The live two-hour finale of Big Brother 19 airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap and join the discussion here.
Tonight, either Christmas, Josh, or Paul will win Big Brother 19 and walk away with the $500,000 grand prize. Christmas was targeted early on and suffered a devastating foot injury, yet she is still here in the Final 3. Josh was the house pariah and irritated several Houseguests with his loud antics, but he’s managed to stay in the game despite being an obvious target. Paul was the sole returning player who controlled nearly every eviction of the summer, but will the jury respect his controversial game play? Who will make it to the Final 2 and who will the jury vote to be the winner of the season? Let’s find out!
After a recap of the season, we see the continuation of the first part of the final HoH competition. It’s an endurance challenge that requires them to hold onto the tail of a unicorn while standing on a tilted platform as they have glitter blown into their faces. The last one standing wins and will advance to the final round of the HoH competition. As the Final 3 are competing, we hear some of their thoughts in the Diary Room. Josh is unsure whom to take to the Final 2 with him if he were to win. He was originally planning on cutting Paul, but Paul may have convinced him that Christmas is a bigger threat. Christmas and Paul are also determined to win this challenge and secure a spot in the final round. After 40 minutes into the competition, Josh falls off. He is out, but he will compete in the second round. It’s now down to Christmas and Paul. Christmas falls next. Paul wins Round 1. Paul and Christmas are both in tears in the Diary Room. Paul is crying tears of joy; Christmas is crying in disappointment.
It’s now time for the second part of the final HoH competition. Josh and Christmas will compete individually as they must answer questions about the season. They answer by knocking down cutouts of the evicted Houseguests that correlate to the question. The first question is about who won HoH, so Christmas must knock down all the cutouts of Houseguests that did not win HoH. Christmas makes a few mistakes as she accidentally knocks down Cody and Jessica. The challenge continues, and Christmas is struggling with a question in regards to how the Power of Veto was used throughout the season (she didn’t remember what Matt did with the Veto). The next questions asks who was on the block three or more times throughout the season. Christmas continues to struggle as she accidentally knocks down the wrong Houesguests, but she finally completes the round. We next watch Josh attempt the challenge. Josh is confident in his answers, but he also accidentally knocks down some cutouts that are supposed to remain standing. On the third question, he doesn’t remember who were on the block three or more times. After numerous incorrect answers, he finally gets the question right. But who won between Josh and Christmas. Neither of them are confident in their scores. Christmas completed the challenge in 1 hour and 39 minutes. Josh completed the challenge in 1 hour and 32 minutes. Josh wins Round 2. Paul is feeling confident he’ll win the game now since he believes Josh will take him to Final 2 if he doesn’t win the last round himself. Christmas, on the other hand, isn’t feeling good about her chances. She was hoping to buy her mother a house, so she’s very disappointed. We also hear from Josh and he says he has been dreaming about winning Big Brother since he was 14 years old. He’s still unsure if he wants to take Paul or Christmas to the Final 2 if he were to win the last round.
It’s now time for the jury to discuss the Final 3 with Season 2 winner Dr. Will. Cody predicts the final juror to join them will be Kevin since he is “more likable than the rest of them.” After Kevin joins the jury, Mark and Matt get into a heated exchange. Mark repeatedly points out how Matt did nothing in the game as Matt calls him the “Incredible Sulk.” Afterwards, they discuss the Final 3. Cody does not respect Josh as a person at all. However, he says that if it’s Josh and Paul in the Final 2, at least Josh took more action in the game whereas Paul just hid behind closed doors like a wuss. Jason doesn’t appreciate Josh’s loud antics, and Elena agrees she doesn’t like Josh as a person. They also agree that Christmas is still in the house due to her injury and wasn’t seen as a threat. While discussing Paul, Cody says Paul had unfettered safety in the house; he had too many advantages. Mark points out how Paul overplayed the game, and Jason said that Paul “over-lied.” Raven accuses them of playing “Big Baby,” and she and Matt say that Paul played the best game. Mark doesn’t respect how the game was played this season. Matt and Raven give Paul props, but the rest of the jury doesn’t respect how Paul, Josh, or Christmas played the game.
It’s time for the final round of the HoH competition. Paul and Josh will have to answer questions in regards to comments said by the jury. They must correctly answer how the juror completed that statement. Whomever answers the most questions correctly will win.
Question 1: Paul gets it correct.
Question 2: Josh gets it correct.
Question 3: They both get it correct.
Question 4: Josh gets it correct.
Question 5: They both get it wrong.
Question 6: They both get it wrong.
Question 7: Josh gets it correct.
With a score of 4 – 2, there is no need for the final question.
Josh wins the Final HoH!
