• Source: Big Brother 25 (American season)

Big Brother 25 is the twenty-fifth season of the American reality television program Big Brother. The season premiered on August 2, 2023, on CBS in the United States, and on Global in Canada, following a 25th Anniversary special aired on July 26. Hosted by Julie Chen Moonves, the show follows a group of contestants (known as HouseGuests), who live in a house together while being constantly filmed and having no communication with the outside world as they compete to win a grand prize of $750,000.
The season came to an end on November 9, 2023. After a record-breaking 100 days in the house, Jagateshwar "Jag" Bains was crowned the winner in a 5-2 vote over Matt Klotz. Jag is the first and only winner in history to be voted off and then saved by another player through an in-game competition. He was coincidentally saved by Matt. Additionally, Cameron Hardin was named America's Favourite Houseguest, winning $100,000.




Format



Big Brother follows a group of contestants, known as HouseGuests, who live inside a custom-built house outfitted with cameras and microphones recording their every move 24 hours a day. The HouseGuests are sequestered with no contact with the outside world. During their stay, the HouseGuests share their thoughts on their day-to-day lives inside the house in a private room known as the Diary Room. Each week, the HouseGuests compete in competitions in order to win power and safety inside the house. At the start of each week, the HouseGuests compete in a Head of Household (abbreviated as "HOH") competition. The winner of the HoH competition is immune from eviction and selects two HouseGuests to be nominated for eviction. Six HouseGuests are then selected to compete in the Power of Veto (abbreviated as "PoV") competition: the reigning HoH, the nominees, and three other HouseGuests chosen by random draw. The winner of the PoV competition has the right to either revoke the nomination of one of the nominated HouseGuests or leave them as is. If the veto winner uses this power, the HoH must immediately nominate another HouseGuest for eviction. The PoV winner is also immune from being named as the replacement nominee. On eviction night, all HouseGuests vote to evict one of the nominees, though the Head of Household and the nominees are not allowed to vote. This vote is conducted in the privacy of the Diary Room. In the event of a tie, the Head of Household casts the tie-breaking vote. The nominee with the most votes is evicted from the house. The last seven evicted HouseGuests comprise the Jury and are sequestered in a separate location following their eviction and ultimately decide the winner of the season. The Jury is only allowed to see the competitions and ceremonies that include all of the remaining HouseGuests; they are not shown any interviews or other footage that might include strategy or details regarding nominations. The viewing public is able to award an additional prize by choosing "America's Favorite HouseGuest." All evicted HouseGuests are eligible to win this award except for those who either voluntarily leave or are forcibly removed for rule violations.




= Format changes and additions

=



BB Break-in and BB Multiverse

On July 28, 2023, CBS released a clip featuring former HouseGuests Frankie Grande, Britney Haynes, and Danielle Reyes, who were seen "breaking into" the Big Brother House with a "time laser." According to a press release issued in conjunction with the clip, the trio of former contestants, who all lost their respective seasons, broke into the house in an attempt to "go back in time and change the outcome of their season," which backfired, unleashing the first twist of the season, which would be revealed on the premiere episode.



BB Multiverse

The BB Break-in revealed that Grande, Haynes, and Reyes had opened up the BB Multiverse, combining four universes: the Comic-verse, the Humili-verse, the Scary-verse, and the Scramble-verse. There are four rooms in the house, each themed to one of the universes. Additionally, these universes are the basis for the competitions and game twists for the season. The notable game twists and events from each universe are as follows.



= Comic-verse
=
BB Power of Invincibility: Fans had the opportunity to cast their votes for an extraordinary superpower. The top four vote-receiving HouseGuests would compete in a secret competition for the BB Power of Invincibility. This power would grant the winning HouseGuest the ability to nullify one of the next two evictions, in Week 4 or Week 5, including their own. If the power were used on a HouseGuest not evicted in Week 4, that power would remain active the following week. If the power was successfully used on a HouseGuest, the week would reset, and the outgoing Head of Household could compete in the following Head of Household competition.
Comic Week: Week 11 was announced as Comic Week, which would superpower the Head of Household and the Power of Veto.
BB Power of Invisibility: This superpower allowed the Head of Household to remain anonymous to the other HouseGuests and operate in secret for the duration of the week. The Head of Household would also be eligible to compete in the following week's HOH competition, where they would normally be ineligible.
BB Power of Multiplicity: This superpower allowed for two Powers of Veto to be up for grabs. It additionally allowed the number of Veto competitors to be raised from 6 to 8, including all current HouseGuests.



= Humili-verse
=
Humili-week: Week 6 was deemed "Humili-week." Immediately following the Head of Household competition, the HouseGuests were informed that everyone, except for the HOH, would be a Have-Not this week, taking turns sleeping in the Have-Not room. This week also had various other punishments for the HouseGuests.



