Big Brother season 26 came to a close with a shocking finale episode, Chelsie Baham’s well-deserved, unanimous win and a number of awful mistakes by Makensy ‘MJ’ Manbeck to end our summer in the Big Brother House. The final Head of Household competition went to Makensy, which made it seem like she would surely win the entire season by taking Cam Sullivan-Brown to the final two with her. Cam, although he showed a lot of potential, ended up being the biggest disappointment of #BB26. Julie Chen-Moonves, the longtime host, was full of energy and enthusiasm for the live Big Brother finale. She witnessed Makensy make a $750,000 mistake by evicting Cam and taking Chelsie to the final two. Makensy thought her move proved her loyalty, but jurors Quinn Martin, T’Kor Clottey, Leah Peters, Angela Murray, Kimo Apaka, Rubina Bernabe and Cam Sullivan-Brown, knew that Big Brother is not about loyalty. Quinn had the most revealing jury question by asking Makensy to identify a move she made on her own. Makensy said no one influenced her to evict Leah, but the jury and American knew that Chelsie was in full-control on Makensy for that eviction. Chelsie won unanimously after doing an incredible job defending herself. Congratulations to the best player of Big Brother 26! Big Brother 25 winner Jag was in the audience, fitting considering the #BB26 finale was reminiscent of the #BB25 finale. Two allies were in the final two chairs, but only one person (Chelsie, Jag) was prepared to sell their game to the jury while the other one (Makensy, Matt Klotz) wasn’t prepared at all. How much money does America’s Favorite Houseguest win? Tucker DesLaurier can tell you. He had a good night overall, winning America’s Favorite Player and the $50,000 that comes with it, and turning his showmance Rubina into his girlfriend. Tucker was the only player who truly took advantage of the AI Arena, the best part of Big Brother 26. The AI Arena was a big reason why #BB26 was the best Big Brother season in modern history and should return in some capacity to keep future BB seasons interesting. Tucker sat on the non-jury side of the stage with Tampa native Joseph Rodriguez, Brooklyn Rivera, Cedric Hodges, Lisa Weintraub, Matt Hardeman and Kenney Kelley who didn’t speak for some reason. Hosts Andrea Chu and David Belleville revealed their favorite and least-favorite parts of #BB26. Hint: the final weeks in the Big Brother house are always a little boring and should be sped up. That’s a wrap on the 2024 season of Big Brother on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. What happened in the Big Brother finale? We broke it down for you. Watch 10 Tampa Bay’s Big Brother recap show, “Hey, Houseguests” on the 10 Tampa Bay+ app for Apple, Roku or Fire TV or the 10 Tampa Bay YouTube channel. ➡️ How to download 10 Tampa Bay+: https://www.wtsp.com/watch ➡️ Subscribe to 10 Tampa Bay: https://www.youtube.com/@10TampaBay ➡️Why did Big Brother change the BB26 live feed experience for fans?: https://www.wtsp.com/article/entertainment/television/big-brother-26-schedule-live-feeds-2024/67-3c6a26b6-8ffa-4cdf-8ff8-f20f71306b71 Podcast producer: Andrea Chu Hosts: Andrea Chu and David Belleville Graphics: Rickey Kim