Warning! The following contains spoilers from Big Brother Season 25, Episode 7. Read at your own risk!
There was a promise when it was first announced that Big Brother would honor the past 25 seasons with callbacks to days gone by. I was hopeful to see some competitions we haven't seen in some time make a return, but I thought it was a fool's dream to imagine the best Head of Household competition ever would possibly re-emerge in 2023. After years of wanting from fans, Julie Chen Moonves revealed that the Pressure Cooker is finally returning, and this season has officially won my heart.
If you don't have a Paramount+ subscription or access to live feeds via Pluto TV's ad-supported system, now is the time to get on it. You'll want to be watching Big Brother online come next Thursday when the Season 25 Houseguests are subjected to the Pressure Cooker. For the uninitiated, here's why I'm so excited and why everyone should be tuning in live next week to see this play out.
What Is Big Brother's Pressure Cooker?
The Pressure Cooker competition might've debuted in Season 5, but it wasn't until Season 6 that it gained its notoriety. It was there it set the record for the longest endurance competition in Big Brother history and only ended after over 14 hours when Kaysar Ridha voluntarily quit, thinking Jennifer Vasquez would keep her word and not nominate him.
We're not here to discuss the villainous Friendship alliance. This is about the Pressure Cooker. For those unaware of the rules, here's how it works:
- Houseguests must stand in a glass box and hold their hand on their own individual button. If the button raises, they are eliminated.
- Houseguests are not allowed to sit or kneel while pressing the button.
- Boxes were placed in the middle of the competition filled with gifts to tempt people to quit, or punishments to make them miserable inside.
- Houseguests can only leave the box in groups of three.
The competition will only end when there is only one Houseguest left with their hand on their button. That person will become the HOH and then the house can move on with the week. It may not sound all that entertaining from that description, but trust me, it's awesome. Those who don't believe can see for themselves by watching Big Brother Season 6 Episode 16.
Why I'm Excited To See The Pressure Cooker Return
The Pressure Cooker was great during Season 6, but let's be honest: it was a different time. These days Big Brother doesn't offer its Houseguests nearly as much alcohol as it did then, and people are far more conscious of how they play the game knowing the consequences of their actions in the house can impact them in the real world. With that said, I don't think we need alcohol or nasty Houseguests to make this work for Season 25.
All we really need is a handful of determined Houseguests that will battle it out for hours upon hours to win the Head of Household at a crucial point in the game. The drama will create itself, and it sounds like Big Brother will shake things up just a tad with a Scary-Verse twist to make it even more interesting. Maybe they'll have had time to design a room for the Nether Region since I last wrote about it?
In any case, if Big Brother is willing to bring back the Pressure Cooker, then I'm truly excited for what else we may see in this historic season. Will PB&J Have-Nots return? Hell, I'd be down for a luxury or food challenge as well. I'm just as excited about the possibility of more callbacks as I am the return of a fun competition that has inexplicably been away for far too long. This is slowly becoming my favorite season, which is really saying something, given the thrilling past two years.
Big Brother airs on CBS on Sundays and Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET, and on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. Of course, we still have a whole week to get through before the return of the Pressure Cooker, so who knows what other surprises are in store between now and then?
