After 100 days of multiverse twists, the “Big Brother 25″ winner was about to be crowned in the two-hour season finale. But was it going to be the Australian DJ, the Deaflympics champion or the Sikh competition beast who won the $750,000 grand prize? Also on Thursday night, the recipient of America’s Favorite Houseguest was named, and they earned a separate prize of $50,000. So how did it all play out?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Big Brother” Season 25 finale recap/live blog to find out what happened on Thursday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.
Here are the three houseguests still in the running to win the $750,000 grand prize: Bowie Jane, Jag Bains and Matt Klotz. The jury house currently includes six people: Cameron Hardin, Cory Wurtenberger, Blue Kim, America Lopez, Cirie Fields and Felicia Cannon.
Keep refreshing/reloading this “Big Brother 25” live blog for the most recent updates.
8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Big Brother’!” In the 41st episode, the Mafia threesome relived their favorite moments from the season as they toasted to each other’s accomplishments. Later on, they each received emotional video messages from their loved ones. Part 1 of the three-part HOH competition then began in the backyard. And now, at long last, it’s time to find out who wins “Big Brother 25.” Let’s go!
8:03 p.m. – It’s Day 100 in the house, but a few days ago the first part of the final HOH comp began and we need to know who won and advanced to the third part. During this comp, the only thing on everyone’s mind was their goal of getting themselves to the final two without having count on either of the other two to choose them. Covered in slime, scrambled eggs, pieces of hair, and rain while being slammed against a wall, Bowie’s body was the first to give out at the 1 hour and 24 minute mark. At about 2.5 hours, Jag asked if they could rock, paper, scissors for the win. Both guys agreed and in two heats, Matt beat Jag and so Jag fell just before the 3 minute mark.
8:13 p.m. – At the jury roundtable, Dr. Will Kirby stopped by to chat with the first six jurors. First, Felicia arrived to fill the group in on what led to her eviction and how she thinks Jag made a “$750,000 mistake.” America suggested that Bowie managed to get through the game without ever being a target and argued that being a floater worked in her favor. Cory also spoke up for Bowie, adding that she was someone they could always rely on. Cameron and Blue gave her props for being the HOH during Cameron’s eviction, but Felicia pointed out that Bowie never made decisions, she just did what other people told her to. Cory wanted to talk about “who was in control?” and offered that only Jag was in control when compared to Matt and Bowie. Cory fought back against Jag’s run in the game because he had been evicted unanimously early on and was only saved because Matt used a power to bring him back. Everyone agreed that Matt had the best social game because he was able to lower his threat level at all times. America and Cameron dinged Matt for never owning any of his moves to take people out though.
8:25 p.m. – For Part 2 of the HOH comp, Bowie and Jag faced off in a challenge to list all of the comps from the season in chronological order according to universe (Scramble-verse, Humili-verse, Scary-verse, Comic-verse) faster than the other. Jag was confident that he knew the chronology of all the comps because he studied them so well, but he hadn’t prepared for taking into consideration which universe they came from. Because he had so many incorrect buzzers during the challenge, Jag was disappointed in his finish and felt like he had competed terribly. Bowie also thought she knew the order of comps, but like Jag was not confident in which universe they came from. Also like Jag, Bowie had many, many, many incorrect buzzers, and it took one realization about a card in the wrong universe to finally get it correct.
8:33 p.m. – With both players frustrated with their performance, Matt revealed that the winner of the comp was Jag with a time of 1 hour and 2 minutes compared to Bowie’s 1 hour and 30 minute finish. That result eliminated Bowie from the chance to be named the final HOH, leaving Matt and Jag as the two to compete in Part 3.
8:40 p.m. – For Part 3, Matt and Jag went head-to-head in “Jury-verse,” a two truths and a lie questionnaire with each of the jurors. For Cameron’s question, both got it right. For Cory’s question, both got it right. For Blue’s question, both got it right. For America’s question, both got it right. For Cirie’s question, both got it right. For Felicia’s question, both got it wrong. Because they both went 5-1, the comp was decided by a tiebreaker question. In the question “Rounded to the nearest minute, how many minutes was the ‘When Universes Collide’ HOH Part 1 competition from the official start to when Jag hit the water making Matt the winner?” Jag said 163 and Matt said 140. The correct answer was 176 minutes which meant that Jag was named the winner of the final competition. This is Jag’s TENTH competition win. That’s a huge record for Big Brother. Very impressive. So who does he take and will it matter to the Jury’s decision?
8:55 p.m. – As the final Head of Household of the season, Jag has the responsibility of deciding whether he’ll sit next to Matt or Bowie in the final two. Matt pitched that they spent the entire game working together. Bowie pitched that they “took each other as far as they could” and it would be great to sit next to him in the end. Jag told Bowie that they got close in the last few weeks and she pledged to take him with her and to vote for him if a juror. He told Matt that he never turned his back on Jag and it would be wrong of him to turn his back on Matt. Ultimately, he wanted to make the right decision for him and his family and that meant voting to evict Bowie so that he’d sit next to Matt, even if it means he loses 6-1 with his only vote coming from her.
