Heading into the live finale of “Big Brother 26,” only three houseguests remained in the running to win the $750K grand prize: Cam Sullivan-Brown, Chelsie Baham and Makensy Manbeck. This trio competed for 90 days inside the “BB26” house and faced off against obstacles like Ainsley the A.I. robot, an entire week at Jankie World, and the Veto being used 12 total times (a new record). So who ended up winning the season, and who became the next recipient of America’s Favorite Houseguest?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Big Brother” Season 26 finale recap/live blog to find out what happened on October 13 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite “BB26” houseguests on CBS’s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Big Brother” winners list. As always, Julie Chen Moonves hosts the series.
Don’t forget to watch Gold Derby’s exclusive video interviews with all of the eliminated players: Matt Hardeman, Lisa Weintraub, Kenney Kelley, Cedric Hodges, Brooklyn Rivera, Tucker Des Lauriers, Joseph Rodriguez, Quinn Martin, T’kor Clottey, Leah Peters, Angela Murray, Kimo Apaka and Rubina Bernabe.
Keep refreshing/reloading this “Big Brother 26” live blog for the most recent updates.
9:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Big Brother’!” At the last live eviction, Makensy won the final Veto competition of the summer and decided to use it to save herself. Makensy then cast the sole vote to evict, sending Rubina to the jury house and bringing Cam to the Final 3 with her and Chelsie, the current Head of Household. During tonight’s two-hour episode, the three-part HOH comp will play out, former champion Taylor Hale will host the jury roundtable, and the ultimate winner will be crowned. Let’s go!
9:04 p.m. – In the first part of the HOH comp on Day 87, the three houseguests had to endure the chaos of tilted and suspended robotic vessels longer than their competitors. Throughout the comp, the vessels squirted freezing green ooze on the players, an element that became unbearable for Makensy who dropped out at 26 minutes.
9:09 p.m. – Though he was practicing his mindfulness and meditation to withstand the pressure of the comp, Cam fell at 37 minutes which meant that Chelsie was declared the winner and earned a spot in the third part. Cam and Makensy would face off in the second part.
9:16 p.m. – In the second part of the HOH comp, Makensy and Cam raced to move three buttons through a maze and then connect them to wires in the correct order to be the first to shut Ainsley’s brain down forever. Makensy obtained all three of her buttons first and then successfully connected all nine wires all before Cam could get his third button out. The comp became Makensy’s 10th overall win and set her up to face Chelsie in the final part to determine who has the sole power to decide the last eviction.
9:23 p.m. – Being one step closer to the final two, Chelsie and Makensy had to weigh their options about who is best to sit next to in front of the jury. They both understood that they controlled the second half of the season and they went back and forth with comp wins. Chelsie said that her head was saying take Cam because he’ll be easier to beat, but her heart knows that Makensy deserves it.
9:30 p.m. – At the jury roundtable, the five original jurors were disappointed to see Rubina join them as number six, but not surprised that Chelsie and Makensy continued to win comps and stuck with their final three. Angela said that Makensy’s comp wins should “weigh heavily” and added that she’s “had it harder” than the other two, a point Leah agreed with. Quinn said that Makensy taking out Leah “doesn’t make sense” and she’ll need to explain that. Rubina said that Chelsie has been very persuasive and Quinn added that she’s been a really good liar. Angela feels like a “game piece” to Chelsie and thinks she could have been better at jury management, admitting that she’s “bitter.” T’Kor said that she appreciates strategy and social moves more than comp wins and believes that Chelsie was able to get Makensy to make some of her game moves. On the topic of Cam, T’Kor said that he played the game she wanted to play. Quinn made it clear that he was in a majority of the alliances that formed and so he was a decision-maker early on that set himself up to be where he is at the end. Kimo and Rubina did not want to judge Cam’s game solely on his comp losses. What they all wanted to hear from a potential winner is that they won some challenges while also being able to “own” the moves they made.
