Big Brother 7 (American season)

Template:In-progress tvshow Template:BbSpoiler Template:Big Brother housemates Big Brother: All Stars is the seventh series of Big Brother USA, and is currently airing on CBS. It started on July 6, 2006. Julie Chen continues as host of this season as she has in all previous seasons. CBS aired a preview episode on June 21, 2006, offering twenty former contestants from past seasons as candidates for the this season. After the preview show, internet voting opened to the public with the promise that the top six vote getters would enter the house and another six would be chosen by the producers. On the first episode, Julie Chen announced that due to the high volume of voting, CBS decided to admit the top four male and top four female vote-getters, as well as six producer-chosen contestants, bringing the total cast from twelve to fourteen. The premiere episode scored 7.69 million viewers, down from last year's average for the show.

The competition will be similar to the recent prior seasons, with Head of Household (HoH) and Golden Power of Veto competitions, houseguests being nominated for eviction, and one member of the cast being voted out of the house by his remaining peers each week. An early twist, announced on the premiere show, is the double HoH position. A new Coup d'etat feature of the competition was announced at the end of the August 3 episode, in which houseguests can possibly take away the Head of Household power from the current holder at a moment's notice. Also, host Julie Chen has started to refer to the contestants as housemates, rather than in previous seasons, in which she called them houseguests. The last remaining houseguest will win $500,000. The runner-up will receive $50,000.

Companion internet talk show House Calls has been renewed for this season. Former co-anchor Marcellas Reynolds is currently in the house, so now co-anchor Gretchen Massey hosts the show with a new guest each week. Each Friday, the evicted houseguest appears on the show. (They are required to by their contract). Similar to earlier seasons of the show, 24/7 feeds are available for a small fee on CBS' webpage.

Houseguests

Main article: List of Big Brother houseguests (USA season 7)

Big Brother: All-Stars featured fourteen houseguests entering the Big Brother house on Day 1. This season has seen the earliest eviction of any housemate, Alison Irwin, who was in the house for only 11 days.

Chronology

Week 1

Big Brother 7: All-Stars officially started airing on July 6, 2006.This year, twenty previous houseguests were eligible to enter the all new Big Brother house. Since June 21 of the same year, CBS had announced that twelve houseguests would enter the house: three men and three women chosen by America, and three men and three women chosen by the show's producers. On Day 1, however, Julie Chen shocked the houseguests with the first twist of the season. Two extra houseguests would enter the house, bringing the total of houseguests to fourteen. First, the top four women that the viewers chose entered the house (Janelle, Erika, Nakomis, and Diane). Next, the top four men that the public had chosen were announced; Howie, Kaysar, James, and Jase. Chen then announced the names of the six houseguests chosen by the producers, this time four men and two women (Will, Danielle, Marcellas, Alison, Mike, and George).

Upon entering the house, the contestants all congratulated each other in the forms of hugs and introductions. The second twist of the season was announced when the houseguests gathered in the lounge for the first Head of Household competition - there would be two Heads of Household for the first week. The HoHs would share the position's privileges, but they also had the responsibility of nominating two houseguests for eviction. If the two HoHs failed to agree on the nominees, their privileges would be stripped of them, and they would be up for eviction instead. The houseguests walked outside to see their first competition, called Falling Stars. For this competition, seven of the houseguests took turns swinging a boulder attached to a rope at the seven houseguests standing on pedestals situated on a giant rotating wheel. A houseguest was eliminated upon falling off the pedestal. The last houseguest remaining on a pedestal in each of the two heats, Jase and Janelle, won the competition. The two shared the HoH room and had to agree on which two houseguests to nominate. Prior to nominations, Danielle and Alison came up with the idea that if Jase were to not agree with Janelle, she would be put up and get voted out because of her alliance and skill. However, Jase decided that "taking yourself from the most powerful position to the weakest position was the dumbest thing you could do." Because of Alison's and Danielle's scheming, they were placed on the block, completing the HoH's assignment.

On Day 5, contestants played in the Power of Veto competition. The Heads of Household, Jase and Janelle, as well as the nominees, Alison and Danielle, and the randomly chosen Kaysar and George competed in the challenge entitled "One Man's Trash is Another Man's Veto". The six players had to dig through trash heaps made of props from prior seasons while covered in fish chum and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Janelle emerged as the victor and opted not to veto her own nominations, leaving Alison and Danielle up for the vote.

