The Amazing Race 30 came to an end on Wednesday and, in a bit of a surprise, Big Brother 19 showmance Cody Nickson and Jessica Graf pulled out the win, taking home one million dollars. That should help with their upcoming wedding plans.
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As a massive fan of Big Brother, it was exciting to see two people who I rooted for over the summer achieve victory on The Amazing Race. However, I also think this could have a very bad impact on the future of Big Brother.
There have been many examples of Big Brother HGs moving on to other CBS reality competition shows. Hayden Moss and Caleb Reynolds both played on Survivor while Jeff and Jordan, Brendan and Rachel and even Alison Irwin have all been on The Amazing Race before. But none of them won in their second (or third or fourth) shot at reality TV glory.
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The problem is that future HGs may now be playing for something other than winning Big Brother. Instead, they may see Cody and Jessica as an inspiration, focusing more on finding a showmance or a best friend who they can do The Amazing Race with after Big Brother is over.
This is already a small part of the Big Brother experience. James Huling from seasons 17 and 18 regularly talked on the live feeds about wanting to do Survivor or The Amazing Race (with either Meg or Natalie, but neither of those worked out well for him). Even on Celebrity Big Brother, Chuck Liddell said in his eviction interview with Julie Chen that he and his wife wanted to be on The Amazing Race.
This might become the new normal. Instead of going on Big Brother in order to try to win the game, contestants will now try to use it as a stepping stone to a different CBS reality show, one where the winning paycheck is double (Big Brother gives out $500,000, while the prize for both Survivor and The Amazing Race is $1,000,000).
As much as I enjoyed Cody and Jessica on Big Brother 19, they were not good players. They tended to isolate themselves, even before the house turned against them, and they made poor decisions that led to them being evicted in 12th and 11th place. Future HGs should look at how they played the game as a cautionary tale, a prime example of what not to do. But now they have a million dollars, so everyone is going to want to be the next Jody.
Do you think Jody’s Amazing Race win will lead to even more Big Brother showmances? For more updates, like BuddyTV’s Big Brother Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
