Xavier won Big Brother 23, beating Big D by a unanimous jury vote of 9-0 — the last man standing from the Cookout, a six-person alliance that took every one of its members to the final six without losing a single one of them. Azah finished third.
- Aired: July to September 2021, on CBS.
- Premiere: 7 July 2021.
- Finale: 29 September 2021 — Day 85.
- Winner: Xavier.
- Runner-up: Big D.
- Third place: Azah.
- Final vote: 9-0 — unanimous.
- Houseguests: 16, all new. No returning players.
- Prize: $750,000 to the winner, $75,000 to the runner-up.
- America’s Favourite: Tiffany, $50,000.
- Length: 85 days.
- The house: the BB Beach Club.
- The twists: four teams, the Wildcard Competition, and the High Roller’s Room.
Who won Big Brother 23?
Xavier won Big Brother 23 on 29 September 2021, beating Big D 9-0. All nine jurors voted for him — Britini, Baby D, Sarah Beth, Claire, Alyssa, Tiffany, Hannah, Kyland and Azah. It is one of only a handful of unanimous wins in the show’s history.
He got there on a résumé nobody could argue with: three Heads of Household and three vetoes, plus Part 1 of the final Head of Household — seven competition wins in all. He was also nominated five times, more than anyone else in the season, and survived every one of them.
The final week was his outright. He won Part 1 of the three-part final Head of Household, lost Part 2 to Azah, then beat her 8-7 in Part 3 — she missed the first question and got the other seven right, which was not enough. He evicted her and took Big D to the final two.
Afterwards he was clear that the win was not his alone.
Xavier, after the finale
“Truthfully, from a game standpoint, a lot of people have been telling me that no matter who I sat next to, I would win. So at that point, for me, it was really just — Big D’s held me down since day one. That’s my brother for life.”
Big D did not dispute it. “I knew Xavier did a better game,” he said. “If I had a key, I would have turned it for him.” He had told Xavier before the vote that he was fine with second place.
Tiffany won America’s Favourite and the $50,000 that goes with it. Baby D was the other announced top vote-getter, and Julie described the margin between them as very close.
Who was in the Big Brother 23 cast?
Sixteen houseguests, all new, no returning players. Photos and full bios for all sixteen are on our Big Brother 23 cast page. This is how they finished:
- 1st — Xavier. Three Heads of Household, three vetoes, nominated five times, won 9-0.
- 2nd — Big D. Never won a Head of Household. Reached the final two anyway and took zero jury votes.
- 3rd — Azah. Won Part 2 of the final Head of Household and lost Part 3 by a single question.
- 4th — Kyland. Three Heads of Household and three vetoes, the same as the winner. Evicted on Big D’s sole vote.
- 5th — Hannah. The sixth and last member brought into the Cookout, and the last of them evicted.
- 6th — Tiffany. Designed the plan that ran the season, and went out first once it had finished running. America’s Favourite.
- 7th — Alyssa. Won the only High Roller game that put a Cookout member on the block.
- 8th — Claire. Won the Coin of Destiny, secretly dethroned a Head of Household, and left the nominations exactly as she found them.
- 9th — Sarah Beth. Won a Head of Household in 21.03 seconds and was evicted the week after it.
- 10th — Baby D. Two vetoes in the first fortnight and the best read in the house on what was happening. Runner-up for America’s Favourite.
- 11th — Britini. Nominated four times and the first juror.
- 12th — Christian. Two competition wins in his first fortnight, backdoored in week 5.
- 13th — Whitney. Aces captain. Her team never won a Head of Household or a Wildcard.
- 14th — Brent. Evicted 11-0 without ever knowing he was the target.
- 15th — Frenchie. The first Head of Household of the season, gone seven days later.
- 16th — Travis. First evicted, 11-2, after being a replacement nominee.
Baby D and Big D are two different people
Big Brother 23 cast two houseguests called Derek, and almost every mistake made about this season starts here.
- Baby D — also written DerekX or DX. Aces. Won two vetoes, was evicted 5-2 on 26 August, and finished 10th.
- Big D — also written DerekF or DF. Jokers, and a Cookout founder. Won no Heads of Household, reached the final two, and finished 2nd.
An unqualified “Derek” in Big Brother 23 coverage means nothing without a date attached to it.
Claire replaced Christie before the season started
Christie was cast, announced and photographed as one of the sixteen. She tested positive for COVID-19 in pre-season sequester and never entered the house. Claire replaced her on 5 July, two days before the premiere.
Claire went on to win a Wildcard, win the Coin of Destiny, and finish eighth. Christie has no placement, no eviction date and no vote — she is not one of the sixteen who played, and any cast list that includes her is a pre-season list that was never updated.
What was the BB Beach Club?
