JokersUpdates.com: BB In-Depth - Didn't He Deserve The Chance...? more on S7, ED, and CT...

Will said that he wasn't going on the show without Boogie. This was their story and seemed to go over okay given Production allowed *four* members of Season Six in the same house. Given all the uproar over that season just the prior year, it was reasonable to think a player of Will's stature would be dismissed immediately (ding, Kaysar, Howie & Janie did this) and would be targeted immediately (ding, Howie & Kaysar at least wanted Will out very fast).

I know that Will wanted the help, and maybe wouldn't have done it without it, but considering the structure of that house it was perfectly reasonable to ask.

They wanted CT on there primarily to bring back Will, one of their most popular players from the past, and to give the season something that wasn't S6 Part 2 or even S5 Part 2 or those two things vs. each other. Obviously S6 plan was to wipe out S5 (+Mr&Mrs.Smith, we'll tack Ali in here) because they had threatening numbers (3/4 in theory) and S6 knew exactly what they wanted to do, dominate. The story of what happened after the early S5/4 exodus is what makes this one of the best seasons. Assuming this is simply a well-dressed attempt to discredit Will, Boogie and/or Chilltown in All-Stars, I would rather discuss how at least this was a 'real' game compared to every season we've got since. Not surprisingly, this is the last season of BB that Alison Grodner is not fully in charge of and, next year in 8, she begins her reign w/ a thundering boom by introducing America's Player and (w/ America, via edit and blood being thicker than water) proceeded to hand the season to the Donatos. The ratings rewarded her such that the formula continues to this day with showmances replacing bloodlines (much easier to recruit/better exit strategy).

ED knew he wouldn't win this season, even with the help of his own Daughter (and yes, they do start communicating enough when money's on the line). That's why Dick bailed so soon - economics. He wanted the guaranteed income of his fans coming to yet another reality TV webcast, blog et al, so he took the safest route to some coin. Giving us '0' Dick at Nite shows, "just by coincidence," sealed the deal. A Coward. At least Jordan had the nerve to stay in the house and actually try to do it again.

Will, on the other hand, knew he could beat everyone in All-Stars. Note the "They have no idea what's gonna hit them" from above line, even as Kaysar openly, confidently mocks Will as an old relic that will be quickly disposed. Recall, the net & TV audiences were still overwhelmingly, rabidly pro-S6 here. Will knew and was able to ride it to glory... ... ... ... ...

... ... ... with some help.

Hey, 1 on 4 is crazy. 2 on 4 is crazy like a fox.

The 2-pack votes gave them the flexibility to play different alliances (Mr/Mrs Smith, "SovTown," LoD, CT Ninja 3-packs, etc) that wouldn't have been available to Will alone. He'd already done that game and we didn't want another season of two fan-favorites slowly going crazy and psycho over the year (S2), how about doing that with ALLIANCES? That could work!

It's been my opinion for a long time that Will knowingly went out at 4, not fully telling Boogie just what went down and how he knew Janelle was voting. He never really made an attempt to save himself the one time it mattered; THIS was his final act in the game. It didn't matter if he won again as that would be insulting his lady (EB2XWFLOM!) ;-)

Now joking aside, Will is still the best of all time. What would be the point? He showed it again without winning anything. You just have to look for it...Will, like Boogie, and like most of us with a clue, knew Erika was lying to Janelle about F2. She would've definitely lost vs Janelle. Sure, it would've been nice if it wasn't the case, but it was, and so it was an easy bet on Mike Boogie making it to F2. In that case, just like Season 2, Chilltown (read, dolce group) buys the votes. Will takes a walk without much fight, the Jury agrees early and parties the rest of the way. More or less, the Jury interviews were an Erika mega-bash-session and everyone knew Boogie had pulled this thing off.

It wasn't much of a mystery what CT had done. Not by then. That meant that Mike had deserved to be there and won the game - it was assumed, like S6 just the year prior, that it would take years for the winner to get credit because they beat the fan-favorites of S6. As for early exit returns on All-Stars?...look at Rob Mariano on Survivor.

Remember Marquesas..? He was eliminated fairly early on that season but still came back for All-Stars, showed up big both game and showmance-wise... to me, Rob became a legend of reality comp shows. It stands to reason that All-Stars can redeem some early exits into great players, particularly as they team up with other All-Stars in that AS season. They also attempted this with Jase, a fairly early exit (and backdoored) in S5. Plenty of people asked why Boogie was on the show. Many also asked why Season 6 got 4, instead of 3, which abnormally tilted the house and colored the game (like S13 Fans/Faves, sure). Boogie deserved his chance to come back, if you look at the structure of the whole house. Excluding CT would've only made it a likely S6 steamroller, removing a lot of subtlety and the wrinkles that made this a worthwhile finale to the old-school BB era.

Of course, having been a rather rare CT fan from day one up 'against' an endless avalanche of Sov 6 fans, was one of the craziest dynamics ever on the net. Many were too new to have actually seen S2 feeds, they only "knew" about Will.

Put a simpler way, let's look back to what Dingo (Hamsterwatch) said about the season you're reviewing - S7 All-Stars. She called Will's results that season "a miracle of modern hypnosis..." and I believe she was correct. What you'll see if you look deeply (particularly the key Marcellas-goes week and those surrounding the LoD demise), is that Will did do massive damage in that season. So did Boogie, running around. For example, Boogie was selling out James much more subtly than vice-versa, which was the smooth play that helped CT stay in S6 hip pocket in the early-mid phase and keep James on the outs.

Boogie actually had a similar game in that stage, desperately seeking info, but just had a less paranoid, more relatable style with people. Also, he came from a position of weakness (Boogie hadn't won much yet and everyone knew Will would throw everything regardless of what he said). Both of the Chilltown members (the real ones, not the fake ninjas or producers that got their club card) deserve big ups for their play in S7. They swindled a whole house that was obsessed with S6 and reminded them of what a real old-school game looks like.

S7 EPILOGUE:

All-Stars settled the debt of Mike buying the S2 Jury votes for Will...

Boogie goes on 'The View' and gets an earful for hateful remarks made in the house..

Ashton Kutcher helps squash the blowback from Boogie's unsavory comments about Erika..

Not long after S7 Mike, Lonnie & their crew would meet many 'interesting' women who aspired to be on reality TV ...

... including Daniele D., Rachel R, half of BB9 and several others ...

. . . the story never ends . . . until next year . . .

Viva Dolce.

Edited (09/12/11 05:26 AM)