Big Brother Northwestern 4

## Cast/Memory Wall

**Big Brother Northwestern 4**, also known as **Big Brother Northwestern: 1949 Campus Drive**, is the fourth season of Big Brother Northwestern. Taking place on March 14, 2023, this season was themed around Northwestern's Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts. For the first time, Drew Slager did not host the season, as they instead participated as a houseguest; the season was planned and hosted by former houseguests Ashley Valent and Mario Montes.

With the houseguests competing in teams based off of Northwestern's Student Theatre boards, the early challenge dominance of the JTE team worried the other houseguests, but fluid alliances and dynamic gameplay allowed the duo of Drew Slager and Talya Braverman to seize control; however, their games were ended by a new alliance consisting of new players Abraham Deitz-Green, Anne-Sophie Lacombe-Garcia, and Morgan Barber, formed with the sole intent of evicting them. With the alliance setting their sights on the endgame, a last minute betrayal by Morgan resulted in returning player Alena Haney being crowned the winner in a 5-3-1 vote.

## Production

Big Brother Northwestern follows the format of the rebooted Big Brother Australia series (seasons 12-14), thereby featuring the following production changes from the American version of Big Brother

* **Nominator Challenges:** At the start of each round, the housemates compete in a "Nominator Challenge". The winner of the competition has the sole power over the nominations. Immediately after the challenge, the winning housemate will be called to the Diary Room by Big Brother to name three nominees, and provide full reasons for their nominations. If the competition is run in pairs, then the winning pair must decide together on nominations.
* **Eviction Vote:** On eviction night, all housemates must vote to evict one of the nominees, with the exception of the nominating housemate (who will only cast a tie-breaker vote, if required), nor do the nominated housemates vote when there are only two nominees (on account of their votes canceling the other's out). The eviction vote is by secret ballot, with housemates casting their votes orally in the Diary Room to Big Brother, and must provide a reason for their vote. The nominee with the most votes is evicted from the house.
* **Final 3:** The finale of the seasons consists of the final 3 houseguests in the game.
* **Jury Vote:** Due to Big Brother Northwestern not having a viewing audience, the winner of the season was determined through a Jury Vote as opposed to a Public Vote.

## Twists

* **Location Change:** For the first time, a BBNU season did not take place in the Willard Seminar Room. Staying on theme, this season took place in the Bergen in the Wirtz Center.
* **Teams:** Houseguests were split into teams (for this season, “STUCO Boards”) for the first few rounds of the game. The winner of each Nominator Challenge would earn safety for their entire Board for the round. There were three STUCO Boards this season, predetermined by the co-hosts based on the alliances at the start of the game (with the exception of the Ghostface alliance, no one from the same alliance was on the same Board). Teams were disbanded after Round 4.
* **Pairs Week:** During Round 5, the houseguests were assigned pairs. One pair won the nominator challenge and nominated 2 pairs for eviction. The other pair then voted to evict one nominated pair.
	+ **Fake Double Eviction:** The evicted pair would not immediately leave the house and would instead face eviction once again, but as individuals. The houseguest that received the most votes is evicted, while the non-evicted houseguest would returning to the game.
* **Reset Button:** During Round 7, a mystery button was presented to the houseguests immediately following the nominator challenge. If a majority of the houseguests pressed the button, the challenge results would be voided and the houseguests would compete in the challenge a second time, opening up the possibility of a new person in power.

## Houseguests

  **Winner**

 **Runner-Up**

 **Third Place**

 **Jury: *Abraham***

 **Jury: *Alena***

 **Jury: *Alena***

 **Jury: *Alena***

 **Jury: *Alena***

 **Jury: *Alena***

 **Jury: *Morgan***

 **Jury: *Abraham***

 **Jury: *Abraham***

## Challenge History

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9

## Alliances

*Arranged by duration/effectiveness/power:*

* **Anti-Drew/Talya Final 3 Alliance** - *Abraham, Anne-Sophie, Morgan*
* **ConnectiCunts** - *Drew, Talya*
* **Slaytie Lupica** - *Alena, Drew*
* **Mack and Ash** - *Anne-Sophie, Morgan*
* **Tadaa!** - *Abraham, Talya*
* **Tasia Jones** - *Abraham, Alena, Drew*
* **Ghostface** - *Alex, Drew*
* **Slaybraham Drewtz** - *Abraham, Drew*
* **Ashley + Mario** - *Anne-Sophie, Drew*
* **District 12** - *Anne-Sophie, Arwen-Vira*
* **We R Allied** - *Alex, Talya*
* **Abuela Died😔** - *Arwen-Vira, Drew*
* **She Kills Matilda** - *Drew, Morgan*
* **Three MusketQueers** - *Abby, Drew, Talya*
* **Arts Alliance** - *Abby, Alex*
* **Bussy They** - *Abby, Drew*
* **1 Eyed 1 Horned Flying Purple People Eaters** - *Anne-Sophie, Evan*
* **?** - *Arwen-Vira, Evan*
* **Threesome** - *Drew, Esteban, Talya*
* **Blue Moon** - *Drew, Esteban*