The Big Brother 23 house was built as the BB Beach Club — part seaside cabana, part casino, with “No Risk, No Reward” in neon over the front door. The theme was not decoration: the season’s currency, its competitions and its entire mid-game twist all came out of it.
The rooms were named to match. The living room was the Seaview Lobby, the kitchen was the Shark Kitchen and had a roulette wheel built into the table, and the bedrooms were the Reef Room and the Yacht Club. The Head of Household suite was the VIP Cabana. Upstairs, on the bridge outside it, sat the Poker Chip Parlor. You can see how it all fitted together on the Big Brother house floor plans.
The High Roller’s Room opened later as a separate set piece, not a bedroom.
Who were the Cookout?
Six houseguests — Xavier, Kyland, Tiffany, Azah, Big D and Hannah — who agreed to work together in the opening days of the season and then decided every eviction from week three onwards. All six reached the final six. Not one of them was evicted before the plan had finished running.
The founding is shared and all six have claimed a piece of it. Big D went person to person to formalise it; Xavier gave it the name. The plan itself was Tiffany’s, and it is the reason the alliance is remembered as a piece of gameplay rather than a headcount.
The pairing plan
Six is a lot of people to hide. Tiffany’s answer was that they should never look like a group at all. She sat each member down and told them to attach themselves to one houseguest outside the alliance, so the house would read them as half of a duo rather than part of a bloc.
- Tiffany with Claire.
- Hannah with Baby D.
- Xavier with Alyssa.
- Kyland with Sarah Beth.
- Big D and Azah shared Britini.
The mechanics followed from that. Two Cookout members never went on the block together. When a pair was nominated, the alliance’s numbers voted out the outsider. When a Cookout Head of Household needed two nominees, the answer was a Cookout member and their own plus-one — a nomination that looked like a hard choice and cost the alliance nothing.
It is the Brigade’s structure with two more people in it and a stated finish line, and the difficulty of hiding six rather than four is the strongest thing in its favour. The strongest thing against it is that nobody outside the six ever mounted a coordinated response.
The plan strained exactly once, over Claire. Tiffany did not want to cut her own plus-one, and in week 9, holding the Head of Household, she had to. She put Claire up and Claire went home. After the final six the six had to start eating each other, which was always the deal.
One detail says more about the discipline than any of the rest: all six were not alone in a room together, at the same time, until 28 August — seven weeks into a season they had been running since the first few days.
What were the Big Brother 23 twists?
Two, and they did not overlap. The four-team format ran the first four weeks. The High Roller’s Room ran weeks six, seven and eight.
The teams and the Wildcard Competition
Four premiere competitions produced four captains, who then drafted their teams off a slot machine that offered two brief bios at a time — take one of these two, no third option.
- Jokers — Frenchie (captain), Azah, Britini, Big D.
- Aces — Whitney (captain), Brent, Baby D, Hannah.
- Kings — Christian (captain), Alyssa, Sarah Beth, Xavier.
- Queens — Claire (captain), Kyland, Tiffany, Travis.
The winning team was safe as a unit and its captain became Head of Household. The other three teams each sent one player to the Wildcard Competition — fifteen minutes to agree who, random draw if they could not. The winner was offered safety for themselves only, and the catch changed every week.
- Week 1 — Christian won. Took the safety, and it came with the power to make a teammate safe as well. He chose Xavier.
- Week 2 — Sarah Beth won and turned it down. The price of safety was leaving the Kings and joining the Queens. She stayed a King and took nothing.
- Week 3 — Tiffany won and turned it down. A second houseguest’s safety would have been decided by chance, and she was not willing to risk protecting someone her side wanted vulnerable.
- Week 4 — Claire won. Offered one week of safety for the whole Queens team or personal safety all the way to jury, she took the individual deal.
Two winners out of four refused the prize, which tells you how well-designed the catch was. The four-week run was announced before the season started — production did not cut it short. It ended after the fourth eviction on 5 August and everyone played for themselves from week 5.
One footnote from the premiere: Frenchie, as the first Head of Household, was offered a double-or-nothing gamble — land two oversized dice on a platform in 45 seconds and the Jokers were safe for two weeks; miss and he lost the Head of Household and his team’s safety with it. He declined, then landed the dice anyway, for fun.
The High Roller’s Room
Opened as jury began, and ran for three weeks. Three casino games, three powers, and a currency to buy into them with.
BB Bucks came from the audience. Each week the top three vote-getters received 100, the next three 75, and everyone else still in the house 50. The money carried over — you did not have to spend it the week you earned it, and the better powers cost more than any single week could pay for.
- Week 6 — Veto Derby, 50 Bucks. Bet on a veto player. If your pick won the Power of Veto, you got a second veto of your own. Sarah Beth, Kyland, Tiffany, Big D and Claire all bought in; Tiffany failed to qualify to bet. Kyland backed Alyssa, Alyssa won, and Kyland got the second veto.
