‘Big Brother 26’: [SPOILER] wins $50K as America’s Favorite Houseguest — ‘This is a history-making moment’
Warning: this article contains spoilers from the October 13, 2024 season finale of “Big Brother 26” — read at your own risk!
At the end of Sunday’s two hour episode, host Julie Chen Moonves handed out three highly anticipated cash prizes: $750K to the winner of “BB26,” Chelsie Baham; $75K to the runner-up, Makensy Manbeck; and $50K to America’s Favorite Houseguest, Tucker Des Lauriers. Viewers spent the last three days voting for their fave player at the official CBS website, with the Top 3 finishers being Tucker, Angela Murray and Quinn Martin.
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“Thank you for understanding me,” Tucker said after receiving the $50,000 check as America’s most popular contestant. “I hope I can inspire people to be confident in being themselves, whether you’re a goofy, wild, weird dude or not. To thine own self be true, and the best gift is the gift of experience. Run it up, baby!”
Julie responded by informing the live audience, “This is a history-making moment. This is the first time that a non-finalist and non-juror has ever won.” Tucker was a major competition beast during the first half of the game, which made him a huge target, and he ended up being evicted on Day 45 out of 90.
SEE Why is ‘Big Brother’ called ‘Big Brother’? Name meaning explained
All 16 players were eligible to receive the fan-voted prize, including the Final 2 (Chelsie and Makensy), the seven jury members (Quinn, T’kor Clottey, Leah Peters, Angela, Kimo Apaka, Rubina Bernabe and Cam Sullivan-Brown), and the seven pre-jurors (Matt Hardeman, Lisa Weintraub, Kenney Kelley, Cedric Hodges, Brooklyn Rivera, Tucker and Joseph Rodriguez).
Some of the iconic members of the America’s Favorite Houseguest club are Taylor Hale (Season 24), Da’Vonne Rogers (Season 22), Nicole Anthony (Season 21), Tyler Crispen (Season 20), Keesha Smith (Season 10), Janelle Pierzina (Season 7) and two-timer Jeff Schroeder (Seasons 11 and 13). See the full list in our photo gallery below. Did “BB26” viewers name the right person this year? Be sure to sound off down in the comments section.
In the two-hour season finale, Makensy won the final Head of Household and decided to take Chelsie with her to the Final 2, thereby sending Cam to the jury box. Both ladies were grilled by the jurors, and then Chelsie ended up winning the season thanks to a unanimous 7-to-0 vote over Makensy. As the credits rolled, viewers watched as Jankie, the childlike artificial robot, was resurrected and encouraged everyone to sing his theme song together.
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