The 'Big Brother' House is Mysterious as Usual

As far as reality TV abodes go, the Big Brother house is no Lisa Vanderpump-designed Villa Rosa. Every season, CBS seems to take the Big Brother house to a new level of ugly, but at least they're consistent. This year, the theme for the crib is "urban treehouse." Since living in basically a giant studio on a production lot for the summer is as far removed as you can get from both nature and a metropolis, I have to applaud the effort of the production designers. But that doesn't mean I have to like what they came up with. I mean, I don't know what's worse: having to live somewhere that looks like a HomeGoods threw up all over the place or having to watch it week after week on TV. We're all victims here.

But at least we have goddess/Big Brother host Julie Chen to guide us through the horror. Chen gives a quick tour of the house in a video on Big Brother's official website, but here's what you really need to know. The living room has wood paneling and blue sky wallpaper to make you feel like you're sitting in the branches of a treehouse. The bedrooms are decorated to match the elements of nature: earth, fire, and water. The HOH room has a bird's nest for a bed. And there is actually a treehouse, within the larger treehouse I guess? Trippy.

Aside from these interior decorating details, we picked up on a couple hints as to what's coming up this season from the house tour and from scouring the Interwebs for all the Big Brother happenings. Consider this your primer to prepare to "expect the unexpected" for another summer.

Cameras, Cameras, Cameras

Okay, to start us off, this isn't so much a juicy tidbit as it is a fun fact. The Big Brother house will be equipped with 76 cameras all in HD, so you can get all up in the houseguests' business and see when their roots need touching up before they do! This is 11 more cameras than last year and more cameras than they use to film the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl. That's either the coolest or the saddest fact you will hear all day.

Photo Booth Fun?

During the house tour, Chen also showed us a photo booth for the houseguests. But if you were hoping they'll use it to take some silly old-school selfies, Chen actually hinted that the photo booth will make Big Brother more interactive than ever, and houseguests may even get to talk to the outside world. So is that a "No" for the photos?

The Big Twist

Every season of Big Brother has a big twist, and are you sure you're ready to hear this one? Drum roll, please... This season, there will be two Heads of Household each week. Not one, not three, but two. But double the HOHs means double the nominations as each HOH will get to nominate two houseguests to be on the chopping block each week. It doesn't seem like there will be as much drama as if the two HOHs were forced to work together to choose the nominees, but my interest is piqued, and isn't that what matters most?

No One is Safe

But just because you're HOH doesn't mean you're safe. Oh to the no. There's going to be a new competition called "Battle of the Block" this year, which I'm assuming will have the two HOHs compete against each other for safety of some sort. Executive producers Alison Grodner and Rich Meehan told The Hollywood Reporter that it will be "a weightier competition than a Have and Have Not competition." It will probably not involve an alien invasion, though.

Team America, Voting Police

Us plebeians at home will get to be more involved with what goes on in the Big Brother house with this new interactive element called "Team America." The first vote on Big Brother's official website has already closed, but users could vote for the houseguest they would most want to form an alliance with. The magical house photo booth that connects houseguests to the outside world will be involved later down the road, perhaps?

There's a Two-Night Premiere for a Reason

Aside from wanting to make this season extra-special, Big Brother will premiere over the course of two nights, Wednesday and Thursday, because only eight houseguests will be moving in at a time instead of the full house at once as usual. On each night, the eight houseguests will compete in their own HOH competitions. And that's how we're going to get two HOHs, for the first week, at least.

The First HOH Competition is a Day at the Beach

But actually. Though Big Brother happens kind of in real-time, the houseguests have already moved in and filmed the first HOH competition that we will see play out on Wednesday night. Agility is the name of the game as the houseguests will have to keep their balance on a rotating beam while still holding onto their kites. The one who does this the longest wins, of course, earning one of the HOH titles for the week and a big, fat target on his or her back.

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