After weeks of alliances blowing up faster than a microwave burrito, Big Brother 27 finally came to a close — and the jury made their decision loud and clear. Ashley walked away with a 6–1 victory over Vince and a cool $750,000 check, proving once again that in this game, it’s not about who lifts the most vetoes but who can convince a group of bitter ex-roommates that they don’t totally hate you.
BB27 will go down as the season of messiness and jury management. Ashley wasn’t the flashiest winner, but her ability to downplay threats and lean hard into relationships put her in the lineage of the great “social assassins.”
Ashley’s Win
Ashley wasn’t out here racking up comp wins like Xavier (BB23) or carrying a redemption arc like Taylor (BB24). Her strategy was more subtle — keeping people calm, convincing them she wasn’t the threat, and then timing her moves just right.
Vince’s Game
Vince thought he was pulling strings, but the jury mostly saw him as a “weasel” and “master manipulator.” His endgame felt eerily similar to Paul in BB19 — big résumé, big moves, and an even bigger case of the jury giving you the side-eye. The jury saw him as a weasel with a thesaurus.
Morgan’s Arc
Morgan gave the late-game hustle and a thick dose of emotional storytelling. I can still hear Morgan talking non-stop in the back of my head. Her therapist will be the clear grand prize winner after she gets released into the wild. Ashley cutting her at Final 3 was one of the season’s coldest (and smartest) decisions. It was very “Cody evicting Victoria in BB16,” only with more crying and fewer cowboy hats.
Compared to Previous Seasons
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Social Dynamics ? Forget the mega-alliances of BB23’s Cookout or BB24’s Leftovers. BB27 was pure chaos: shifting duos, messy triangles, and emotional entanglements that made the live feeds feel like reality TV’s answer to a telenovela.
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Competitions ? The comps barely mattered. Ashley’s win wasn’t about HOHs or POVs — it was about convincing everyone else she didn’t actually win anything. Jedi mind tricks at their finest.
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Jury Mood ? Bitter juries are nothing new (hi, BB14’s Dan and BB19’s Paul), but this one was especially swayed by Ashley’s “dumbing down” strategy. Half the jury loved it, half wanted to throw tomatoes.
Vince, Morgan & the Emotional Undercurrents
The Vince–Morgan saga added a heavy dose of soap opera vibes. Vince even dropped this gem:
“I will literally always love you like on a very deep core level … you’ve been my rock this entire game.”
Ashley sent Morgan packing and Vince was left explaining his “master plan” to a jury already sharpening pitchforks.
Final Thoughts
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Strategy vs. Perception ? Ashley proved that being underestimated can be the deadliest weapon in the game.
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Emotional Weight ? BB isn’t just comps and speeches — sometimes it’s about who made you feel less betrayed.
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Risk in Final 2 ? Taking Vince was a gamble, but Ashley cashed out big.
The season might be over, but the drama will keep rolling in fan debates, jury interviews, and group chats for months and seasons to come.
Winner Ashley Hollis chats with season 24 winner Taylor Hale about her Elle Woods strategy, ‘showergate,’ what she’ll do with the $750,000 prize and more.
Runner-up Vince Panaro chats with season 24 winner Taylor Hale about Ashley Hollis’ win, clarifies his relationship with Morgan Pope and explains where things stand with his girlfriend of seven years, Kelsey.
Keanu Soto reacts to winning America’s Favorite Player! Plus, he opens up to season 24 winner Taylor Hale about his time in the house, his alliance with Rachel Reilly and why he voted for Ashley Hollis to win.
Morgan Pope opens up to season 24 winner Taylor Hale about her relationship with Vince, amid rumors the pair started a romantic relationship while competing.
That was a fantastic wrap-up!
I think they need to stop destroying the legacy of the show and follow like bb canada and just cancel it. should of stopped after s22. the politics of the world have taken over the game. same with survivor. the casting and winners is all the proof we need. its no longer a competition. it is a political agenda. just the facts, don’t get mad or start making bs accusations or you are just proving my point even more.
the out of touch loud mouth classist coastin ashley has hurt bb being the winning representative after she did nothing
FLOATERS BE DAMNED!! Stupid jury gave the win to someone who did absolutely nothing, but spend as much time in the shower as will spend on the sofa napping.
