Big Brother 17 Premiere Recap and Live Blog (VIDEOS)

Tonight is the season premiere of Big Brother 17! Read a live recap of the episode and join the discussion here.

Big Brother is back! The summer long CBS reality competition show of complete strangers living in a house together under 24/7 surveillance returns tonight. These HouseGuests will evict one another each week until only one remains, and along the way there is sure to be a lot of drama, alliances, betrayal, and strategy. Tonight we will meet eight of the new HouseGuests and watch them compete in the first Head of Household competition of the summer. In addition, we will see how the HouseGuests react to this season’s twists.

I’ll be here to recap all of the episodes, including the live evictions. MJ will be covering the live feeds, so make sure to check those out to find out everything going on inside the Big Brother house. The feeds won’t be live until after tomorrow’s night episode, but tune in to the two-night premiere starting now.

Julie Chen is here to kick-off the season. She’s inside the house and then steps out to greet a live audience. She says that the main twist this season is BB Takeover, which she’ll explain more later (as well as two other twists). But now it’s time to meet the HouseGuests.

First we meet James, the country guy from South Carolina; Meg, the New York girl; and Jace, an adrenaline junkie from California.  Next are Audrey, the small-town girl and Austin, the wrestler. Next we meet Da’Vonne, the poker dealer; Clay, the former college football player; and Shelli, the home stager and decorator.

We hear these first eight HoueGuests talk about their strategy as they pack up their belongings before departing for Los Angeles to begin their Big Brother adventure.

These eight HouseGuests are now in the studio with Julie. Julie welcomes them before they enter the house. The first to enter the house are Da’Vonne, Shelli, Clay, and Austin. They excitedly go inside and claim their beds as they meet each other. Clay is intimated by Austin’s size, while Shelli admits to finding Clay attractive. The next group enters and claim their beds.

They all gather in the living room to formally introduce themselves. Meg likes Jace’s easygoing attitude, and Clay refrains from telling the Houseguests he used to play college football since he thinks it’ll put a target on his back. Shelli is ten years older than Clay, but both admit in the diary room that they find each other very attractive. Looks like they will be this summer’s showmance. Da’Vonne lies and says that she is a second-grade teacher, even though she’s a poker player. Austin admits that he’s a wrestler, but exaggerates his injuries and doesn’t say he’s completely healed now. Meanwhile, James finds Meg attractive and says she reminds him of Taylor Swift. The last to introduce herself is Audrey, and she tells the HouseGuests that she is the first transgender HouseGuest to be on Big Brother. The other HouseGuests’ reaction is positive and very accepting.

The guys and girls are in different rooms. The guys are talking about workouts, while Audrey is leading the girls in a discussion about the girls aligning together (Meg is absent from this, though). Audrey, Shelli, and Da’Vonne then agree to form an alliance together. The same thing happened last year with Joey, Paola, Amber, and Nicole. We’ll have to see if this female alliance will actually be successful. Later on, Clay asks Audrey about her family’s thoughts on her transformation. She tells them her story about how she came from a conservative family and there wasn’t a lot of acceptance, but says everything is fine now. Clay is sympathetic, while Da’Vonne is appreciative that Audrey’s story could actually help their alliance since there could be more sympathy from the other HouseGuests.

Julie gathers the HouseGuests to reveal two twists. One is a fan favorite; the other is very new. Julie reveals that Battle of the Block is returning, which means that there will be two HoHs and four nominees. The four nominees will compete in the Battle of the Block and the winning pair of nominees will dethrone the HoH that nominated them. The HouseGuests will now compete in the first HoH competition of the summer, but says that one person must sit out. Da’Vonne speaks up first and says that she will sit out, hoping that the decision won’t backfire on her.

Kevin Frazier from Entertainment Tonight is there to help out with the HoH competition. There’s a movie-like set up for a fake movie called UFOh No as Kevin interviews each of them on a red carpet before they start the competition. The competition is called Flying Tomatoes. The tomatoes are to represent the bad reviews this fake film has received. The first HoueGuest to catch ten tomatoes and store them in the container next to them will win and be the first Head of Household of the week. The competition is very similar to the one Elissa won in Season 15. The competition begins, and thirty seconds in Meg, Austin, and Clay are the first three eliminated as they fall off their platform. Soon there is a three-way tie between James, Jace, and Audrey with four tomatoes. Shelli is still in it with three tomatoes. When James is in the lead with seven tomatoes, the other HouseGuests start seeing him as a threat and thinking there may be more to him than originally thought. Suddenly, everybody left standing fell off the platform simultaneously. This means they will have to watch the instant replay to see who hit the ground last to determine who the winner of the competition is. James was the last to land, so James is the first HoH of the summer.

After the HoH competition, Julie reveals the next twist to the HouseGuests. It’s called the BB Takeover, which means there will be a new twist each and every week. There is a big reaction from the HouseGuests and they all speculate with one another how the game will work from here on out.

Julie then reveals the next twist to the studio audience, which is the Twin Twist. One of the HouseGuests has an identical twin, and both twins will take turns living in the house and competing as one person. They’ve done this twist before back in Season 5. Tomorrow night we will find out who the twin is, as well as meet the other six HouseGuests.

And that concludes tonight’s premiere episode of Big Brother 17. Thanks for reading and come back tomorrow night for another live recap.

About Steven Curtis 539 Articles
Steven is a graduate of the University of West Florida with a bachelor's degree in communication arts. He enjoys watching reality competition shows, such as American Idol, Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race.