Home / Big Brother 18 / Feed Updates / A Showmance Final 4; Bribes Before Allowed; What Is Going On?




I’m back, everyone!  To be fair, I’ve been back for a few hours, but I had to stay up all night so I didn’t miss the flight, so I crashed as soon as I got home for a little while. Plus my kitty needed some QT with me, and you know what they say, cats before rats.  I’ll cover more of my vacation later, but with Brianna leaving for school and Pam stepping down, updates have been lacking, so I need to fill you guys in on things that have been going on.  Before I do that, I want to give those two a huge thank you for filling in while I was gone.  I know Pam was dealing with a lot of real life issues, and Brianna was getting ready to head back to college, but both took time out of their days to do their best to keep you guys updated.

Alright, to the house.

What the hell is going on? The other day I made a post talking about the decision to nominate Paul and Victor as pure strategy. It made sense because those two are far more difficult to beat if anyone wants to win the money. You go after the strong and get them out. I thought they just decided Nicole and Corey may be in a showmance, but Nicole is practically useless in competitions, so they’re still a lesser threat. Maybe they still feel that way, but now I hear shit about James and Nicole chatting about guaranteeing each member of their 4 person boremance $10k should they take each other to the final 4 and one of them wins. Seriously? That’s how the season is going to be remembered?  The season where Victor destroyed every competition, came back into the house, and be the only person with the guts to go after King Paulie (which also had the revenge storyline going). The season where….  wait, that was pretty much the highlight of the season. I guess they did set the bar pretty low.


Let me go into more detail on the bribe deal between James and Nicole. Now, James of course has been offering Natalie the world if he wins, but that’s because he’s an idiot. It wasn’t bribery as much as “I know you’re going to drop me faster than Meg did, so maybe I can win you over with some money” type of talk. However, what James and Nicole were talking all day about it and actually making deals to bring the boremances to the final 4 in exchange for a cash prize even if someone finishes 4th place. That’s extremely against the rules, as “superfans” like Nicole and James should know this shit. How did they react? Well, flashback to 8/22 @ 3:51am. Nicole comes out of the DR to head into the HoH and tells James they got in trouble and she has to say on camera she won’t get him something nice (then laughs)

Breaking rules is funny!
Breaking rules is funny!

She goes back to bed, and James is called into the DR for a lecture session of his own about breaking the rules. He comes back in and tells the group a little more, but not entirely the full truth. He made it sound like he was going to get the house gifts if he won. Even though it sounds less innocent – still a bribe.

Here is where it will get funny – The next care package is literally giving someone $5k in cash telling them to use to to bribe another person for an advantage in the house. Mind blowing.



You mean to tell me that bribery is bad if the players decide to make handshake deals that they’re clearly willing to break (James, bounce checks, blah blah), but bribery is good if it’s officially endorsed by the production team. Get your shit together, Big Brother.

It doesn’t sound like there will be much of a punishment for the two, and because of the care package bribe, it will be damn hard to explain that to people on TV if it were to happen. This is just another wrinkle in a weird ass season that still has a 50%ish chance of douchebag Paulie re-entering the house!  (I say 50% because he’ll go against Victor.  Da’, Z, and Bridgette won’t win. Probably won’t even come close). It’s going to be Paulie versus Victor unless the challenge is 100% luck, or endurance.  If endurance, Z ups her odds a bit to around 10%, while Bridgette goes from 0 to 2%.

I’ll post a live update thread in a little bit, just wanted to catch you guys up on the house, tell you I’m back, and things are going to be back to normal around here. So stop freaking out in the comment section!  🙂


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  1. Avatar

    Welcome back Steve! The ladies did a great job!

  2. AIO_7

    Welcome back, Steve, and thanks to the girls for filling in…they did a great job.

    I think the SNacole and Lames corruption is a totally different ballgame than the $5,000 “bribe”.

