#11: Big Brother 12
Big Brother 12 ranks in at last place for a few reasons. First of all, the big twist flopped. It was meant to be fun, despite the fact that it was advertised as being SUPER MANIPULATIVE and could RUIN EVERYONES GAME, but ultimately it never did, even in the only week that it truly existed. I've noticed that many seasons have had the twist all fall on the shoulders of a single player, and it would seem then that if that player was evicted early on, the entire point of the twist would go with them. This existed with the saboteur twist in BB12, but it as well has existed since BB5, with the DNA twist where twins existed in the house, but only one could play in the game at a time, and when they made it to a certain point they would reveal themselves and have both of them move into the house together. Imagine if the twin twist failed in week one. Then, in BB8, Eric showed up as America's Player. Given the power to have America vote on topics such as who he should try to get nominated, to who he should mess with in the house, to who he should ultimately vote to evict, he had a decent amount of power right off the bat. Eric as well made it far enough into the game where the twist effectively had an impact on the season, and for that reason it's a success. But what if he had been voted out in the first few weeks?
Well, as you already know where I'm going with this, in BB12, the sole player with all the power WAS evicted in the first week, and from there the twist completely dissipated with her. Annie was a cool person, and I wish she'd have stayed regardless of the twist, but... well... "woops." But BB12 doesn't get last place solely because the big twist of the season flopped right off the bat. I actually didn't mind the saboteur twist if only because it didn't seem like it would impact the game on any serious strategic level. It was a fair twist for all. But BB12 still fails because the entirety of the house was, in many ways, really boring to watch. And I say this having enjoyed the cast enough to watch them on the live feeds throughout the entire summer. The problem was that none of the possible crazy events that almost always happen in every season of Big Brother happened in BB12. There were no power shifts, no big fights that had crazy fallouts, or built new alliances, or anything of that variety. I'm not the biggest proponent of finding entertainment in sloppy drama, but what I do enjoy is watching people get owned after they've displayed ugly characteristics all season. I enjoy seeing people get slapped in the face by karma for their nasty behavior. And I mostly enjoy strategic gamesmanship between multiple people in the house, and the power that goes with it flowing around from one side to the next.
One of my favorite players in Survivor is Rob Cesternino from the Amazon, and that isn't because of his personality so much as it was because of his ability to ebb and flow through everyone around him, using his tribemates to his own advantage. I cringe when I see a poor strategic decision made - and this happened a lot last season. And the power never shifted the entire season. And there were hardly any blowouts outside of a single argument between Ragan and Rachel, and then Britney and Brendon. Woo.