Heading into the 26th episode of “Big Brother 26,” new Head of Household Chelsie Baham had just nominated Kimo Apaka (her pawn) and Angela Murray (her target) for eviction. But with the Power of Veto competition still on the line, it was anyone’s guess as to who’d actually be eliminated on Thursday night. Remember, the Veto medallion has been used every single week so far — a new record. Will that pattern continue?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Big Brother” Season 26, Episode 26 recap/live blog to find out what happened Wednesday, September 11, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite “BB26” houseguests on CBS‘s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Big Brother” winners list. Julie Chen Moonves once again hosts the series.
Here are the names of the nine remaining houseguests: Angela Murray, Cam Sullivan-Brown, Chelsie Baham, Kimo Apaka, Leah Peters, Makensy Manbeck, Quinn Martin, Rubina Bernabe and T’kor Clottey. Watch Gold Derby’s exclusive webchats with all of the eliminated players so far: Matt Hardeman, Lisa Weintraub, Kenney Kelley, Cedric Hodges, Brooklyn Rivera, Tucker Des Lauriers and Joseph Rodriguez.
8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Big Brother’!” In the 25th episode, the house reacted to Joseph being the last person eliminated prior to the jury phase of the competition. The three people who voted to evict Kimo — Angela, Cam and Leo — now found themselves outnumbered by the four who voted to evict Joseph — Chelsie, Makensy, Rubina and T’kor. Later in the backyard, Chelsie won the “Before or After” HOH competition, her second such victory of the summer. Her target this week is Angela, but she also put Kimo on the block as a pawn. Will Angela be saved by the Veto yet again? Let’s go!
8:04 p.m. – Chelsie explained that Angela is her target this week because she’s playing in the middle of two sides of the house and having her removed instead of anyone else leaves her “in good standing” with everyone in the house. Chelsie identified that there is a trio of Kimo, T’Kor and Rubina on the other side of the house, which explains Kimo on the block, but doesn’t explain why she wouldn’t target that trio in full. After the nomination ceremony, Kimo reported to Rubina and T’Kor that he accepts Chelsie’s plan to use him as a pawn, but acknowledged that the voters for the week could see it as an opportunity to “break up the trio.”
8:06 p.m. – After an interaction with Angela that ended in a hug, Makensy reported to the HOH room where Cam, Chelsie and Quinn were and the group discussed their fear that Leah would win the veto and take Angela down again. Chelsie’s view of the situation hinted to Quinn that Chelsie might be considering Leah, a close ally and friend of his, as a replacement nom. When Quinn took that info down to Leah, it was worrying but Leah committed to not using it on Angela because the only reason she did that last week was to get Angela to jury so that she could vote for Leah at the end of the game.
8:10 p.m. – Makensy and Quinn were both eyeing a chance to play for the veto because they could win and protect their side of five, but also think that Angela is a player they should leave in the game at this point. They discussed the option of removing Angela from the block and forcing Chelsie’s hand to nominate someone else so that she doesn’t get through the week cleanly and they can use their numbers to take Kimo out instead of Angela. Later, Makensy wasn’t shy about telling Chelsie about what her and Quinn discussed and it came as a surprise to Chelsie. She said that there is a point to sending Kimo home this week and that ultimately they both need to go, it’s “only a matter of when” anyway.
8:18 p.m. – In the process of picking players for the ve to competition, Chelsie, Kimo and Angela all got to choose a chip. Chelsie chose Quinn, Angela chose Makensy, and Kimo chose Rubina. As luck would have it, this week those six players got to compete in the iconic “OTEV” competition for their chance to win the chance to remove someone from the block.
8:25 p.m. – For this season’s OTEV comp, the players took orders from a “trash-talking trash panda” that wanted them to collect trash for him to snack on in a series of rounds where anyone with an incorrect or slowest return would be eliminated. For the first question, the panda wanted them to return with the name of an eliminated player that didn’t get to play in the “New Rule” HOH comp from the first week. Angela was first to return with Tucker’s name. Makensy returned next. Third was Rubina with Tucker’s name and fourth was Quinn with Tucker’s name.
8:36 p.m. – Eventually Kimo found Tucker’s chip and got up the ramp quicker than Chelsie, effectively eliminating her from the competition outright. But as it turns out, Tucker was an incorrect answer. Because Makensy brought back the correct answer, Cedric, everyone except her was eliminated from the competition and she automatically won the veto in only one round. Everyone except Makensy forgot that Makensy and Tucker both competed in a social round of the comp and Cedric and Chelsie did not.
8:45 p.m. – One night after the veto comp and not able to sleep, Angela noticed that “people are missing” and so she tiptoed around the house to listen in on conversations at the doors only to realize that everyone was out in the newly opened backyard just hanging out. When she came in to the backyard though, she noticed that all of the conversation stopped and the give that were there (Quinn, T’Kor, Rubina, Leah and Kimo) must have formed an alliance to band together in order to vote her out and keep Kimo in the house. The next morning she immediately went to Chelsie with her paranoiac findings of the new five and how the rest of them are left out of it.
8:49 p.m. – Chelsie understood that Angela has a tendency to misrepresent things she sees, but she also thought it made sense because of Quinn’s history of flipping between alliances. Chelsie went to Makensy later and they discussed the possibility that what Angela saw or heard could be false, but the likelihood that Quinn could easily flip on the two of them and Cam with “Leah in his back pocket.” They decided that the reality of the alliance “doesn’t actually matter” because Quinn is dangerously in the middle of the game and they have the power right now to “flip this thing upside down” and “put up a much bigger target than Angela.”
8:55 p.m. – The morning of the veto meeting, Makensy clued Quinn in that she’s planning on using the veto to take down Angela because she’s “not going to be a threat to me” and that she knows she “can control.” Makensy said she doesn’t know what Chelsie is going to do as a renom all with the intent of lessening the blow with Quinn that comes to her if/when he goes up in Angela’s place. She told Quinn that Chelsie has named both him and Leah as options for the renom and Makensy wanted it to be clear that she is not trying to backdoor anyone and encouraged him to talk to Chelsie.
8:56 p.m. – Quinn ran up to Chelsie’s HOH room to understand from her why he’s being considered. Chelsie wanted to know how he can say he’s “dedicated to the five” when he’s loyal to other people in the house. He tried to explain that the group of three is a voting block that he doesn’t have a reason to work with and promised to never “flip on the five.” He gathered that getting himself out of harm’s way could put Leah in the hot seat so he wanted to bring Makensy in to suggest not using the veto, leaving Angela on the block, and voting to evict Kimo instead of her. After Quinn left, Makensy and Chelsie made a last minute decision about the veto and whether they trust Quinn or if they should nominate Leah instead.
8:59 p.m. – The decision to use or not use the veto will be revealed on Thursday night’s episode.