Big Brother 17 (American season)

Big Brother follows a group of contestants, known as HouseGuests, who live inside a custom-built house outfitted with cameras and microphones recording their every move 24 hours a day.

[9] The HouseGuest overthrown as a result of the Battle of the Block competition is eligible to be nominated by the reigning Head of Household if the Power of Veto is used.

[12] On June 16, 2015, 14 HouseGuests were announced by CBS,[13] including Audrey Middleton, the first transgender contestant to appear on the American version of Big Brother, professional wrestler and former WWE NXT competitor Austin Matelson and Vanessa Rousso, who, when the season began, was ranked among the top five women in poker history in terms of all-time money winnings.

On June 25, 2015, The Amazing Race 26 alumni Jackie Ibarra and Jeff Weldon were revealed as the 15th and 16th HouseGuests as part of the first Takeover.

[17] Eight new HouseGuests entered the Big Brother house: Audrey, Austin, Clay, Da'Vonne, Jace, James, Meg, and Shelli.

During introductions, both Clay and Da'Vonne withheld their professions as a former football player and poker dealer, respectively, while Audrey revealed that she is a trans woman, which received a universally positive reaction from her fellow HouseGuests.

As the 14 HouseGuests met each other, Vanessa withheld her profession as a poker player, while Jace noticed that there were two empty seats at the dinner table.

While preparing for a possible future counting competition, Da'Vonne wandered into all the rooms, alarming Clay, Jeff, and Shelli, which led to both factions plotting against each other.

Audrey decided to bring Jeff and Shelli into her main alliance, but her incessant strategizing in the middle of the night alienated her allies, making James consider putting her up as the replacement nominee.

Actress and comedian Kathy Griffin arrived for the season's second takeover and revealed to the viewing public that there would be a telephone booth in the house, ringing periodically.

With Becky and Shelli as the Heads of Household, the HouseGuests scrambled to ensure their safety, except for Audrey, who decided to lie low to reduce her target.

Becky proposed backdooring Audrey; while Shelli initially agreed, she later conspired with Clay and Jeff to target Da'Vonne after their altercation the previous week.

The trio recruited John to be nominated as a pawn and told him to throw the Battle of the Block competition while pledging that they would do whatever they could to ensure his safety.

Jason and Steve handily won the competition, dethroning Becky and keeping Shelli in power and putting the plan to backdoor Audrey in jeopardy.

When picking players for the Power of Veto competition, Meg, Steve, and Clay were drawn to join Shelli, Da'Vonne, and John.

In the final round, John beat Clay to win the Power of Veto, which forced Shelli to find a replacement nominee.

Though Jason and John had an early lead, they fell behind in the pumpkin smashing zone, which allowed Jackie and James to come from behind to win the competition, dethroning Liz and keeping Shelli in power and putting the plan to backdoor Audrey in jeopardy again.

As punishment for losing the competition or being dethroned, Jason, John, and Liz were forced to dress up as a boy band and dance together at routine intervals.

After the eviction and the Head of Household competition, Austin lied to Vanessa about his conversation with Jason, and she conspired with Clay, Shelli, and Jackie to betray him.

An alliance of Vanessa, Jackie, Shelli, Clay, Jason, James, Becky, and Meg called Dark Moon was formed with the idea of them being the final eight HouseGuests.

The plan to backdoor Austin was put in jeopardy when Liz was able to win the Battle of the Block all by herself, securing immunity for the week for herself and James and all but ensuring Julia's entry into the game after the upcoming eviction.

Austin's attraction to Liz developed; though she enjoyed her time with him, she privately admitted that she didn't return his affections, though he was unaware and kissed her anyway.

When Austin relayed his heated conversation with Vanessa to Clay and Shelli, they realized that they needed to keep him in the game as, despite his volatility, he was loyal to them.

Clay yelled at James for breaking their deal and told Shelli that he was ready to sacrifice himself to keep her, the bigger threat to win, in the game.

James and Meg attempted to rally Steve and John onto their side to vote Julia out, unaware that they were secretly working with Vanessa.

Steve and John became conflicted, recognizing the valuable opportunity to break up Austin and the twins, but at the time, also wanting to appease Vanessa.

With only six HouseGuests remaining, John, Steve and Vanessa needed to prevent Julia from winning the Power of Veto to keep their final three deal intact, while Austin and the twins knew in order to save them, Julia needed to win the Power of Veto to keep all three of them safe and force Steve to put up either John or Vanessa in Liz's place.

Vanessa decided to work both sides of the house, this time with Austin and Liz, to win the Veto and ensure John's re-eviction.

[26] Color key: On September 24, 2014, CBS announced that it had renewed Big Brother for its seventeenth and eighteenth editions for broadcast in summer 2015 and 2016, respectively.

The upstairs is 155 square feet larger than in previous seasons, the result of the incorporation of a glass bridge added in by Big Brother house designer Scott Storey.