100% agree. And because she won after doing nothing whole season, the whole format of the show has to be re-thought. Cash prizes for winning HOH or the POV is an option. And less money for 1st place.
Any word on the Kelsey issue for Vin Weasel?
I am trying to find this out as well.
Oh a bonus post! This was a nice surprise!
Ashley is a DEI winner. Didn’t Earn It
You are going far left dude. DEI really. I guess you said that for laughs to just show how ignorant you are. This political climate have people talking out of their butts online.
Do I think she played a good game? NOPE! Did she deserve to win? Yes, she did. Morgan and Vince drug her along to be the sacrificial lamb. Julie Chen says it best “Expect the Unexpected”. Ashley won part two because Vinny choked and won the final HOH because Morgan choked. Then she cut Morgan and destroyed Vinny in the question and answer. They should have cut her and brought Ava along.
If you play the game Family Feud. You can win every game but if you lose the very last one you could lose the game. The very last game your family either wins the game or plays sudden death. Well they played sudden death and lost.
I’d say he is going too far right. Anti-DEI, blame it for everything.
As for the feud analogy, BB was never a game that came down to turning your game on at F3, winning final HOH and then misting the jury by backfilling your game narrative to make it fit the events of the season.
It has now become that, okay then. For sure Ashley did a great job exploiting the jury’s bitterness and using her student skills to fake her game story with literal lies while her entire game was Rachel shield and then Morgan forcing Judges legitimacy and comping out.
Great social manipulation at finale stage, go girl, new standard of winning.
My issue was with the DEI statement. I am sick of people using it every time that a person of color wins something lately. I hated this season; Heck I hated Rachel Season. Last season I liked was BB14 when Ian won. I used to stay up at night watching BB After Dark. But guess what, I return every summer and watch it again. So, see you all next year.
I realize. I just tagged on with some more of my game obsession, lol.
It’s hard to let go, even after it ends.
I don’t think that comment had anything to do with skin color. It is just a different of opinion on strategy. Next season, don’t have any competitions. No need, they don’t matter anymore. Just see who can social b.s. better.
The definition of DEI(Diversity, Equality & Inclusivity) is skin Color. It is a program for POCs(People of Color). Whites are not POCs.
It’s what used to be called Quotas.
It’s always been used to give people of Color a helping hand to overcome three centuries of slavery where teaching a black person how to read and write was a felony and a fourth century of black second-class-citizenship.
It was designed to assist people of Color in the college admissions process and the job market.
The right-wing backlash against it is currently in the ascendancy.
Of course UnknownBoy was referring to Ashley’s skin color!
If she wasn’t black, or, as The Beef likes to say, if she didn’t have so much melanin in her skin, UnknownBoy never would have made the statement, because she would be white.
It was an anti-black statement, based solely on her skin Color.
I think you meant far right, not left, but, I get your drift.
I also think Ashley’s performance in the final HOH and her decision to evict Morgan each played a major part in her victory. Her choice to face the jury vs Vince was what got her the victory.
Of course, it helped greatly that both Vince & then Morgan choked under the final HOH pressure.
But, the crucial factor was Morgan persuading Vince to cut Ava at final 4, rather than Morgan’s friend and their mutual Judges alliance member, Ashley.
Otherwise, Ashley never would have had a chance to win the final HOH because she, rather than Ava, would have been the next-to-last juror.
So, many thanks to Morgan & Vince for giving Ashley the chance to win it all.
Before i’m out… and likely questioning my life choices…
Overall.
Disliked the season.
Still think the 26 27 eviction pattern comparison works until the final episode. IT DOES.
I just got the wrong Chelsie. My initial read was Ashley the Chelsie… but she was so ineffectual in actually getting people to target HER targets that I switched Morgan to be the Chelsie… and still thought Vince would be the Jag because it was a stuntcast season… but a Jag that wasn’t liked.
Learned not to ignore my gut impluse. A former Paramount intern that is friends with a former houseguest who is also friends with the season stuntcast and another member of the cast… if this was bbcan I’d have been calling shenanigan on that immediately and sticking to it like a dog with a bone.
So what did WE learn in terms of big brother?
It doesn’t matter if you play the game… you can be a coaster as long as you SAY you played the game against someone the jury dislikes more so that they won’t be called bitter jury for rewarding you?
Oh. that sucks.
Gee…. Victoria could have won this season.
