How CBS Big Brother Buried the Lead

It must be difficult producing a show that runs in nearly real time.  You may think going in you know what the narrative will be, who will be the stars, what the fans will care about.  For Big Brother 16, Alison Grodner and the rest of the behind-the-scenes players had their story going in - pop star Ariana Grande's brother and YouTube personality Frankie  was going in cognito with his secret identity. Secondary stories were sweet Duck Dynasty-bearded groundskeeper Donny and police sergeant Derrick (going undercover as a recreations coordinator).

Let's admit it.  Casting for a reality TV show is a crap-shoot.  Someone who looks great in their interviews turns into a dud (aka PowPow who was more like meow meow). Some story lines don't pan out (Christine the super fan became Christine the literal hanger-on).  And then there's 23-year-old recent University of Florida grad Zach Rance, or ZachAttack as he's now known to Big Brother fans.  

Cast as a Dr. Will wannabe, Zach was some background noise at first.  He was given a few seconds to do his "I hate everyone" bit then was moved off screen for the main stories. And then Zach and the star of the show Frankie started Zankie and now the powers-that-be were interested in the will-they-or-won't-they showmance. That became the new lead story.  Zankie was everywhere; even Ariana tweeted about them. Julie Chen asked questions about them. Tribute videos exploded and all eyes were on the two. 

But CBS mistakenly thought all this interest was because of Frankie and missed that a new BB star was born right before their eyes. Zach is watchable.  You can't take your eyes off of him.  Cody may be the cute one, Caleb the body, but Zach is the one who captures your attention. The unpredictable outbursts, the joie de vivre, the catch phrases and poems made Zach the one you cared to see what he'd do next.  His excitability, his spontaneity, and his enthusiasm captured the fans' imaginations.  Every minute he was on the screen was electric.

Only one problem emerged.  Zach and Frankie had a falling out.  Frankie targeted Zach, then Zach targeted him, and the showmance became a flop.  How to deal with this?  CBS could air what really went down, or they could devise a poor Frankie and Derrick narrative.  Suddenly, it was the 31-year-old former dancer accusing Zach of taking money away from needy Africans and the 30-year-old former undercover cop telling Zach he was taking food out of his daughter's mouth.  If you watched the live feeds, you heard Frankie talk about euthanizing Zach, putting the baby to sleep and then stabbing it.  But that didn't make the show.  On the feeds, you saw Derrick threaten to choke Zach out and break every bone in his jaw.  But that didn't make the show. 

Nothing negative that Frankie or Derrick said was shown; instead they were painted as reluctant heroes trying to save the alliance from the volatile Zach.  The home viewers didn't see them plant seeds in Victoria and Christine's minds that Zach was a danger to them.  They didn't see how Derrick made false allegations about Zach being a threat to Frankie's safety.  The producers tried their best to make Zach the goat, solely responsible for his own downfall.  They must have hoped this would keep their Team American trio, and especially Frankie, safe for weeks to come.

What they couldn't have imagined was the groundswell of support for Zach Rance. Never before in BB history has one houseguest become the center of such a large social media movement and the recipient of so much viewer adoration.  When his fans thought Frankie had violated house rules telling Zach he was nominated, "Renom Rules" trended on Twitter.  Before the eviction vote, #SaveZach was all over Twitter, as ubiquitous as #ZachAttack.  Past houseguests from the godfather of them all Dr. Will to Dan Gheesling tweeted their appreciation and support of Zach.  Even Ariana Grande, and her mother Joan, tweeted out support for Zach and their wishes that Frankie would come to his senses before it was too late.  As Big Brother co-producer Chris Roach tweeted last week: "I get the sense a lot of people wish they had voted #BBZach to be a part of Team America."

Zach said often in the BB house that he hoped he'd have 79K Twitter followers by the time he exited the BB house; as of today he has 115K for an idle account that has just one tweet from two years ago.  His Instagram has 188K followers and is growing daily.  "Froot Loop Dingus" has entered BB parlance as a new favorite phrase.  The episode where he was evicted was the season's highest rated episode.

CBS let a star slip through their fingers and will continue to shove Frankie, and to a lesser extent eventual winner Derrick, down our throats.  But we will miss the former frat boy from South Florida with loose lips, questionable dance moves, and more personality than the rest of the house combined.  We can't wait for BBAllStars2 and the return of Zach Rance, who came into the house to be hated and to win $500K and failed on both accounts.