## Game Summary

### Round 1

 **Nominator**

 **Board Safety**

 **Board Safety**

 **Board Safety**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Nominee5 Votes**

 **Evicted6 Votes**

Upon entering the house, the houseguests were split into 3 teams named after Northwestern Student Theatre boards: JTE, Sit & Spin, and Vertigo. In a First Impressions vote, houseguests had to vote for who they wanted to give power to. While most people voted Abraham, Drew, or Talya due to alliances or voting with their new teams, Evan’s sole vote for Alena crowned her as the first nominator due to her receiving the least amount of votes out of the people who received votes. With Alena’s win, Evan, Morgan, and Talya received safety as members of JTE. Alena nominated Esteban as her target, with Alex as a secondary option and Abraham as a safe vote. While the house initially wanted to evict Alex, Drew flipped the vote to evict Esteban due to him being a challenge threat and wanting to save Alex as an ally. In a close 6-5-0 vote, Esteban became the first person evicted.

### Round 2

 **Nominator**

 **Board Safety**

 **Board Safety**

 **Board Safety**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Nominee3 Votes**

 **Evicted7 Votes**

Evan won the next challenge, once again granting the JTE members safety for the round. Evan chose to target Drew due to his experience hosting the game, along with Abby for being a wildcard and Baz as a safe vote. Drew was saved due to his alliances and Baz was evicted 7-3-0.

### Round 3

 **Nominator**

 **Board Safety**

 **Board Safety**

 **Board Safety**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Nominee4 Votes**

 **Evicted5 Votes**

Talya won the next challenge after a tight final round against Abraham and Anne-Sophie, once again earning JTE safety. Talya decided to nominate Abby, Alex, and Anne-Sophie for eviction. Despite many people agreeing to evict Abby, the vote ended in a 4-4-1 tie between Abby and Alex, and Talya cast the tiebreaking vote and evicted Abby.

### Round 4

 **Nominator**

 **Board Safety**

 **Board Safety**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Nominee3 Votes**

 **Evicted4 Votes**

Alex won the next challenge, granting Vertigo safety and leaving JTE in danger for the first time in the game. Alex nominated Alena and Evan due to them being members of JTE, with Evan as his main target. He also nominated Anne-Sophie as a safe vote. While the house wanted to evict Alena, Drew and Talya gathered the votes to evict Evan, and in an extremely close vote, Evan was evicted 4-3-1.

### Round 5

#### Round 1

 **Co-Nominator**

 **Co-Nominator**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Fake Evicted1 Vote**

 **Fake Evicted1 Vote**

Before the next challenge, Alena, Abraham, and Drew talked about targeting Morgan and Arwen-Vira for their social games and how they likely won’t be nominated in the near future, resulting in the Tasia Jones alliance. It was then announced that the next round of the game would be played in pairs, with the pairs being selected by a random draw: Abraham & Morgan, Anne-Sophie & Arwen-Vira, Alena & Alex, and Drew & Talya. Drew & Talya won the challenge and decided to target Anne-Sophie & Arwen-Vira, and chose Abraham & Morgan as the other nominees because they felt they would have more control over the votes of Alena & Alex. With Drew & Talya telling both pairs of nominees that the other was the target, they secretly confided with Alena & Alex who their real target was, and with their sole vote to evict, Alena & Alex voted to evict Anne-Sophie & Arwen-Vira.

#### Round 2

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Evicted4 Votes**

However, the round was not over yet! Before Anne-Sophie and Arwen-Vira left the house, it was announced that it was a Fake Double Eviction, and that Anne-Sophie & Arwen-Vira would now face the vote again as individuals. With Drew and Talya still having influence and the Tasia Jones alliance having just solidified a deal to get rid of Arwen-Vira, she was evicted unanimously and sent packing.

