Not Looking Forward to "Summer of Sabotage"

Here we are on the eve of the cast reveal for BB12, and already some suspense is beginning to mount about the season.

One of the recent commercials featured Julie Chen's message about the "Summer of Sabotage." Apparently, one of the house guests is not in it for the money but is in it to sabotage his/her fellow contestants.

The show has not even aired yet, and I'm already not liking the twist. Is it another twist of America's Player with one person playing the way America tells him to play, including stupid pranks which are sometimes borderline against the rules?

I wasn't a huge fan of America's Player in 2007 when it was first introduced. I admit that I disliked Eric to the point where I cast my votes deliberately to make him go against his own wishes! I know based on the voting that I was not alone, and there were times that I wanted him to fail simply to keep money out of his hands.

Some of the tasks were lame. One of his first tasks was to make up a story and tell another house guest, making them believe the story. America chose for him to tell a story to Kail Harbick, the mother of three from Oregon. Eric dabbed his eyes with contact lens solution and proceeded to tell her a story about how fellow house guest Daniele Donato reminded him of a former girlfriend who suffered from anorexia. It wasn't a difficult task because early on, why would someone tell a story simply to tell a story if it weren't true?

A week or so later, his task was to "sleepwalk" into another house guest's bed. In this task, America chose Joe Barber's bed, and the task did not go as well. Other tasks included mimicing Dick Donato, which resulted in a semi-food fight; giving away his prized "Woobie" (teddy bear) to Jessica; promising an alliance to the end with Jessica; and a few others.

At one point, early in the game, Eric was tasked with destroying the property of another house guest. America chose Jen Johnson this time, and Eric destroyed one of her "Jenious" tanks by squirting it with mustard and ketchup. No fan of Jen, but to me that crossed the line by producers as in the past destruction of personal property was not condoned. It also backfired a bit for other house guests as Jen attempted to find out who had destroyed her shirt.

Each week, Eric was supposed to sway the nomination to America's choice, and then the vote a few days later. More than likely, that will be part of the saboteur's job this go round too. It's probably the reason that the saboteur is not in the running for the final prize this year as Eric played for himself as often as he played for America because his goal was to win!

So, are we in store for a summer of adolescent pranks like the one played on Jen? Or will the "pranks" be ones that affect the outcome of the game more directly during veto and HOH competitions? Will the person deliberately destroy the chances of someone to win a particular challenge?

There's always someone who stands out as a fan favorite early who sometimes gets a leg up in the game by the producers via help from America (last season's Jeff with the coup d' tat comes to mind). So will this year's fan favorite receive additional support through the saboteur to go far in the game and possibly even win?

It could also be an attempt by producers to capitalize on back to back "Survivor" seasons where Russell sabotaged his teammates almost daily. The biggest difference though, is that he did it of his own free will and not with the assistance and direction of the production staff.

The producers have always intruded a bit in the "Big Brother" game, and it's definitely their show to do with what they want but to me, it takes away from the game.