Week 2

On Day 11, by an 8-2 vote, Alison was evicted from the house. In the Head of Household competition, "Alison Rules", contestants guessing Alison's answers to true or false questions. Kaysar was crowned the new HoH, much to Alison's dislike. The houseguests later competed in a food competition "Slop Till You Drop" where they discovered the replacement for PB&J sandwiches: Big Brother Slop -- a horrible tasting, ugly, oatmeal-like slop with all the nutrients the contestants would need. For the food competition the contestants were divided into two teams of three pairs each. Each pair were tied to each other and had to bob for fake rats in troughs of slop. The team with the most rats after the time limit won the competition. The losing team would have to suffer eating "slop" for the entire week. The winners of the food competition were as follows: Diane, Mike, George, Jase, Will, and Erika. The losers were: Danielle, Howie, James, Nakomis, Janelle, and Marcellas. Kaysar was exempt from the "slop" week because he was the current HoH.

On Day 12, after promising Will and Boogie that he planned on weeding out the floaters, Kaysar nominated Season five's Diane and Nakomis.

On Day 13, the "Big Brother Golf Classic" Power of Veto competition was played. This competition involved the houseguests hitting oversized foam golf balls with oversized golf clubs at an oversized green. Erika won the Golden Power of Veto, but abstained from using it to save either Diane or Nakomis. This is second time in a row that the Golden Power of Veto has not been used. Erika decided that she did not want to use the Golden Power of Veto because she did not want to "stir the pot."

On Day 18, after an eight to two (8-2) vote, Nakomis became the second person evicted from the Big Brother house. This is the second time in US Big Brother history that the same number of people have voted to evict for two consecutive weeks, in this case ten people. The other time was in Big Brother 5, when Natalie entered the house directly after Scott's eviction; making it so both Jase and Scott's eviction weeks had 7 votes total. Only Janelle and Will voted to evict Diane. While almost everyone was hugging and saying goodbye to Nakomis, Jase sat on the couch. His reasoning was "I don't have to kiss her ass and act like I care that she is leaving, she is not on the Jury."

Week 3

The third HoH competition was called "Pay Attention." Prior to the competition, the houseguests were shown still frame pictures from notable moments of the season (such as Will riding the boulder in "Falling Stars"). During the competition, then were asked very specific questions about the pictures, such as "In Falling Stars, which leg came off the pedestal first? If you think left, choose A; if you think right, choose B." After a tie breaker between James and Danielle, James won HoH for his first time.

On Day 19, the housemates paired up in their second food competition, "Holey Moley." The aim was to maneuver a bowling ball up an inclined playing field while trying to avoid holes. The course was split into four levels: slop, veggies and beer, bread and kumquats, and meats. If a pair's ball fell into a hole, all houseguests could only food the ball had passed on the pair's assigned day. However, in the middle of the meat section was a "Slop Spoiler." If the ball fell in the "Slop Spoiler" at the top of the course, the entire house could only eat slop for the day. If the two people could get the ball to the top of the playing field, the house would get a catered feast for the assigned day. Four pairs won feasts. Danielle and Will only won veggies, beer, bread, and kumquats. Marcellas and Janelle only won veggies and beer.

On Day 20, James nominated George and Will for eviction. James said that he was playing the game for himself and that Big Brother was not a team game. George took being nominated very personal and threatened that James thought he was the head rooster but the colonel was right around the corner.

On Day 21, James, George, Will, Mike, Kaysar, and Jase competed in the "How Bad Do You Want It?" veto competition. After accomplishing the unpleasant tasks of eating a bowl of slop, removing and burning his clothing, letting other housemates write on his body, dipping into a bathtub filled with blueberry juice (and subsequently being "dyed" blue), giving up his chance to play in the veto competition the following week, and deciding to eat slop for sixty days (the rest of his stay in the house), George won the Golden Power of Veto.