- Week 7 — Chopping Block Roulette, 125 Bucks. Take a nominee off the block, then spin a wheel that picks their replacement at random. Alyssa was the only houseguest who could afford it, so she won by default. She saved Big D — and the wheel landed on Xavier. One Cookout member off the block, another one on, decided by a wheel.
- Week 8 — Coin of Destiny, 250 Bucks. The most expensive power of the three. Win the skill game, then call a coin flip correctly, and you secretly take the Head of Household’s job off them.
The Coin of Destiny is the one worth dwelling on, because winning the competition was not enough on its own. Claire beat Big D in the skill game, called heads, and Tiffany flipped the giant coin — heads. Tiffany was dethroned as Head of Household without the house being told who had done it.
Claire then became secret Head of Household and left the nominations exactly as Tiffany had set them: Kyland and Sarah Beth. She and Tiffany agreed a cover story — that Tiffany had won it and used it on herself — and Claire went to the cameras afterwards to say she thought most of the house had worked out it was her anyway.
There was a third nominee that week who had nothing to do with any of it. Xavier had gone up automatically as a punishment carried over from winning the previous week’s veto — a win that had also cost him every BB Buck he had and put him in solitary confinement for the 24 hours before the vote.
Who won each HOH, veto and eviction in Big Brother 23?
Eleven weeks and a finale, with double evictions in weeks 9 and 10 — back to back.
Week 1 · Travis evicted 11-27–15 July · teams
Frenchie, whose Jokers won House of Cards. Nominated Alyssa and Kyland.
Christian won and took the safety, which let him make Xavier safe too.
Baby D won and used it on Kyland. Travis went up.
Travis, 11-2 over Alyssa.
Week 2 · Frenchie evicted 11-115–22 July
Kyland. Nominated Frenchie and Britini — two Jokers.
Sarah Beth beat Frenchie and Brent, then refused the safety rather than switch teams.
Baby D, his second in two weeks. Not used.
Frenchie, 11-1. Big D cast the only vote to keep him. First Head of Household of the season, second out of the door.
Week 3 · Brent evicted 11-022–29 July
Xavier, in Tom Talks BB. Nominated Brent and Britini.
Tiffany won and turned it down, unwilling to let chance protect a target.
Christian. Not used.
Brent, 11-0. Unanimous, and he never saw it coming.
Week 4 · Whitney evicted 10-029 July – 5 August · teams end
Christian, in Pier Pressure. Nominated Hannah and Whitney.
Claire won the last one and took personal safety through to jury over a week’s safety for the Queens.
Christian again. Not used.
Whitney, 10-0. The teams twist ended with this eviction.
Week 5 · Christian evicted 7-25–12 August · the wall
Baby D won Whale of a Time, the season’s wall, after about eighty minutes. Nominated Britini and Sarah Beth.
Britini won and used it on herself. Christian went up as the replacement — a backdoor.
Christian, 7-2 over Sarah Beth. The best competitor outside the Cookout, gone in week 5.
Week 6 · Britini evicted 7-112–19 August · High Roller’s Room opens
Kyland. Nominated Claire and Big D.
Alyssa won OTEV. She did not use it.
Kyland won the Veto Derby by betting on Alyssa, and used his on Claire. Britini went up.
Britini, 7-1 over Big D. Azah cast the only vote the other way. First juror.
Week 7 · Baby D evicted 5-219–26 August · Chopping Block Roulette
Sarah Beth won Dash to Dinner, a timed balance beam, in 21.03 seconds. Nominated Claire and Big D.
Alyssa was the only buyer. She removed Big D, spun the wheel, and it put Xavier up.
Xavier won and saved himself. Baby D went up. The win cost him all his BB Bucks, 24 hours of solitary confinement, and an automatic nomination the following week.
Baby D, 5-2 over Claire.
Week 8 · Sarah Beth evicted26 August – 2 September · Coin of Destiny
Tiffany. Nominated Kyland and Sarah Beth, with Xavier already up on his punishment.
Claire beat Big D, called heads correctly, and secretly dethroned Tiffany — then kept the same two nominations.
Hannah won and used it on Xavier. Because his nomination was a punishment, no replacement was needed.
Sarah Beth. Tiffany cast the single vote against Kyland.
Week 9 · Claire 4-1, then Alyssa 3-12–9 September · double eviction
Tiffany won The Flying BB-inos on the feeds — Claire dropped at 6:12, Hannah 6:13, Xavier 6:16, Azah 6:17, Kyland 6:30. She nominated Alyssa and Xavier; Alyssa won the veto and saved herself; Claire went up.
Tiffany had to nominate her own plus-one to keep the six intact. Claire evicted 4-1.