Gee… BowiefrickenJane could have won this season.
Yeah…
that. sucks.
Until next time.
Have a good autumn and winter.
I still think about that one commenter comparing this season with season 11 (stuntcast fight first week, person of color being the enemy of the house, final 4 having a quirky girl, manipulator and a psychopath, ditzy ball of sunshine winning)
How on earth was Ashley a coaster?
How on earth was she not? Seriously, what did she do in the game, outside of having the final HOH basically handed to her by both Vince and Morgan (what a choke that last comp was)? She did nothing strategically, and she sure didn’t do anything competitively. People talk about her social game, but what did she do socially to get anybody out, or improve her position in the game, other than hide behind Rachel, Mickey, Morgan and Vince?
I don’t want to hear about phantom reads or “clocks”, I want to know how she manipulated somebody or something to make something happen. You won’t come up with anything because she didn’t do anything.
week one, she ended up on the block because of her social awareness. Hardly a social move that would be made by someone that came in playing as she asserted.
Week two she lost her final 2 deal because she didn’t have the social capital to save Amy…and she was at one point a consideration for renom herself. She did not gather Rachel, Rachel gathered her although she was aware that Ashley had been mouthing about Rachel (bathroom argument that left Amy feeling she was being targeted because of Rachel and had no way to stay). So the argument that she picked up Rachel is false, Rachel scooped her up warts and all because they both lost Amy. Rachel did not particularly like Ashley at that point, but she had few other options that weren’t already joined up with others. That’s right… beyond Amy… Ashley was not part of alliancepalooza that was week one and week two. Gee, a social gamer that can’t even get in on week one and week two alliancing. That’s prime coaster.
Week three, Ashley had been scooped up by Rachel and Mickey and Morgan picked the duo up because they were all pissy with Jimmy for gettting Amy out. Ashley was in danger week three. She forgot to say that when she was talking about never being on anyone’s radar after week one until week nine. So why was she saved? Jimmy trying to get his numbers back needed to kiss up to Rachel Morgan and Mickey… meaning help Ashley to get back into graces. It worked, Rachel and Jimmy were back to being peas and carrots and Ashley was…. oh right… she wasn’t. Some social diva using Rachel as a shield. Couldn’t shift the target on Rachel… depended on Jimmy and Mickey to save her NOT because of her social dominanace… because it was a numbers game that week. Ashley ended up repeating the deal JIMMY brokered to Lauren to stay off the block. Jimmy is why Ashley didn’t go on the block. Not Ashely and her social savvy. Jimmy needing to win back his numbers saved Ashley because his numbers considered her their number. So week four, take Mickey and Jimmy out of the equation manipulating bible verses and brokering a fake deal…. And Ashley was screwed. So… she WAS a consideration week three and lied to jury about that saying nobody considered her a target until week 9. She just coasted there trying to get in better with Morgan and Mickey by…. trying to bust them up with rumors and gossipgame that did NOTHING for her game.
Week four she wanted Vince on the block. Mickey was HOH. Did she get what she wanted? So her social game blew chunks again.
From week three to week five Ashley thought she was social game flirt manipulating Zack. Zack? plotted her demise. Until week five she was clueless. Finger on the pulse of the house barometer defeated there. So… how is her social game doing so far?
Week five. Ashley was finally in a named alliance (2 in fact). One was the fully black houseguests only… the other was the same alliance with Ava added. AND…. Ava is HOH and Ashley was VERY NEARLY a nom. Again… for their OWN games, not through social manipulation skills of Ashley, her allies pushed to keep her FOR NUMBERS even though THEY AGREED she was horrible at the game and a bad ally to have. WOW…. Fricken social Einstein level gaming there.
Should I continue?
If her social reads were so wonderful how did week one through week 5 completely escape her notice???? How did a social gamer end up in ZERO week one and week 2 alliances? That’s coaster game.
If she had no comp game
If her social game started in the toilet bowl and actually didn’t improve of her own doing but because she had no comp game…..
If she went to HOH’s naming her preferred target, and wasn’t able to get it done…
If her allies only kept her due to being a number with no threat level….
THAT IS COASTING>
Seriously, Beef and un autre nom. This is why you guys are the best next to Simon and Dawg. Thank you guys for keeping the world sane and understanding how Ashley has set the bar at an all time low. In spite, of this downer of a season with a lowly garbage winner that didn’t deserve it over Vince. Please make your returns next year gents because it wouldn’t be the same with out you all.