On Day 22, the day of the veto ceremony, Kaysar informing Jase that the Season six alliance were going to put him up in George's place. Jase lashed out at every member of the house (except Chicken George, who was not present) and threw a huge tantrum (and a few table items). Jase did everything in his power to turn the house against each other, particularly against Marcelles, who Jase accused of playing both sides. He also called out James' honesty, claiming he had backdoored him. This was interrupted by George entering the backyard and saying that it was time for the Veto Ceremony. Will gave what started out as a very heartfelt speech about why he was acting different this season as opposed to Season two. He blamed it on the fact that there were alot of people that he hated in Season 2, so he had a reason to get people kicked out and betray people. He shocked the housemates, however, with his conclusion. "So what's different about this season? Maybe it's because I love you all. Then I realized it's completely the opposite. I can't find one specific person I hate, because I hate you all. I can't find one person I hate more then the other. So here's what I want you to do. Have your little meeting and decide to kick me out because from here on out, I will throw every competition. Every HoH, every PoV [Power of Veto] and every food competition. George is on slop for the rest of the game and I will do everything in my power to make sure we all are on slop." He then went on to ask George not to use it on him, but on himself, saying George was a "bad ass" because he went up against the "5 baddest players of Big Brother (Kaysar, Will, Jase, Boogie, and James) and won" George followed up with a heartfelt monologue as to why he loved being there. George vetoed his nomination, causing James to nominate Jase in George's place.

On Day 25, the two nominees were given a chance to give a last word. Will appoligized for saying he hated everyone, and that he meant to say "strongly disliked". Jase knew he was going home and said he wished he had gone on Survivor because he could have won . After getting a little choked up, he said he only wanted Diane and Danielle to walk him to the door. By a unanamous vote of 9-0, Jase was evicted from the house. As he left the house, he promised to return in a few weeks. When Julie brought up the "Mr. and Mrs. Smith Alliance", a possible secret pre-planned alliance between Jase and Diane, Jase only said, "I can't comment on that right now."

Week 4

After Jase's eviction, the "Define and Dismiss" Head of Household competition was held. The houseguests were quizzed about the definitions of words written on the walls in the house. Janelle won the competition and was therefore crowned Head of Household for the second time this season.

On Day 26, Head of Household Janelle nominated Erika and Mike "Boogie" for eviction. In her nomination speech, she said that Erika was only a pawn and that she just didn't like Mike "Boogie". She later admitted to only wanting a floater out of the game, due to the fact that there were so many floaters. After these nominations, every contestant outside the Season six alliance had at one point been nominated, except for Marcellas, who is a close friend of season 6 alliance member, Janelle.

On Day 27, starting at midnight, the housemates were awakened by fans' wake-up calls every 15 minutes as the result of an America's Choice poll. In the early hours of the morning, the Power of Veto competition saw Mike, Erika, Janelle, Diane, Howie, and Will competing in the game "Torture Test". The challenge involved reading words backwards while being subjected to various torture devices such as, nightcrawlers, blindfolds, neckbraces, and blaring music. Mike correctly guessed three phrases and won the Veto.

On Day 29, Mike used the Power of Veto on himself, and Janelle replaced him with Diane. This caused controversy among the members of Janelle's alliance, especially James. They hoped Will would be the replacement. They also caught Janelle in a lie: Janelle told her alliance she did not want Will and Mike to win the Power of Veto, but she had told Howie prior to the competition that she did not want Diane or Erika to win. This caused James to lash out at Janelle, saying in the DR that he was "done with Season Six". He then formed an alliance with Danielle, Will, and Mike called "Legion of Doom". Most members of the house saw this as the first fracture in the Season six alliance.

On Day 32, Diane was evicted from the Big Brother House by a vote of 7 to 1. Only Will voted against Erika in hopes of "stirring the pot."

Week 5

Minutes after Diane's eviction, the Head of Household competition "Caught in a Web" saw the housemates hanging in a rope web above the backyard, with the houseguest who hung on the longest winning. In order to spice up the precedings, Big Brother gave the first five housemates eliminated from the competition a chance to open one of five eggs, three of which had prizes inside, while the other two were "rotten". Within 15 minutes, Will, employing the "Will Strategy," climbed off the web to claim an egg – however, he was disappointed to choose a rotten egg. Kaysar "won" the other rotten egg, while James won the right to nullify someone's eviction vote, Marcellas won a pass exempting him from eating slop for one week (which he later gave to George), and Mike "Boogie" won $10,000. After two hours on the web, Danielle convinced Howie and Erika to both drop out by promising not to nominate them.

