For the second year in a row, CBS’s “Big Brother” has cast two people with strong Georgia ties.
Both real estate agent Felicia Cannon of Kennesaw and stay-at-home dad Cameron Hardin of Eastman survived the first week and first elimination Thursday night.
There was some minor drama in the house. Illustrator Luke Valentine was kicked off the show after uttering an offensive racial slur, breaking the “Big Brother” code of conduct. Jared Fields, who overheard him and is a Black male, said on the show that he didn’t think Luke said it with malice but the cast was clearly told the rules before going into the house and Luke broke them.
Kirsten Elwin, a molecular biologist from Houston, was the first person officially voted off and it was a unanimous vote. She was perceived as playing the game too aggressively and people didn’t trust her.
So far, there are already four overlapping alliances and the producers placed a secret mother/son combo in the mix (Cirie and her son Jared). Izzy Gleicher, a professional flutist, follows Cirie on social media and immediately figured out the secret but, so far, has kept it to herself.
This, the 25th season, is the longest one yet, spanning 100 days. And because of the actor’s strike, CBS started the season later than usual on Aug. 2 so it will extend well into October.
Here are thumbnail sketches of each:
Felicia Cannon
Residence: Kennesaw
Age: 63
What she does: real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway
Game play so far: Felicia is observant and funny, well aware that she is by far the oldest person in the house. She created a new alliance on day four called “Bye Bye [Expletives]” with four other women including former “Survivor” player Cirie Fields. Later, Felicia joined a secondary seven-person alliance focused on older people in the house called The Professors. She said the name came from the fact they are “going to take these kids to school.” As 45-year-old Hisam Goueli noted in Thursday’s episode, older folks rarely win the show and tend to get voted out early. Fortunately for them, this year’s cast is generally older than previous casts so they have some numbers to exert some power.
Pawn: Reilly Smedley, who was the first week’s Head of Household, placed Felicia as a pawn next to Kirsten for the first week vote and that is exactly how it played out. Felicia received no votes.
Clumsy with mics: Felicia has accidentally dropped mics she wears in the hot tub and the toilet, destroying them in the process. According to TMZ, producers have started wrapping her mics in protective gear.
Cameron Hardin
Residence: Eastman
Age: 34
Occupation: Stay-at-home dad
Game play so far: He seems sweet and goofy but has not made any major strategic moves that have aired during the CBS broadcasts. In fact, he has gotten very little air time, relatively speaking, to date, and has not been an early target for elimination. He is part of the Five Hands alliance, which is all five players in the “Scary”-themed room. He is also involved in a bigger eight-person super alliance called Family Style.
WHERE TO WATCH
“Big Brother”
8 p.m. Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on CBS, available on demand at Paramount+
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