    • Avatar
      Sandra ftsm (1137 comments)

      I just don’t understand your reasoning though. How is it not the same? To me it’s like I raised my kids and I used to get onto to them for lying. Not telling someone something is a lie. Lying by omission. So this bribe is a bribe. A lie is a is a lie is a lie and a bribe is a bribe is a bribe.

  3. Mugummy
    Mugummy (64 comments)

    Glad you’re giving your kitty some love! And welcome back! We missed you probably more than Mr. Pickles (or insert-cute-or-killer-cat-name-here) 😉

  4. Kari B.
    Kari B. (779 comments)

    Wow, effed up!!

  5. Amberchelly

    Welcome back Steve! I’m watching the feeds from last night right now. Meech and Corey moon the feeders within an hour of eachother. Meeches was so funny! (11:09:40 cam 3) Then Nicole pranks Corey while he’s in the shower by taking all the near by towels away. Then Victor got all angry at Nicole for having the odacity to throw his towel on the floor for 30seconds. I saw in the chat rooms that it was eventful I just haven’t gotten to it yet.

  6. Avatar
    Morgan (86 comments)

    Y’know, everyone is calling Nicole a rat or a snake, which is just an insult to rats and snakes everywhere. I happen to like both of these animals and have had them both as pets. I think Nicole needs a new nickname. Something truly gross.

    Nicole is a spider.

    Better yet, a tick.
    A tick that’s stuck to Corey’s ass.

    • Avatar
      Kristine (207 comments)

      Or one of those ankle biter dogs

    • Avatar
      Gerardo (2712 comments)

      Very fair point Morgan, and although I hate spiders myself, I do recognize that many people own pet spiders so I would like to respect them as well. I do not know anyone who owns a pet tick (other than Corey), so my vote is that we officially use the tick moniker for Nicole. It’s both humane and accurate.

  7. Avatar
    Sandra ftsm (1137 comments)

    Thanks Steve for saying what I’ve been saying all day. BB is going to be looking very bogus if they get onto Nicole and James for a bribe if they themselves are doing the same thing. The house is going to be mighty upset when this package is given. They’re expecting to get an HOH. What a letdown. Let’s say even if someone took the bribe, how does that mean that the person that took the bribe is going to do what they say? Maybe you can help my memory Steve. Didn’t we have someone try to bribe the house before and no one took it. Then we had someone who tried to bribe someone with cigarettes but the bribee didn’t keep his end of the bargain.

  8. Avatar
    Lina N (43 comments)

    Steve so glad you’re back. You reiterated all the issues I’ve been thinking overnight. Victor is the one that wants to play in the game. I love how James commented and said he’ll go hide in the corner to the end. He thinks if he says enough James is going to win fan favorite? I say James get a real job and I don’t want to see you ever again on Big Brother. So excited to see you summarize the next few weeks.

  9. Jannie

    I hate the players.
    I hate this season.
    I really hate these care packages.
    I hope Vic gets back in with the buy back.

    Welcome back, stevebeans!

  10. Avatar
    DingDong (92 comments)

    Well of course BB puts the kibosh on final 4 insider deals in regard to the prize money. Consider this:
    1. The 500K is the carrot on the end of a stick, the cheese at the end of the maze, the ultimate motivation to stab your housemate in the back. If the cast just makes a cozy deal, the cheese is gone. Why play? And more importantly to CBS and sponsors, why watch?
    2. The ACP was designed weeks ago as part of a twist the audience gets to choose a player to influence the game and part of a strategy needed in choosing who gets what ACP .
    3. Obviously if 4 people in the house are making 10K deals on the side, takes the steam off our hand in rewarding that final ACP
    4. The 500K final winner take all prize is very different than the 5K ACP intent used solely for strategy.
    I’m not even sure if they can just keep it either. I think they have to use it as a bribe . And that makes it interesting .
    My 2 cents anyway.

