Big Brother Reindeer Games Premiere: Who Went Ho-Ho-Home on Night 1?
Big Brother is hosting a holly jolly alumni reunion this holiday season, by way of its new spinoff Big Brother Reindeer Games.
Much like the mothership’s truncated celebrity editions, Big Brother Reindeer Games is only spanning a couple of weeks, with six total episodes running from Monday’s premiere through Thursday, Dec. 21. But unlike the celebrity editions, Reindeer Games won’t involve any nominations, house-voted evictions or live broadcasts. Instead, the nine BB veterans returning for the spinoff will compete in a series of daily challenges, with Santa’s Showdown determining who will get eliminated at the end of each episode.
But the competitions do at least take place in the usual Big Brother house, there’s still plenty of whispered scheming going on, and the Diary Room sessions are still a staple — an excellent holiday present for those of us who’ve been missing Britney Haynes’ iconic DR appearances. (This time around, Britney is joined by Cody Calafiore, Nicole Franzel, Frankie Grande, Taylor Hale, Cameron Hardin, Josh Martinez, Xavier Prather and Danielle Reyes.)
Season 11 winner Jordan Lloyd appears in the premiere as one of Santa’s elves and hosts each competition. First up, we have the Naughty and Nice Challenge, which will apparently be the first competition every day. In this one, players must observe a series of clues that hint at the title of a famous Christmas song — but even if multiple houseguests (sorry, lodge guests) name the correct song in the Diary Room, only the first person to do so will win the challenge and earn the Naughty and Nice power. In this case, that’s Britney, who correctly guesses “Up on the Housetop” first and nabs that power: an advantage for herself in the next competition, and a disadvantage for one player that she decides to put on the naughty list. (It’s Cody!)
Ultimately, Britney’s advantage and Cody’s disadvantage are pretty inconsequential at the Jingle Bell Brawl, which requires players to fill up other players’ mailboxes with letters to Santa, then deliver any letters that have been placed in their own mailboxes throughout the competition. The more letters someone receives in their mailbox from fellow lodge guests, the more emphatically they’re getting targeted by the rest of the house. Britney starts with the advantage of one fewer envelope in her mailbox, while Cody starts with one extra — but it’s very evident that Cameron is getting targeted here, with seemingly endless envelopes flowing into his mailbox for the entire competition.
Frankie, meanwhile, proudly announces at the start of the challenge that he’s simply going to put letters in everyone‘s mailbox and not play favorites, which is a strategy that pays off nicely for him. He doesn’t get many letters in his mailbox, so the delivery process takes very little time, and he emerges victorious from the Jingle Bell Brawl. Not only is Frankie now safe from elimination for the day, but he gets to choose which two players will go head to head in the all-important Santa’s Showdown, which will send one person home.
Cameron seems like an obvious pick for the Showdown, given how passionately he was targeted in the Jingle Bell Brawl, so that’s a no-brainer for Frankie. And in her one-on-one chat with Frankie later, Taylor observes that Frankie ought to send Cody into the challenge, as well, given that he’s forever a threat in the Big Brother house — and she’s right! But Frankie and Cody are close outside the house, and they kicked off this premiere by promising to keep each other safe until the end, so Taylor’s sensible pitch falls on deaf ears.
Frankie opts to send Cameron and Xavier into the face-off, in which they need to be the first to complete an elaborate puzzle that reveals an ornate Christmas sweater. There are a lot of pieces in this puzzle — certainly more than in the average Big Brother competition, including some pieces that stack on top of others, instead of interlocking with them — and Cameron and Xavier are evenly matched for a long time. But Xavier eventually pulls ahead, and after tracking down one last piece that had gotten kicked to the side, he completes his sweater puzzle and rings his buzzer, thus eliminating Cameron. But hey, at least Cam’s walking away with a year-long subscription to the Jelly of the Month Club! Though I fear the Clark Griswold reference may have been lost on him.
So, what’d you think of the Reindeer Games premiere? Grade the first episode in our poll below, then drop a comment with more of your thoughts!
Thank god Cameron was the first one out… his 15 minutes are long over.
Totally agree. The fact that they brought the most toxic person from the last season back is annoying. I know he won AFH but he’s up there with Cody (BB19) in worst choices for that.
The games were engaging so I found it worth watching.
I wish the actual show would have 57 piece puzzles like that as an HOH or POV, might make the seasons more enjoyable instead of having people steamroll.
Boring. Over zealous contestants.
Cameron a threat …really??
I won’t watch again
I was really pulling for Cameron, but with no allies in the game, he was doomed from the start. When he decided to work on the puzzle from the center out, he sealed his fate. All I want now is for Frankie to go home. He’s my least favorite BB houseguest of all time. He’s a menace, desperate for attention and aggressively performative. “Look at me! I’m prancing!” Oof! Two weeks of Frankie on my TV is two weeks too many. Honestly, I’d love to see Danielle or Britney win. They’re both terrific. Also terrific? Cody’s sweater. Which I bought immediately after the episode ended!
