Big Brother 17 is the seventeenth season of the American reality television series Big Brother. The season premiered on June 24, 2015, on CBS, and once again was a two-night launch with the following episode airing on June 25, 2015. The season ended on September 23, 2015, with a 90-minute season finale following the fall season premiere of Survivor: Cambodia. This season lasted 98 days, making it the longest season of the American version to date by one day. The season also featured the highest number of houseguests to date with 17 houseguests in total. On September 23, Steve Moses won the game in a 6-3 vote against Liz Nolan.
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Season development
On September 24, 2014, CBS announced that it had renewed Big Brother for its seventeenth and eighteenth editions for broadcast in summer 2015 and 2016, respectively. The series would continue to be hosted by Julie Chen.
On June 15, 2015, CBS released pictures of the house via Entertainment Tonight, which has a modern steel beach house theme. The upstairs is 155 square feet larger than in previous seasons, the result of the incorporation of a glass bridge added in by Big Brother house designer Scott Storey. Season 17 is the first season for which the live feeds were bundled with CBS All Access, an over-the-top streaming service launched by CBS in January 2015 that allows users to view past and present episodes of CBS shows, and includes the live feeds and special Big Brother content.
Format
The format has changed slightly from previous seasons. The contestants, referred to as "houseguests," are sequestered in the Big Brother House with no contact to or from the outside world. Each week, the houseguests take part in several compulsory challenges that determine who will win food, luxuries and power in the house.
At the start of each week, the houseguests compete in the Head of Household (HoH) competition. The winner of the HoH competition will select two houseguests to be nominated for eviction. As with the previous season, the first five weeks of the season feature two concurrent Heads of Household. Each HoH would nominate two other houseguests for eviction, totaling four nominees. The two pairs of nominees would then compete in the "Battle of the Block" competition. The winning pair would be removed from the block, with the HoH who nominated them dethroned. The dethroned HoH would later be eligible to be nominated as a replacement if the Veto was used, while the Battle of the Block winners are safe for the rest of the week. The rest of the cycle would continue as per usual, with the remaining HoH retaining immunity for the week, and the two nominees being eligible for safety through the Power of Veto. The reigning (or sole) HoH also earns the right to name the "Have Nots" for the week, forcing the chosen houseguests to eat solely "Big Brother slop" and a weekly food selection chosen by producers, take cold showers, and sleep in a bedroom designed to look like a dental clinic.
Each week, six houseguests are selected to compete in the Power of Veto (PoV) competition: the reigning HoH, their two nominees, and three houseguests selected by random draw. The winner of the PoV competition wins the right to either revoke the nomination of one of the nominated houseguests or leave them as is; if the veto winner uses this power, the HoH must immediately nominate another houseguest for eviction. The PoV winner is also immune from being named as the replacement nominee. The houseguest overthrown as a result of the Battle of the Block competition is eligible to be nominated by the reigning Head of Household if the Power of Veto is used.
On eviction night, all houseguests vote to evict one of the two nominees, with the exception of the nominees and the Head of Household, who is only allowed to vote in the event of a tie, and in that case, must do so publicly. This compulsory vote is conducted in the privacy of the Diary Room. Unlike most other versions of Big Brother, the houseguests may openly and freely discuss the nomination and eviction process. The nominee with the majority of votes will be evicted from the house on the weekly live broadcast, exiting to an adjacent studio to be interviewed by Chen, after which the cycle begins again.
Houseguests may voluntarily leave the house at any time and those who break the rules may be expelled from the house. The last nine evicted houseguests will form the Big Brother jury, and vote for the winner during the season finale. The jury members will be sequestered in a separate house and will not be allowed to watch the show except for competitions and ceremonies that include all of the remaining houseguests; the jury members will not be shown any Diary Room interviews or any footage that may include strategy or details regarding nominations.
BB Takeover
CBS announced the season's twist, BB Takeover, on June 17, 2015, in which a surprise guest was to visit the house each week to reveal a different twist to the houseguests. Though it was initially announced that there would be a guest every week, there were no Takeovers after Week 3; in an interview during the season, host Julie Chen stated that the twist had been cancelled because "there was enough going on” with the other elements of the game, though no official announcement was ever made to the houseguests.
Twin Twist
As with the fifth season, a pair of twins competed as one, switching every few days between the house and a sequester location off-site; the twins, Liz and Julia, played as Liz, changing places in the Diary Room with approximately 10 minutes to catch each other up. After the twins survived the first five evictions, the twist was revealed and both twins competed separately. Though the twist was not officially revealed to the other houseguests before its completion, the twins were allowed to discuss it freely.
Houseguests
On June 16, 2015, 14 Houseguests were announced by CBS, including Audrey Middleton, the first transgender contestant to appear on the American version of Big Brother, professional wrestler and former WWE NXT competitor Austin Matelson and Vanessa Rousso, who, when the season began, was ranked among the top five women in poker history in terms of all-time money winnings. On June 25, 2015, The Amazing Race 26 alumni Jackie Ibarra and Jeff Weldon were revealed as the 15th and 16th Houseguests. It was later revealed that houseguest Liz Nolan and her twin sister, Julia, were competing as one for the Twin Twist; after surviving the first five evictions, Liz and Julia began competing separately, increasing the total number of houseguests to 17, the most ever in an American season of Big Brother.
Future appearances
James Huling and Da'Vonne Rogers both returned as houseguests on Big Brother 18; Rogers finished in 11th and Huling finished in 3rd. Jason Roy was a houseguest on Big Brother: Over the Top where he finished in 2nd place.