BB11 Media Day News...finally! (Youtubes/Pics of the new BB11 house)

WLBB was selected by CBS to be one of the few media outlets represented during the annual media in-house day which took place Friday, June 19, 2009. For the past couple of seasons, a select few have been able to live the experience of a Big Brother houseguest for twelve hours. We can now say that so far, Katie Neal from WLBB is one of only 12 people who have ever lived in the Big Brother 11 house. These members of the press lived the life of a full-fledged houseguest by competing in challenges and even going through the nomination and eviction processes. Below you will see WLBB correspondent Katie Neal’s account of her experience in the Big Brother 11 house. Plus, we’ve got plenty of details about the new house and possible twist ideas.

NOTE: UPS lost our DVD that was supposed to ship overnight from CBS. The DVD finally made it into our state, but it won’t be delivered until later this morning. We hope to have it posted for you ASAP today. We apologize for this error by UPS and will have the video for you soon.

One more thing before we get into Katie’s experience. The picture above was recently posted on Zap2It.com. We can confirm that this picture is Julie standing in the spa / exercise room. Be sure to read about that room below!

Quote :

When I went into the Big Brother 11 house to represent WLBB, I was joined by eleven other journalists. They were Jen Johnson from MSN.com, Gunther from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Rosanna Tavarez from the TV Guide Network, Reagan Alexander from People.com, Dennis Luciani from National Lampoon, Melissa from CBS2 LA, Stella from CBS.com, Carrie Moten from Johnjay and Rich, Ben from BSideBlog, Ann Murray from Fancast, and Jay Schwartz.

After going through security and arriving at Big Brother, all of the journalists were instructed to sit in a room together. We were not allowed to talk to each other at all during this waiting period.

We met with the executive producers and they led us to the stage where Julie hosts the show. We were instructed to stand on the stairs just like the houseguests do before they enter the house. The producers ran through a list of rules and things we weren’t allowed to do in the house. Chewing gum and breaking house items were off limits! Allison Grodner told us that we would be able to choose a bed upon entering the Big Brother house. However, there weren’t enough beds for all of us because one of the rooms was locked. Allison said that since we were there for 12 hours, we didn’t all need a bed. She wouldn’t tell us why the bedroom was locked other than it was involved in the twist.

Eventually, our names were drawn at random and we were allowed to enter the house four at a time. I was picked to enter the house with Gunther and two others.

When we first entered the house, I noticed that the one big wall on the side had been changed. It had tons of plants and all the walls had been changed to different colors of plywood. It looked really cool. The interior decorating looked really nice. When I turned to my left, I noticed the kitchen had an oriental theme with Buddha statues and Chinese heirlooms.

I remember there were plastic chopsticks and the plates were actually made out of bamboo. The plates were really thin and almost looked like paper plates. The cabinets were made out of bamboo as well. There were a lot of orange and red colors in the kitchen. It looked like the houseguests will have to grow their own spices because there were garlic and thyme plants in the kitchen. The oven, refrigerator, and all normal appliances were still present.

Before entering the house, Allison Grodner informed us that the house was going green. She told us that there were two compost machines in the house. One was in the backyard and we weren’t allowed to use it. There was also a compost machine in the kitchen, but none of us ever really figured out how to use it. Also, the garbage cans in the kitchen had a side for paper and plastic and another side for glass.

Once we became acquainted with the kitchen, we ventured down the hall to the bathroom. It had an industrial look to it. The couch was still in the corner. The bathroom had its normal setup with no major changes, other than the walls looking industrial. As far as online rumors go, there were no urinals on the wall! The shower door was clear with a little portion of foggy glass so you can’t see the midriff of anyone. There was a sliding shower curtain in the middle to split the shower in two. There was another online rumor that the sinks were had motion sensors. Jen actually thought this was the case and waved her hands under the sink, but no water came out. Then she figured out she had to turn on the handle!

The exercise / spa room has two bicycles that have light bulbs next to them. When you pedal each bike, the light bulbs light up. At one point, Gunther and Jay were riding the bikes to see who could get the brightest light bulb. We joked around that it would be funny if the houseguests had to continuously ride a bike to keep the lights on. Half of the gym has the tops of bottles on the walls in interesting designs. The other side of the room is decorated with giant bubble wrap. The green recycling symbol is painted on the walls.