On Day 33, Danielle put up James as a pawn alongside Janelle. She believed James to be the only houseguest who could take the veto away from Janelle. However, on Day 34, Janelle won the Power of Veto in the "Grave Mistakes" competition. Danielle had tried everything in her power to beat Janelle, even accepting a 24 hour solitary confinement to gain points. When Danielle came out of solitary, Chill Town strategically decided to go after Marcellas as Janelle's replacement, believing that putting Kaysar "on the block" would cause S6 to go after them. Will sold James on the idea put up Marcellas then James took the idea to Danielle. At the Veto meeting, Janelle used the Power of Veto to remove herself from nomination. Forced to nomininate another houseguest, Danielle chose Kaysar anyway and ruined Chill Town's plans as she decided to continue with the removal of S6. Kaysar was evicted by a vote of 5 to 1, excluding Janelle's vote, which was nullified by James.

Week 6

On Day 39, after Kaysar's eviction, the sixth Head of Household competition took place. The houseguests were given true/false questions about a mock séance which took place on Day 38. The houseguests who either answered the question incorrectly (or slowest when everyone answered correctly) were eliminated from the competition. Erika was the quickest to answer the final question correctly and beat out James to won Head of Household for Week 6. Immediately after her win, however, the houseguests were informed that there would be a "new power" for which they were competing. They were not told that it was the "Coup d'Etat" and that the winner would overthrow the Head of Household and change the nominations to his or her liking, after the veto. During the week, the houseguests will be presented various clues describing a common Big Brother phrase. When a houseguest thinks they have discovered the phrase, they must say what they think it is in the diary room, however they only have one chance and they will not know whether or not they were correct until the eviction ceremony, when they will also be told what the power is. The first clue was a sheep with a pink bow, which was roaming the house when they reentered it after learning of the new competition.

Technical difficulties in the original Head of Household competition (buttons not working correctly) required it to be repeated. The second Head of Household competition took place at approximately 10:50 p.m. PST – five hours after the original competition – using mechanical wheels, answering A or B for questions, similarly to the original competition. Like all HoH competitions, it was hosted by Julie Chen. The final two Houseguests remaining were Mike and Janelle, and this time, Janelle was crowned the new Head of Household, for the third time this season. After winning, she celebrated profusely with Howie, repeatedly invoking the name of the just evicted Kaysar. CBS sanctioned the re-do HoH competition to avoid potential lawsuits from the contestants.

On Day 40, Janelle nominated Danielle and Erika for eviction. She explained to Danielle that, because Danielle nominated her and her allies in the previous week, Janelle had no choice but to retaliate. She told Erika that she very much liked her, but not her game. Erika has since revealed that she is in the alliance of Chill Town, as she is involved in a "show-mance" relationship with Mike Boogie.

On Day 41, Danielle won the Power of Veto named "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Veto", and Janelle complained that the other participants in the veto competition had handed it to her because neither Janelle nor Howie were competing. (Howie was not chosen to compete in this veto, and Janelle had given up rights to compete the week before in the veto competiton). Will went to Janelle to convince her to put up Marcellas in place of Danielle. Janelle refused saying that it would make Marcellas cry. Will said that her refusal would make him cry and asked if he cried, would she put Marcellas up in place of Danielle. She said yes. Will cried producing real tears.

On Day 43, Danielle used the Power of Veto to take herself off of the nomination block. Janelle replaced her with Marcellas, although she has stated that her intention is for Erika to be evicted.

Discussions between houseguests seen on the live feeds indicate that Will and Mike believe Mike won the Coup d'Etat guessing "You reap what you sow."

On Day 46, prior to the live eviction episode that week, Mike was revealed as the winner of the Coup d'Etat. Mike has the option for the next three evictions on whether or not he wishes to use the power to overthrow the Head of Household. However, he may not tell the others that he has won nor may he inform them of what the power does. Marcellas was then evicted that night in a 6-0 vote when Mike chose not to use the power that week

Week 7

Later on Day 46, after Marcellas' eviction, George went on to win Head of Household. The housemates were then informed of Big Brother's latest twist -- this week would be a double eviction week. George was then asked to immediately nominate two housemates for eviction. With a shocked look, he announced James and Erika as this week's first set of nominees.

