‘Big Brother 19’: Where Are This Season’s Alliance Names?
Name calling has been big this season on Big Brother—”Meatball” comes to mind—but while the houseguests are calling names, they aren’t really naming names. For their alliances, that is.
Ever since the CBS summertime reality show’s breakout second season, when Dr. Will Kirby and his wingman Mike “Boogie” Malin dubbed themselves “Chilltown” and appeared together for hilarious faux Diary Room “phone calls,” alliances have been big business on Big Brother. But this season, the houseguests don’t seem to be playing the name game at all.
Last season’s early Big Brother alliances included the 8-Pack and Spy Girls, but so far on BB19 we only have Alex Ow and Paul Abrahamian’s secret, two-person alliance which they call AMF (Asian/Armenian Motherf***ers).
While the Big Brother 19 house is definitely divided, fans are waiting for official alliance names to roll out. Ahead of the current Big Brother season, several of the houseguests talked to TV Guide about their dream alliance names.
Ramses Soto, who is currently sitting on the chopping block in an unfortunate pawn situation, told TV Guide he would go with a “nerdy” alliance name like “Power Rangers.” Rodeo clown Jason Dent went predictable, with names like “The Bandits” or “The Troubadours.”
Injured Christmas Abbott, who needs all of the alliance help she can get to make her way through this season’s Big Brother game, previously said her alliance name would depend on who she teamed up with in the Big Brother house.
“Maybe ‘The Outliers’ since I’ve always been an outlier,” Abbott told TV Guide. “It depends. There’s ‘Fantastic Four.’ There’s all sorts of really fun names. It depends on who’s [in] my alliance to determine that because the alliance names really reflect the alliance personalities.”
Two of Big Brother 19’s biggest personalities, Cody Nickson and Kevin Schlehuber, both like the idea of no alliance names this season. Kevin threw out the name “Semanon” to TV Guide, which is “No Names” spelled backwards. But Cody maintains that alliance names are lame.
“It was kind of cool when they first started doing it,” Nickson told TV Guide. “Now it’s kind of a given to where it’s not cool anymore. I’d rather be the unspoken alliance. That would be way cooler than the spoken name one.”
In addition to Chilltown, which featured two future Big Brother winners, some of the greatest Big Brother alliances of all time include The Brigade, Season 12’s all-boys alliance. Enzo Palumbo created the alliance on the second day in the house along with Matt Hoffman, Lane Elenburg, and Hayden Moss, and the goal was for the gang to make it to the Final 4 in the competition. (Mission almost accomplished: Three of its four members actually did). The powerhouse alliance dominated that season’s Head of Household competitions and came complete with nicknames for its members: “The Animal,” “The Beast,” “The Brains,” and “The Meow Meow.”
In an interview with Digital Spy, Palumbo, who finished in third place on Big Brother12, said, “Without the Brigade I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did…I definitely wanted a Brigade member to win because I wanted us to leave a legacy.”
Two years later, The Quack Pack (Danielle Murphree, Shane Meaney, Dan Gheesling, Britney Haynes and Ian Terry) all quacked their way through Season 14 of Big Brother, with Terry winning the season and only Haynes missing out on a spot in the Final 4. Terry told ET Online he came up with the name for his unusual alliance because he likes ducks.
“Someone once told me it sounded like a duck was trying to escape from the back of my throat,” the Big Brother champ said. “Ducks are my favorite animal, so I went with it.”
Other famous Big Brother alliances have included The Nerd Herd, Sovereign Six, The Blonde-Tourage, and the doomed Season 6 alliances, The Friend Ship.
Big Brother 19 airs Wednesday, Thursdays, and Sundays on CBS.
[Featured Image by Bill Inoshita/CBS]