I appreciate what you said, but Another Name is much better at the details of this stuff, and laying it out than I ever could be. His post here is evidence to that fact. He just brought the receipts, and yet somebody below still wants to insist she “read people like a book”, and that “her Allies (sic) not liking her early”, which even if that was true, and she changed that, and I don’t agree that it was, liking somebody is not “good social game”. Another Name just laid out the facts of how and why she was kept (numbers), and that she never used social capital or strategic social manipulation skills to impact her or anybody else’s game! THAT is social game play!
Ashley is a beautiful woman, but she’s Victoria, and she didn’t deserve to win the game.
As I was reading un autre’s summary, I started to feel impressed that Jimmy had so much social manipulation game from the start. For sure he messed up, but knew exactly the type of game required for winning (although his ego self-sabotaged it). Too bad it’s no longer necessary, as Ashley did NONE of that all season. Just lay low so you’re not ever possibly taken out by overplaying and alienating others if you misuse that card. Be ineffective as your weak attempts fail and you finally decide to retreat behind your shields for good.
Make no mistake. You are up there with the best of them. Give excellent insight. Even I dont know the extent to most of these things. Even with Ashley and her comps. You guys would be able to provide details that even I wouldn’t be able to know about such as her first win quite possibly being a setup. Hoping you make it back next year.
No way shape or form. Did you clock how Ashley didn’t read people like a book especially in the jury phase or her Allies not liking her early. Her social was on point. Nor can you deny how her clutch Veto wasn’t legit as earning her win over Vince.
When told week 8 by Mickey that she had been a serious consideration for nomination week 5 during Ava HOH… what was her response? Gotta be a lie.
When she believed she was playing Zack for two weeks only to learn he wanted her on have not and on the block. She was clueless.
When she believed Adrian was under her sway… he was telling everything she and Mickey said t Zack and Vince. She was clueless.
She thought Katherine and Riley liked her…. she was clueless.
Reading ability my ass.
It took no skill this season to know who was working with whom because everyone met in the open for hours on end. Her ability to read body language and social cues was abysmal.
Social isn’t likeability. And if it were, she would still suffer because of the number of people that didn’t like her. I didn’t say hated, i said didn’t like.
Social game is obtaining information and social capital and using both to advance your station in the game through social manipulation.
Again, name one time Ashley was able to, of her own social power, affect nominations or targeting. There aren’t any.
You can’t deny her veto win being fixed.
I want to send this to Keanu as I’ve already been wondering if he will start to get that gnawing feeling that the one who actually played him was Ashley in F2. Not sure how he’ll process the fact that Ashley won part 2 through no actual skill but only a technicality. Given how much Keanu values full competitive strength which includes skill, drive, gaming face and sheer will (see, Morgan), he’ll have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to keep convincing himself he wasn’t a bitter fool.
Rachel misted him in jury with her BS about refusing to be bitter while also intending to build up any narrative offered by her loyal ally if she made it that far. Rachel was pure anti-Vinny all game, and Vinny was right that she just did not like him. She’s entitled to her personal opinion but then she used it to get what she wanted for her very special insiders. The exact persona of mean girl leader who insists that all the goodies go to those she deems worthy of standing in her aura zone.
Comes down to this outcome is all Rachel being in the game. Even her dissenter opposition did what she wanted at the end. She was soaking it up in the jury house as the mob mentality was building, so much for her to work with for end result if Vinny did end up in F2.
She was correct in that they were all a bunch of weak newbies. She played them all so well. They didn’t need to listen to her, as she claimed. They needed to get her out ASAP, but production worked hard to not have her cut before jury.
Thanks again for giving me a viable option to nonstop baseball all summer.
I look forward to your posts more than I do my teams’ (Cubs & Guardians)games.
Enjoy the rest of ’25 & the 1st half of ’26
I hope you & your family are well & remain so.
Take care.
Thank you!
Thank you Simon & Dawg for all you do to give us all a safe place to come & talk about our favorite summer show!
You guys are terrific!
Thank you also for your patience, understanding & tolerance for thin-skinned, emotional overreactors such as myself. I apologize for making the job more difficult for the two of you. I will do my best to, as Melania made famous, “be better”.
