Big Brother (USA season 6)

Big Brother US
Big Brother 6 (eviction date marked)
Maggie Ausburn	Day 80 (Winner)
Ivette Corredero	Day 80 (Runner-up)
Janelle Pierzina	Day 76
April Lewis	Day 73
Howie Gordon	Day 68
Beau Beasley	Day 62 (Double eviction week)
James Rhine	Day 61
Rachel Plencner	Day 54
Jennifer Vasquez	Day 48 (Double eviction week)
Kaysar Ridha	Day 47 (Second eviction)
Sarah Hrejsa	Day 40
Kaysar Ridha	Day 33
Eric Littmann	Day 26
Michael Donnellan	Day 19
Ashlea Evans	Day 12

The sixth season of CBS's American version of Big Brother consisted of thirty episodes aired from July 7 to September 20, 2005. It was hosted by Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen, who has acted as host of every season of the CBS incarnation of Big Brother to date.

A group of fourteen contestants (referred to as houseguests) were confined in a house together, and the objective of each was to remain in the house the longest. Each week of the show, there was a Head of Household (HoH) who was able to nominate two other houseguests for removal, followed by a Golden Power of Veto competition in which contestants competed for the right to choose to replace one of those nominees, and finally, at the end of the week, a vote by the contestants to select one of the nominees to evict from the house. The 2 people remaining at the end of the competition would be subject to a vote by a jury of the previously evicted contestants, with the winner receiving $500,000 and the runner up $50,000.

Maggie Ausburn and Ivette Corredero remained until the end of the show. The jury, composed of the 7 most recently evicted contestants, selected Maggie as the winner and Ivette as runner up.

New features

For the 2005 season, the producers chose to make some changes to attempt to increase interest in the program. The theme song of the show was changed, but more significantly the house was revamped completely. Some new features included making the house two stories, a secret room, a private bathroom for the HoH, a co-ed shower, and a digital picture frame for the houseguests. In keeping with recent Big Brother tradition, the sixth season was given a twist and the theme Summer of Secrets. The twist was that every houseguest in the game had one secret partner, but every pair believed that they were the only ones working together.

Secret partners

In the episode that aired July 28, 2005, host Julie Chen officially revealed to the houseguests that everyone had started the game with a secret partner, however all the contestants had already figured it out over the course of the previous 21 days. She announced that if one of the pairs made up the final two, the winner would receive a bonus prize of $1,000,000 with the runner-up winning $250,000, instead of the standard $500,000 and $50,000 prizes.

Secret partners		Relationship
Maggie Ausburn	Eric Littman	friends
Ivette Corredero	Beau Beasley	former co-workers
Janelle Pierzina	Ashlea Evans	ex-roommates
April Lewis	Jennifer Vasquez	sorority sisters
Howie Gordon	Rachel Plencner	best friends
James Rhine	Sarah Hrejsa	dating
Kaysar Ridha	Michael Donnellan	neighbors

Voting History

Day 12: Ashlea was evicted with 9 votes from April, Beau, Eric, Howie, Ivette, Jennifer, Maggie, Michael and Sarah. Kaysar received 2 votes from James and Janelle.

Day 19: Michael was evicted with 9 votes from April, Beau, Howie, Ivette, James, Jennifer, Maggie, Rachel and Sarah. Janelle received 1 vote from Kaysar.

Day 26: Eric was evicted with 5 votes from Howie, James, Janelle, Rachel and Sarah. Maggie received 4 votes from April, Beau, Ivette and Jennifer.

Day 33: Kaysar was evicted with 7 votes from April, Beau, Howie, Ivette, Jennifer, Rachel and Sarah. Janelle received 1 vote from James.

Day 40: Sarah was evicted with 6 votes from April, Beau, Janelle, Jennifer, Maggie and Rachel. Ivette received 1 vote from James.

Day 47: Kaysar was evicted a second time unanimously with votes from April, Beau, Howie, Ivette, James, Maggie and Rachel. Janelle received 0 votes.

Day 48: Jennifer was evicted on a special Friday double eviction with 5 votes from Beau, James, Howie, Maggie and Rachel. Ivette received 1 vote from April.

Day 54: Rachel was evicted unanimously with votes from April, Ivette, James, Janelle and Maggie. Howie received 0 votes.

Day 61: James was evicted unanimously with votes from Beau, Ivette, Janelle and Maggie. Howie received 0 votes.

Day 62: Beau was evicted on a special Friday double eviction unanimously with votes from April, Janelle and Maggie. Ivette received 0 votes.

Day 68: Howie was evicted with 2 votes from Ivette and Maggie. April received 1 vote from Janelle. Ivette was forced to cast a tiebreaking vote in this round as Head of Household as votes from Maggie and Janelle caused a tie.

Day 73: April was evicted with 1 vote from Ivette. Maggie received 0 votes.

Day 78: Janelle was evicted with 1 vote from Ivette. Maggie received 0 votes. Ivette, as Head of Household, cast the tiebreaking vote as no other votes were able to be cast.

