Fear factor!
Omarosa could win Celebrity Big Brother by terrifying the others into submission
Celebrity Big Brother Debuts Wednesday, Global/CBS
After it was announced that Omarosa Manigault would star on the upcoming season of Celebrity Big Brother, punchlines began flying about the former White House staffer’s ability to bounce from one reality show to the next. But with those jokes out of the way, one critical question remains: Can Omarosa actually win the CBS show?
It’s a definite possibility. Hear us out. The reality-TV villain stepped into the pop-culture zeitgeist in 2004 as a contestant on the first season of The Apprentice. That appearance kicked off more than a decade of bankable B-list fame for the political-consultant-turned-pastor, who would eventually follow her former boss, Donald Trump, all the way to the White House.
“We know she likes a microphone, she likes a camera,” said Julie Chen, the host of Big Brother, during an appearance about the new season and cast.
We also know that Omarosa likes a clever angle and can milk the drama. Throughout her reality tenure — including stints on Fear Factor, The Surreal Life and two more seasons of Apprentice — she’s always had a stiletto in the game, but has never actually won any of the big prizes.
Omarosa came in eighth, sixth and 10th place in each of her Apprentice appearances, respectively, and yet her name is the one most readily associated with the show. The woman knows how to leave a lasting impression which, in the Big Brother universe, is a necessary skill.
The premise of Big Brother, heading into its 20th season at CBS, is sort of simple. A group of strangers move into a house, completely cut off from the outside world, but paranoia sets in quick, as house guests nominate who to boot each week. At the end of this grand fishbowl experiment, the “house guest” left standing wins $500,000 for their stress and anguish.
The key to winning, says our Washington Post colleague and resident Big Brother expert Emily Yahr, is forming alliances. The trick is to be friendly enough to earn the trust of your fellow contestants but ruthless enough to vote those same folks out of the house. But no bridge can be completely burned: With just two people left in the end, all those who’ve been evicted get to vote on who wins the prize money.
Omarosa’s reputation obviously precedes her — a boon and a curse in this case. She’ll have a target on her back, Yahr explained, but she can also strike fear in the hearts of her fellow contestants who might be too afraid of Omarosa’s signature wrath to nominate the reality vet for eviction.
That’s how some of the show’s biggest bullies end up lasting the longest: their ability to make the rest of the people trapped in the house with them miserable. So that villain label Omarosa hasn’t been able to shake for the past 14 years? It could finally pay off.