STARS: 2/5

Forget about the sophomore slump, CBS’s “Big Brother” is suffering from a severe case of season 19 slump.

The long-running reality TV competition is known, by self-proclaimed “super fans” and casual viewers alike, for its unexpected twists and the inevitable drama that transpires when 17 strangers are stuck in a house together.

However, for viewers such as myself, the show also doubles as a fascinating social experiment. How much bad food, public humiliation and social isolation are people willing to endure for a shot at half a million dollars?

While this season has been filled with plenty of explosive arguments between various houseguests, the actual gameplay has been far too predictable compared to past seasons.

The same two people have been targeted for elimination from the Big Brother household for weeks: contestants Jessica Graf and Cody Nickson. Upon their eviction during the last two weeks, the rest of the house has moved to the next two easiest targets — Elena Davies and Mark Jansen — the only two house guests close to Graf and Nickson.

Even last week’s double eviction — one of the show’s classic twists where upon one house guest’s eviction, various competitions are held in order to evict another all within one hour of live TV — failed to spice things up.

The root of this predictability can be tracked down to the return of season 18 runner-up and previous fan-favorite Paul Abrahamian and his lack of challengers.

Abrahamian is single-handedly running this season. He has won two “Head of Household” competitions — guaranteeing himself immunity for those weeks and the power to nominate two other house guests for eviction — but even when he does not win a competition, he is in the ear of whoever has won, persuading them to use their power to his advantage.

The only houseguest left who wants to target Abrahamian is Jansen and as we have seen with Graf, Nickson and Davies, the odds are not on his side.

Production would do best to take the failures of this season and learn from them by not bringing back former houseguests — especially those who went far in the game previously — and to try to pick natural-leaders, rather than hot heads with a large Instagram following. Until then, fans will just have to hope the second half of the season results in more surprises.