Day 80: Maggie won the game with 4 votes from April, Howie, Jennifer and Rachel. Ivette received 3 votes from Beau, James and Janelle.

Popularity

Big Brother 6 was home to the most popular and least popular houseguests in the show's history. As evidenced by CBS.com's popularity polls, Janelle Pierzina, Kaysar Ridha, Howie Gordon and Rachel Plencner were very popular with the show's fans, reaching all-time high popularity ratings. Pierzina received a rating of 93% in the final week of the show.

The same cannot be said for Jennifer Vasquez, April Lewis, Ivette Corredero, Eric Littman, Maggie Ausburn and Beau Beasley. These six houseguests were rated as among the least popular among all 75 houseguests in the show's history, with Vasquez reaching an all-time low rating of 19% in week ten.

Chronology

In the first week of the game Rachel won Head of Household competition by being the last one aboard a giant surfboard in a two hour endurance competition. A majority alliance began to form and 4 people ended up as outcasts with no attachments: Ashlea, Michael, Janelle and Kaysar. Rachel nominated Ashlea because she did not get to know her well, and Kaysar for being introverted and not interacting with all the houseguests. Rachel then won the Power of Veto and chose not to use it. Ashlea was the first contestant evicted in a 9-2 vote.

Eric won the second Head of Household and as a member of the majority alliance, nominated two more of the outcasts: Janelle and Michael. James won the Power of Veto but did not use it. After a fight between Eric and Michael, the rest of the house decided to eliminate Michael in a 9-1 vote.

In week 3, Kaysar became the Head of Household. He had been targeted in previous weeks and earned safety with the title, using it to build alliances as much as he could. Desperate for allies, he first recruited the person he had been becoming close friends with in the house, Janelle. He then lured two sets of secret partners (Rachel & Howie and James & Sarah) away from the dominant alliance, forming a group he called the "Sovereign Six". He stated his plans for the alliance as, "Rachel and Howie, James and Sarah, Janelle and me - Final Six." Kaysar then nominated Maggie and James. The Sovereign Six worked together in the Power of Veto competition, deliberately helping James to win it and remove himself from the chopping block. Kaysar then nominated Maggie's secret partner Eric to ensure that one of the pair would be evicted. The house decided to eliminate Eric, who had become the leader of the Friendship alliance, in a close 5-4 vote.

Maggie came back to win the next Head of Household that evening and vowed revenge on Kaysar for eliminating her partner. She nominated James and Kaysar, but was forced to replace James with Janelle when Sarah used the Power of Veto she had won to remove James. Kaysar, the founder of the new Sovereign Six alliance, was eliminated in a 7-0 vote.

At the beginning of week 5, a new twist was revealed to America and to the houseguests. As had been done in the third season, one of the evicted houseguests was voted back into the house. This time the viewers were asked to vote online or by text messaging for either Michael, Eric, or Kaysar to return to the game (Ashlea would also have been eligible to be returned, but she disqualified herself by voluntarily leaving sequester due to an illness in her family). However, the returning houseguest would not come back until the next week leaving Howie, who had won that week's HoH competition, one chance to eliminate an enemy. This week may have been the turning point in the game, because Maggie was able to convince Howie (against his partner Rachel's better judgement) that James and Sarah were betraying their alliance and were immediate threats to everybody in the house. Howie was convinced and nominated the pair, ensuring that one of them would be eliminated no matter what happened. Fans of the show regarded his nominatation of his own alliance members (who had intended to be loyal to him) as being, at best, a very poor decision. His own statement at the time was "this will either be the greatest move in Big Brother history or the dumbest", demonstrating his own lack of confidence about what he had done. James ended up winning the Power of Veto again and removed himself, and Howie nominated Ivette in his place. Sarah was then evicted in a 6-1 vote.

At the beginning of the sixth week, Chen announced that over 5 million people had voted and that Kaysar would rejoin the house with 82% of the vote. In the next HoH competition, Jennifer survived the longest competition in Big Brother history, a fourteen hour endurance challenge, by outlasting and deceiving the newly-returned Kaysar. She swore on her life and pretended to shed tears in order to convince Kaysar that she would nominate two members of her own alliance in order to backdoor James, a common enemy in the house, even though this would work against her strategically. She immediately broke her promise and nominated two members of the Sovereign alliance, Janelle and Rachel, two of the strongest female players in the game. When Rachel won the Power of Veto and saved herself, Jennifer nominated Kaysar instead of James. This led to the confrontation between Howie and April when he claimed that she was full of lies and accused her of pulling the strings in her alliance (Beau, Ivette, Maggie, Jennifer, and herself, otherwise known as the Friendship). Following Kaysar's eviction, Howie and Janelle spent a good portion of their time during the week directly yelling insults and verbal attacks at members of the Friendship while they casually passed by. On this occasion, Big Brother producers chose not to intervene. These events widened the split in the fan base, creating a sharp division between the minority who empathized with how the Friendship was being treated, and those who supported the Sovereign Six.