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  12. jimbo
    jimbo (450 comments)

    It can be argued that Vic and Paul are also douches (way proved it at the beginning), as well as James (twice promised safety during comps in two seasons, and twice directly lied, plus he’s a dupe of Natalie, and Meg before that), and Davonne (rallied up the hatred of Frank ala Vanessa, but worse because it was a direct character assassination in front of millions) — so the house is full of douches, not only Paulie. People have RPD, Rabid Paulie Disease this year.

    • Avatar
      Sandra ftsm (1137 comments)

      I agree with everything you said except the Frank thing. Unless someone gives you the okay to touch them in a familiar way, you should keep your hands to yourself. It wasn’t just Da’ that he did it to. I will grant you that Da’ pushed that agenda but Frank didn’t learn anything from the admonshisment. He didn’t ever touch Da’ again but he did the other women. Pauli was an emotional abuser to Z. The way he talked to her in the Paris room that night was horrible. He just kept turning it and turning back on her with a hateful voice. Corey, Vic and Paul were just as guilty because they spoke of all women as whores. At least with James I can say he spoke up here and there. He never snickered at dirty things the guys said and he stuck up for Nat. Now I don’t know if she’s playing him or not but if she is I hope he gets the lesson without getting bitter over it. Jimbo don’t take this as me being mean to you. I just realized how much the guys bugged me this year. Lol I just kept letting it flow. So I guess if I had to pick a winner this year it would be James.

  13. Shivani33

    The Care package $5,000 bribe is more of a one-time-only bargaining chip bestowed by voters. Perhaps it would have been better not to use the word “bribe” to describe it, especially with what has happened since. Nicole and James signed contracts. Both have signed BB contracts before, so they are very likely to have known that they aren’t allowed to use bribes to make deals. They offered alliance-formative, game-length bribes and were then made to retract their bribe offers publicly. The question is: has the punishment of retraction done enough to repair what Nicole and James have done?

    Vanessa was corrected in a similar way last Season, and even she wasn’t the first player in BB history to offer a bribe as an incentive. Clearly, this is the way that Big Brother production has chosen to handle it. Whether or not it’s adequate to use retraction as the only solution – a solution without any real punishment – can be debated, but the audience doesn’t get to decide. So far, we only get to witness and give opinions. Many commenters say that players who bribe ought to be booted from the game, with jury members replacing them. Just as many say it’s no big deal, and retraction is enough.

  14. Avatar
    Bazinga (13 comments)

    Pam and Brianna did a fantastic job. It wasn’t what you do Steve, but it was enough.

    It’s exhausting that people are so “entitled”. This is a free site and you all are doing the best you can. this is not a paid site with a staff full of writers.
    That being said, welcome back steve. and best wishes to brianna and pam.

  15. Avatar

    Bribing a houseguest was used during Derrick’s season. Derrick, Donny, and Frankie were a secret team and one of their assignments was to bribe a housework. This came up earlier in the season and it didn’t work. Even if it did, it was at a point in the game when it would not have had as much an effect as it will now with so few left. With that said there is certainly a difference between production crafting a bribe and seasoned players like Nicole and James cutting a deal It is expressly forbidden in both rule book and their contracts. What really makes what they did worse is Nicole laughing about it. Combine that with Natalie saying after her DR session that production wants her and James to work with Nicole and Corey because it would be great if showmances made it to the final four and that Nicole and James were only reprimanded and it is quite obvious that CBS is trying very hard to make that group the Final 4. I expect houseguests to manipulate each other but production being so actively involved makes watching this three days a week a waste of time….CBS should just add another twist: a fast forward to the final 4 and be done with it.

    • caRyn

      Hi KP, I have read about Natalie coming out of the DR talking about a F4 with James, Nicole and Corey. Do you know which hg know this arrangement? I don’t know who she told when she came of of the DR and who else knows about it.

  16. JadedMage

    welcome back ! you were missed but the ladies did a great job!

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