The first episode of “Big Brother 23” introduced the country to the 16 all-new players who’ll be competing all summer to win the $500,000 $750,000 grand prize. Four of them won their initial plexiglass challenges and became team leaders: Brandon “Frenchie” French for the Jokers, Whitney Williams for the Aces, Christian Birkenberger for the Kings and Claire Rehfuss for the Queens. The Jokers later won the “House of Cards” inspired Head of Household competition, which meant Frenchie automatically became the season’s first HOH. So who did Frenchie nominate for eviction, and what the heck is the wildcard comp that Julie Chen Moonves teased us about last time?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Big Brother” recap of Season 23, Episode 2 to find out what happened Sunday, July 11 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite “BB23” houseguests on CBS’s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Big Brother” winners list. Here are the current team breakdowns:
JOKERS: Brandon “Frenchie” French (Captain), Azah Awasum, Britini D’Angelo, Derek Frazier
ACES: Whitney Williams (Captain), Brent Champagne, Derek Xiao, Hannah Chaddha
KINGS: Christian Birkenberger (Captain), Alyssa Lopez, Xavier Prather, Sarah Beth Steagall
QUEENS: Claire Rehfuss (Captain), Kyland Young, Tiffany Mitchell, Travis Long
Keep refreshing/reloading this “Big Brother 23” live blog for the most recent updates.
8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Big Brother’!” In the first episode, Frenchie won the HOH comp and was given a special “double or nothing” offer by Julie. If he took her offer and rolled two large dice cubes onto a platform, the Jokers would be safe for the next two weeks. If he lost her challenge, they would no longer be safe for the first week and the Queens would be safe instead, with Claire taking over Frenchie’s HOH duties. Frenchie declined the offer, so nothing changed. Will that decision come back to bite him? Let’s find out!
8:04 p.m. – With the HOH win in his pocket, Frenchie figured that taking the risk to earn a second week of safety for his team and him would put a huge target on his back, especially if he had lost the first week of safety for his team. Being on Frenchie’s team was a wrench in Azah’s original plan, which was to go after whoever wins HOH first. She obviously can’t do that now that she’s part of his team!
8:07 p.m. – The time after the HOH comp was spent getting to know each other really quickly. Sarah Beth joined the group of early liars in the house (Xavier is already one) by telling everyone she’s a voice actor when she’s really a super smart chemist. During introductions, Frenchie was focused on finding out how the information could be used to his advantage for determining nominations. Xavier was also laser-focused, but instead on which of the women might compromise his “Operation No-mance” plan for the season. His eyes are on Alyssa at the moment, but he suggests any of them might be dangerous.
8:11 p.m. – Frenchie’s early target were Travis, Brent, Xavier and Christian because of his own classification of them as “meatheads.” He claims to dislike men that are too physical and so he’d like to take one of them out. That being said, during the kick-off competition he promised both Xavier and Travis safety and so his target list was narrowed down to Brent and Christian. He also promised safety to Derek F., someone he later drafted to his team of Jokers and made a final two deal with based on an initial bond and the prediction that no one will suspect that they’ll be so tight the entire game.
8:18 p.m. – Later, Frenchie told Azah, Claire and Hannah in his HOH room that he has two other plans this week: to go after potential showmances and to not nominate a woman in the first week. With this group, Frenchie was looking far into the game and committing to them safety at least for the second week. Privately at another point, he told Alyssa she was also safe and Tiffany that as parents they need to stick together. All of the women were on board with Frenchie’s plan to get a guy out of the house because it was lining up with their own goal of getting women to the end.
8:21 p.m. – Frenchie went into a one on one with Brent with the idea that he’d be nominating him for eviction, but the conversation turned personal about Brent’s father’s suicide and what it means to be parents which created a connection for the two and showed Frenchie that Brent isn’t as much of a “hard ass” as he assumed he would be. Brent explained that if he was stand offish with Frenchie it was because he didn’t want to come across desperate or like he was only talking to him because he was HOH. This conversation took Brent off the table as well then, leaving only Christian as the “meathead” option for a target.
8:26 p.m. – To complicate things even more for Frenchie, the new Wild Card Comp was announced. Each week, the three eligible teams (not the HOH team) would select one player to compete in the comp in order to guarantee safety for themselves, but not their team, and a separate secret decision to make. But the players that compete can’t compete again in the future until every member of their team already has. Both Tiffany and Claire opted out of playing for their team, making room for Kyland to be the player from the Queens. Sarah Beth and Alyssa told the Kings that they were both told they’re safe already and encouraged Christian to play out of necessity of being an early comp threat. On the Aces, no one wanted to play and so instead they left it up to the fate of a button draw. Hannah’s button was drawn and so she became the third competitor.
8:36 p.m. – For the Wild Card Comp, the three players had to search through a trashed hotel suite to find keys, a wallet and a cell phone in 5 minutes. If they make too much noise searching through the room they’d be given points as a penalty and if they go over 5 minutes they’d earn more points, all with the goal of having the least amount of points. Kyland earned 20 points right off the bat by knocking over a tower of cans as soon as he walked in the room, but managed to keep it seemingly quiet for the rest of his exploration. Christian also knocked the cans over, but even with a strategy of being speedy he remembered to open the bathroom door safely as to not knock over the cans obviously lurking on the other side of it. Hannah went into the room with less of a strategy and still frustrated that she was playing a comp she didn’t want to play. In the end, Hannah finished with a noise score of 114 and total time of 6:03, making a final total of 414. Christian’s noise total of 125 and time of 3:41 left him with 125 points. Kyland’s noise score of 136 and time of 6:16 gave him a total score of 686 and confirming Christian as the winner of safety.
8:49 p.m. – As the comp winner, Christian also got to spin a wheel that would determine how many of his teammates would also be safe. His spin landed on 1, leaving him with the decision to save only one of the three other members of his team. Considering both Sarah Beth and Alyssa had already claimed safety from Frenchie, Christian thought it was clear he should select Xavier as the one to choose.
8:51 p.m. – With his nominations looming, Frenchie had no clue what to do now that his main target Christian saved himself. Travis noticed that Frenchie seemed stressed out about his decision, pacing around the house like a lost soul. At one point, Frenchie considered how close Christian was getting to Alyssa and whether or not they had the seeds of a showmance that he’d want to stop right away. Later, he asked a group of players if they’d been approached for an alliance yet and Alyssa answered quickly with a “no except for my team” that Frenchie was not buying. This all but solidified his intentions of going after who he thought was the closest to Christian.
8:57 p.m. – At the nomination ceremony, the women of the house sat down believing that Frenchie wouldn’t be nominating any of them as promised. He kept to that promise in nomination Kyland first, but went against his word when he revealed Alyssa second. He told them it was all about using the “perfect bait” to catch his “big fish” and that Kyland was nominated in order to have someone he trusts playing in the Power of Veto comp. That left Alyssa confused that she’s the big fish and his main target and Kyland confused as to why he’s being used as pawn. Sarah Beth, as one of the women promised safety, felt betrayed while Christian realized that he’d need to protect Alyssa knowing that he’s the one that Frenchie is actually targeting.
