Big Brother 26 winner announced

A Big Brother Season full of artificial intelligence hijinks, veto renominations and cries of “CRAZY EYES!” finally concluded on Sunday night when the Season 26 winner was crowned during the two-hour live finale.

Chelsie Baham, Makensy Manbek and Cam Sullivan-Brown made it to the finale in hopes (and in Cam's case, dreams) of winning over the final Head of Household, putting the winner into the final two and giving them the choice of who to be next to you're supposed to sit at the end, and the final two then face off against the jury – a jury that answered its own burning questions for EW shortly before the finale.

As always, the final competition consisted of a three-part competition, with the winners of part one and part two competing against each other at the end. The first part was called “Sever the Source” and involved players hanging in the air from an “Assault Block” for as long as possible while green slime dripped over them. In the end, Chelsie outlasted Can and Makensy, won the first part (destroying BB AI Ainsley's power source in the process) and went straight to the third part.

Makensy and Cam then competed in the second part of the competition, titled “Cerebral Shutdown” – one with rules far too confusing to go into here, but whose instructions were delivered by a flying raven. Cam continued his years of competitive battles while Makensy ran away with victory, destroying Ainsley's brain and wiping her from the planet in the process. (Unless a time laser can somehow bring them back.)

This set up a showdown between Chelsie and Makensy in the third part, and the winner faced the dilemma of whether they would take each other or bring Cam, who would be easier to beat in the end. Both players correctly answered the first five questions in the “Data Destruction” competition in part three, but Chelsie failed on the final question, giving Makensy the final HOH victory and asking the most important question of the season: Would she take Cam to the end? , which all but secured her victory and the $750,000 prize, or would she choose Chelsie and fight it out to the finish?

Anticipating the unexpected twist worthy of the franchise tagline, Makensy did the latter, missing out on the easy win to end up with a chance to beat the best. But would she?

Makensy's risky decision would depend on whether the jury valued her ten competition wins more or respected Chelsie's strategic skills and her ability to manipulate others (like Makensy) into doing her bidding.

Makensy's risky decision would depend on whether the jury valued her ten competition wins more or respected Chelsie's strategic skills and her ability to manipulate others (like Makensy) into doing her bidding. This answer was given when Makensy was told by the jury that she believed Chelsie had influenced her strategic decisions, such as when Leah was voted out. Makensy insisted that it was all her own doing, telling them: “I took this step alone.” No one can influence me. I made decisions for myself.” But Chelsie then took credit for the move (along with others), and the judges seemed to agree with her.

Chelsie also hit the nail on the head in her closing speech – she even pointed out that she had a better win rate than Makensy because she competed in seven fewer competitions – sealing the victory that became official as host Julie Chen Moonves read out the votes and announced Chelsie as the winner Big Brother Season 26. And not just a winner, but a unanimous winner, receiving all seven votes from the jury.

In the end, Makensy's decision to take Chelsie to the end cost the runner-up $675,000. As a result, however, viewers were treated to a triple-threat champion who excelled both competitively (tying the record with four wins as Head of Household), strategically (convincing Makensy to get rid of ally Leah) and socially (as he never had one was exposed to real risk) of going home). And not even Ainsley could stop her.

Sign in Weekly entertainmentis the free daily newsletter to get breaking news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite celebrities and more.