I started a Big Brother fantasy league with a few friends starting with Season 23 and, despite covering the show for many years and knowing the do’s and don’ts of winning BB, I’m absolutely terrible at picking Houseguests to win pre-game. I’ve never finished above third place since my buddies and I started the league, and Season 25 was possibly my worst showing yet. As such, I figured it would be great to showcase my picks for this year, for anyone who wants to manage their expectations now that they’ll win Big Brother 26, which recently premiered.
To illustrate for you just how bad my Season 25 picks were, I took Hisam Goueli, Reilly Smedley, Red Utley and Luke Valentine. One of my Houseguests was expelled on Day 8 and, by Day 37, my entire team was out of the game. To further exemplify how bad I am at picking pre-game, I drafted Derek Frazier on Season 23 as my first pick. While he did finish in second place, he’s the only person since Dr. Will to make a Final 2 while winning absolutely nothing. I’ll say it again, I’m terrible at drafting players.
For that reason, I’m sharing my Season 26 picks below, along with some logic on why I’ll be rooting for them when I watch the live feeds with my Paramount+ subscription. Of course, my expectations are pretty low given my track record, and I suggest readers also start to feel that way as well as they watch this season.
Brooklyn Rivera
I’ll be honest, when I learned that Brooklyn was part of the pageant scene, I immediately locked in on her. While past contestants who were beauty queens struggled in Big Brother, Taylor Hale’s win during Season 24 has me thinking that a new era was upon us. Rivera, a married mother, also had a likable vibe in her pregame interviews, so I could see her being a strong social player with a strong personality. Provided she doesn’t win first HOH and pull some big Frenchie-level mistake, I’m not worried about her early on.
Do I think she’ll become the next Taylor Hale? I don’t think anyone can do that, nor do I think anyone would want to go through what she did to win. Even so, the social game has really thrived on recent seasons of Big Brother so, provided she’s as outgoing as she seems, I think she has what it takes to win.
Tucker Laruriers
It would be my luck that Tucker Laruriers would be the first Houseguest to enter the Big Brother house in Season 26, which comes with a stigma. No one who has ever entered the house first has won the game and, while the odds favor that happening, it’s a bad omen for his run. That said, I haven’t given up on this promising Houseguest, who caught my attention due to his resemblance to a young James Van Der Beek in Dawson’s Creek.
I don’t want to wait for the game to be over. I want the world to know that I had Tucker from the jump. I liked how he took his overall style, and I could see him being the next Tyler Crispen. To clarify, I mean the Tyler from Season 20, and not the Season 22 version that his ex Angela Rummans contacted the FBI due to fan threats.
T-Kor Clottey
T-Kor Clottey, what more can I say? Plenty, actually, because I think she’s going to be the brains behind the game of Big Brother. My initial impression of her is that she’s going to play this game casually. That is, I don’t expect her to start trying to lead the charge right out of the gate and making some of the more classic mistakes other Houseguests make at the beginning of the game.
I could be wrong, but I think T-Kor is more than likely not going to rattle any cages and make sure she at least makes it to the jury. Whether her game comes alive there or she’ll continue to float until it’s too late, we’ll have to wait and see. I’m pulling for her to win, though, and thinking that with the right alliance, she’ll make her way to the end and be a real threat down the stretch.
Kenney Kelly
Kenney was my last draft pick and, based on the way the picks shook out, I was down to him or Angela Murray. I was convinced that Angela was part of the A.I. twist, so there was no reality in which I was taking her over Kenney. I don’t know if it was something about her name as well as her bespectacled appearance, she honestly just felt like an A.I. creation! Even after finding out that Angela is real and that was the 17th Houseguest Ainsley that was the A.I., I’m still happy I took Kenney.
Ok, let’s be real. The “old man of the house” trope of Big Brother doesn’t have the greatest track record. Anyone who goes into the game hoping to be a “father figure” of sorts means that he’s trying to stand out as a leader. That’s all well and good if you can win comps and, let’s face it, sitting on a wall at age 50 is much more difficult than someone doing it in their 20s or 30s. Even so, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a competitor north of 50 at the end of Big Brother. So I’m going to say that it’s past due and, based on that alone, we should see Kenney go far in Season 26.
Of course, if my predictions all turn out to be terrible and these Houseguests are gone before the jury phase, don’t blame me. As I said, I have a terrible record of picking, but I am genuine when I say that I could see any one of these four contestants winning the game. The list wouldn’t work if I intentionally picked people I thought would lose though, in hindsight, maybe I should’ve done that this season so I could try to reverse my luck? Perhaps I’ll try that next year.
Big Brother airs on CBS this summer on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET as part of the 2024 TV schedule. Those wishing to watch the live feeds this season can do so with a Paramount+ subscription or Pluto TV. (But they should be aware of the shocking change that will make this season a bit more difficult to follow in regard to gathering intel.)