Thanks again for all you do!
See ya next year, God willing.
LOL We got a take down request for this image.
Other than Tyler getting robbed by the worst jury in history being nonsensical. I miss this season all the time. Of all things. Why were you asked to bring it down lol?
Weird. Doesn’t strike me as offensive.
on my daughter’s birthday??
how dare they
Did you hear the Ashley and Hannah from BB 23 have been friends since they were 2? I heard Ashley say it on an interview! And Mickey’s family knows Bayleigh’s family. Does not surprise me.
I am so excited that Keanu won Americas House Guest favorite!! It would be awesome if BB cast a show on just America House Guest favorites giving them another chance to win the game. America picks the cast for next season this time. Who’s game?! ?
Ashley winning is a problem. It’s bad for the game. Being invisible shouldn’t be a strategy worth rewarding. Just being a vote shouldn’t be worth rewarding.
This isn’t the same thing as when Derrick won with barely winning a thing during the game. Derrick was in on so many of the important decisions that lead to him winning. Ashley made next to no decisions and won very little. But it was fun to see her personality flip when it came to arguing why she should win. She kicked Vince’s ass in explaining why she should win. If you didn’t watch the season and just the final two Ashley would have looked like the clear winner.
Ashley didn’t win, Vince lost. He had the resume. He just needed to own it. But Vince seems to have the ability to fool himself into believing whatever narrative excuses his actions, even if he is the only one being fooled. The jury can’t respect someone like that. He just needed to own it. He put most of the jury together with his actions what in the game. Tell them that. Tell them why he put them there. Tell them they are great. Tell them that he emotionally manipulated them. Tell them something, not just stuff and things.
I agree with almost all of your post.
Only thing we differ on is that Ashley’s win is a problem going forward.
It won’t be.
The vast majority of the public has already begun to forget her, as they do with all but the most memorable winners. She will be lost in the shuffle of the deck of cards that is BB past winners soon enough.
Horrible winners (by that I mean horrible humans who happened to win) are far more memorable than relatively pleasant people who lucked into a win. The latter fade into the background. The former, however, cannot be forgotten no matter how hard we try to forget them.
For example: Dick Donato, Mike Malin, Adam Jasinski & Jackson Michie, just to name a few of the despicable humans that won BB.
Truth is that an overwhelming majority of BB’s winners had no real impact whatsoever on future game players. The public’s memory is limited to only a handful.
Many former non-winners are far more memorable than past winners. My screen namesakes, Janelle, Paul just to name a few of the many.
Ashley, like so many others, will be forgotten soon enough. The clock of fame has already started to count down her 15 minutes.
And, IMHO, no one will be able to pull an inside straight such as hers ever again.
It was a one-in-a-million occurrence, requiring far too many contributing factors to ever happen again.
No one will ever try to model ther game on hers. Un autre nom just explained far better than I ever could why. And, if per chance, some fool did, they would immediately get bounced out of there like a red rubber ball. Thank you to the Circle for the line & the song.
But look at this casting. Vince was the bad guy this year. He wasn’t a bad guy for any other reason than he wasn’t very like able with his actions. I didn’t hate him. It was somewhere more between pity and disappointment. His drama was emotionally cheating on his girlfriend. I’m not up in arms about that, I just think he’s a spineless idiot. More of an eye roll than actual feeling.
Big Brother got what they asked for in this cast. Boring, beige and beta. How can we have a memorable winner with no memorable people? If you want a good guy like your boy Jeff, he needs his foil. He needs a Jesse or Russell so he can be that white meat baby face up against one of those psychos. Someone to cheer for, someone to cheer against. Let me feel something about these people! Not just disgust and disappointment.
Rachel was ok, she at least tried to mix it up with other players and start some crap. But she isn’t what she used to be. She was a beast in her first go around. Now she’s a fake fashionista with a mom bod.
The whole cast doesn’t need to go from this year. You need some floaters like Ashley and Adrian, your sassy gay guy Jimmy, your weirdos Kelly and Ava, Keanu your comp beast etc. But you also need some real psychos in there to mix it up. Give me a stick of dynamite like Vanessa Russo! Give me anyone of those “bad people” you listed. Give me some people who aren’t there to get along. This is how we end up with Ashley as your winner, floating her way to the end.