After Cam leaving there is no incentive for me to watch. Why would I want to see Taylor, X or Josh on my TV. They are all toxic.
Cam was far more toxic than any of them.. Josh is just annoying.
Sorry but at least Cameron doesn’t sit around and talk about how great he is, how good he is, and how he’s better than everyone else. Yes, Taylor, I’m talking about you. Nothing about her is real. Have you seen her drunkin’ tiktoks. Every other word is the f word, it’s sad really. This sweet little persona you see on TV is phony as heck.
lol.. Cameron absolutely did do that when he was in the house. He was all about how great he was and he knew better than anyone about everything. You clearly did not watch him on the feeds and just saw the edited show that presented a completely false perception of him. He was a toxic personality that had an unhealthy obsession with the young females on the cast.
You clearly are incorrect sir, I did watch the feeds. And you know what, Cameron was right about Cory/America, he was right in most all his reads on the house. As far as the “unhealthy obsession” with the young females on the cast, the fans blew this way out of proportion like they always do when they find a houseguest they want to hate on. Sure, Cam flirted with America, but if you recall America asked Cam to join her in the shower, it works both ways. America is still going on and on about Cam, she can’t seem to forget him, lol.
It wasn’t just America, he was even creepier about Reilly. And he remains way too cocky and full of himself.
Tonight b ABC bright light fight..santa coming to town, or Beverly Hill billy’s..are my choices to watch on tv instead.
This is just a series of holiday games with former BB players, who do not sleepover in the lodge or vote. In one word, it is LAME. .
Julie Chen Moonves is not hosting — so there is just a masculine audio voice commentating, along with a former BB player reading from a Santa list.
I don’t think it is even good “family entertainment” because, I think kids would be bored to just sit and watch players put cards in a slot and then two players putting together a wooden jig-saw puzzle. It’s definately not adult entertainment.
I watched The Voice semi-final competition from 8-10pm, and then tuned in to watch the second half of Reindeer Games (9-11pm.) I’m not going to bother going back to watch the first half On-Demand.
Bullies are in the house! Let’s evict the guy who isn’t part of ‘our’ club…well how many of you were America’s favourite? I bet that means so much more to him than being in a club of bullies! Cameron, you are a gentleman and have a heart of gold! Merry Christmas to you!
Several of them were actually America’s favorite on their seasons.
Cameron flopped so badly. He is a terrible BB player.
How did he flop? Everyone was ganging up on him in the competition but he never gave up. He tried to sway Frankie but Frankie took the easy way out and nom’d Cam. So again, how did Cam flop?
Rooting for Danielle or Britney – the appear to be the most likeable. I’m so tired of seeing the same BB people over and over again.
I hear that. But at least we didn’t get Rachel or Janelle again, lol.
I blocked them out – cant imagine watching them again!
How many times can you hear about Josh and his family? He’s a professional reality star. Also I liked Taylor but after watching those DR bits I put her on mute.
Her DR’s were a bit much, that’s for sure.
I often get caught up in “Big Brother” over the summer when there isn’t much else to watch, as long as there are a few interesting contestants (then stop watching if they all get kicked out). But this cast of old players seems kind of dull, and the sort of backstabbing, “you’re my ally but I’m working against you” strategies the show encourages just doesn’t work when they’re also trying to have a “joyful holiday season” vibe.
I won’t watch again. They got rid of the one contestant I enjoyed watching, all the other ones are far more toxic than he ever was (and I’m not saying he wasn’t toxic) and I cannot stand the rest of them.
It was okay…got kinda boring watching the letter race…there are a lot better people you could have put on . Frankie is the most boring of all…he has lived way too long on his 15 min.
I wasn’t expecting much from this new format of Big Brother but as I was watching it I found myself really entertained and couldn’t stop laughing. All the house guests look like they are having a fun time and the diary room confessions were the icing on the Xmas cake. Sad to see Cam go so early but I’m just going to enjoy the ride and am rooting for Danielle or Britney to win. Really I don’t care who wins as long as it’s not Nicole.LOL!
Not happy with cast at all. Thought it was unfair to cameron since he didn’t know anyone. Think the cast was rude to Cameron. Not the best choices for the cast members. Don’t think I will be watching it.
I think if big brother is going to do shows like this one they should pick people from previous bb who have not won the big money before. Let’s give everyone a chance to win some not the same players that have won before
Nicole is doing grate.
now that I know that misogynist pos Cameron goes home first I might just watch😂
Brittany is a selfish, whiny, spoiled brat. Want her gone. Can’t stand to look at her. Cameron was the BEST. Cameron, Xavier and Taylor are the only decent people on the show. The others are too full of themselves.