Josh must now vote to evict either Christmas or Paul. His original plan was to evict Paul, but he’s recently been torn on what to do. Will he stick to the plan to evict Paul, or will he take his chances and bring Paul to the Final 2 with him?
Paul and Christmas give their pleas. Paul said he kept Josh safe when he needed to, and hopes for the same in return. Christmas says she loves both Josh and Paul, and she says she has had an amazing summer. Josh stands and gives his vote. He explains that he thinks he has a better chance against Paul, so Josh votes to evict Christmas.
In her interview with Julie, Christmas tearfully says that she is proud of Josh and she understands he made a game decision. She also thinks Josh made the better game move since she felt her social game was better than his. She also says her game would have been much different if she never broke her foot. She’s proud to have made it to Final 3 despite her injury, and she says she showed people they can continue on despite tough circumstances.
It’s time for the jury to ask their questions to the jury. After each juror walks out and takes a seat, Julie asks Jason and Mark who they think was evicted, and they both predict Christmas. Afterwards, Christmas walks out and Julie reveals Josh won the final HoH and evicted Christmas.
Elena asks the first question. She questions Paul on the bullying he instigated in the house. Paul denies he was ever a bully. Matt asks Josh about his strategy and biggest game move. Josh reveals to the jury that he is a superfan, and he says his move was aligning with the outsiders and aligning with Paul and Christmas to get info from the majority. He says his biggest move was taking out Alex. Alex asks the next question about Paul turning his back on friendship, and Paul said he thinks it was a misconception for anyone to believe he would throw his game away for anyone else. Cody tells Josh that the jury feels he played Paul’s game instead of his home, and he asks why are they wrong. Josh said that to not be a target, he had to work with Paul. Jason asks Paul why did he lie to their faces before their evictions. Paul said that he couldn’t go against the house. Mark asks Josh about his tears and continually getting into heated exchanges with people. Josh said that part of his strategy was to call people out, but he did feel bad about it. Christmas asks the final question, and she asks Josh if he would rather evict “peppy or crutches.” He says peppy (this must be an inside joke).
Paul and Josh give their final pleas to the jury. Paul said he had an immediate disadvantage being a returning player, and he had a hand in every HoH since everyone trusted him. He admits to putting himself in the middle of three duos with Christmas/Josh, Alex/Jason, and Matt/Raven. He also points out his competition wins and that he “worked his ass off” to make it to the end. Josh thanks God before he tells the jury that he wanted to play fearlessly. He reiterates that he aligned with Alex and Jason and also with Paul and Christmas to have info on both sides of the house. He said he took shots at big players while staying loyal to his allies.
Afterwards, the jury cast their votes. Cody said he’s sticking to his word, Elena said there was no jury management, Mark offers congrats, Matt said he’s voting for the person who did more in the game, Jason admits they both aligned with him, Raven said she is voting for the person who played the best game, Alex said she is voting for the person who stabbed her in the front instead of the back, Kevin offers congrats, and Christmas says she loves them both.
Next we hear from the Houseguests evicted before jury. Jessica tells the jury that they allowed Paul to get control, and she reveals that none of them were more important to him than the other. She says it was a shame to hear so many of them say they would be happy to lose to Paul too. We next see a montage of clips of the Houseguests in the Diary Room admitting how much they trust Paul. Jessica admits she would have voted for Paul to win if she was in the jury. Next we see Josh exposing Paul’s game in his goodbye messages to the evicted Houseguests. Julie asks Josh his intention with those messages, and he said he wanted them to know it was all game and he had to stand by Christmas and Paul. Paul said it was cowardly of Josh to do that to Paul in those messages. Cameron gets the next question about what surprised him watching the season, and he was surprised by how quickly the showmances formed. He was also surprised how so many of the Houseguests were playing for each other than themselves. Julie asks Cody and Jessica their thoughts about finally seeing each other again, and they both are happy. Cody is waiting for the show to be over so he can walk over and hug Jessica, and Jessica says she has been Cody’s biggest fan and rooting for him. They both want to continue to be a couple.
It’s time to find out who won. Julie will reveal each vote one by one. It takes five votes to win.
Christmas voted for Paul.
Kevin voted for Paul.
Alex voted for Josh.
Raven voted for Paul.
Jason voted for Josh.
Matt voted for Paul.
Mark voted for Josh.
Elena voted for Josh.
Cody voted for Josh.
JOSH MARTINEZ WINS BIG BROTHER 19!
It’s now time to find out who was voted America’s Favorite Houseguest. The Top 3 in the votes were Kevin, Cody, and Jason. The winner is….CODY!
And that wraps up this season of Big Brother 19! Thanks for reading, post your thoughts in the comment section below, and come back next week for the premiere of Survivor!
