Janelle Pierzina played Big Brother four times and never won it. She finished third twice, won thirteen competitions, and held the show’s Head of Household record for fourteen years — a record that was finally broken during Big Brother 22, the same season she came back for and went out fourteenth.
- Seasons: Big Brother 6 (2005), Big Brother 7 All-Stars (2006), Big Brother 14 (2012), Big Brother 22 (2020).
- Best finish: third, twice. Never won.
- Competition wins: 6 Head of Household, 7 Power of Veto — 13 in total.
- Times on the block: 13, which is the career record.
- Records held: most Head of Household wins and most days played, from 2006 until 2020.
- First to play four times in the American series.
Who is Janelle on Big Brother?
Janelle Pierzina is the most decorated competitor in Big Brother never to win the game, and the most nominated player in its history. Those two facts belong together — she spent more time on the block than anyone, and won her way off it more often than almost anyone.
She first played in Big Brother 6 in 2005 and last played in Big Brother 22 in 2020. In between she became the first person to play the American show four times.
How many competitions did Janelle win?
Thirteen — six Head of Household and seven Power of Veto. All of them came in her first two seasons.
- Big Brother 6: 2 Head of Household (Weeks 7 and 10), 2 vetoes (Weeks 7 and 9).
- Big Brother 7: 4 Head of Household (Weeks 1, 4, the Week 6 redo, and the fast forward), 5 vetoes.
- Big Brother 14: none. She won two Coaches Competitions, which are a separate category and are not counted here.
- Big Brother 22: none. She was out on Day 23.
The Week 6 Head of Household in All-Stars is worth a line of its own. The competition was voided after a buzz-in device malfunctioned, and the whole thing was run again. She won the redo.
Does Janelle still hold the Big Brother records?
Janelle no longer holds the Big Brother records she once did, and the timing of how she lost them is the strangest thing on her record.
From 2006 she held two: most Head of Household wins and most days played. Both stood for fourteen years. Both were broken during Big Brother 22 — the season she returned for, and the season she was voted out on Day 23.
She was in the house, out of the game, and watching two of her own records fall.
- Head of Household: Janelle 6. Cody now holds the record at 7, across Big Brother 16 and 22.
- Days played: Janelle around 200. Nicole passed her across Big Brother 16, 18 and 22, finishing on 249.
- Power of Veto: Janelle 7, now a three-way tie rather than a record of her own.
- Total competition wins: Janelle 13, now third all-time.
One record is still hers. Thirteen times on the block is the most of any houseguest, and given how her seasons went, it is the one that describes her game best.
Why did Janelle never win Big Brother?
Janelle never won Big Brother because winning competitions and winning the game are not the same thing, and she is the clearest illustration the show has produced.
She was nominated thirteen times. Each of those weeks she had to be saved or save herself, and doing it repeatedly made her the player everyone else needed gone. In both of her strong seasons she reached the final three and was cut there — by Ivette in Big Brother 6, by Boogie in All-Stars — because taking her to the end was taking a résumé to the end.
The audience noticed the gap. She took America’s Favorite in All-Stars and the $25,000 that came with it, in the season she finished third.
What was the Sovereign Six?
The Sovereign Six was Janelle’s Big Brother 6 alliance: her, Howie, Rachel, Kaysar, James and Sarah. It was the popular half of a season split cleanly in two, and it lost.
She finished third on Day 76, cut by Ivette at the final three. Along the way there was one of the season’s oddest moments: in Week 8, April won the veto during her own Head of Household week and used it to save Janelle.
Four of the six came back for All-Stars the following summer — Janelle, Howie, Kaysar and James — and were known then simply as Season Six. A large part of the audience wanted them to win. They did not.
It is also the season that gave the show one of its most quoted lines. Janelle’s send-off to the houseguests she had just beaten — “Bye bye, b—-tches” — outlived the season, the alliance and the result, and is still the first thing a lot of feed watchers say when her name comes up.
What happened to Janelle in All-Stars?
Big Brother 7 is the season that made her reputation, and she still finished third.
Nine competition wins in one season. Four Head of Household, five vetoes. And the statistic that says the most about that summer: she was nominated four times in the regular game and won the veto every single time. Four for four. Nobody got her out by putting her on the block, so in the end Boogie simply declined to take her to the final two.
Chilltown — Will and Boogie — were the story of that season and she was the other half of it. They talked their way past a house that knew exactly what they were, while she won everything and left with the fan vote instead of the money.
What happened in Big Brother 14?
Janelle came back to Big Brother 14 as a coach rather than a player, drafted Wil, Ashley and Joe, and won two Coaches Competitions. Then the format changed underneath her.
On 2 August the game reset and the coaches entered as houseguests. She lasted three weeks. The Silent Six formed specifically to deal with her, she went up as a replacement nominee, and she was voted out 8–1 in twelfth place.
The detail that stings: Wil and Ashley, two of the three players she had coached, voted to evict her. Joe cast the only vote to keep her.
What happened in Big Brother 22?
Big Brother 22 was an All-Stars season and Janelle went out fourteenth, on Day 23.
She and Kaysar were nominated together in Week 3 by Tyler. Cody won the veto and did not use it. She was evicted 9–2, with two votes going the other way in an attempt to send Kaysar instead.
The house had decided early that the returning Season Six players were the threat, and unlike 2006 there was no run of competition wins to hold it off. It was also, as it turned out, the season her two longest-standing records were broken.
