Big Brother 17 cast member Audrey Middleton could have potentially made it all the way in the game. She started off strong by boldly announcing herself as the historic first openly transgender Big Brother USA Houseguest. A quickly accepting group of players welcomed her with open arms, and Audrey made fast friends and allies. All she had to do was sit back and relax, comfortable in a quickly made alliance with solid numbers, and she was set.
Then, Audrey Middleton managed to totally wreck her own game so fast and so furiously that it made our heads spin. First she alienated her allies with her lies and manipulation, and then the Big Brother fans for giving up on the game after being backdoored. Now, at the end of a week of astounding Audrey drama — including her refusal to attend the Veto Meeting and willful violation of every single Have-Not rule — there is no doubt she will be heading home tonight.
We are sad. Not sad to see Audrey get evicted, because at this point she solidly deserves it, but depressed at how she decided to go out. We’ve seen time and time again that you should NEVER give up on Big Brother. Remember Dan’s Funeral? Seriously. No matter how terribly bad it gets, if you make the right moves, there is always hope. Even if you don’t, sometimes production will throw in a crazy twist at the last moment, like a Rewind, and everything changes. But after Audrey’s actions this week, even a Rewind would probably never have a chance in hell of saving her another week.
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So let’s move on past our sad farewell to Audrey Middleton to what really matters tonight on Big Brother 2015. Namely, who will win those coveted Head of Household spots? With big target Audrey gone, EVERYONE should be playing hard to win this thing. Especially Liz/Julia, because this is the last week they need to survive in order for both of them to get to play the game as individuals. Plus, we seriously need some new blood up in that HoH room to get us out of the Clay/Shelli and their playthings rut!
Keep scrolling for our live Big Brother 17 recap of Thursday’s eviction results and Head of Household competition show starting right now!
We kick off with host Julie Chen asking whether or not Audrey will even show up for tonight’s eviction after refusing to come to the Veto Meeting. Then we go into the recap for the last episode, with Shelli putting up Audrey as the Replacement Nominee after a crazy week of drama.
For weeks, the majority of the house has wanted Audrey gone, but The Sixth Sense alliance has kept her safe. Now, after a public blowup with Clay, her allies have turned against her. Now everyone is wondering if Audrey will leave the game before the house has a chance to evict her?
Vanessa says this is a really unique situation, and the first time in Big Brother history the Replacement Nominee hasn’t been at the Veto Meeting. Shelli says she’s been sad, angry, disappointed and confused. She is not the only person putting Audrey up on the block, this is the best decision for everyone. Jason says thankfully the Veto was used on him and the main target in the house has finally been nominated.
John thinks it is just bizarre everyone is happy Audrey has been put up, and she’s the one person not there. Now everyone wonders if Audrey will even show up for the live eviction. At one time, James says in Diary Room, they didn’t even know if Audrey was going to stay in the house until the eviction. We get a long flashback to the day of the Veto Meeting before it took place.
CBS shows Audrey creeping around covered and wrapped up in a blanket. She goes into the Diary Room and they show her laying on the Diary Room couch covering her head with a blanket. Everyone talks about whether or not Audrey is having a meltdown after she has been in the Diary Room forever. The other Houseguests talk about not having issues with Audrey as a person, but they might if she decides to walk out rather than stay til the end.
Austin tells Vanessa three hours before the Veto Meeting that he is pissed off about Audrey acting out like this. “She was fine doing this to everyone else, but as soon as it happens to her, oh no I’m going to walk out.” The rest of them would kill to be there one more week, and to just walk out on the opportunity of a lifetime, why would you do that?
In Diary Room, Jason says he and Audrey have gone at in the game, but he really doesn’t want to see her go out like this.
One hour before the Veto Meeting, Audrey finally emerges from the Diary Room – much to the shock of everyone. Everyone is wondering what the hell is going on. Audrey goes right back into the Have-Not room and buries herself under a blanket again.
James says it has been a few days since he’s seen Audrey, so he takes in some food to her and check in on her. She doesn’t really talk to him, but she eats the omelette he made for her. Then she crawls out and goes into the Diary Room again. Austin wonders if she will come out again, or is this the last time he’s ever going to see her in the house.
After days of speculation, it’s clear that Audrey has stayed in the house. Tonight she’ll have one last chance to battle to stay in the house (not bloody likely). And later, former Big Brother houseguest Britney Haynes and fan favorite will be popping up! But what about the Big Brother Takeover every week? Has it totally died or will we have a new twist tonight?
Back from commercial and we see that Audrey is sitting in the eviction nominee chairs with John next to her. Julie says she knows this week has been tense, so she wants to start with Jason. She asks him about spending the week as part of the ‘Whackstreet Boys’ and tells them they have taken the country by storm. She says the Backstreet Boys even tweeted about them. “Hey Jason, Liz and John, we’re definitely fans of your moves.”
The ‘Whackstreet Boys’ are asked to give their first live performance. They’ve been practicing all week but they still screw up the start. We are happy to see that Audrey seems to have pulled out a smile for the cameras and even bounces along to the music. Too bad she couldn’t have acted this way inside the house the past few days.
Speaking of Audrey, host Julie Chen tells us she was incredibly courageous to come out as transgender on the show, but what do her friends and family think of how she’s played the game?
We get a flashback on the show to Audrey talking to John about her family being from a really small town and how they are probably tripping out and overwhelmed. She says her name wasn’t the same before all of this and has left that name behind.
Then we see a big family gathered around a couch watching Big Brother and clapping as she announces she is transgender on the show. They talk about her coming out and the new freedom she has and how it is important. Audrey’s father says everyone wants to see pictures of Audrey when she was “Adam” but they don’t have those because of the photos they have are of Audrey as Audrey.
