Rachel won Big Brother 13 in 2011, defeating Porsche by a 4–3 jury vote. Rachel won the final Head of Household, evicted Adam and took Porsche to the Final 2. Jeff won America’s Favorite Houseguest. The 75-day season mixed eight new houseguests with three returning Big Brother duos and introduced the Golden Key, while a public vote, Pandora’s Box and one of the show’s most remembered double evictions repeatedly changed the game.
- Season: Big Brother 13
- Year: 2011
- Premiere: July 7, 2011
- Finale: September 14, 2011
- Length: 75 days
- Houseguests: 14
- Winner: Rachel
- Runner-up: Porsche
- Final vote: 4–3
- Final three: Rachel, Porsche and Adam
- America’s Favorite Houseguest: Jeff
- Main twist: Dynamic Duos and the Golden Key
- Season theme: The Summer of Double Trouble
Who Won Big Brother 13?
Rachel won Big Brother 13 by a 4–3 jury vote over Porsche. After reaching the final three with Porsche and Adam, Rachel won the last Head of Household competition and chose Porsche for the Final 2.
Brendon, Jeff, Jordan and Shelly voted for Rachel. Kalia, Daniele and Adam voted for Porsche. Rachel therefore won by the narrowest possible margin with a seven-person jury.
OBB’s Big Brother winners record preserves the complete 4–3 jury vote.
How Did the Big Brother 13 Jury Vote?
- Brendon: Rachel
- Daniele: Porsche
- Jeff: Rachel
- Shelly: Rachel
- Kalia: Porsche
- Jordan: Rachel
- Adam: Porsche
The vote split along relationships that had developed across the season rather than simply veterans versus newcomers. Shelly’s vote gave Rachel the fourth ballot she needed to win.
Who Won the Big Brother 13 Final HOH?
- Part 1: Rachel defeated Porsche and Adam.
- Part 2: Porsche defeated Adam.
- Part 3: Rachel defeated Porsche.
- Final eviction: Rachel evicted Adam and took Porsche to the Final 2.
Rachel and Porsche had rebuilt a working relationship late in the season and both reached the final HOH knowing Adam was the third option. Rachel won the deciding round and honored her Final 2 arrangement with Porsche.
Who Was on the Big Brother 13 Cast?
Big Brother 13 began with fourteen houseguests: eight new players and six returning players from three previous Big Brother duos.
The eight new houseguests
- Adam
- Cassi
- Dominic
- Kalia
- Keith
- Lawon
- Porsche
- Shelly
The six returning houseguests
- Dick and Daniele — Big Brother 8
- Jeff and Jordan — Big Brother 11
- Brendon and Rachel — Big Brother 12
Before the premiere, several possible returning pairs were promoted to viewers. The three duos that ultimately entered were Dick and Daniele, Jeff and Jordan, and Brendon and Rachel.
How Did the Big Brother 13 Dynamic Duos Twist Work?
The eight new houseguests were required to choose partners before learning that three established Big Brother duos would also be entering the game.
The new pairs were:
- Adam and Dominic
- Cassi and Shelly
- Kalia and Lawon
- Keith and Porsche
The returning players arrived already paired: Dick with Daniele, Jeff with Jordan and Brendon with Rachel.
Houseguests still competed individually for HOH, but the HOH nominated an entire duo. Both partners went on the block together. When one member of an eligible nominated pair was evicted, the surviving partner received a Golden Key.
What Was the Golden Key on Big Brother 13?
The Golden Key guaranteed its holder safety until the house reached the final ten. The holder could continue voting but could not compete for Head of Household while the Golden Key phase remained active.
Four houseguests ultimately received Golden Keys:
- Daniele — after Dick left the game.
- Porsche — after Keith was evicted.
- Shelly — after Cassi was evicted.
- Adam — after Dominic was evicted.
Once the game reached ten players, the Golden Key phase ended and the house returned to individual nominations.
Why Did Dick Leave Big Brother 13?
Dick voluntarily left the game on Day 6 after being called to the Diary Room and informed of a personal matter outside the house. His departure broke up one of the three returning duos almost immediately.
Because Daniele had lost her partner through the exit, she received the season’s first Golden Key and was guaranteed safety through the duo phase.
What Was the Big Brother 13 Eviction Order?
Brendon appears twice in the sequence because he was evicted, won his way back into the house and was later evicted again.
- Dick: voluntarily left on Day 6
- Keith: first houseguest evicted
- Cassi: evicted second
- Dominic: evicted third
- Brendon: evicted, then later returned to the game
- Lawon: evicted and lost the return competition
- Brendon: evicted for the second and final time
- Daniele: evicted during the first half of the double eviction
- Jeff: evicted during the second half of the double eviction
- Shelly: sixth place
- Kalia: fifth place
- Jordan: fourth place
- Adam: third place
- Porsche: runner-up
- Rachel: winner
Why Did Lawon Volunteer to Be Evicted?
