Last night, Big Brother concluded its 16th season of backstabbing, lies, and slop. In honor of the long-running reality show’s unpredictable reputation, let’s look back on some of the most shocking moments ever aired on Big Brother.
15. Frankie wins the Battle of the Block by himself. (Season 16)
After a whirlwind double-eviction booted two contestants back to back in the span of an hour, “YouTube mogul†and fan favorite Frankie immediately becomes everyone’s prime target. To everyone’s surprise, Frankie wins the NFL-themed challenge all by himself, frees himself from the block, and reveals his “big secret†to the houseguests: He is pop star Ariana Grande’s brother. Still, the reaction was rather mediocre since only Victoria really knew who Grande was.
14. Willie gets expelled. (Season 14)
Season 12 sweetheart Britney returns to the show to coach a group of newbies along with three other Big Brother fan favorites. Unfortunately for her, she is dealt a weak team of players, one of whom appears to have serious anger issues. After being made a have-not for the week, restricting his diet to just pudding, pork rinds, and Big Brother’s famous oatmeal-like slop, house grump Willie — brother of Survivor villain Russell Hantz — charges at an otherwise mild-mannered Joe, and the intense standoff leads to Willie’s expulsion.
13. Evel Dick leaves. (Season 13)
We’re still puzzled by this one. What we know is season-eight winner and loud-mouthed villain Evel Dick returned to compete alongside his daughter Danielle again (though the two had barely spoken since they were first on the show) but then mysteriously left one day after being given “some bad news.†He later posts a video to his website, Reality TV Zone, that debunks rumors of any deaths in his family or other conspiracies, only explaining that his sudden exit was “an emergency that required my immediate attention.†For someone who was so committed to the game that he once walked around the house annoying houseguests by banging on pots and waking everyone up, this was a bizarre moment.
12. Dr. Will’s epic speech. (Season Seven)
When season-two winner Dr. Will entered the house again in this all-star season, he was already known as one of the game’s best villains. After all, he convinced his first showmance, Shannon, that he had a rare form of cancer. That wasn’t Will’s most memorable moment, though. After nominee Chicken George wins the veto, assuring his safety, Will knows he’s going to be stuck on the block for eviction and devises one of the best speeches ever witnessed on Big Brother. He promises to throw every competition for the rest of the summer if they keep him around, and you know what? It worked.
11. Racism! (Season 15)
Offensive remarks are nothing new in the world of Big Brother, but last season’s overt racism, homophobia, and overall abhorrent behavior prompted the show to air a warning for the first time stating that the unscripted show’s prejudices and beliefs do not represent the views or opinions of CBS. While the show was on air, several of the show’s contestants lost their jobs, including the biggest offender Aaryn, her ally GinaMarie, and even winner, and the season’s only gay contestant, Andy.
10. Kaysar returns … for a week. (Season Six)
Season six’s Kaysar is one of the show’s most beloved players, but he is also probably the one with the least luck. Upon being voted back into the house by fans, Kaysar strikes a false deal with his enemy Jennifer and gives up the Head of Household title to her. That same week, Jennifer puts Kaysar up and evicts him, again proving that nice guys have no place in Big Brother.
9. Mike “Boogie†proposes to Krista. (Season Two)
Neither Mike “Boogie†nor Krista won season two of Big Brother (although Boogie would go on to win season seven), but they did gain a romance. When the cast reunites for an interview with host Julie Chen, Boogie updated fans on their relationship by going on one knee and proposing to Krista on air … wearing a leather “Chill Town†basketball outfit and a backward visor. She says yes, but things didn’t last long. The two broke up shortly after that.
8. Chima melts down and leaves. (Season 11)
Chima was a rebellious one. It was documented on several occasions that she would disobey the house’s rules by not wearing her mike and refusing to enter the diary room when called on by producers. The final straw, though, was one night while she was practicing for a veto competition and refused to retrieve her mike from her room. When Kevin gets it for her, she throws it into the pool. Lydia and Natalie try to play it off as an accident, but producers force her into the diary room, where they lead her straight out of the house.