On the other side of the house, there were two bedrooms that we were allowed in. The first was straight down the hall and had no doors to it. There were three really cool beds in there. That room was painted with reds and the headboards were really tall. Those beds looked really nice and comfortable. This first room didn’t really have a theme to it.

But the other room had a swimming pool theme. The first third of the wall had wallpaper that looked like water. Above the wallpaper was a cement border that looked like the edge of a pool. The last two thirds of the wall were designed to look like the underside of a pool. So it felt like you were literally under water. There were safety ropes running along the ceiling to make it look life-like. The beds actually had giant floats on them so it looked like you were floating on water. Coming out of the wall was a slide that was complete with a ladder. There were extra sunglasses and floats around the bedroom to make it feel like you were actually at the pool.

The diary room looks similar to the way it looked during Big Brother 10. There wasn’t a theme or anything to it. It is just a dark and dimly lit room with a comfortable couch to sit on.

The living room still had a similar setup with two couches that were a shade of purple. There were two green nominee chairs that faced the monitor where Julie Chen talks to the houseguests. The walls were different shades of plywood. I know “plywood” doesn’t sound really nice, but it did look really cool.

One strange thing I noticed was that in the living room there was a random dish of keys. At first we thought maybe there was a twist and we had to use the keys to unlock a secret room. But we ended up just making up games of hiding and searching for the keys.

Back to the kitchen area, the spiral staircase is painted orange to match the kitchen theme. There are a lot of cool pictures upstairs. They were hung up high with lights shining behind them to light up the pictures. In the Head of Household balcony, there was a large comfortable couch that was sage-green. Oh, the chessboard it still there too. When we first walked in the Head of Household room, the one wall had glass over it and behind it there was an outdoors picture. So it almost looks like you’re looking out a window. So that part of the room has a recreational or outdoors theme. There was actually a big, comfortable chair in the HOH room that swiveled around. Everyone took a turn spinning around in the fun, new chair. The spy screen in the HOH room looked the same. It had a looping Big Brother 11 screensaver on it.

The HOH bathroom had a big surfboard on the wall with a wetsuit attached to it.

The first time the door opened to go into the backyard, I right away noticed that there was still a pool table. There was new patio furniture. The hot tub, pool, and hammock have all returned this year. The mural on the back wall was of a windmill field and looked really cool.

Another online rumor is that the clothes washer has disappeared. However, there was definitely a washer there when I lived in the house.

The compost machine was set off in the corner and we were told not to use it. I’m not sure how it worked, but I saw it over in the corner.

Quote :

Everyone who entered the house with me was really nice. The people I enjoyed the most were Rosanna and Carrie. We all spent a lot of time together. Nobody really split off by themselves. However, Gunther was really strange. Within five minutes of being in the house and exploring each room, we turned around and Gunther was wearing a leather suit and has a leather strap around him… not to mention his leather hat and boots. It was really strange and he ended up wearing that the entire day.

Our first competition was the Head of Household competition. We played the HOH game “Majority Rules.” They would ask us questions about the other houseguests and the twist is that we couldn’t answer what we thought the correct answer was. Instead, we had to answer with who we thought the majority of the house would answer. It was hard because we each thought we knew the “correct” answer but you had to think about if everyone else would know the same answer. So we had to guess how the majority of the house would answer. One of the questions was about Gunther and asked what he liked more about being on Craig Ferguson’s show. Option A was “Kilt Fridays” and option B was “meeting a lot of famous people.” I guessed that Gunther liked to hang out with famous people, but I should have known he had a thing for Kilt Fridays. Another question asked “who is more likely to go topless in the Big Brother pool?” Option A was me (Katie) and option B was Melissa. That question had a split vote, 3-3. Thanks guys! Reagan won the final round of Majority Rules and became Head of Household.

After the HOH competition, we went in the house and Reagan had to nominate two people for eviction. We didn’t know who he was going to nominate because we hadn’t been in the house that long. Eventually we had the nomination ceremony and Reagan nominated Jen and Jay.

