“Big Brother’s” longest season ever (at 100 days) wrapped up on November 9th, crowning its historic 25th winner. However, the winner isn’t the only historic thing about this season; the final five members of the season were all historic in some way.
Why was “Big Brother” 25 the longest season? Well, one thing that affected the length of the season was the SAG-AFTRA Actors Strike. CBS knew they would need something to fill in the empty spots where scripted TV would normally be, so they decided to lengthen their reality TV seasons.
All five members of the final five were historic in some way. The final five included Jag Bains (first Sikh/Punjabi houseguest), Matt Klotz (first hearing impaired houseguest), Bowie Jane Ball (first Australian to be on Big Brother USA), Felicia Cannon (first female houseguest over the age of 60 to be on Big Brother), and of course Cirie Fields (first former “Survivor” contestant to play Big Brother). Before the season kicked off, Fields wasn’t on the cast list. In fact, CBS didn’t even announce that there would be a 17th houseguest until a few hours before the premiere of the season. Big Brother started with 16 houseguests, who all competed in the first competitions of the summer to decide who would be the first four houseguests put up for eviction; during the final few minutes of the show, the 16 houseguests walked back into the house, and were surprised to see Cirie standing in the kitchen preparing everyone a celebratory drink.
Cirie was part of a secret twist in the season with her son Jared, who was also a houseguest. None of the others were told about the twist until they were evicted on either pre-jury or finale night, but houseguest Izzy Gleicher was able to spot the relationship before she even saw Cirie in the house.
The three lucky houseguests who were able to make it to the finale night were Jagateshwar “Jag” Bains, Matt Klotz, and Bowie Jane Ball. The three were in an alliance called The Mafia, which helped get them to finale night without being evicted.
Bains won the final Head of Household Competition, and chose to evict Ball, taking Klotz to the final two. Bains pretty much knew he was going to take Klotz to the final two ever since week four of the season, when Klotz used a special invincibility power on Bains after he was evicted by a vote of 10-0. When Jag came back into the house, he and Matt formed a final two alliance which they called The Minutemen.
In the final episode, Jag took home the $750,000 after winning the season, by a vote of 5-2 besides Matt. By winning, Bains made history being the first Sikh houseguest to play/win “Big Brother” and the first person to be evicted and then come back to win. Jag also broke the record for most competition wins in one season, by winning three Head of Household competitions and seven Power of Veto competitions.
During the finale, host Julie Chen Moonves announced a new spinoff which will premiere at 8 p.m. on December 11th on CBS. The spinoff titled “Big Brother: Reindeer Games” will bring back nine former contestants for the chance to win $100,000. BB Reindeer Games will have a total of six episodes, and a very different format from the regular show. Instead of someone being voted out, contestants will compete in various competitions, eliminating the person who comes in last place. In the Final Four, remaining contestants will battle it out to crown the winner.
According to CBS, three fan favorites from previous seasons will be returning as “Santa’s elves” who will host the competitions. These elves are Jordan Lloyd (seasons 11 and 13), Derek Xiao (season 23), and Tiffany Mitchell (season 23 America’s Favorite houseguest). On December 6th “Big Brother” announced the first two competitors: Cameron Hardin (season 25) and Taylor Hale (season 24). On December 7th, the rest of the nine competitors were announced, including Britney Haynes (seasons 12 and 14), Cody Calafiore (seasons 16 and 22), Danielle Reyes (seasons 3 and 7), Frankie Grande (season 16), Josh Martinez (season 19), Nicole Franzel (seasons 16, 18, and 22), and Xavier Prather (season 23). The six episodes will air over two weeks, with the finale on December 21st.
Beverly • Dec 13, 2023 at 6:30 pm
Good job Andrew on this story. Keep up the good work.