= Scary-verse
=
Nether Region: On premiere night, the loser of the Scary-verse nomination competition would also be dragged into the "Nether Region" for an undetermined amount of time. Upon this person's return, they informed the rest of the HouseGuests about a message from the Scary-verse: while they had returned relatively quickly, the next person may not be so lucky. In Week 2, the Head of Household competition runner-up was sent to the Nether Region. Upon their return, they had to select one HouseGuest to be sent to the Nether Region; however, this HouseGuest would receive immunity for the week. Upon this person's return, they had to select one more HouseGuest to be sent to the Nether Region. This player would be ineligible to play in the Power of Veto competition.
Scary Week Double Eviction & Resurrection Week: Week 7 was announced as Scary Week, which unknown to the HouseGuests, resulted in a surprise Fake Double Eviction. Following the Double Eviction, both evictees became "BB Zombies" and returned to the house for the following week, where they had the chance to officially return to the game. During "Resurrection Week", no Head of Household or Veto competitions were held. Instead, both "BB Zombies" competed for an advantage that gave them the option to either compete themselves or force the other "Zombie" to compete in the "Re-Entry" Competition at the end of the week. One would remain and have their game "resurrected", while the other would be officially evicted.
Trick or Treat Luxury Competition: During the Halloween special episode of Big Brother 25, the Final 5 competed in Trick or Treat, where they were told to either give candy to other houseguests' buckets ("treats") or take candy away from them ("tricks"). The houseguest with the most pieces of candy at the end of five rounds would be awarded $5,000.



= Scramble-verse
=
Nomination Competition & Head of Household Save: On premiere night, the HouseGuests entered in groups of four and each had to pick a spot in a different competition with four options. Instead of competing for the power of Head of Household, they were competing to avoid nomination. The losers of each of the four competitions would be nominated for eviction Week 1. The Head of Household in Week 1 had to choose which two of the four nominated HouseGuests to remove from the block.
17th HouseGuest: On the official CBS social media pages, it was announced a 17th HouseGuest would be entering the Big Brother House to play. After the Nomination Competition, the HouseGuests were greeted by Cirie Fields, a four-time Survivor player, as the 17th HouseGuest.



Smaller jury

At the beginning of the Day 44 Head of Household competition, Julie announced that, to commemorate the 25th season, the jury would be going "old school", consisting of only seven HouseGuests (as was the case between seasons 4 and 14), instead of the usual nine (as had been the case between seasons 15 and 24).




Houseguests



The HouseGuests for the twenty-fifth season were revealed on July 31, 2023. Among the initial cast were Deaflympics gold medalist Matt Klotz, and two relatives of Survivor alumni: Jared Fields, the son of four-time Survivor contestant Cirie Fields; and Cory Wurtenberger, the younger brother of Zach Wurtenberger from Survivor 42. Shortly before the premiere, the show announced on social media that there would be a 17th HouseGuest, who was revealed at the end of the premiere episode to be Cirie Fields herself, becoming the first former Survivor contestant to compete in the show. The inclusion of the Fields mother & son pairing is also the first new familial pre-existing relationship to be included on the show since Big Brother: Over The Top.

Notes




= Future appearances

=
Cameron Hardin competed on the Christmas spin-off Big Brother Reindeer Games.




Episodes






Voting history


Color key:

Notes




Production






= Development

=
Big Brother 25 will be co-produced by production companies Endemol Shine North America and Fly On The Wall Entertainment. The renewal of the series was announced on September 25, 2022, upon the conclusion of the previous season. Host Julie Chen Moonves returned for the season along with Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan, who serve as executive producers. The game is scheduled to run for a total of 100 days.
Entertainment Weekly released the key art for the season on July 24.




= Casting

=
Casting began around March 2023, with the first open-call auditions conducted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. One of these casting calls was conducted from March 1 through 11, 2023, at West Hollywood. Furthermore, it was also revealed the cast would consist entirely of new players.




= Production design

=
The house is located at the Radford Studio Center in Los Angeles, California. This season is outfitted with 90 HD cameras and more than 113 microphones. A sneak peek of the house design for the season was shown at the end of the 25th Anniversary Special on July 26. Chen Moonves later hinted at the house's theme for the season via an Instagram post on July 27.
In the exclusive house tour for Entertainment Tonight released on August 1, the house design was revealed to revolve around the theme of "Big Brother Multiverse." The house design draws inspiration from science fiction franchises, comic books, and artistic surrealism.
The living area of the house is decorated in a space theme with brown and blue accents, and features a pneumatic tube used by the producers to relay messages to the HouseGuests. One bedroom is designed to be "upside down," while another is designed to emulate the look and feel of a 1950s pulp comic. A horror-themed bedroom was designed to look like a basement, featuring hands protruding from the walls.




Release






= Broadcast

=
On May 22, 2023, CBS announced the season will premiere on August 2, 2023, citing the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike as the reason behind the delay. It expected to conclude on November 9, 2023. The series is set to air three episodes a week, initially following its regular schedule on Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday. When the 2023–24 television season begins the Wednesday episode will shift to Tuesday. A 25th anniversary celebration special aired prior to the premiere featuring several former HouseGuests, on July 26.