Audrey’s mom says she came to her for advice on her new name and they both fell in love with the name Audrey. She says they have a typical mother/daughter relationship and Audrey is a very special child.
We get a flash of Audrey talking to Steve about the definitions of transexual and transgender. Then she says that she really prefers just to be considered female.
Then we watch the family watching Audrey playing the game really hard. They discuss how she’s playing the game and that she’s different in the game. They wish she would have slowed down a bit. Her father says that she told them she was going to go in playing hard, and that’s what she did. But she’s ended up on the outside, and you can’t win the game as a party of one.
Back from another commercial and host Julie Chen says Audrey has received a Penalty Vote for breaking the Have-Not food rule for eating regular food throughout the week. (As well as taking a hot shower, and sleeping on the floor instead of in the Have-Not dental chair.)
Audrey stands up to give her speech and unfortunately we do not get the song and dance routine she had been playing around with about the other Houseguests. (CBS told her she was not allowed to sing, for one thing.) Audrey does some self-promotion about where to find her online.
Then she says it has been an honor to be on the show with 16 totally diverse people, including herself as the first transgender on the show. She says it has been great from day one, with no one questioning her and just accepting her. She says it is very powerful and great they get to share that with America. As for the game, this is the move everyone has been wanting for weeks now, so merry fricking Christmas.
John gets up and gives a shout out to Liz and Jason of the ‘Whackstreet Boys’ and makes some jokes about wrecking the tour bus with busting the roof and stains. He says he’s had fun being here and if they want to keep him, that’s awesome. If not, that’s cool. We love Johnny Mac.
Now it’s time for the live vote. And we’re not even going to count. We think the vote is going to be unanimous… BUT WAIT. Austin says he would vote to evict Audrey, but JUDAS is voting to evict John. So we have a hinky Audrey-type vote thrown into the mix. That should be fun for the other Houseguests to speculate about. With nine votes to evict and one penalty vote, Audrey is evicted.
Audrey hugs Vanessa and Shelli while Audrey shouts “Is this real, is this really real?” as a nod to the parody song she was going to do. They applaud loudly while she exits and so does the audience.
Julie says Audrey made history as the first transgender Houseguest. Did her immediate acceptance and warm response surprise her? Audrey says yes, it was overwhelming and it made her feel… there isn’t a word for it. She’s not been out in her home life so much and this was really her first public coming out.
Julie asks if playing the game was much harder and different than she thought it would be? Audrey says yes, it was like an emotional incubator in there. She meant to come in and play it cool, not get emotional, but nothing turned out like how she planned. She pretty much didn’t do anything she said she was going to do.
Julie wants to know why Audrey’s allies turned on her. Audrey says it is always smarter to vote with the house but my allies, specifically, Shelli and Clay, and Vanessa — Vanessa, her reason was justified. But she brought a conversation with Vanessa to Shelli and Clay, and that backfired.
In the goodbye messages, Shelli says she will always remember all the wonderful moments with her and she is her true friend, she loves her forever, and she hopes she can grow from this and not be hurt by it. John says Audrey is a really good person and easy to talk to, but she played this game SO HARD, slow down and pump the brakes a little.
Jason says she has been such a fighter, manipulator, game player. She got her come-up.. He hopes Da’Vonne is sitting on her couch with her daughter throwing confetti. Steve thanks Audrey for coming into the house and telling her story and he thinks she has given lots of encouragement to a lot of people out there.
Now it’s time for the next Head of Household Competition. In “Pop Til You Drop,” the Houseguests will hear a short pop song describing one of the competitions from this summer so far. Two Houseguests will face off. The correction answering person will stay in the game and pick the next pair up.
Head of Household Competition Results:
- Jason and Steve: Jason rings in Battle of the Block first (correct)
- Johnny Mac and Austin: Austin rings in first with Battle of the Block first (correct)
- Jackie and Becky: Jackie rings in first with Head of Household (correct)
- Liz and Vanessa: Vanessa rings in first with Veto Competition (correct)
- Jackie and Meg: Jackie rings in first with Veto Competition (correct)
- James and very much taller Austin: James rings in with Battle of the Block (correct)
- Vanessa and Clay: Vanessa rings win with Veto Competition (correct)
- James and Jackie: James rings in with a Head of Household guess in one second (wrong)
- Jackie is the first Head of Household.
- Vanessa and Jason: Vanessa rings in with Veto Competition (correct)
- Vanessa is the second Head of Household.
So Vanessa and Jackie are the Heads of Household for week 5. Interesting. Next up, fan favorite Britney Haynes.
Britney shows off an adorable photo of her cute as heck two babies. She says being a Mom is definitely what she was meant to do.
Julie says Britney has called this one of her favorite season ever. Britney says it is all about the characters and she’s a fanatic about this season. She says she loves Jason and they could have been the Twin Twist, because they are so much alike. She really likes Vanessa as a player, she has a really good read on people. And who doesn’t love Johnny Mac, who doesn’t? Definately her favorite. We don’t even know what he is, is he even human? But we love it.
Britney says the Twin Twist totally went differently that she thought it would. When the Houseguests found out, they didn’t target the twins like she expected. Instead, they want to bring the other twin in to make up numbers.
As far as Britney’s predictions for the season, she really likes Vanessa as a possible winner for the season. Or one half of the Shelli/Clay, because she thinks one of them will get kicked off soon. And there will end up being a floater at the end and sometimes they do surprising things. And now Jackie is one of the HoHs this week. Julie asks, are you calling Jackie a floater? Britney jokes that she just saw Jackie for the first time this week!
Julie Chen wraps up with reminding us that if Julia and Liz survive another eviction, they will get to both play as individuals in the house. Good night!
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