The thing that's changed is that all the rounds are about 6 hours now.
In Castings there is no challenges anymore, everyone nominates 2 people, the people with the most nomination votes are nominated. Then everyone votes. I think POV is assigned randomly.
With the Rookies BB games there are challenges, HoH or PoV is based on these as well as activity, HOH noms, and then rest of players vote out.
But yeah, you have to be on fairly more frequently. It's not an issue I suppose if you have an alliance protecting you though.