Celebrity Big Brother Season 2: Episode 1 Live Recap

Celebrity Big Brother – Season 2

• January 21 – February 13, 2019
• Channel: CBS
• Start Time: 8 PM ET (Sunday, January 27th will be at 10)
• Primer / Full Cast

Tonight season 2 of Celebrity Big Brother kicks off on CBS, and 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte will be one of twelve houseguests competing. Per a TMZ report, each celebrity receives $100,00 simply for entering the house, and the winner of the show will take home an additional $250,000.

Lochte’s agent has said the 39-time World Champion (18 LC, 21 SC) will continue to train while on the show.

The 34-year-old has had an eventful two and a half years since the 2016 Rio Olympics, most recently receiving a 14-month suspension in July for using an IV and announcing he and wife Kayla Reid are expecting their second child in November.

Follow along for live updates of the opening episode, focusing on Lochte.

EPISODE 1 LIVE UPDATES

• Lochte is first up on the ‘meet the houseguests’ segment. He explains that he’s training for the 2020 Olympics, and touches on his reputation. “It’s not good, I guess. I was the party guy”. He explains he’s now a family man, is married, has one child and has another on the way. He also gave himself kudos for going to four Olympics, and says he’ll do well because he’s “bred to compete”.
• Among the first group of houseguests entering the house, Lochte has his first interactions with comedian Tom Green and actor Kato Kaelin.
• Green and Kaelin seem more than willing to take on the role of house goofball, leaving Lochte to focus on his rehabbed, party-free image.
• He is familiar with fellow Olympian Lolo Jones, and Jones already presumes that will put a target on their backs because people will think they’re close friends.
• Lochte’s first diary room session consists of him listing off his Olympic accomplishments after Jones said something along the lines of him only competing in three Olympics and medaling in one, though he actually has four appearances and twelve medals. Jones is one of the rare athletes who has appeared in both the winter and summer Games, but does not have an Olympic medal.
• She also asked if she could have one of his medals ’cause he doesn’t need them all’.
• “Was Joey in Tim the Toolman Taylor…?” Lochte says in the diary room referring to actor and fellow houseguest Joey Lawrence and whether or not he was in the show ‘Home Improvement’. He was not.
• He was also drinking what looked like water while the other guests toasted champagne. He recently went to rehab for alcohol addiction.
• He selects Jonathan as his partner for the first competition, because he looks ‘smart’. Jonathan (Bennett) famously portrayed Aaron Samuels in Mean Girls back in 2004. “Jonathan knows a lot about cupcakes….so he’s pretty smart.”
• Decked out in pink suits, Lochte jokes “on Wednesdays we wear pink”.
• The first comp is called “Drinks On Us”, where teams have to transfer champagne from point A to point B while on swings until they fill up their bowl. Using his insight, Lochte is the first one to figure out how to get the swings moving with some momentum. This house appears to be full of sharp minds.
• In a close race for the win, Lolo goes “Lochte…I want to destroy him” (in the DR). Looks like Ryan has already made one enemy in the house. Lochte’s pink team and Lolo’s blue team are neck-and-neck for the Head of Household victory.
• “We gotta keep Lochte off the block-tee” is an actual thing he said.
• Ryan and Jonathan win the competition, meaning one of them will become the first Head of Household of the season. Host Julie Chen teases that one of them will become HOH, and the other will be in for a game changing surprise.
• Dramatic twist! The two of them now have to go head-to-head to see who becomes HOH. The loser? The first nominee for eviction.
• “I’m made for competition, that has been my entire career, so Jonathan, sorry, this is gonna be a tough one for ya.” Jonathan adds he has “…several participation trophies…so watch out Lochte!”.
• We’ll find out the specifics of this challenge in the next episode on Tuesday night.