One of the first things Reagan had to do as HOH was put four people on Big Brother Slop. He had us all sit in the living room and plead our case as to why we should not be put on slop. It was funny because as soon as Dennis stood up and opened his mouth, Reagan shut him down and told him to sit down because he was going on slop. Dennis didn’t even get a chance to plead his case. I chose an emotional approach and asked Reagan how he would feel if he had to put his two dogs on slop. I guess it paid off that we discussed his dogs earlier in the day. Melissa’s excuse for avoiding slop was that she had low blood sugar and she would be a cranky bitch if she didn’t eat regular food. Reagan must have wanted to see a cranky bitch because he put Melissa on slop. Stella and Gunther were also placed on slop. Reagan actually felt so bad that he put himself on slop as well. Everyone ended up giving it a taste-test. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it was just tasteless. It was basically slimy oatmeal.

After the nominations, Reagan spent a lot of time in the Diary Room. Eventually, he came out and was wearing a pink scarf and a strange hat with a propeller on top. He told us we need to “get our heads out of the clouds.” We all entered the storage room where we found matching propeller hats and scarves. We were instructed to find someone we trusted and choose them as a partner. Carrie was right next to me so we looked at each other and become teammates. We became the purple team for the Veto Competition. Reagan was paired with Jen, Rosanna was with Jay, Dennis and Gunther were together, Ben and Stella paired up, and Ann and Melissa were paired off.

When the back door was opened, a blue tarp was all over the ground. There were tables that had white fluffy stuff that looked like clouds. Each team had to stand on buckets and pick up two pies at a time. Each team had to use their buckets one at a time to “walk across the sky” while alternating partners one in front of the other. Carrie and I were on our second trip when we saw Jen and Reagan get to the finish. When you got to the end, you were supposed to pie yourself in the face. Jen actually jumped forward and pied herself in the face because she really wanted to save herself from eviction.

After the Veto competition, there were four extra pies off to the side. We were told that the four people who were placed on slop had the chance to get a slop pass. Each person chose one of the four pies. One of the pies had a slop pass inside, but each member had to pie themselves to reveal if their pie had the pass inside. At the last second, Stella backed out and didn’t pie herself in the face. Of course, her pie actually had the hidden slop pass!

Later on, Power of Veto winner Jen ended up removing herself from the chopping block. That meant that HOH, Reagan, had to nominate a replacement for Jen. Reagan nominated Gunther because he wanted to see Gunther wearing his ridiculous outfit in one of the nominee chairs.

Gunther didn’t have a lot of time to campaign. About 10 minutes after the Veto Ceremony, we were called to the Diary Room to place our votes for eviction. I stuck to my agreement with Jay that I would save him. So I had to vote to evict Gunther. He ended up being evicted by a vote of five to four.

After he was evicted, Gunther was instructed to get up and leave the house. But he forgot which door he came in and he tried to leave via the storage room. The producers had to come over the speaker and tell him to leave through the front door.

This year for the media in-house day, the producers gave us an incentive to play our hardest. We were informed before we entered the house that the best player would win $500. At the end of the game, we had to vote which houseguest played the best. I voted for Reagan and he ended up winning this special prize.

If someone told me I had to do this again for 12 hours, there would have to be some bribery involved. It was a really cool experience, but man, even being in there for 12 hours you get bored out of your mind. We were only in there for 12 hours, but it felt more like a week. Now if someone told me I was going to live there for three months, I would likely say absolutely not because after only 12 hours, I felt like I was losing my mind. I can now understand why everyone who goes in there starts to go crazy so quickly.

http://www.welovebigbrother.com/2009/06/29/big-brother-11-media-day-part-1-the-new-bb11-house/

What do you think? Sound cool?

Big Brother 11 Media Day - Pie in the Face, Stolen Booze And Bondage Wear, All In A Day’s Work

You may already know what happens when strangers are picked to live in a house and forced to stop being polite and start getting real.

But you don’t know about the insufferable long waits, the aggravating task of having to spend all of your free time with complete strangers, having to change in a room full of cameras, or the lack of Twitter, your cell phone, the internet, or even that book you’re currently devouring - which is exactly what happens each season on ‘Big Brother.’

I was picked to live in a house with eleven reporters, radio personalities, publicists, reality stars…and one bare-chested, leather-clad young man who gave us a fake name and told us he worked for a late night talk show.

