Jeah! Olympian Ryan Lochte is our first Celebrity Big Brother Head of Household, and the swimmer is shaking things up already when it comes to eviction.
In the second half of the Season 2 premiere of CBS’ hit reality show Tuesday, things picked up after the twist was announced Monday about the first Celebrity Power Pair—that while one would be named the first HOH, the other would be up for eviction.
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With Lochte and Mean Girls actor Jonathan Bennett securing their place in the power pair in Monday’s competition, the two former buddies tried to form a majority alliance with one another and five other house members so that no matter who won the HOH competition, both would be safe from being evicted.
Bennett, understandably, lost out in the physical challenge to Lochte, but the host Julie Chen twisted the duo’s plan even further when she announced that in addition, Lochte would have to nominate another two houseguests for elimination—and he only had 30 minutes to decide.
Up for eviction, aside from Bennett, were former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci; Lindsay Lohan’s mother Dina Lohan; actor Joey Lawrence (who declared early on he doesn’t “believe” in alliances; Olympian Lolo Jones; retired NFL player Ricky Williams; comedian Tom Green; singer Tamar Braxton; and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss.
Safe from nomination were O.J. Simpson murder trial witness Kato Kaelin and former WWE star Natalie Eva Marie, who were left behind in the team picking Monday, therefore marked immune from eviction.
At first Lochte decided to put up Lohan and Scaramucci, which pleased most of his alliance from the start.
“Anthony and Dina? Cool with me,” Braxton told the camera. “They’re like the two oldest people in the house. If one of them goes out, both of them goes out, no one’s that mad.”
Bennett, however, defended Lohan as “like a mom to me” in his early 20s, when he was starring alongside her daughter in Mean Girls, prompting Lochte to say he would be “winging it” during the nomination ceremony.
Fractures in the alliance were also already visible, with Burruss feeling like Lochte was avoiding telling her alliance matters firsthand. “It makes me feel like, when this alliance gets down to the alliance itself, I will be the first one out,” the Bravo show said. “So I better be talking to everyone.”
In the end, Lochte put up Scaramucci and Green for eviction alongside Bennett, sparing Lohan another week.
Who will be the first celebrity to say goodbye to the Big Brother house?
This season of Celebrity Big Brother will air over 13 episodes, with the finale airing on Feb. 13. The next episode of Celebrity Big Brother airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
Photo credit: CBS
