Celebrity Big Brother finale: And the winner is...
Eleven at least semi-famous faces walked into the Big Brother house a few weeks ago for the first celebrity edition of the CBS reality franchise, but only one walked out Sunday night a winner.
Marissa Jaret Winokur was crowned the Celebrity Big Brother champion by a jury of former housemates, defeating Ross Mathews to claim the $250,000 prize. Three other houseguests — Ariadna Gutiérrez, Mark McGrath, and Omarosa Manigault made it to finale night, but Omarosa was eliminated at the beginning of the evening. Then Marissa won HOH, enabling her to evict two people, in this case Ariadna and Mark, which appeared to be a very strategically suspect decision since she was pretty much guaranteed to beat Mark. But she defeated Ross anyway. (Ross won $50, 000 as the runner-up as well as another $25,000 as America’s Favorite Houseguest.)
That set up the final two showdown with the nine other eliminated guests acting as the jury of voters to determine the winner. In a rules twist that has not transpired since way back in Big Brother 3 in 2002, the jury was not sequestered and was therefore able to vote for the winner having seen everything that happened in the house — including Diary Room sessions — along the way.
In the end, Marissa was deemed the most worthy and becomes the first — but perhaps not last — Celebrity Big Brother champion. Make sure to read our full finale recap as well as exit interviews with the winner and fellow finalists.
