The Couch Potato’s best of the worst on ‘Big Brother 10’

By Casey Gillis

Published: August 13, 2008

So have the “Big Brother 10” producers hit the jackpot, or what?

I bet every reality TV producer just prays for the kind of loud, obnoxious personalities they’ve gathered for this season of the CBS show.

In case you’ve never watched, here’s the deal: a group of strangers are sequestered in a house together, where they spend the summer competing against each other in a series of challenges and voting each other off.

This season’s contestants are so awful that I often feel like I’m watching an episode of Jerry Springer. Almost every conversation eventually turns into a screaming match.

I’ve never seen so many reality contestants so quick to turn on each other, and we all know that’s saying a lot. There’s more he said-she said drama in this house than in high school, people!

Take it from me, a seasoned reality TV viewer: all the best reality shows have entertaining, interesting villain-types (see: Richard Hatch on the first season of “Survivor”). But you also need to have people who are worth rooting for, and they are few and far between on “Big Brother” this time around.

In the beginning, I liked Jerry, thinking he’d be the cute, grandfather-like figure to the housemates. Boy, was I wrong. It seems as if he just looks for reasons to yell at people.

His recent tirade against Dan, when he kept accusing the Catholic schoolteacher of hiding behind his religion, completely crossed the line. You see, Jerry was mad because Dan went against his word and voted out bodybuilder Jesse (sayonara, buddy!). What Jerry doesn’t know — and what I can only hope makes him feel very silly when he finds out — is that Dan is America’s Player. That basically means he doesn’t even get to choose whom he votes out; America votes and he has to do what they say.

Anyway, Jerry went on and on, saying Dan was going to burn for his actions and even called him Judas. Wow, really Jerry?

It always baffles me when reality contestants freak out and make things so personal. It is a game. A game!

Dan seems to be one of the only redeemable people this season. He’s a nice guy caught up in a crazy world.

As for the other contestants, I’m starting to like Memphis, mostly because he seems aware that everyone around him is absolutely nuts. And Renny, who was annoying in the first few episodes, is starting to grow on me. But I can’t really tell if it’s because she’s getting better or her housemates are getting worse.