= Streaming

=
Following a controversial decision to eliminate live feeds on the show's Canadian counterpart, Big Brother Canada, a press release on the renewal of the show confirmed that the live feeds for the show would continue to be available on CBS' streaming platform Paramount+ along with full episodes. Additionally, the live feeds can also be streamed on the streaming platform Pluto TV.




Reception






= Critical responses

=



Luke Valentine's usage of an ethnic slur

In the early morning hours of August 9, Luke Valentine used an ethnic slur while conversing with other HouseGuests Cory Wurtenberger, Hisam Goueli, and Jared Fields. Usage of the word was first noticed by viewers of Big Brother's live feeds. In the clip, which was circulated on social media platforms, Valentine can be heard repeating the sentence without the slur and stating that he intended to say "narwhal" instead. He also apologized to Fields who laughed in response. Viewers of the series immediately began calling for his removal from the game. The live feeds were taken down shortly after and remained down until after the following day's episode. Later that day Valentine was instructed to report to the diary room where he was held for seven hours while waiting to speak to a member of human resources. He was then informed that a decision had been made to eject him from the game due to violating the series' code of conduct. At the time CBS issued a statement reiterating their "zero-tolerance policy" and stating that his departure would be addressed in the August 10 episode of the series. A censored version of the conversation was aired in the episode shortly after which the remaining HouseGuests were shown being informed of the situation by production. Wurtenberger stated in a diary room segment that use of the word "was directed toward me in a very casual, using it between friends kind of way, and I think the reaction was, ‘Yo, you gotta go to bed man.’" A week later Valentine hosted an Instagram Live video on August 16, where he disputed the producers' decision. In the video he explains that he only used the word because he was malnourished, sleep deprived, and under significant psychological distress. Valentine also argued that the punishment was extreme and that "a slap on the wrist would have been much better."



Accessibility issues for Matt Klotz

During the second week of the series, six contestants, including Matt Klotz, competed in the audio-based "Twisted Tasks" in an attempt to win the power of veto. After the August 16 episode of the series aired, viewers began questioning whether the competition was fair and accessible to Klotz who is deaf. In "Twisted Tasks," the competitors were required to wear headphones and decode a group of auditory hints. Ahead of the episode's release, Entertainment Weekly published an article in which Grodner reassured viewers that many accommodations had been made for Klotz, including pre-season tests on speaker placement, sealing diary room doors, creating directional audio, text-to-speech video screens, and meetings with his audiologist. Additionally, it was reported that ahead of the veto competition, production tested out different voices and frequencies to learn which version Klotz heard best. Chief engineer David Crivelli also revealed that they were required to find noise cancelling headphones that worked with Klotz's hearing aids and used directional array speakers during other competitions. Further issues were raised after the following week's Head of Household competition, "Revenge of the Pressure Cooker." During the competition the lights in the room were periodically switched off and on, the first time they were switched off Klotz stated "Now I can't hear or see," causing concern that Klotz was unable to read lips and would miss out on conversations.



Jared Fields's usage of an ableist slur

During an angry exchange with Cory Wurtenberger regarding America Lopez, Jared Fields called her an ableist slur. He later apologized to Wurtenberger and said he does not think Lopez is the "r-word." Though the initial conversation was not captured on the live feeds, Fields' apology was. Numerous viewers of the live feeds began calling for Jared to be ejected for using the slur. CBS did not show or comment about the incident afterwards. Fields later apologized for the incident in his post-eviction press interviews.



Allegations of bias and inequity

There was criticism from fans and commentators regarding the large volume of physical competitions that were geared favorably toward athletically strong men, which lead to men winning 30 out of 36 competitions this season. Only one woman was able to win the Power of Veto once this season, whereas Jag Bains broke the record for the most amount of Veto wins in a single season with seven. Spectators were also critical of the invariability of the competitions, which lead to the same people repeatedly winning them. David Wysong of The Cincinnati Inquirer compared the show to a "watered-down, kiddie version of The Challenge", and Cher Thompson of Screen Rant pointed out that the other contestants were placed at a disadvantage with the competitions not being properly balanced for everyone.
Fans also expressed disapproval that Bains was allowed to win back-to-back Head of Household competitions. While it has been a staple rule in the series that no incumbent Head of Household can win it again the following cycle (barring the final one), Bains was seemingly eligible under the pretense that his previous rule as Head of Household in Week 11 had been "invisible" and won anonymously. Bains proceeded to win it again in Week 12, making him the first person in Big Brother history to be the Head of Household for two consecutive weeks outside of the finale. Viewers accused the show of blatant favoritism towards Bains, pointing out a precedent set in season 23 wherein Claire Rehfuss, who anonymously acquired the power of Head of Household, was ineligible to win it again the following week.




References

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