Big Brother 26 was a tumultuous season right up to the end. Even the winner was surprised by the outcome after receiving a unanimous vote in their favor
The Big Brother season 26 finale had viewers at the edge of their seat – with good reason.
In the nail-biting live Big Brother finale, Chelsie Baham and Makensy Manbeck went head-to-head in a trivia competition after each won the prior two customary competitions. When Makensy won, viewers thought she might have chosen to bring the third finalist Cam Sullivan-Brown to the final two since he would’ve been considered the “safer” option. However, Big Brother fans were surprised when she chose to bring Chelsie with her instead.
As a result, Chelsie ended up winning the game unanimously by a vote from the jury which consisted of their previously-eliminated peers.
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Chelsie didn't initially expect the jury to vote in her favor (Image:CBS)
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chelsie revealed that she didn’t even anticipate to win – let alone receive a unanimous vote from the jury.
“I thought that if there was going to be a vote, it was going to be four to three, Makensy would win,” she told the outlet.
“There was a point when I was doing math and I’m like, ‘I feel like she might win this game,’ after Rubina was talking highly of her game. So I was worried for a minute,” she added.
However, she was able to tap into the jury’s mindset and revealed that she knew she had to appeal to the “emotional” cast she had played alongside this entire season. Chelsie claimed to know that “emotion was going to play a role in how they voted.”
Still, she claimed she was “shocked” when the vote came out to be unanimously in her favor claiming she thought it’d be a “a much tougher decision for the jury.”
“I was preparing my heart for that first key that comes out is going to be Makensy, is going to be Makensy, and then it was me. I was like, ‘Oh, cool. Second one will obviously be her.’ It was me again, and it just kept going on and on. So I was not expecting that at all. I thought it was going to be a much tougher decision for the jury than it was,” she said.
Chelsie walked away from Big Brother 26 as not only a winner but $750k richer. After coming in second place, Makensy won a smaller but still substantial $75k. Meanwhile, Tucker Des Lauriers won America’s Favorite Player and took away $50k.