Julie Chen announced a big twist in store for Big Brother 15. On the next live eviction episode, one of the first four members of the jury will get to re-enter the game as a player.
It’s unclear exactly how the twist will work, but she explained that Candice, Judd, Jessie and whichever HG is evicted this week will compete to come back into the game as a player. However, this is not unprecedented.
There have been four instances of an HG coming back into the game for a second chance at winning Big Brother. Every time has been different. Sometimes America voted, sometimes the remaining HGs got to vote, and other times it involved some type of competition.
None of the returning HGs have ever won the game, or even made it into the Final 3, and two of them were immediately evicted the week after coming back. In three of the instances, the first HoH back was an endurance competition, with the returning HG winning it twice.
Here’s a look back at the four previous times Big Brother brought an evicted HG back into the game.
Big Brother 3: Amy Crews
Amy, the snobby Tennessee real estate appraiser, was the third HG evicted during the show’s third season. After week 5, the first four evicted HGs were given a chance to re-enter the game. They were each asked how much of the $500,000 grand prize they would give up and how many days they would agree to be on peanut butter and jelly. Amy and Eric both agreed to give up half the money and spend the rest of the season on PB&J, though they didn’t actually have to do either.
The house was then allowed to vote for which of them should return, and by a vote of 5-2, Amy won and returned to the game as a player. She won the very next endurance HoH, but was then nominated four weeks in a row before getting evicted in fourth place.
Big Brother 6: Kaysar Ridha
In season 6, Kaysar was evicted in week 4, but then America got to vote to bring one of three evicted HGs back into the game. They chose Kaysar with a huge 82 percent of the vote. He came back in and competed in a grueling endurance HoH competition that lasted 14 hours until he agreed to quit once Jennifer offered to keep him safe and backdoor James. Instead, Jennifer backdoored Kaysar and he was evicted by a unanimous vote.
Big Brother 9: Crazy James Zinkand
In season 9, Crazy James was evicted in week 4, but he was not out of the game for long. That same night the remaining eight HGs got to vote to bring one person back. They could choose the person they just evicted, Crazy James, or a mystery HG, one of six previously evicted contestants who America voted for. America chose Alex, but the HGs chose to bring back James instead by a vote of 5-3.
James then won the next endurance HoH competition and the next three PoV competitions, but was eventually evicted by a unanimous vote in sixth place.
Big Brother 13: Brendon Villegas
In season 13, Brendon was evicted by HoH Daniele Donato during week 4. The next week, the evicted HG (Lawon) got to compete against one of the first four evicted HGs who America voted for. Brendon won the vote, beat Lawon, and got back into the game. However, Daniele won the next HoH and evicted Brendon again.
What does this mean for the HG coming back this season? Well, they probably won’t win the game or last very long, but odds are good that we’re in for an endurance HoH competition to see who wants it more, the current HGs or someone with something to prove.
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(Image courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
