Big Brother Northwestern 1

## Cast/Memory Wall

**Big Brother Northwestern 1**, also known as **Season 1**, is the first season of Big Brother Northwestern. It took place on June 6, 2022, and featured 14 houseguests competing to win.

This season saw two opposing alliances (the GSA Alliance and the UN A SHQO Alliance) face off; however, UN A SHQO quickly imploded and was systemically eliminated until only one member remained. From this point on, the GSA Alliance started to cannibalize, blindsiding its most prominent members, and after many rounds of gameplay, James Hisanaga was crowned the first winner of BBNU in a 5-2-2 vote over Milena Elias-Reyes and Natalie Tangeman.

## 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

* **Save Advantage:** During Round 4, it was announced that a secret advantage was hidden somewhere inside of the house. The houseguest that finds the advantage would earn the power to save one of the three nominated houseguests, but as a result was not allowed to compete in that round’s Nominator Challenge. The advantage was found by Milena Elias-Reyes, who used it to save herself after being nominated.
* **Fake Eviction:** During Rounds 4 and 5, the evicted houseguests (Alex Branka and Nathan Hiykel, respectively), were not removed from the game but instead hidden in a secret room, awaiting a chance to return to the game. During Round 6, the other houseguests would vote for either Alex or Nathan to return to the game, with the winner of the Nominator Challenge, Nick Hollenbeck, being able to cast two votes.
* **Second Chance Challenge:** During Rounds 10 and 11, it was revealed that the three nominated houseguests would compete in a second challenge, where the winner would save themselves from eviction.

## Houseguests

  **Winner**

 **Co-Runner-Up**

 **Co-Runner-Up**

 **Jury: *James***

 **Jury: *James***

 **Jury: *Natalie***

 **Jury: *Milena***

 **Jury: *James***

 **Jury: *Natalie***

 **Jury: *Milena***

 **Jury: *N/A***

 **Jury: *James***

 **Jury: *James***

 **Jury: *N/A***

## Alliances

*Arranged by duration/effectiveness/power:*

* **GSA Alliance** - *Hayley, James, Julie, Natalie, Nathan, Rachel R*
* **UN A SHQO Alliance** - *Gavin, Mario, Milena, Nick, Rachel W*
* **Unnamed Alliance #1** - *Alex, Gavin, Mario, Nick*
* **Unnamed Alliance #2** - *Hayley, Julie, Milena, Natalie*
* **Becker + Lili** - *Becker, Lili*

## Game Summary

### Round 1

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Nominee2 Votes**

 **Evicted10 Votes**

All of the houseguests entered the Big Brother Northwestern house and the game began. Nathan won the first challenge of the season and almost nominated Becker before changing his mind and nominating Nick and Rachel W for eviction. He reluctantly decided Mario to be the last nominee. Despite her pleas, Rachel W was the first houseguest evicted.

### Round 2

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Nominee4 Votes**

 **Evicted8 Votes**

Alex won the next challenge and nominated Julie, Lili, and Nathan. During this round, the GSA Alliance was formed, consisting of Hayley, James, Julie, Natalie, Nathan, and Rachel R, to combat the UN A SHQO alliance. Lili was blindsided and evicted for being deemed a social threat who could win the game.

### Round 3

 **Co-Nominator**

 **Co-Nominator**

 **Nominee2 Votes**

 **Nominee3 Votes**

 **Evicted5 Votes**

The houseguests competed in pairs for the next challenge: Nick and Gavin, Nathan and James, Natalie and Milena, Mario and Rachel R, Hayley and Becker, and Alex and Julie. Nick and Gavin won and decided to target Becker and nominate some of his “side” of the house, Milena and Natalie, with him, to support their “UN A SHQO” alliance. Meanwhile, the GSA Alliance decided to split their votes between the three nominees so they wouldn’t be directly responsible for the eviction outcome. Becker ended up being evicted in an extremely close vote.

### Round 4

 **Nominator**

 **Pre-Save NomineeSave Advantage**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Fake Evicted7 Votes**

The houseguests hunted for an advantage, which Milena found. Nick won the challenge and nominated Milena because she had the advantage and had jumped ship from UN A SHQO, and Alex and Hayley because he wanted to split them up. Milena saved herself with the advantage, leaving Alex and Hayley nominated. Alex exposed that he was in two alliances with Nick, who nominated him. Alex and Nick had a public blow up, but despite this Alex was evicted; however, it was revealed to Alex as he was leaving that his eviction was fake, and instead of leaving the Big Brother house, he was whisked away to a Secret Room.

### Round 5

 **Co-Nominator**

 **Co-Nominator**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Nominee3 Votes**

 **Fake Evicted4 Votes**

The houseguests competed once again in pairs: Hayley and James, Nick and Natalie, Mario and Rachel R, Julie and Nathan, and Milena and Gavin. Mario and Rachel R won the challenge and nominated James, Natalie, and Nathan because those nominees didn’t cross either of their alliances (Rachel R staying loyal to the GSA Alliance and Mario staying loyal to his alliances with Nick and Gavin). Nathan was blindsided in yet another close vote, but once again the eviction was fake and Nathan was sent to join Alex in the Secret Room.