In the seventh week, another twist was announced by host Chen. The houseguests were informed that the week would not follow the typical schedule, but would instead be accelerated in order to accommodate a double eviction. Less than 48 hours after the live Thursday night broadcast, another houseguest would be evicted. After a brief trivia competition, Janelle emerged the victor and was told that she had to immediately nominate two houseguests for eviction. She nominated Jennifer, the previous HoH who betrayed the trust of the Sovereign alliance, and Maggie, arguably the best player in the Friendship alliance. Amassing further power, Janelle seized the Power of Veto and in a move that shocked the nominee herself, used it on Maggie and nominated Ivette, guaranteeing Jennifer's future eviction. Almost as though it had been scripted, though, the next HoH competition was once again won by a member of the opposing alliance, Beau, jeopardizing remaining Sovereign members Janelle, Rachel, and Howie.

As Head of Household, Beau chose to nominate Howie and Rachel, two strong secret partners. This shocked some members of the house because Beau was known to dislike Janelle. James, again, was victorious in the Power of Veto competition setting a Big Brother record for most vetoes won. James did not use the Power of Veto and in a 5-0 vote, Rachel became the 6th houseguest evicted from Big Brother 6 because she was considered too strong a player and the bigger threat.

The next week April, another member of the Friendship, won HoH, breaking the alternating trend and jeopardizing the Sovereign alliance. She nominated Howie and Janelle as pawns to finally evict outcast James who had been trying to play both sides since Sarah's eviction. April then consolidated her power by winning the Power of Veto. True to her word, and surprising many skeptical fans, April used the power of veto to save Janelle and put up James, leading to James' eviction.

The Sovereigns regained control as Howie once again became the HoH the following week. On an episode airing August 30, houseguest April called the viewers of the show "pieces of shit" for voting in an America's Choice poll for Janelle to win a phone call over a member of her own alliance. Janelle decided to receive a phone call from Michael, who was voted out on week 2, a person who she had known for barely over two weeks. This angered members of the Friendship who had been openly pining to talk to loved ones, family members, and husbands who they had been missing dearly for months. The Friendship, and April in particular, openly accused the producers of rigging the vote and refused to believe America would actually vote for an "evil" person like Janelle to win over one of them, demonstrating their complete lack of awareness of how unpopular their group was among the fan base.

On September 1, it was announced that there would be another double eviction, and fortunately for the Sovereign alliance, Howie held HoH for that week. Unfortunately for him, his reign would only last for 48 hours. He was required to quickly put up two houseguests for eviction, and he nominated the last pair in the house, Ivette and Beau. On September 3, Beau left the house after Maggie won the veto and chose not to use it. Ivette then won the next HoH competition, and nominated Howie and Janelle, hoping to evict Janelle. At the "Final Five" Power of Veto competition, Janelle saved herself from certain eviction by winning. Ivette put April on the block in her place, but on September 8 Howie was evicted.

Janelle won the Final Four HoH in a Before or After trivia competition. Janelle then put Ivette and Maggie on the block. Her plan was to sow discord and tear up the alliance of Ivette, Maggie, and April and after a fight between Ivette and April, she had some measure of success. Ivette won Power of Veto and saved herself, forcing April, the only remaining eligible player, to be nominated for eviction. In the end, Ivette evicted April because she was the only one left with a vote.

With only 3 players remaining, a three part competition was used to determine who would be the last HoH. Ivette won the first round which was an endurance test, assuring her place in the final round. In the second round Janelle beat out Maggie in a physical and memory game of past events in the house. The stakes were enormously high at the live Final Head of Household competition. If Janelle won, she planned to break up the Friendship and evict Maggie in the hope that she would have a better shot at winning the money at the end. Ivette decided that if she won, she would evict Janelle because her alliance members had promised to not vote for her if she had evicted Maggie. Ivette and Janelle were neck and neck in the competition, leading to a double tie breaker. The deciding question was this: "How many hours have you spent in the Big Brother house from the moment you entered until 5:00 this evening?" Ivette answered 1,875 and Janelle answered 1,900. The answer was 1,797, earning Ivette the right to choose who would be evicted. She eliminated Janelle, leaving Ivette and Maggie in the final 2.

On finale night (September 20 2005), Maggie Ausburn became the winner and champion of Big Brother 6, narrowly defeating her friend and fellow Friendship alliance member Ivette by a 4-3 vote. The vote breakdown was as follows:

Jennifer voted for Maggie
Rachel voted for Maggie
James voted for Ivette
Beau voted for Ivette
Howie voted for Maggie
April voted for Maggie
Janelle voted for Ivette.

Controversy

Sharing prizes

Although expressly forbidden by the rules in the past, Big Brother 6 winner Maggie Ausburn announced plans to share her prize with her "secret partner" Eric Cappy Littmann shortly after the conclusion of the program. In an interview with the Calgary Sun, she claimed that she would not have been on the show if it was not for him and therefore he deserved some of her winnings. When asked about splitting her winnings she said, "We’re not allowed to talk about that, but I am so sharing." What repercussions this may have for future Big Brother plot twists or her own situation remains to be seen, since, as is typical, there has been little coverage of the contestants since the show's conclusion.

External links

Big Brother 6 official CBS site

Big Brother (US TV series)

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