(Spoiler warning: This story contains spoilers from Wednesday’s season finale of “Big Brother.”)
After a long summer, “Big Brother 20” finally came to a close on Wednesday, with the winner announced by host Julie Chen Moonves in Wednesday’s live season finale.
Heading into Thursday’s episode, the final three was made up of Kaycee Clark, Tyler Crispen and, surprisingly, JC Mounduix. By the end of the 90-minute finale, Kaycee was crowned the season’s winner in 5-4 vote over second-place finisher and one-time favorite Tyler.
Kaycee and Tyler had been running the game for much of the season and were both largely expected to make it to the end, but JC snuck his way past Angela to a spot in the finale and a third-place finish with his first-ever win in the Head of Household competition last week.
Unfortunately for JC, his winning streak didn’t last long. Tyler and Kaycee beat him out in the first two rounds of Wednesday’s final HoH competition, with Kaycee ultimately winning the power to decide who would sit next to her in the final two as they faced the jury.
In a somewhat bold move, Kaycee stayed true to her final two deal with Tyler and voted to evict JC. So toward the end of the hour, she was left to plead her case to the evicted houseguests against the season’s strongest player.
Her confidence paid off in end, as the jury eventually chose Kaycee as the winner and recipient of the $500,000 prize. Tyler, however, did not go home empty-handed. In addition to his second-place prize money, Tyler was revealed to have won the “America’s Favorite Houseguest” prize as voted by fans, taking home an additional $25,000.
Elsewhere in the episode, a number of the season’s showmances were confirmed as real relationships outside of the “Big Brother” house, and Swaggy even proposed to Bayleigh on live television.
Throughout its run, “Big Brother 20” became something of a tumultuous season of the CBS summer staple — and primarily for reasons other than gameplay.
JC earned a reputation early on as a magnet for controversy, using racial slurs on camera and inappropriately touching other houseguests while they slept on more than one occasion. His behavior became such a problem that producers were forced to issue a warning to the houseguests that continued misbehavior would result in involuntary removal from the game.
Chen also became a news subject herself after her husband, now-former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, was ousted from his position following numerous allegations of sexual misconduct. Chen issued a public statement standing by her husband, and once he was toppled from the top position at CBS, she began identifying herself as “Julie Chen Moonves” in her signature “Big Brother” sign off.
Luckily, fans of the show won’t have to wait long for another season, as the second installment of “Celebrity Big Brother” is scheduled to debut later this year.