The lot of us were plucked from the comforts of our everyday lives and forced to mingle and play pie-in-the-face games with each other all for the sake of ‘Big Brother’ Media Day 11 (or should I call it 10.5?) - a chance for press to get a sneak peek into the new season of the reality series. And what follows is the best - and worst - of my whopping 13 hours at the Big Bad Brother house.

The Twist
The ‘Big Brother’ house is now green! Complete with compost bins, numerous recycling cans, bike-powered light bulbs, bamboo eating utensils, and a whole room decorated in old glass bottles, aluminum cans and bubble wrap. The walls of the back yard are wallpapered with images of wind-powered turbines (perhaps the show is offsetting its carbon footprint by investing in one of these?) The walls in one of the bedrooms - the red room - seem to be made up of some type of recycled material, while the walls of the bathroom are made out of giant industrial storage bins. (For an extensive run-down of the house interior, please scroll to the bottom of this post.)

The Roomies
Our group was like a subsection of the cliques you had in high school. We all seemed to fit into neat little categories - the princesses, the jocks, the geeks, the populars, the sexpots, the crunchy vegetarians, the mysterious bad boys, and the straight arrows. But did we all live up to our labels by the end of the day?

in the bunch: Rosanna Tavarez, lovable on-air personality from TV Guide Channel, ‘Big Brother 8′ star Jen Johnson (there for MSN.com), reality star in his own right, Dennis Luciani (’Average Joe’) representing National Lampoon, Katie Neal for WeLoveBigBrother.com, Melissa for CBS LA, Stella for CBS.com, spunky Carrie Moten from the Johnjay and Rich radio show in Tucson, knowledgeable Ben Mandelker from BSideblog, scheming (in a good way!) publicist Jay Schwartz, Reagan Alexander from People magazine (whose bad boy reputation from last year’s BB Media Day preceded him), and myself, Ann Murray from Fancast.

Oh yeah, and there was the one house mate who said his name was Gunther and quickly changed into leather shorts, a leather biker cap, and suspenders (sans shirt). He SAID he was on the ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.’ But can you really trust a man in leather trousers and black socks?

The Experience
Most of the grueling 13 hours were spent twiddling our thumbs, cooking/eating and peddling on indoor bicycles inside the spa room while clapping with feigned glee when the attached light bulb lit up. We also succumbed to alliances, battled paranoia, got shushed (and sauced), and told complete strangers all about ourselves for no particular reason.

My defining moment? Getting caught stealing alcohol from the proverbial parent’s liquor cabinet. My partner in booze-related crime, Ben Mandelker, and I circled the liquor corner like a couple of hungry hyenas, discussing the merits of opening the sake and getting sauced. But we didn’t want to get busted (because big brother is watching!), so we eventually left the wacky sauce alone. Luckily, a thirsty Reagan later found the bottles and fearlessly poured us all a good shot.

And we enjoyed several good shots - until a booming, audibly annoyed voice coming from the speakers asked, “Guys…are you drinking the sake? Those are supposed to be set props.”

So, like Hansel and Gretel, we had succumbed to eating the house props.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘chewing the scenery,’ doesn’t it?

Being the household vegetarian also took on a life of its own. I found myself talking soyrizos and preaching about the carbon footprint to my eleven roomies. The quizzical looks I got when the convo turned to quinoa was priceless, and a disgusted Reagan turned up his nose. Truth be told, having a veg in this new season would go great with their new “green” house. Because quinoa is a heck of a lot better than slop - a brown, slimy concoction oozing out of a pot, left in the kitchen for us.

Speaking of slop, four unlucky guests were forced by Head of Household, Reagan, to eat the stuff all day. Dennis, the HOH explained, was “slopped” only because he was such a big BB fan (maybe THE biggest BB fan) and needed to get “the full BB experience.” Right.

There weren’t any major alliances to begin with. Jay, intent on not getting evicted, asked each of us to vote for him in secret, and I agreed - because what good is Big Brother without an alliance? I caught a few shady ladies planning their own alliances, but none were really carried out - or needed. The HOH knew who he was going to pick for eviction from the very beginning. Jay and Reagan never really got along to begin with - and their Nixonian paranoias about each other were quickly getting the best of them. Heck, had we been in combat, they would have done each other in by the fourth hour.