7. The toothbrush incident. (Season Two)
There’s being cruel to other houseguests, and then there’s this act of grossness. Fed up with Hardy, Dr. Will’s gullible love interest Shannon storms into the bathroom, takes his toothbrush, and proceeds to scrub the toilet with it. As she places the toothbrush back in its place and laughs about the prank, she gets called into the diary room and gets a warning from producers over her actions. She then lies to Hardy and tells him that she accidentally broke his toothbrush, which he doesn’t buy for a second.
6. The twin twist reveal. (Season Five)
Season five’s unexpected twist was entitled Project DNA, otherwise known as “Project Do Not Assume.†Twins Adria and Natalie played the game as one person, switching positions in the diary room sporadically and exchanging information during the switch in order to maintain one identity. When the twist was revealed five weeks into the game, houseguests (minus enemy Jase) were delighted to see a second Adria walk through the door to compete.
5. Justin gets expelled. (Season Two)
Justin was the first contestant to ever get expelled from Big Brother. The show removes him after numerous threats of violence, notably an incident where he holds a knife up to houseguest Krista’s neck and says, “Would you get mad if I killed you?†Justin maintains that the gesture is a mere joke but is removed from house regardless. Krista comes to Justin’s defense, though, accusing producers of the show of blowing things out of proportion, but later revokes that statement and sues CBS over the incident.
4. Cowboy and Nakomis are related. (Season Five)
Project DNA not only applied to the twin twist. The season’s theme also brought two unknown siblings together, Cowboy and Nakomis. The two, who share very little in common, enter the house not knowing that they share the same father (Cowboy never met him), but once they pieced the puzzle together, they received letters from home explaining their relationship.
3. David and Amanda have sex. (Season Four)
David and Amanda were the first showmance on Big Brother to consummate their onscreen relationship. Even though future couples would go on to also have sex or perform sexual acts on the show, fully aware of the cameras watching, David and Amanda’s rendezvous in the HOH suite was quite the event. Leading up to Amanda’s inevitable eviction, she is given the key to the HOH room to spend her last moments in the house with David. “Grandma’s gonna love this,†David says afterward in bed. Oh, also: This all happens within the first two weeks of the season.
2. Marcellas wastes his veto. (Season Three)
Noted as one of the dumbest moves ever in Big Brother history, Marcellas wins the veto but chooses to not use it on himself even though he’s up on the block next to his best friend, Amy. “My brothers, my sisters, my momma, they’re sitting at home, and they’re like, ‘Use the veto, fool!’†he says in his speech. Alas, a tiebreaker vote leads to his eviction just minutes later, and an astonished Marcellas walks out the door. Even host Julie Chen smacks him over the head upon greeting him on the other side.
1. Dan’s funeral. (Season 14)
Knowing that the house was all ready to vote him out of the house, season-ten winner Dan comes up with a plan that’s smarter than Dr. Will’s veto speech and Nakomis’s game-changing “six-finger plan†combined. First, the Big Brother coach endures a 24-hour solitary-confinement punishment after losing the veto competition, but upon release, he dresses up in all black and prepares for his own funeral. Gathering all the houseguests in the living room, Dan goes around and addresses each contestant, giving his most sincere good-byes, even driving friends Shane and Britney to tears. He then tells HOH Frank that he needs to talk to him in private afterward, but not before fake-accusing and disowning his closest ally, Danielle, of stabbing him in the back. Danielle, dumbfounded by this, bursts into tears. Meanwhile, Dan works overtime in the HOH room telling Frank about Ian’s betrayal and ultimately convincing him to take him off the block and backdoor Ian’s confidante, Britney. All of this hard work eventually pays off, though, with veto holder Jen taking Dan off the block and Frank replacing him with Britney, who gets voted off. Before leaving, Britney turns to Dan and says, “You’ll always be Judas to me.†Dan has since posted a very extensive commentary blog online explaining the inner workings of his master plan.