The Strategy Era Begins

The first season that plays like modern Big Brother. The Head of Household key-turn ceremony hardens into the weekly engine, alliances form earlier and tighter, and casting starts choosing for game brain rather than camera ease. Twelve houseguests, thirty episodes, and a noticeable jump in strategic literacy across the run. Watch it for the moment the show stops being a social experiment and starts being a game. Formative without being foundational, sharper than anything that aired before it.