The Big Brother season 12 was aired on CBS in 2010 and was one of the most successful programs of the TV network that year. In fact, the season 12 of US version of Big Brother had attracted more than 7.76 million viewers on average, who followed what was going on in the Big Brother house from July 8 to September 15, the same year.
The season 12 followed the same pattern as previous seasons, with a few minor changes that made it more enjoyable. Of course, the main reason why it kept the viewers in front of the TV screens is that the HouseGuests were super-interesting people. We saw them arguing, but also falling in love with each other. In fact, the HouseGuests brought us some memorable moments, throughout the season.
Big Brother Season 12 HouseGuests
Same as always, season 12 also saw the Big Brother house occupied by interesting characters. There was a total of 13 HouseGuests through the whole season, all of which were strangers to one another before entering the house. They came from all parts of the country and had different professional backgrounds.
Initially, the plan was to have 14 contestants in the house of Big Brother, but Paola Aviles had decided to give up during the sequester period. The decision of the Big Brother production was not to replace her with an alternative contestant.
Summer of Sabotage
To add to the excitement of this season of Big Brother, the production decided to add a few twist. The most important twist this season was the Summer of Sabotage twist. It involved one HouseGuest, Annie Whittington who was given a task by Big Brother to create chaos among other contestants. If she was to remain in the house up until Week, Annie was to be awarded $50,000, while remaining in the competition for the big prize (half a mil) at the end.
Unfortunately for Annie, the twist didn’t work out very well for her – she got evicted in the very first week. However, the people behind the game show did not intend to give up on Summer of Sabotage twist that easily. They decided to find a new Saboteur!
A New Saboteur Is Chosen
The Big Brother production team wanted to keep the twist going, but they needed someone to replace Annie’s role. To find the right person for the job, they decided to let the public decide who’s going to be the new Saboteur. A new Saboteur is chosen during the Pandora’s Box opening in Week 5.
The public decided that the role of the next Saboteur was to be given to Ragan Fox. His mission involved creating panic and paranoia in the Big Brother house, something that he did well. For doing the job right, he was awarded 20,000 dollars.
Pandora’s Box Returns
After having its premiere in the season 11, Pandora’s Box returns in the following season. The twist was rather controversial, and not all viewers thought it’s fair. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why Pandora’s Box is discontinued since the season 15. The public thought of it as a way for producers to rig the contest.
This is because the whole point of Pandora’s Box was to unleash chaos in the Big Brother house. The twist was inspired by the Pandora’s Box story from the ancient Greek mythology. In the myth, the Box contained all the evils, and once Pandora opened it, the evils went to conquer the whole world.
In the Big Brother version of Pandora’s Box, the evils would be unleashed upon the HouseGuests. The box would appear in the Head of Household room and would contain something bad for either the whole house or just the HOH.
The Diamond Power of Veto Returns
We saw another twist coming back – the Diamond Power of Veto returns in the Big Brother season 12! This time, it came as a part of the Pandora’s Box twist. The power was inside of the Box when one of the contestants, Matt Hoffman, opened it. It gave him the power to save one Houseguest from being nominated, but also to name his/hers replacement.
Of course, the Pandora’s Box contained bad things as well. It provided the Head of Household with power but brought a kind of evil to other HouseGuests. It unleashed the Saboteur 2.0 into the Big Brother house!
Most Memorable Moments in Big Brother Season 12
The tensions in the Big Brother house started rising during the very first week. Most of it was revolving around Annie, who was the Saboteur, with the aim to raise chaos in the house. Her spree, however, ended during the first week, when she was evicted with a unanimous vote by other HouseGuests. The Saboteur 2.0 was Matt, who did his job better – causing havoc but managing to stay in the house.
We also saw lots of arguing in the house, especially when Rachel Reilly was around. During her 6-week stay in the house, she was constantly in feuds with other contestants. The most memorable argument was the one she had with Kristen Bitting, although we mustn’t forget the fight Rachel versus Ragan Fox.
This season also brought us a lot of challenges for which the HouseGuests were awarded prizes, such as screening of the movie The Other Guys. We also witnessed some fun competitions in the house, such as the Have/Have-Not competition. The HouseGuests competed against each other to avoid becoming one of the Have-Nots, which involved taking cold showers, sleeping in uncomfortable beds, eating bad-tasting foods, etc.
