Pandora’s Box was a Big Brother twist that ran from 2009 to 2012: a door in the HOH room, marked with a question mark, that the sitting Head of Household could choose to open. Opening it released something good and something bad — usually one for the HOH and the other for the house. It appeared eleven times across four seasons, and it has not run since.
That last part is the thing most references get wrong. Pandora’s Box is often described as a recurring Big Brother fixture. It isn’t, and hasn’t been for over a decade. This page is the complete record of all eleven boxes, what came out of each one, and the story of how a twist that once handed out a Diamond Power of Veto ended with a houseguest sitting alone watching a video of Rachel.
- What it was: a door in the HOH room with a golden question mark. Only the sitting HOH was offered it, and opening it was always a choice.
- Ran: Big Brother 11 through Big Brother 14 — 2009 to 2012.
- Total boxes: eleven. BB11 had two, BB12 had four, BB13 had two, BB14 had three.
- Times an HOH declined: zero. Eleven offers, eleven opened.
- The last one: Ian, September 7, 2012.
- Status: retired. No Pandora’s Box has run in Big Brother US since 2012.
How Pandora’s Box worked
The HOH room had a second door. Behind the golden question mark was a small room, and at some point in the week the sitting HOH would be told they could open it if they wanted to. Nobody was ever forced.
The name came from the Greek myth, and production used the structure literally: opening the box released evils into the world, with something good escaping alongside them. In practice that meant a paired outcome — a reward for the HOH and a punishment for the house, or the reverse, or occasionally both landing on the same person.
The choice was rarely blind. Most HOHs were shown a hint first, and the hint was usually the good half. Matt was shown a Diamond Power of Veto and not told the Saboteur was coming back. Brendon was shown a trip for two with Rachel’s face on the screen, and got a night at a mansion by himself while Rachel went into the house without him. Lane was shown a money tree holding more than $10,000 and walked away with $91.17. Only Natalie was told the actual price before she accepted.
Every Pandora’s Box, 2009–2012
Big Brother 11 · 2009 The first two — and a marriage proposal
Tempted with the promise of releasing $10,000, Kevin opened it and found his hand locked inside the box. He couldn’t leave until the rest of the house found the key. Cash poured through the house while he was stuck there: Jeff collected $3,181, Michele $2,563, Natalie about $1,900, Jordan $1,726. Kevin got what nobody else picked up — $626. Aired September 1.
The one time an HOH was told the real price up front. Natalie learned her boyfriend was inside and that accepting meant forfeiting her right to compete in the final Power of Veto. She opened it anyway. He proposed. The rest of the house got costumed nuisances for their trouble. Aired September 6.
Big Brother 12 · 2010 Four boxes — the twist at full stretch
The single most consequential box ever opened. Matt was shown a Diamond Power of Veto — good for either of the next two evictions — and took it. What he wasn’t shown was the other half: opening it brought the Saboteur twist back, and America voted Ragan into the role. Aired August 8.
The cruellest bait of the eleven. Brendon was shown a trip for two to paradise, with Rachel on the screen. He opened it and was removed to a private mansion for 24 hours — alone. Rachel went the other way, into the Big Brother house, for exactly the same 24 hours. Aired August 18.
Britney was locked in with Jessie while he talked about bodybuilding and offered her life advice. Downstairs, the rest of the house was given a luau. Aired August 25.
Shown a money tree holding more than $10,000, Lane was allowed to pick three envelopes. He drew $79, $12 and 17 cents — $91.17 total. Each envelope triggered a house punishment: no silverware or cups for a week, twelve hours of communicating only through sock puppets, and mandatory dancing whenever music played. Aired September 1.
Big Brother 13 · 2011 The one that changed the whole game
Shown two $5,000 boxes and champagne, Porsche accepted and took $10,000 — then had to split it, with Kalia receiving half. The envelope underneath brought back the Duo Twist for a week: Porsche and Kalia, Rachel and Jordan, Adam and Shelly all became pairs, with nominations and veto applying to the pair rather than the person. The biggest structural change any box ever caused. Aired August 28.
Rachel was shown Tori Spelling standing beside racks of clothes and assumed a celebrity shopping spree. She got Jessie and his merchandise. Tori Spelling went into the house instead, and everyone else got the shopping spree. Aired September 4.
Big Brother 14 · 2012 The last three — and the end of the twist
Frank took roughly $3,000. In exchange, quarters were scattered through the house to operate a claw machine holding the Golden Ball of Veto. Ian got to it first — which cost him his spot in that week’s regular veto competition. Aired August 26.
Presents released into the house, including a backyard hammock, and a reported $1,000 for Ian himself. The consequence walked in behind them: Jessie, as a Secret Santa, who replaced every piece of junk food in the house with health food. Aired September 2.
The last Pandora’s Box in Big Brother history, and a quiet ending. Ian opened it and was sat down to watch a prerecorded video message from Rachel. Everyone else — Dan, Danielle, Jenn and Shane — got video messages from their families. The houseguests worked out afterwards that all the videos, Rachel’s included, had been recorded before the season started. Aired September 9.
When did Pandora’s Box stop?
After September 7, 2012. Ian’s third-and-final box was the last one, and no Big Brother US season since has run the twist. There was no announcement and no on-air explanation. It simply stopped.
What makes the ending unusual is that the room outlived the mechanic by more than a decade. The space adjoining the HOH room kept getting reused — and feed watchers kept noticing.
In 2013 the houseguests were still talking about Pandora’s Box constantly, all of it wishful: fans hoping a box would bring Rachel back, a commenter calling that season’s racism “the Pandora’s Box of the season.” In 2014 the house heard building noises coming from behind the door and got nothing. By 2016 feed writers were describing the space as the former Pandora’s Box room, past tense, and what emerged from it that year was a secret room with a four-week power — a different twist entirely.
In 2017 the Den of Temptation was staged in a set literally called Liberace’s Pandora’s Box: the same room, the same tempting-offer idea, none of the actual mechanic. And in 2019 a houseguest facing eviction was reduced to begging production out loud for “a power, a Pandora’s Box, anything.” There wasn’t one. There hadn’t been for seven years.
What actually came out of the boxes
Across eleven openings, the rewards fell into a narrow range and got noticeably smaller as the twist aged.
Game powers appeared exactly twice. Matt’s Diamond Power of Veto in BB12 and the Golden Ball of Veto that Frank’s box released for Ian in BB14. Everything else was money, prizes, food, visitors or time with someone from home.
Money was the most common bait and the least reliable payout. Kevin was promised $10,000 and finished with $626. Lane was shown a money tree and finished with $91.17. Porsche got a real $10,000 and had to hand half to Kalia. Only Frank’s roughly $3,000 arrived intact.
Jessie was production’s favourite punishment. He was the consequence in three separate boxes across two seasons — talking bodybuilding at Britney, filling Rachel’s celebrity shopping spree slot with his own merchandise, and confiscating the entire house’s junk food as a Secret Santa. No other person appeared in more than one.
And the arc is unmistakable. The twist opened in 2010 by handing out the most powerful veto in the game and closed in 2012 with a man alone in a room watching a prerecorded video of a former houseguest while everyone else cried at messages from their families. It stopped because it had run out of things to put inside.
Was any Pandora’s Box ever refused?
No. Eleven offers, eleven opened, across four seasons and eleven different Heads of Household. Production never had to force the issue, because nobody ever declined.
There is one long-running claim worth addressing: that Porsche initially refused her BB13 box and was pressured into opening it. The allegation was circulating among fans within a day or two of the event in August 2011, but the contemporaneous record treats it as rumour rather than something anyone documented. We’re not stating it as fact.