The Big Brother Season 26 winner shares how she coped with such an “emotional” cast

Summer is now officially over as Season 26 of Big Brother has ended and Chelsie Baham won the 90-day CBS competition series 7-0 over runner-up Makenzy Manbeck.

Over the last three months, 16 houseguests took turns playing games and expelling each other one by one until only the Final 2 remained. On Sunday evening, a jury of like-minded people finally decided to crown the best player with prize money of 750,000 US dollars.

On Monday morning, Chelsie, 27, told TheWrap that she was still “on top of the world” and grateful for the “absolutely crazy” experience. “This 'Big Brother' fan is going crazy,” as she put it – but that's a detail about herself that she kept secret from her fellow contestants.

“I think people started to realize that I understood this game a lot better when I put it off. “Anyone who showed that he really knew the game and was a fan was also a reason for him to be a threat,” she said. “I said I was a fan, but I didn't really let people know how invested I was in this game, and that was intentional.”

As a long-time fan of the game, Chelsie knew she had to adapt her playing style to the type of people she was playing against.

“Throughout the season there were some votes that were personal and some that were strategic. But when it was closer to the line, I read our cast; Our cast was more emotional, so I knew I should focus more on the personal side and more on the social side, but still have a competitive resume under my belt,” she explained. “When I walked into this house and saw how emotional our cast was, I wanted it to be 60% social game and 40% competitive and strategic game. So I read the room and when you read the room you can determine what kind of game you need to play.”

While the Rancho Cucamonga nonprofit director made sure to credit Rubina, Tucker, Kimo and T'kor for that flip before the jury vote that sent Cedric packing (and made this season one of the best ever), there was it was another person who she saw as her biggest competition.

“I thought Leah was a threat. Leah had a personal relationship with every single person in the house, everyone felt guilty for even mentioning Leah's name as a topic of conversation to get it on the block. She got very emotional whenever she was even considered and she was cool with everyone,” Chelsie shared. “Because we had a social cast, I knew Leah was one of the stronger ones. And no one who plays for 10 weeks without a nomination or an arena is a good player.”

And after spending the last 90 days immersed in pop culture in near-total isolation, she's also quickly figuring out what moments she missed.

“A disappointment to me, but not necessarily shocking, is J.Lo and Ben,” Chelsie said of the highly publicized divorce. “I know we saw it coming, but I supported her, “We were all cheering for you.”“

In addition to Chelsie's historic win, Makenzy received $75,000 for second place, while Tucker won the title of America's Favorite HouseGuest and its accompanying $50,000 prize ahead of Quinn and Angela (making him the first pre-judge ever to do so). received this award). ). Additionally, host Julie Chen Moonves confirmed that Big Brother will be back for season 27 next summer.

“Big Brother” is available to stream on Paramount+.

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