hated players in recent memory, such as Raven Walton, Matt Clines, and Alex Ow. Without them, the season was already boring enough due to the lack of any fluid strategy. And it wasn’t a case of poor editing. Some fans were watching the live feeds day after day hoping something interesting would happen, but it never did.
Even aspects of the season that some might consider to be highlights weren’t perfect. Cody Nickson was certainly a unique and entertaining character, but he still got caught up in controversy during his time on the show. The same applies to winner Josh Martinez. Seeing him win the season as Paul lost in the final two for the second season in a row was one of the most shocking and satisfying moments for a fan to witness live, but that doesn’t change the fact that, earlier in the season, he was immature. It’s impossible to look anywhere in Big Brother 19 and not see something to complain about.
More: Season Five was the Worst Season of Survivor
