By: Cristina Deguara – GlobalTV.com

The celebs are in and battle lines have been drawn!

In the Celebrity Big Brother premiere, Julie Chen welcomed the first five houseguests which included “Sugar Ray” Mark McGrath, Real Housewife Brandi Glanville (sorry, but no “real” housewife actually looks like that), ex-NBA champ Metta World Peace, almost-Miss-Universe (and Sofia Vergara’s doppelganger) Ariadna Gutierrez and a very loud and flashy Ross Mathews.

Like a divining rod being drawn to water, Brandi found her way to the bar and immediately settled in. On the other hand, Metta was busy in the bathroom making sure the shower door was high enough to cover his waist (sadly, it is). The other houseguests picked beds (no sharing this season) and then it was time to welcome in the rest of the new houseguests.

CATCH UP NOW: Celebrity Big Brother Season 1, Episode 1

 

The second batch featured Shannon Elizabeth (Nadia from American Pie), former UFC Champ Chuck Liddell who looked like he could  kill you with both his muscles and his scowl, Keshia Knight Pulliam who will always be Rudy in my heart, Marissa Winokur a Tony-award winner who looks like the “funny friend” in every single rom-com, Big Time Rush’s James Maslow who is easily the prettiest boy in the house and last but not least, reality TV legend Omarosa (who has a last name but no one ever uses so neither will I).

Right out the gate there was tension between Omarosa and Ross which is promising for this season. Can the house handle these two big personalities living together? Mark McGrath goes fanboy gaga over the athletes and you can tell he’s secretly hoping they’ll all be besties after the show.

 

It’s revealed that Shannon and Marissa are close in real life and in the spirit of #timesup want to make this a season of women versus men. Secret advantage? Not so fast. It isn’t 2 minutes before Shannon is spilling the beans to Omarosa. That didn’t last long.

James, one of the youngest celebs in the house, doesn’t recognize anybody. He introduces himself to Omarosa and discovers her claim to fame was being on a show called The Apprentice. Innocently he asks who she was apprenticing for and the loud thud of palms hitting foreheads belted out across North America. Omarosa = not amused.

 

But she wasn’t the only one thrown off by James. Brandi took an immediate dislike to him. Maybe she’s using the old “treat him mean keep him keen” approach. James let Sugar Ray know that as soon as he’s HOH she’s his #1 target.

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In the first HOH (Head of Household) competition Omarosa won a pass so she’d be safe this week, but also couldn’t compete. Every houseguest was fake-happy for her. It was all very Hollywood.  For the challenge, the houseguests needed to hold onto raised award statues as long as possible.

As a distraction, previous Big Brother contestants came onto the floor to put on a show. Some of the celebrities faked mild interest but this was clearly more for us than for them.

Marissa was the first one down. Metta second. Brandi got bored and dry humped her statue.  Goop rained down on the contestants and Sugar Ray dropped like a sack of potatoes.  Ross goes fourth – but he beat out an NBA legend so I guess his work here was done!

 

Chuck Liddell is squeezing his statue so tight he looks like he’s about to split his pants and then drops. Now the only male left is pretty-boy James. Ariadna, Rudy, Brandi and Shannon are all still fighting for the women. They all drop except for Shannon. James tries to strike up a bargain with the actress but Omarosa shuts it down (putting a lovely red target on her back).

Wrapping up the challenge, the statues start to spin and James drops. Shannon has won the first HOH of Celebrity Big Brother.

On their way back into the house, the celebrities are invited to pick up a golden gift bag.  Really? Let’s give the people who already have a bunch of free stuff, more free stuff? But these aren’t ordinary gift bags. Some of them include a twist; the power to recast the HOH. Fun question – why did they just participate in that challenge if Big Brother was going to leave it up to luck?

Sadly, this is where the first episode ends.

 

Tomorrow night we find out who will be nominated for eviction and if anyone will use the recast power to change the Head of Household. Friday night is the first POV (Power of Veto) and we’ll find out which celebrity will be the first to go home.

RELATED: Celebrity Big Brother Full TV Schedule on Global

This episode did a great job of setting up conflicts and alliances. No showmances yet, but the night is still young and apparently the alcohol is always flowing so really it’s just a matter of time. Oh, and did I mention that several times throughout the episode Brandi said “I’ll do anything for money!” It’s going to be a fun couple of weeks.