‘Big Brother’ Alums Slam The Team Twist

'Big Brother 18' teams

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A couple of “Big Brother” alumni are not fans of the team twist for season 23. Read on to find out why Rachel Reilly and Janelle Pierzina both think the team twist could backfire.


Janelle Pierzina Hated Having to Work With Mike ‘Boogie’ Malin

On a recent Clubhouse meeting, host Rob Cesternino of “Survivor” fame asked “Big Brother” alums Janelle Pierzina and Rachel Reilly what they thought of the team twist that has been announced for the upcoming 23rd season.

Pierzina, who was a part of teams in season 14, said she definitely thought, “Oh my gosh” when the team twist was announced.

“I mean, the team thing can be super beneficial if you’re on a winning, great, amazing team with athletes, yes,” said Pierzina. “But it can also backfire. The thing is, is if it backfires, there’s less to pick from. You really gotta look into a — it’s kind of like a week nine thing, you know what I mean? When there’s less people to pick from.”

She also thinks a big alliance can still form if two teams band together.

“Teams gravitate towards other people automatically. I remember when I didn’t want to work with Mike Boogie at all. I hate the man. And my team … made me work with him, which, you know, yuck,” said Pierzina with a laugh. “So teams can work together and a large alliance can still form from that. If two teams have two amazing comp beasts on them, or a few, they can still align.”


Rachel Reilly Thinks It Can Sometimes Lead to A Lot of Early Favorites Going Home

Reilly said she feels the same way as Pierzina, citing “Big Brother” season 11 as an example of how the teams didn’t work.

“‘Big Brother 11,’ when we saw what happened when they had the four teams. All the people I feel like we were kind of rooting for went home really early … so it always is a bummer because then that team gets eliminated or there’s one person left. I don’t know. I’m not a big fan of the teams either, but it could break up big alliances if the people don’t play for just the team, I guess,” said Reilly.

Pierzina admitted “it could be really cool,” but “on most seasons, it’s been kind of annoying to watch, especially in the beginning.”

Tommy Bracco chimed in by saying that it might “force [the houseguests] to at least work with people that they might not normally work with in the beginning,” but the worry “is that it might turn into if one team is doing really good and another team is doing really good, they might join in together and kind of steamroll it.”

“I think it’s gonna be really interesting when the teams get dismantled and how people re-form,” added Bracco.

Bracco has a point. The team twist will only last for four weeks — and it will also introduce a new competition into the game. After that, it sounds like it will be every man or woman for themselves, so we’ll just have to wait and see if they stick with their teams or not.

“Big Brother” season 23 premieres Wednesday, July 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

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