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History was made during the season finale of “Big Brother” on Sept. 25.
After 24 seasons, Taylor Hale, a 27-year-old personal stylist and former Miss Michigan USA, became the first Black woman to win the long-running CBS series.
Hale’s fellow houseguests, who made up the nine-person jury, voted eight to one to crown the personal stylist the winner of the season and give her the $750,000 grand prize.
In a second historic moment, host Julie Chen Moonves also revealed that viewers voted for Hale to be “America’s Favorite Player,” awarding her an extra $50,000.
Her total of $800,000 marks the largest cash prize ever awarded on “Big Brother.”
After 82 days, Hale defied the odds and walked away with first place. She overcame microaggressions and bullying throughout the entire season as multiple contestants questioned her character and plotted to vote her out the start.
Hale was nominated the first week of the season and sat on the block five more times during eviction nights.
During the two-hour finale, Monte Taylor, a 27-year-old personal trainer, beat third-place finisher Matthew Turner, in the final HOH competition. Taylor evicted Turner and chose to take Hale to the final two.
As one of the last two houseguests remaining, Hale became the first Black woman to reach the final two in 20 years since Season Three fan-favorite Danielle Reyes made it to the end. On Sept. 25, 2002, despite her impressive game play, Reyes only received one vote from the jury.
Throughout Season 24, Hale expressed her desire to make history and complete the journey of the former Black women who have played “Big Brother.” In her final plea to the jury, Hale referenced her perseverance every week and how her resiliency should represent the season.
“Jury members, I am someone who has won three competitions, two of them including HOHs,” she began in her speech which was posted on Twitter. “But, I’m so much more than the wins I have had. I’ve proven I can win and wield power, but I’m more than my wins in this game.”
She acknowledged that Taylor won more competitions than she had, and made bigger moves that resulted in him having “more blood on his hands.”
“But as someone who has sat on this eviction block six times on eviction night, I have bled out the most in this game. But, I have banded myself together every single time and gotten up and continued to fight because like so many other women in the world that is what we have to do to get to the end,” she continued.
The Miss Congeniality 2021 recipient then recalled just a few of the challenges she faced in the house.
“I have been falsely accused and unjustly accused of using someone’s mental health as a piece in this game, as someone’s sick mother as a piece to use in this game,” she said, referring to how contestants Daniel Durston and Nicole Layog treated her during the first few weeks of the game. “I’ve been called the b-word so many more times in this house and I have in my real life.”
Hale also addressed another controversy this season. Kyle Capener, who was in the majority alliance with Hale called “The Leftovers,” assumed all the POC players were secretly working together and pitched to create an alliance with just the white houseguests.
“There was an attempted all-white alliance formed and I (was) left on the block next to the person who tried to form that alliance,” she told the jury.
She then explained, “I have overcome so much in this game and I’ve come to understand that I am not a shield. I am a sword. I am not a victim. I am a victor. And if there is one word that is going to describe the entire season, it is resiliency. And if you are to ask yourself who the most resilient person of the season has been, it is me.”
Hale asked her former houseguests to choose a different type of winner.
“Jury members, I’m challenging you to make the hard decision and change the course of this game and choose progress for the course of this game. I can be the winner of this season and I promise you will not do it in vain if you choose me tonight,” she concluded.
A couple houseguests shed a few tears during her speech. After Hale was declared the winner, she walked out to a cannon blast of confetti and celebrated with the jury and her family.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly published on Monday, Hale spoke about the significance of a Black woman finally winning the show after 24 seasons.
“Why is it that people who look like me playing this game are immediately villainized, immediately looked at with shadows of doubt when there are so many other players who have played more mischievous and malicious games?” she asked. “So I just want there to be freedom for us to exist. And if I had to be the one that beared a lot of the burden so we could prove the point, then so be it. It paid off, and now there should be freedom for the rest of the future.”
At the end of the finale, host Chen Moonves announced that the show would return next summer for its 25th season. Fans will get to see if Hale’s triumph impacts future seasons and if her legacy will lead to new types of winners.
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