Hannah won Crash Boom Pow and nominated Alyssa and Xavier. Xavier won the veto and saved himself; Kyland went up. Alyssa evicted 3-1.
The final six, and all six of them were the Cookout.
Week 10 · Tiffany 3-0, then Hannah 2-09–16 September · double eviction
Kyland won the Head of Household and nominated Tiffany and Hannah. He won BB Comics too and left them there. Tiffany evicted 3-0.
Azah won BB Ballers and nominated Hannah and Xavier. Kyland won What The Bleep and saved Xavier, which left Big D as the only possible replacement.
Hannah, 2-0. Two double evictions in consecutive weeks — a first for the series.
Week 11 · Kyland evicted 1-016–23 September · final four
Xavier, in 10:18 — Kyland took 14:52, Big D 15:44. Nominated Azah and Kyland.
Xavier won it as well and did not use it, which left Big D the only voter.
Kyland, on Big D’s sole vote — and he did not go quietly. See below.
Finale · Xavier wins 9-023–29 September · Day 85
Xavier won the endurance round. Big D fell at about 19 minutes, Azah at about 26.
Azah beat Big D in Four of a Kind — roughly 13 minutes to his 20.
Xavier beat Azah 8-7 on jury statements. She missed the first question and got the other seven.
Xavier evicted Azah and took Big D to the final two.
Xavier 9, Big D 0. Tiffany then won America’s Favourite.
What is Big Brother 23 remembered for?
An alliance that finished the job. Six people, a stated objective, and a structure built to hide them — and every one of them made the final six. Most famous alliances come apart before they get where they said they were going. This one did not, and the Slaughterhouse, on this same season, lasted about a week as the counter-example.
A locked board. The flip side, and the reason the season divides people. Once the Cookout’s numbers held, the evictions became predictable — a run of houseguests who circled the alliance for weeks and never worked out how to break it. The comparison usually made is to Big Brother 22’s steamroll. Historically significant, dramatically thin, is roughly where it has settled.
Frenchie’s week. Seven days, and one of the most chaotic Head of Household reigns anyone has played. He moved through Brent, Christian, Baby D, Alyssa and finally Travis as targets; nominated three different people across the week; promised safety widely and broke it; and floated an eight-person alliance called the Slaughterhouse that he then exposed himself. He was evicted 11-1 the following Thursday. “Maybe I played too fast, too hard,” he said afterwards. He also called playing hard “my downfall,” and said he was proud of it anyway.
The final four
The ugliest night of the season. Xavier held both the Head of Household and the veto, so Big D’s single vote sent Kyland out — and Kyland did not leave. He asked Xavier for an explanation, then brought up Xavier’s young nephew, a boy Xavier had talked about providing for all season.
Xavier: “Are you talking about my nephew right now?” Kyland kept going. Xavier: “I suggest you stop talking about my nephew.” Julie had to call Kyland out of the house, and Azah and Big D moved to separate them.
Kyland was unrepentant the next day — the words were “objectively true,” he said, and “you got to have some fun on your way out” — though he also said he would hate for it to be misconstrued, and admitted later he had not grasped how it looked until he was out of the house. “When I walked out, I literally was in my head like, he knows what I’m talking about. So it’s fine.”
Records and firsts
- Two double evictions in consecutive weeks — weeks 9 and 10, a first for the US series.
- A unanimous 9-0 win — one of only three unanimous finales in the numbered US series at the time.
- First Black winner of the numbered US series — Xavier. The qualifier matters: it does not include the celebrity editions.
- First all-Black final three in the numbered US series.
- Seven competition wins — Xavier, from three Heads of Household, three vetoes and Part 1 of the final Head of Household.
- Five nominations survived — Xavier again, the most-nominated houseguest of the season.
- A Head of Household dethroned in secret — Claire’s Coin of Destiny, week 8.
Big Brother 23 live feed updates, week by week
We covered this season live from the feeds every night. These are our posts from the night each result happened.
- Cast: Meet the Big Brother 23 houseguests
- The teams twist: Four teams, four captains, and the Wildcard explained
- Cast change: Christie out, Claire in
- Week 1: Travis evicted 11-2
- Week 2: Frenchie evicted 11-1
- Week 3: Brent evicted 11-0
- Week 4: Whitney evicted 10-0, and the teams end
- The wall: Baby D wins the endurance HOH
- Week 5: Christian backdoored and evicted 7-2
- Week 6: Britini evicted 7-1, and Kyland’s second veto
- Week 7: Baby D evicted 5-2 after the roulette wheel
- Week 8: Sarah Beth evicted, and a secret HOH
- Week 9: Claire and Alyssa out in the first double
- Week 10: Tiffany and Hannah out in the second double
- Week 11: Xavier evicts Kyland at the final four
- Finale: Xavier wins Big Brother 23