Lawon’s eviction became one of Big Brother 13’s defining mistakes.
During Kalia’s HOH, Jeff and Rachel were nominated. Jeff won the veto and saved himself. With the house already aware that an evicted player might have a chance to return, Lawon volunteered to become the replacement nominee, believing the twist could send him back into the game.
Instead, the house evicted him 6–0. America had been voting among Keith, Cassi, Dominic and Brendon to determine which previously evicted player would get a chance to return. Brendon won that America’s Vote with roughly 39% of the vote.
Lawon then had to compete directly against Brendon for the open place in the house. Brendon won and returned. Lawon did not.
The episode became one of OBB’s clearest historical examples of why volunteering as a pawn can go wrong. The Big Brother strategy archive traces the pawn problem from the earliest veto seasons through Lawon’s BB13 gamble.
What Happened in the Big Brother 13 Double Eviction?
Big Brother 13’s double eviction on August 25 changed the season in a single night.
Jeff entered the live show as HOH with Kalia and Porsche nominated. He won the Power of Veto, used it on Porsche and named Daniele as the replacement nominee. Daniele was evicted in the first vote.
The house then learned that a second eviction was happening immediately. Kalia won the fast HOH and nominated Jeff and Rachel. Porsche won the veto and left the nominations unchanged.
The eviction vote tied, leaving Kalia to decide. She evicted Jeff.
The veto competition also produced one of the season’s most remembered images. Jeff accidentally threw one of the clown shoes he needed out of his own ball pit and continued searching for it while it sat outside the bin. Porsche found both of hers first and won.
OBB’s Big Brother Double Eviction history preserves the “clown shoe” sequence and how the entire fast-forward round worked.
How Did Pandora’s Box Change Big Brother 13?
Big Brother 13 had two Pandora’s Boxes, and the first one changed the game much more than the old season page suggests.
Porsche — the Duo Twist comes back
After winning HOH at the final six, Porsche opened Pandora’s Box and accepted $10,000, half of which went to Kalia. The consequence was the return of the Duo Twist for one week.
The six remaining players were paired as Porsche and Kalia, Rachel and Jordan, and Adam and Shelly. Porsche nominated Rachel and Jordan together. Rachel then won the Power of Veto, which protected both members of her pair.
That forced Adam and Shelly onto the block as the only remaining duo, and Shelly was evicted. A twist that had supposedly ended weeks earlier therefore returned at exactly the moment Rachel and Jordan were in danger.
Rachel — Jessie instead of Tori
Rachel opened the second box during her HOH after seeing what appeared to be a celebrity shopping opportunity. Instead, she was kept upstairs with Jessie while Tori entered the house and the other houseguests received the shopping spree.
How Did Rachel Win Big Brother 13?
Rachel’s path to the end was anything but quiet. She entered as one half of an obvious returning pair, won the first HOH and spent much of the season publicly tied to Brendon, Jeff and Jordan.
Brendon was evicted twice. Jeff went during the double eviction. That left Rachel and Jordan exposed against a group that included Porsche, Kalia, Shelly and Adam.
The temporary return of the Duo Twist gave Rachel and Jordan a critical opportunity: Rachel won the veto while paired with Jordan, saving both of them from Porsche’s nominations. Rachel then won the next HOH and survived into the final four.
From there she continued winning when she needed to. Rachel reached the final three with Porsche and Adam, won the last HOH, evicted Adam and took Porsche to the jury vote.
Four jurors chose Rachel, giving her the $500,000 prize on her second season.
Who Won America’s Favorite Houseguest on Big Brother 13?
Jeff won America’s Favorite Houseguest and the $25,000 prize. It was his second win after also receiving the award on Big Brother 11, making him the only repeat recipient of the season-end viewer prize.
OBB tracks every recipient and the history of the award on the America’s Favorite Houseguest page.
Why Does Big Brother 13 Matter?
Big Brother 13 is one of the clearest examples of a season where the twists and the strategy cannot really be separated.
The returning players entered with built-in partners. Golden Keys gave several people weeks of safety. Lawon volunteered for the block because of a return twist and watched Brendon take the open place instead. Jeff’s clown shoe helped flip the double eviction. And Porsche’s Pandora’s Box revived the Duo Twist just long enough for Rachel to win a veto that protected both herself and Jordan.
Yet the finale still came down to a simple Big Brother decision: Rachel won the Final HOH, chose who sat beside her and then survived a 4–3 jury vote.