"Reality" Preview: Big Brother All-Stars

The summer "reality" TV season is in full swing and Survivor and American Idol clones are set to dominate the brodacast networks schedules for the next three months. Up until I started blogging about "pop culture" on a daily basis and needed material about which to write, I pretty much avoided the "reality" genre, with one big exception.

Big Brother has been what you might call a "guilty pleasure" of mine for a few summers now. I first began watching with BB3. I did not have cable, so my TV viewing options were somewhat limited, and on Thursday nights I'd fallen into the habit of watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? until about mid-summer when ABC kept pre-empting it with movies. I'd lost interest in Friends a couple of seasons before, and I can't remeber what Fox was offering but I do know that I wasn't interested. So my options were shutting off the TV and reading a book, or watching BB3. I chose BB and ended up hooked. I eagerly look forward to the arrival of each year's new set of houseguest to my TV screen. This year, though, the houseguests won't be completely new to the game.

Ever since Survivor did it's All-Star edition, I've been wondering if we'd ever see a similar stunt on BB. Well, this summer we will. BB7 is the BB All- Stars competition. In a BB special on June 21, CBS will roll out a list of 20 houseguests from seasons past who are vying for the chance to return to the house and take another shot at the half million dollar prize. BB fans will then have one week to vote on-line for who gets to come back.

The voting, and the unveiling of the candidates, is still about two and a half weeks away, but I was browsing the CBS site, and the homepages for past editions of BB, to refresh my memory a bit and I have come up with a list of 12 past BB houseguests whom I would like to see again. Of course, I have no idea who's on the list that I'll be voting from (and I will be voting), these are simply some of my favorites.

From BB3: Marsallis and Amy. Marsallis is one of the most popular houseguests ever, so he most likely will be back, and Amy was his best friend in the house.

From BB4: Retired FBI agent Jack, and former couple Robert and Erika

From BB5: Will, Nakomis (Jennifer), and Marvin

Finally, from BB6: Howie and his BB6 partner Rachel, Janelle, and Kaysar. Kaysar, during his first stint in the BB house (he was evicted and voted back in on-line by the audience), may have been the best strategic player the game has yet seen. He let his emotions get the best of him after his return and his second chance lasted only a week. I think he deserves a third shot.

Well, that's all for today. Gotta run.