The Brigade Alliance
From the very beginning of the season 12 of Big Brother, the HouseGuests started forming alliances. One of the very first alliance was the one named The Brigade, which was formed by Hayden Moss. He was joined by Matt Hoffman, Lane Elenburg, and Enzo Palumbo in the alliance. The formation of the partnership took place in the HOH quarters on the Day 2, when Heyden was the Head of Household.
The tactic of The Brigade was to stay quiet throughout the season, ensuring that other HouseGuests wouldn’t realize the existence of the alliance. To keep the members of The Brigade safe, the alliance decided that each of them would have side-allegiance. Hayden formed a showmance with Kristen, Britney became Lane’s ally, Matt partnered up with Ragan, while Enzo chose to ally with Monet.
The Brigade proved to be one of the most successful alliances in the whole history of the game show. The members managed to stay in the house for a long time, with Hayden Moss eventually winning the grand prize at the end of the season.
Last Few Weeks in the Big Brother House
As the Big Brother season 12 was coming to an end, the things started heating up in the house. To deal with the boredom once only three contestants were left in the house, the producers of Big Brother decided to launch a couple of challenges. One of those was the $10,000 Reward Challenge, which Britney Haynes won in the Week 9.
Unfortunately for Britney, the Week 9 was the last week of her stay in the house, as she was evicted, after that week’s HOH, Hayden voted for her eviction. What this meant that in the final week, Hayden, Lane, and Enzo – the members of The Brigade, were the remaining HouseGuests.
What this also meant was that the members of The Brigade were pitted against each other – their alliance had come to an end! In the last week in the Big Brother house, the Week 10, Hayden won the Head of Household challenge, so he was to choose which of the remaining was going to stand against him the Finale. Hayden decided to evict Enzo.
Who Won Big Brother 12?
The season’s winner was to be decided by the votes of the members of the Sequestered Jury. The Jury was made of 7 previously evicted HouseGuests, namely Enzo, Britney, Ragan, Brendon, Matt, Kathy, and Rachel. Their job was to decide who was to get the 500,000 dollar prize – Hayden or Lane. So, who won Big Brother 12?
The Grand Finale took place 75 days after the season premiere. On the night of September 15, it was revealed that Hayden narrowly beat Lane with 4 votes against 3. This meant that he was the winner of Big Brother season 12 and went home with half a mil more on his bank account.
After winning Big Brother season 12, Hayden went on to participate in another reality TV program, Survivor. Together with his girlfriend, Kat Edorsson, he appeared in the 27th edition of the game show, called Survivor: Blood vs. Water. Unfortunately for Hayden, he failed to achieve the same level of success as he did with Big Brother.
Trivia
At the moment of the original airing, Big Brother was competing for viewership with another reality game show that was a result of CBS-Endemol co-production. We’re talking about Wipeout, which had more than 7.9 million viewers on average per episode. Big Brother season 12, on the other hand, had 7.35M viewers during the night of the premiere, while its most viewed episode was the Episode 21 with 7.99 million viewers.
This season saw the winner getting half a million dollars as the main prize, but this wasn’t the only award the contestants won. Apart from the prize for the runner-up and the third place, Big Brother also awarded cash prizes on other occasions. As a part of the Saboteur twists, some HouseGuests won money for successfully completing tasks. Furthermore, there were many other prizes, such as a trip to Hawaii (won by Hayden), a 3D TV (won by Enzo), and so on.
This season saw contestants getting a lot of valuable prizes, but also earning severe punishments. For example, as a part of Week 4 Veto competition, Hayden was punished with 24 hours in solitary confinement. His ally from The Brigade, Enzo, had to wear a penguin suit throughout the whole Week 7. A similar thing happened with Kristen, who had to wear ‘hippietard’ costume for a week.
Final Note
Big Brother season 12 did an excellent job keeping with the tradition of this game show. It was full of twists and turns, which came as a result of carefully planned production. Apart from providing the HouseGuests with awards for successfully dealing with tasks, the Big Brother production team had also punished them on several occasions. All of this brought tensions among the contestants, but put a smile on the face of every Big Brother fan.
Apart from being remembered for the great job done by the production, the season 12 of US version of Big Brother is also notable for the show that the contestants put on throughout the season. We saw them arguing, but also making life-long friendships. In fact, some of them made such an impression on the viewing public that CBS decided to call them up for future seasons –RachelReilly and Brendon Villegas appeared in the 13th season of Big Brother, Hayden participated in Survivor, etc.
If reading about the season 12 has made you want to re-watch it, you can do that by visiting the official site of CBS!