### Round 6

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee9 Votes to Return**

 **Evicted1 Vote to Return**

Nick won the next challenge, during which it was revealed two of the previous five evictions were fake. Nathan and Alex “returned” to the house, but the houseguests had to vote for only one of them to return. As the winner of the challenge, Nick had 2 votes. Nathan was chosen to stay in a 9-1 vote, formally evicting Alex, mostly because people saw Alex as a bigger threat and Nathan was a member of the GSA Alliance.

### Round 7

 **Re-Entered**

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Nominee2 Votes**

 **Evicted6 Votes**

With Nathan now officially back in the game, Julie won the physical challenge in a close fight against Gavin and Natalie, having made a deal with Natalie to keep her safe. Julie nominated Nick, James, and Rachel R. In his plea, Nick said that Rachel R and James were being quiet and playing under the radar, but James and Rachel R defended themselves and Nick, the house target for several rounds now, was evicted.

### Round 8

 **Co-Nominator**

 **Co-Nominator**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Nominee2 Votes**

 **Evicted4 Votes**

The houseguests competed in pairs again (which Drew didn’t write down), but Rachel R was not given a partner and therefore was given safety for the round. In a blowout, Hayley and Milena won, and after lots of consideration, nominated Nathan, James, and Mario, due to Nathan being strategic and James and Mario being pawns. However, the rest of the GSA Alliance didn't want to turn on their own yet, and with GSA having control of the game, Mario was evicted after a vote flip.

### Round 9

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Evicted5 Votes**

In a challenge about personal relationships, Hayley emerged on top. Gavin was pinpointed as the outsider in the challenge, so Hayley nominated him along with James and Rachel R. The non-nominated houseguests and Hayley conspired to blindside Rachel R, because they saw her as a secret threat and didn’t want to waste this opportunity. All three nominees were blindsided, because despite the fact that Rachel R and James agreed to vote for each other for some reason, they all believed that Gavin was to be evicted 5-1-1, when in reality it was Rachel R who was shockingly evicted 5-1-1.

### Round 10

 **Nominator**

 **Saved**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Evicted4 Votes**

After being saved, Gavin won the challenge and nominated Hayley, Milena, and Nathan, because he saw them as the people running the game. In a twist, Hayley won the Second Chance challenge and saved herself, leaving Milena and Nathan on the block. During the scramble, Gavin, Nathan, and Julie planned to evict Milena, but once it was reminded that Gavin could not vote (which they forgot due to stress and some Irish Whiskey), the plan fell through and Nathan was evicted 4-0.

### Round 11

 **Nominator**

 **Saved**

 **Nominee1 Vote**

 **Evicted2 Votes**

Milena won the next challenge and nominated Gavin, Hayley, and James, with Gavin as the target. Gavin won the Second Chance challenge and saved himself from eviction, leaving Hayley and James on the block. After lots of consideration, including Julie trying to force a tie in an eviction of only 3 votes, Hayley was evicted 2-1 for being a bigger challenge threat.

### Round 12

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Evicted2 Votes**

Julie won the Final 5 challenge, but was tricked by some of the evicted houseguests into tricking the other houseguests that the challenge was not yet over, which they were not fans of. Julie nominated Gavin and Natalie, and Gavin was evicted 2-0 for being on the outs and no longer having safety.

### Round 13

 **Nominator**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Nominee0 Votes**

 **Evicted1 Vote**

In the final challenge, Natalie won and did not hesitate to evict Julie, who she viewed as the biggest threat to win. Julie was evicted and became the last member of the Jury, resulting in James, Milena, and Natalie being the Final 3.

### Finale

 **Winner5 Votes to Win**

 **Co-Runner-Up2 Votes to Win**

 **Co-Runner-Up2 Votes 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 1. An extremely bitter Jury, combined with Rachel W and Alex not submitting Jury votes in time, resulted in James being crowned the winner in a 5-2-2 vote over Milena and Natalie. Drew Slager later announced that Julie was the recipient of the very first Production's Favorite award, which operates similar to a Fan Favorite award.

#### Jury

 **N/A**

 **James**

 **James**

 **N/A**

 **Milena**

 **Natalie**

 **James**

 **Milena**

 **Natalie**

 **James**

 **James**

## Trivia

* This season was originally going to take place on May 30th, but it was postponed one week to June 6th to better accommodate availability.
* This season originally had 16 houseguests. After two houseguests dropped out, the season was revised to feature only 14 houseguests. As a result, several twists and challenges were moved around and/or changed:
	+ The Fake Evictions were moved up from Round 5 and 6 to Rounds 4 and 5.
	+ Musical Chairs, which was originally planned to occur at the Final 15, was moved to the Final 6.
	+ Two challenges, one being Hot Potato and the other being a ranking system similar to Touchy Subjects, were completely dropped from the season.
* Several houseguests were nearly on the season but ultimately did not compete.
	+ Eli Oesterheld, Grace Wagner, and Leo Kurland were on the original cast, but had to drop out following the date change
	+ Mattea Muench and Morgan Willison were cast but later dropped out. They were not given replacements as the cast was then kept at 14.
	+ Emily Amesquita dropped out the day before the season. She was replaced by Nathan Hiykel.
* This season started at 7:39 PM on June 6th and ended around 12:54 AM on June 7th, lasting a total of 5 hours and 15 minutes.
* This is currently the only season of Big Brother Northwestern to not have every Jury Member submit a Jury Vote, as Rachel W and Alex failed to submit votes on time.