The finale of Big Brother 16 is one week away and now it’s all down to the final HoH competition. Played in three parts, Cody, Derrick and Victoria face off in a battle of endurance in part 1. The two losers play again in part 2, and the two winners compete on finale night to decide who wins the final HoH and who gets evicted in third place.
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains Big Brother 16 spoilers.
The live feeds went down for a bit after the show, but returned shortly before 8pm PT with the first part underway. In it, the three HGs were on small ledges, leaning forward on the wall and holding onto hang gliders.
Here’s a live blog of the competition: All times are PT.
7:58pm: The feeds are back and, presumably, the competition just started.
8pm: They’re sprayed with water.
8:04pm: There’s no talking. The three are just getting used to the hang gliders and figuring out how best to hold on, switching hands back and forth.
8:07pm; They get sprayed with water again. The guys are having fun making jokes about how torrential it is.
8:09pm: The wall is leaning forward, putting them at more of an angle.
8:10pm: The water has stopped again as the wall keeps moving.
8:12pm: They’re all wearing sweatshirts and use the sleeves to try the bar they’re holding onto when the rain ends.
8:14pm: The wall leans down extremely far, probably less than a 45 degree angle.
8:16pm: The rain is back with some fake lightening.
8:17pm: Victoria starts reciting what I assume is a Jewish prayer to herself.
8:20pm: The rain is so heavy the HGs are basically invisible on the live feeds. Cody seems to be squirming a lot, Victoria is also having issues while Derrick seems steady.
8:22pm: The rain finally stops after about six minutes of a heavy downpour.
8:25pm: Another huge tilt, leaning very far.
8:27pm: We’re about 30 minutes in and everyone is still on the wall.
8:30pm: To compare, last season this first part took less than 30 minutes. It took less than an hour in season 14 and about 40 minutes in season 13.
8:34pm: Victoria says that her hands are slipping.
8:35pm: Cody and Derrick have a laugh about Derrick being old, then the rain starts again. They’re all complaining about numb and cramping hands.
8:38pm: Victoria is out!
8:38pm: She started yelling and slipped. She was very mad at herself and started crying. she last about 40 minutes, which is better than I thought she’d do.
8:39pm: Derrick immediately starts talking about possibly throwing it to Cody after a few more minutes.
8:41pm: Derrick offers to throw it, but says that he doesn’t feel confident about the second part, probably as a way to use reverse psychology to get Cody to throw it. Cody isn’t blinking and wants Derrick to jump, mostly for a pride thing to win endurance.
8:42pm: Victoria is right there this whole time, listening to all of their conversations about throwing it. They just don’t even care.
8:44pm: Derrick keeps offering to jump if Cody wants him to, but Derrick doesn’t do it. He keeps saying that Cody knows the events of the season better than him and would be better at the second part. He’s trying really hard to get Cody to volunteer to throw this.
8:47pm: The rain is back.
8:48pm: The wall leans down extremely low while the rain pours down on the two Hitmen.
8:49pm: Derrick is still offering to jump, but adds that he doesn’t want Cody to be mad at him if he loses the second part to Victoria. Cody says it’s all good and he won’t be mad at him, but Derrick still doesn’t jump.
8:53pm: Derrick and Cody are now just talking about their hands and how they feel.
8:55pm: Derrick is out!
Cody wins Part 1 of the Final HoH!
After about an hour, it seems Derrick finally did what he said he would and jumped. Now Derrick will face off against Victoria in part 2, with the winner going against Cody on the live finale in part 3.
I can’t decide if Derrick’s repeated offers were a way to try and get Cody to offer to throw it, or if Derrick is maybe setting up that he’s going to throw the second part to Victoria, making it so he doesn’t have to actually make the decision at the end since he knows both Cody and Victoria would take him.
Afterwards, Victoria asked if he threw the competition (um, wasn’t she right there when he told Cody he would?) and Derrick acted offended and refused to answer. Between this and Cody’s revelation of the Hitmen during his speech to Caleb, Victoria is the only one to blame if she’s too stupid to realize what’s happening.
FUN FACTS
-The winner of part 1 of the final HoH has gone on to win part 3 in 9 out of 14 seasons.
-The winner of part 1 of the final HoH has only won the entire game 5 out of 14 times (and only thrice in the last 10 seasons). They finished in second place 7 times and were eliminated in third place twice (season 8’s Zach and season 11’s Kevin).
-This is the sixth time that the Final 3 has featured two men and one woman, but it’s the third season in a row to have this happen. Of the five previous times it happened, men have always won the game as well as the final HoH, and season 15’s GinaMarie Zimmerman is the only one of the five lone women to win any part of the final HoH competition.
-Of the five previous times the Final 3 featured two guys and a girl, three featured an all-male finale (seasons 5, 9 and 14) while two featured a man vs. a woman (seasons 8 and 15).
(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.