Nominations and evictions

Main article: Big Brother voting history (USA season 7)

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
Head of Household	Janelle Jase	Kaysar	James	Janelle	Danielle	Janelle *	George
Nominations (pre-veto)	Alison Danielle	Diane Nakomis	George Will	Mike Erika	James Janelle	Danielle Erika	James Erika
Veto Winner	Janelle	Erika	George	Mike	Janelle	Danielle
Nominations (post-veto)	Alison Danielle	Diane Nakomis	Jase Will	Diane Erika	James Kaysar	Erika Marcellas
Coup d'État Winner	-	-	-	-	-	Mike
Nominations (post-Coup d'État)	-	-	-	-	-	Erika Marcellas
Evicted	Alison 8 of 10 votes	Nakomis 8 of 10 votes	Jase 9 of 9 votes	Diane 7 of 8 votes	Kaysar 5 of 6 votes *	Marcellas 6 of 6 votes

Template:FnbDuring the week's Head of Household competition, James won the right to nullify a houseguest's eviction vote. On Day 39, he came to the Diary Room and told Big Brother that he would nullify Janelle's vote. Janelle did not know of this, and voted as usual; her vote did not count. Therefore, Kaysar was evicted 5-1, but out of all houseguest's votes, he was evicted 5-2.
Template:FnbOn Day 39, after Kaysar's eviction, Erika won the live Head of Household competition. However, due to technical faults with some of the equipment, the competition was re-done later during the day. Janelle won the second HoH competition, and was therefore crowned Head of Household for Week 6.

Strategy

• Coming into the house, there were four houseguests who were on Season six, three from Season five and two each from Seasons two, three, and four, and just one from Season one. As such, the houseguests speculated that there was an inherent alliance between the returning members from Season six (James, Janelle, Howie, and Kaysar). However, James said, in the Diary Room, that he trusts Jase more than Janelle and Kaysar.
• In the first week, Jase and Janelle shared the Head of Household position. Julie Chen explained to the houseguests that if the two Heads of Household could not come to a consensus over who to nominate, they would be nominated instead. Danielle proposed an idea to Alison that if Jase were to purposely disagree with Janelle so that they would be nominated, they could work toward evicting Janelle. However, Alison immediately went to Jase, who rejected this plan, stating that it is incredibly stupid to go from the highest position (HoH) to the lowest (nominee). The idea instead got Danielle and Alison nominated.
• The rules of the Power of Veto changed once again. The Head of Household and the nominees play, but the other three competitors are chosen at random (unlike previous seasons where the HoH and nominees selected the other three competitors). This rule was made to decrease the chance of someone getting "backdoored". For Week 3's Golden Power of Veto competition, the Head of Household and nominees drew balls out of a bag with the names of the housemates on them. However, some balls were marked "Houseguest's Choice", which let the person who grabbed the ball choose one person to compete in the competition.
• On Thursday, August 10, 2006, a Coup d'État twist was revealed to the housemates that will give the winner the ability to overthrow the HoH and replace their nominees. They received their first clue, a sheep with a pink and red bow, when the HoH competition was finished. The second clue was a large spool of thread and needle in the backyard. The third, and final, clue was a grim reaper. Mike correctly answered, "Reap what you sow", and won the Coup d'État on eviction night, choosing to hold onto it.
• A running gag in the house is that every week, when Chill Town allies Will and Mike from Season 2 learn they are safe, they pretend to have a phone conversation in the Diary Room. When one reveals the fact that the two were not targets for eviction to the other, they each burst into uncontrollable laughter, mocking the other houseguests for not realizing the two of them are the biggest threats.

House

This year's house's theme is "A House of Extremes". There are large neon flames in the lounge, gothic design features such as gargoyles, and in one bedroom, there is a tarantula cage. For the first time, the house has a billiards table. Also for the first time, there are things to read on the house walls - definitions of words such as: love, hate, alliance, trust, honesty, deceive and dignity. The house keeps last year's two-story idea, with a large Head of Household room, that changes with its occupant. The spy screen has also been saved. There are also famous "Big Brother artifacts" hanging on the walls such as Hardy's toothbrush which Shannon scrubbed the toilet with in Season 2, the Power of Veto Marcellas didn't use in season 3, the "X statue" from season 4, Howie's lightsaber from season 6, and the nomination keys of all the previous winners (Eddie McGee's Big Brother 1 key was recently produced because there were never any keys during the inaugural season).

References

External links

• Big Brother 7 official CBS site