### Round 6

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Nominee3 Votes**

 **Evicted4 Votes**

Talya won her third nominator challenge of the season and nominated Alena, Alex, and Morgan for eviction. During this round, Anne-Sophie, Abraham, and Morgan formed a final three deal after Abraham and Anne-Sophie were both on Sit and Spin and all three were nominated during Round 5. This group’s main priority was to evict Drew and Talya, who they viewed as running the game. Meanwhile, Drew, knowing Alex was most likely going to be evicted, gathered Alex’s and Alena’s votes to force a tie, forcing Talya to make a second tiebreaker vote and get even more blood on her hands. Drew's plan succeeded and the vote tied 3-3 between Alex and Morgan, and Talya voted to evict Alex.

### Round 7

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Nominee2 Votes**

 **Evicted3 Votes**

Anne-Sophie won the next challenge, but before she made her nominations, the house was presented with the Reset Button: if a majority of houseguests pressed the button, Anne-Sophie's victory would be overthrown and the challenge would be run a second time. Alena, Drew, and Talya all didn’t press the button, allowing Anne-Sophie to keep her power. Anne-Sophie nominated Alena, Morgan, and Talya for eviction, with her main target being Alena. Her reasoning was that she wanted to preserve her alliance with Abraham and Morgan as well as her alliance with Drew, and she chose Morgan and Talya because she believed they would be protected by their other alliances in the game. Abraham and Morgan instead targeted Talya and pulled in Alena and Drew, although Drew planned on voting out Alena to maintain his relationship with Talya. Alena, Abraham, and Drew agreed to take the Tasia Jones alliance to the end, and Talya was evicted 3-2-0 over Alena.

### Round 8

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Evicted2 Votes**

Initially planning to have a Hide and Seek challenge in Wirtz, outside forces changed the challenge and Morgan came out on top. Despite promising Drew that she would nominate Anne-Sophie, Morgan nominated Alena and Drew, with Drew as her target because Morgan believed he lied about evicting Talya. Anne-Sophie, for the same reason she didn’t nominate Drew last round, voted to evict Alena, resulting in the third tie vote of the season. Morgan chose to evict Drew for being the bigger threat to win the game.

### Round 9

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Evicted1 Vote**

During the final nominator challenge, Morgan once again came out on top. Despite initially planning to evict Alena and go to the Final 3 with her alliance of Abraham and Anne-Sophie, Morgan changed her mind at the last minute and evicted Anne-Sophie, resulting in Morgan, Alena, and Abraham being the Final 3 of the season.

### Finale

 **Winner5 Votes to Win**

 **Runner-Up3 Votes to Win**

 **Third Place1 Vote to Win**

 **Production's Favorite**

Most of the Jury Members returned to the house and listened as the Final 3 gave pitches as to why they should be crowned the winner of Big Brother Northwestern 4. The most discussed topics were Alena's perseverance despite being nominated multiple times and losing her allies, Abraham's strategic gameplay and ability to reach the Final 3 without a single vote cast against him, and Morgan's late-game challenge streak and betrayal of Anne-Sophie and Drew. In the end, Alena emerged as the victor in a 5-3-1 vote, and following the season, Ashley and Mario named Anne-Sophie the recipient of this season's Production's Favorite award.

#### Jury

 **Abraham**

 **Abraham**

 **Morgan**

 **Alena**

 **Alena**

 **Alena**

 **Alena**

 **Alena**

 **Abraham**

## Trivia

* This is the first season that did not feature Drew Slager planning, operating, or hosting in any aspect, as they instead participated as a houseguest. Former houseguests Ashley Valent and Mario Montes co-hosted this season.
* This is the first season to not feature any challenges beyond nominator challenges, including Second Chance challenges. The reason why is currently unknown.
	+ As a result, the Final 4 houseguests of this season are the first houseguests in BBNU to participate in every challenge in a season.
* This season currently holds the record for least amount of returnees present in a season featuring returning houseguests, with only 4 of the 12 houseguests being returning houseguests.
* This is the first season to feature multiple tied votes, with 3 in total.
* With Alex Branka's participation on this season, he becomes the first BBNU houseguest to play 3 times.
* This season marks the first time that a Fake Eviction occurs without a houseguest being sent to the Secret Room, as both Anne-Sophie Lacombe-Garcia and Arwen-Vira Marsh stayed in the main house during the Fake Eviction.
* Anne-Sophie sets the record for highest placing houseguest who was fake evicted during the season, finishing in 4th place.
* During this season, Abraham Deitz-Green became the first houseguest to reach the Finale without receiving a single eviction vote against them.
* This season started at 7:15 PM and ended at 11:33 PM, lasting 4 hours and 18 minutes.