Head of Household
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Head Of Household (or HoH) is the most valuable power that can be won in the American version of Big Brother. The Head of Household has the ultimate power in the Big Brother house, as he/she is safe for at least a week, and has the power to decide which houseguest will be evicted.
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[edit] The HoH Competition
Every week, after a houseguest is evicted, the remaining houseguests compete to become the next HoH. The previous Head of Household cannot compete. Most of the time, it is a trivia challenge. The host, Julie Chen, will ask a series of questions. Once a competitior gives a wrong answer, they are eliminated from the challenge. The host continues to ask questions until all but one houseguest is eliminated (in which they automatically win HoH), or until she runs out of questions. If she runs out of questions, then the remaining houseguests pull out a chalkboard and must answer a question with a numerical answer. The person the closest without going over wins. If everyone is over, the closest wins. There have also been the rare physical challenges where houseguests must test their physical strength. There is also endurance competitons- where all the houseguests have to last on something with the last one remaining winning Head of Household. These typically are not completed on the night of the competition and can sometimes play out all night. The record for longest Head of Household competition was in the sixth round of Big Brother 6- where Jennifer Vazquez and Kaysar Ridha lasted for fourteen hours in the "Pressure Cooker" before Kaysar let go of his button.
[edit] HoH Bedroom
Once the HoH is crowned, they are given a key by the previous HoH to enter their room. Inside, the HoH will find favorite snacks, pictures of loved ones, letters, beverages, and a favorite CD to listen to.
Over the past years, the HoH has been remodeled every year. The first couple of years consisted of a bed, mini-fridge, and a two-way mirror that the HoH could use inside the room to spy on their fellow houseguests. In Big Brother 5, a spy screen was put in the room to replace the two-way mirror. Hidden behind a painting was the spy screen, and the HoH could activate it with a simple touch of a button on a remote control. The spy screen allows the HoH to spy on their fellow houseguests, however, it is only visual feed, and no audio feed. In Big Brother 6, the HoH bedroom was supersized. It became the only room on the newly-added second story, and a private bathroom was installed in the HoH room, with a toilet, shower, and bathtub (previously, the bathtub was in the main bathroom). The spy screen was also kept, and a computer was installed as well to allow the HoH to blog about their experiences as HoH that week. In Big Brother 7, the HoH décor was changed from week to week to suit the winner's liking.
[edit] Food Comps
Each week before nominations (except for double-eviction weeks), the houseguests must fight for their right to eat decent food. When there are an even amount of players excluding the HoH, then the house is split into two teams. They both compete in a challenge and the winning team gets regular food. Normally, the losing team is forced to eat Peanut Butter and Jelly for the week, but on Big Brother 7, they changed it to slop. The HoH eats with the winning team. When there isn't an even amount of people excluding the HoH, then the house competes for food groups that they want. Or, they may play for days of the week.
[edit] Nominations
One important task that the HoH must perform is putting two fellow houseguests up on the nomination block. This started in Big Brother 2 when the HoH position was created. Before the nominees are revealed, many houseguests come into the HoH bedroom to talk strategy and to convince the HoH to not nominate them. The HoH takes the keys of all the houseguests and places them into their room. For every person that is safe, their key is placed into the box. Then, the remaining two keys are placed in a bag and put in a drawer in the HoH bedroom. The HoH calls the houseguest to the dining room table for the nomination ceremony. The HoH makes a quick speech regarding nominations, and their motive. Then he/she pulls out the first key, and hands it to the safe contestant. That contestant also pulls out a key to reveal the next safe contestant. This process repeats itself until no keys are remaining in the box, thus revealing the safe houseguests, and revealing the nominees. The HoH then makes another speech, and dismisses the houseguests.
[edit] Power of Veto
After the nominations are announced, the Power of Veto competition isn't far behind. The HoH picks a partner and so do each of the nominees. There are a total of six players. Before season 5, everyone competed. Once only six players could play, houseguests created the idea of backdooring. Recently, on season 7, the HoH and the two nominees each pick a random houseguest out of a bag for a partner. Once a houseguest wins POV, they can take themselves or somebody else off the chopping block. The HoH can't nominate the veto winner or the saved nominee. If the veto is used, the HoH's nominees could be ruined.
[edit] Eviction
After the veto ceremony and someone is saved (or not), then the houseguests must decide who to evict out of the house. The HoH and the two nominees cannot vote to evict someone and in the case of a tiebreaker, the HoH decides who goes home.
[edit] Double Eviction Weeks
Sometimes, there are double eviction weeks. A houseguest will win HoH and immediately must nominate two houseguests. A second houseguest is evicted about 24-48 hours after the previous one leaving one less week in the game of Big Brother.
[edit] Coup d'Etat
During season 7, one houseguest was granted the power of the Coup D'Etat. They could overthrow the HoH right before an eviction and create their own nominees. They could not nominate the POV winner, the saved POV nominee or the previous HoH. The winner was Mike Malin and he chose not to use it for his first two weeks. In his third and final week, he was HoH and the power couldn't be used.
[edit] Rewards
There have been rare occasions when the HoH has received rewards. One time, an HoH got to go to the MTV Video Music Awards. There have other occasions where rewards were given.
[edit] Final HOH
The Final Head of Household is a three part competition. Since Big Brother 3, the format has been that the first round is an endurance competition, the second round is physical based, and the third round is question and answer regarding statements made by Jury members. The winner of part one automatically moves onto part three of the competiton, leaving the other two to battle in part two. The winner of part two moves on to part three to battle the winner of part one in the final part. The loser is eliminated and must watch from the sidelines. That can be a dangerous position to be in as the winners of part one and two will typically form a deal to each take each other to the final two. So far, the loser of part one and two has been evicted four times; Monica (BB2), Robert (BB4), Diane (BB5), and Janelle (BB7) were all eliminated in the HOH competition and then evicted. Danielle (BB3) and Maggie (BB6) were both eliminated but not evicted. The winner of Part Three of the HOH Competition must decide immediately which of their houseguests to evict and which one to bring to the final two.
The Final HOH's track record of winning the show is 3-3. Lisa (BB3), Drew (BB5), and Mike (BB7) all won the final HOH and went on to win the jury vote. Nicole (BB2), Alison (BB4), and Ivette (BB6) all lost the jury vote after winning the final HOH competition.