Dennis was the perfect culprit because he was a huge BB fan and probably would have enjoyed the experience. Gunther (aka “Chris”) seemed another likely candidate - his leather get-up made him a giant walking target for eviction. But all the guys were sweet, so it likely made it a tough choice for the HOH.

It turned out to be a choice between Gunther and Jay, and poor Gunther was turned away, head down in defeat. Our very own Rosanna sang him a farewell song as he quickly left the room, being true to an earlier bet she had made.

The Games
We were involved in two fierce competitions. In the first, where the winner would get HOH, we were asked to step into backyard booths and answer questions according to how we felt our house mates would respond. One of the honest-to-goodness questions was “Who would rather be in the middle of a Jonas Brothers sandwich. Ann or Stella?” To my relief, everyone answered “Stella.”

Even Stella herself.

The second game consisted of us grouping into pairs (”with someone you trust,” bid the booming voice coming from the walls) while the backyard was transformed into a sky, complete with clouds made out of cotton and plastic birds. The challenge was this: We both - in pairs - transported two sets of creamy, goopy pies from one cloud to the other - while walking on buckets. Someone in the winning team would then be forced to pie themselves in the face. Reagan and Jen won the trophy, with Jen’s gigantic leap to the finish line being the defining moment in the game. This allowed her to obtain the power of veto, but only after taking a pie in the face.

And that pie? That stuff doesn’t come off easy, no matter how much you clean off.

Kind of like the memories of my time at the ‘Big Brother 11′ house.

Wanna know more about the interior of the house? Then read on:

The House
The inside of the Big Brother house is gorgeous. It seems to follow a Oriental motif with tones of environmentalism thrown in.

The Kitchen:
The kitchen’s reddish interior is decorated with Buddha statues, while a large red door hangs above and clings to the wall by the patio entrance. There are numerous recycling bins - big ones little ones, silver ones - and interestingly, upon our arrival we noticed there was no trash can, leading us to devise our own out of a small kitchen basket. A large industrial-strength composter sits intimidatingly in the counter, but we were not allowed to use it. There is also a miniature, portable herb garden located on the window sill, which also leads me to wonder if there will be an organic garden somewhere in the house? In keeping with the greening of Big Brother, we ate with disposable bamboo plates and cutlery, said to be environmentally friendly since they contain no chemicals, are organic, and completely biodegradable.

The Bathroom:
This is an open space with walls made out of what appears to be parts of large industrial bins (the type you see at airports or large construction sites). There is a spacious, comfortable black resting couch in the corner. But who wants to lounge around while your friend is peeing just a few feet away? The shower is large, and the door is transparent, save for a strip around the middle, so that folks walking by aren’t force to look at your naughty bits. A bit too risqué for me to go into, but that didn’t stop one BB veteran housemate from cutting loose and showering away.

The HOH Room:
By far the most beautiful room in the house, the Head of Household room contains a large bed, with a headboard that was a lightly trickling waterfall, a round spinning couch, a large flat-screen TV on the wall were you might secretly peer into other rooms; A CD player, a bowl of candies and toiletries, a Hef-like bathrobe; and a spacious bathroom to die for - with a bathtub as well as a shower (hmm, not very water-wise if you ask me). To get to this room, you take the orange-colored spiral staircase. There is also a small lounge area directly outside of this room, with a chess set.

The Spa Room:
This is an additional room with a large comfortable couch/bed and two stationary bicycles that power light bulbs when you ride them. One wall is made out of giant bubble wrap and the other out of old recycled bottles and cans. One piece of personal advice to the new BB cast? Try to curb your neurotic desire to pop the bubbles to pass the time.

The Water Room:
There’s a room designed to look like it is under a pool. The beds are covered with plastic pool beds, and the walls are painted to look like the inside of a pool. There’s also a fake underwater pool slide leading into the room, from nowhere in particular.

The Yard:
Not much seems to have changed, except walls are adorned with pictures of wind-powered turbines. The washer and dryer remain, and so does the jacuzzi, the pool, lounge chairs and a pool table.