9:42 p.m. – In the third part of the HOH comp, Chelsie and Makensy had to answer multiple choice questions based on true and false statements made by jury members. They both got the answer correct to statements from Quinn, T’Kor, Leah, Angela, and Kimo, but Chelsie got Rubina’s statement incorrect and so Makensy became the final HOH with six out of six correct.
9:55 p.m. – Before Makensy cast her vote to evict, Cam appealed to her with respect for the game she played and Chelsie asked her to make the decision that will make her proud and pitched the idea of two women sitting at the end. Makensy’s decision was to evict Cam and bring Chelsie to the final two with her. She explained that she’s not afraid of playing against other competitors and she wanted to stay loyal to the game she played with Chelsie.
9:58 p.m. – Freshly evicted, Cam told Julie that he’s not surprised by Makensy’s decision because they’ve had each other’s back the whole time, but that it’s going to be “very tough” to sit next to Chelsie. Julie reminded Cam that he’s a division I college athlete, but he only won a single competition in the game. He also said that if he won the final HOH he also would have stayed loyal to Chelsie and brought her to the final two as well.
10:06 p.m. – The existing jurors were not all that surprised to be joined by Cam as the final juror after heavily predicting that both Chelsie and Makensy were running the game. Before they made their votes, they had a chance to ask three questions of each finalist. Chelsie told the jury that she was aware of a lot of what was going on in the house, but knew when the speak up and when to shut up in order to further her game. Makensy said that getting Leah out was her best move that benefited her own game the most and said no one influenced her in that decision. Chelsie spoke to the influence she had on Makensy to get Angela taken off the block and Leah put up on the block in two different weeks. Makensy said that she became a loyal player once Chelsie was left alone and they stuck together through the end of the game by winning comps and protecting each other. Chelsie said a hallmark of her game was making sure that even when she didn’t win comps she was protected because of the social and strategic moves she was making to highlight bigger threats than her. Makensy relied heavily on taking out Tucker in the AI Arena and taking his seat as the comp beast in order to turn her game around from being a pawn to winning her way through the game.
10:25 p.m. – In the moments of casting their votes for a winner, Quinn said he went for the “most diabolical sick nasty player,” T’Kor voted for the one that “slayed all season,” Leah went for “one of the most beautiful,” Angela voted for the one she thinks played this game the best, Kimo voted for one of them, Rubina voted for someone taller than her, and Cam picked the one he thinks earned it.
10:33 p.m. – The pre-jurors were all in the studio, including Joseph who shared his and the community’s story from his hometown of Tampa. Cedric said he was most surprised by how much of a rollercoaster the season was and Lisa said that Chelsie was a completely different person in the DR from what she showed to the houseguests. Tucker couldn’t contain himself seeing Rubina and took his time to deliver flowers to her and then Julie let her know that Tucker indicated that he’d like the relationship to go further. Matt told Makensy he’s been waiting to see her again and agreed that a “conversation is due” between them. He also thanked Angela and they hugged out their fractured relationship, but Angela stuck by the feelings she had that first week of the game. Brooklyn said she doesn’t regret any of her game moves, but prompted Julie to roll back the footage on the theft of Angela’s charcuterie board. Tucker also got a chance to admit to sending the fake messages that made Rubina cry and delivered an apology to her.
10:50 p.m. – One by one, Julie revealed the votes: Quinn for Chelsie, T’Kor for Chelsie, Leah for Chelsie, Angela for Chelsie… meaning Chelsie is the winner with a majority of the votes.
10:55 p.m. – Once the finalists joined the rest of the cast outside the house, Julie revealed that the other three votes from Kimo, Rubina and Cam were also in Chelsie’s favor for a 7-0 unanimous win. Next, Julie informed the houseguests that the top three finishers in the vote for America’s Favorite Player were Angela, Tucker and Quinn. The winner of that prize was Tucker, which Julie pointed out is the first time a non-finalist and non-juror won.
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