9:00 p.m. – Bowie told Julie that she told Jag that ultimately he needed to do what he would feel best about and that if it meant going to the end with Matt then that’s OK with her.
9:07 p.m. – Before the jury cast their votes for the winner, they had one last chance to ask each of the finalists three questions. Cirie asked Matt what moves were “specifically your own.” Matt admitted that they worked together a lot, but his biggest move was saving Jag and bringing him back to the game. Cory asked Jag whether he carried Matt to the final two. He admitted that Matt saved him and brought him back, but he won comps and was for sure the leader between the two of them the whole time – a direct contradiction of how Matt just said they were a team the entire time. Felicia asked Matt if he was ever seriously considering evicting Jag. Matt told Felicia he told her what she wanted to hear and he was never going to evict Jag. America asked Jag why he never owned up to his moves in the house and called it cowardly. He answered by saying he wasn’t going to ruin his game by speaking prior to evictions because nothing is never for certain until it happens. Cameron asked Matt when he strategically lied. He said he told people he’d take a shot at Jag and he always told people what they wanted to hear in order to keep on everyone’s good side. Blue asked Jag why he thinks he deserves to win over the person that saved him. Jag said that ever since he was saved he adapted his game and that Matt saved him because of their friendship and loyalty and that’s a testament to his own social game, not Matt’s. Bowie had the final question by asking Jag to speak to the “Mafia” alliance with her and Matt. Jag some to Bowie’s loyalty and hit her in the heart because she got emotional at his answer.
9:20 p.m. – The final two had one last chance to speak to the jury in a closing argument. Matt composed himself from a bad question and answer stage by reminding everyone how much of a hurdle it was for him to be in the house as a deaf person. He showed how good his social game by noting he was only nominated once and the person that saved his game was the same person he saved earlier in the game. He also told everyone that he won competitions during the two double evictions, a tense and scary time that everyone else would have buckled under. He emphasized over and over that he’s a team player and that they made their decisions together while playing their own game.
9:22 p.m. – Jag kept his assertive approach to his speech by saying that he’s at the end because he “willed” all of the evictions because he wanted them to happen. He took credit for all of the evictions, saying he convinced Bowie to evict Cameron and then said he “single-handedly” sent everyone home. He said “My hands are covered in your blood. I’m the most dominant, strategic player in the house.” His emphasis was that he earned his spot in the final and earned the win through all of his actions.
9:24 p.m. – Cameron cast his vote for the person he said he’d vote for over a month ago. Cory acknowledged that they’re the two best players of the season “and it’s not even close.” Blue said it boiled down to “team brunette or team blonde.” America gave her vote to the “slimiest snake of them all.” Cirie admitted that she’s “loyal to a fault” and her vote goes to the one that was most loyal to her. Felicia gave her vote to the one that got everyone to trust and befriend them. Bowie said that she’s voting for who she said she’s voting for.
9:34 p.m. – Now that the votes are cast, Julie welcomed back the pre-jury evictees for a full round-up of the season. Mecole Hayes said that she was most surprised that Cameron was the “hero of the season” because she saw him as the villain. Cameron also didn’t recognize himself as a hero and said that he was just trying to have fun. Hisam Goueli said he was most surprised by Mecole’s political consultant career and Julie exposed that Bowie hid her main profession as a criminal attorney from everyone as well. Felicia wanted Bowie to also admit that she’s not 35 and that she’s actually 45. Julie was eager to break the news to Cameron that Felicia is in fact not related to Denzel Washington. The big surprise was that there was in fact two people in the house that are related. Julie asked Matt to guess who and he said Cory and America, but that of course was not right. When Jared Fields revealed that he was playing alongside his mother Cirie, showing Cory who “voted out Jared and thought he could work with Cirie.” As a “big Survivor nerd,” Izzy Gleicher told everyone that she knew immediately they were related and that Jared and Cirie both knew. And then Jared admitted that he confessed the secret to Blue.
9:48 p.m. – At long last, Julie revealed the jury’s votes: Bowie for Jag, Felicia for Matt, Cirie for Matt, America for Jag, Blue for Jag, Cory for Jag. That clinched the win for Jag, but for posterity’s sake, it was also revealed that Cameron voted for Jag as well making it a 5-2 vote in favor of Jag winning the $750,000 cash prize and becoming the first Sikh winner of the series.
9:53 p.m. – The final prize of the night was for America’s Favorite Houseguest and a prize of $50,000. The top three vote-getters were Cirie, Matt and Cameron, but the overall winner was Cameron. As the runner-up, Matt also went home with money, his own $75,000 prize.
9:55 p.m. – In the final moments, Frankie Grande, Britney Haynes and Danielle Reyes returned to the house to fix the time laser that opened the BB multi-verse in the first place, but it actually opened a new show “Big Brother: Reindeer Games” that will premiere on December 11 for six episodes. Julie explained that the special series will feature “Big Brother” all stars competing in games to be the last standing and that one player from BB25 will be invited to compete.
What do you think of these results? Did the right HG win the season? What about the final eviction and the Fav HG results? Are you happy with how the season turned out? Share your thoughts in the comment below.
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