Season 26 of “Big Brother” concluded on Sunday, Oct. 13, ending in the crowning of a satisfied and deserved winner, Chelsie Baham. Baham, a nonprofit director from Rancho Cucamonga, California, expertly maneuvered her way to the $750,000 grand prize.

With 24/7 live feeds, fans could see right from the first week that Baham would be a force to be reckoned with. Her patience, the way she communicated with the other houseguests and her ability to minimize her threat level was something to behold. Despite this, what makes Baham’s game even more impressive is that she had quite a bit of obstacles to overcome.

For instance, two of her closest allies, Cedric Hodges and Brooklyn Rivera, were evicted in back-to-back weeks, due in large part to Baham’s five-person alliance being exposed by this season’s instigator, Tucker Des Lauriers. Baham was even put on the block as the potential target under Des Lauriers’ reign as Head of Household (HOH) during the fifth week of the season, however, she won the AI Arena, ultimately removing herself from the block. Up until the final two, Baham only touched the block that one time and was never a final nominee on eviction night.

“Big Brother” is always known for its twists and turns. While they usually don’t translate all that well with fans, this season’s theme of artificial intelligence led the way for the “AI Arena” to be introduced.

The “AI Arena” will go down in history as one of, if not the best, twist in the show’s long history. So much so that there are hopes the “AI Arena” will return in future installments. This season, the HOH had to nominate three houseguests for eviction, as opposed to the usual two. On eviction night, the three houseguests would then compete in the AI Arena where the winner could remove themselves from the block, leaving the other two houseguests as the only ones eligible for eviction.

The twist was executed perfectly. It resulted in numerous blindsides, last-minute strategizing and fractured relationships. Notably, the evictions of Hodges, Des Lauries and Joseph Rodriguez received acclaim for their split-vote blindsides. The eviction of Lisa Weintraub over Angela Murray in an 11-1 vote was a stunner to Weintraub, but nobody else.

Another major reason this season has gotten so much positive feedback is that the Power of Veto (POV) was used every single week except for one. Out of 13 weeks, the POV was used a record 12 times, breaking the previous record of nine times used by the seventh season of “Big Brother.” Every week was unpredictable, to say the least.

There were also nine consecutive weeks of non-unanimous votes. The previous season had the unfortunate record of the most unanimous votes at 11 weeks. In previous years, eviction nights were becoming bland and predictable. This season was the exact opposite of that. Thank God.

Two standout characters from this season were Murray, a 50-year-old real estate agent residing in Syracuse, Utah, and Des Lauriers, a model from Brooklyn, New York. From the jump, Murray proved herself to be a chaotic and entertaining player. She became the first HOH of the season and came out of the gates hot with a massive opening week fight between herself and her first evictee, Matt Hardeman. Murray finished the season with two HOH wins and one POV.

Murray was a quick and consistent target throughout the season. She was nominated a season-high seven times, sitting on the block at eviction night four times. The other three times, she was saved by the veto by other houseguests, including once by Des Lauries who was on the block alongside Murray to begin with. This accomplishment ties the record for the most times the veto was used on one person despite not having won in the competition in “Big Brother” history, not just amongst the American seasons. Murray was hysterical and cemented her place as a “Big Brother” icon. She was ultimately evicted in a devastating double eviction.

From one chaotic houseguest to another. Des Lauriers was insane but in all the best ways that make reality television so amusing to watch. He was a competition beast, winning one HOH, two AI Arenas, and three POVs. At the time of his eviction, he led the season with the most competition victories.

Des Lauriers wasn’t afraid to get in peoples’ faces, stir up trouble and make bold moves even if it was way too soon to do so. He didn’t play scared, and even though it became one of the many reasons why he was a target, he made for exciting television. Unlike Murray, Des Lauries did not make the jury, becoming the sixth houseguest evicted, going home on the block next to, funny enough, Murray.

The final player to be evicted was runner-up Makensy Manbeck. Manbeck led the season with 10 competition wins. She scored three HOH wins, four veto wins, two AI Arena victories and one power-winning competition that landed her the special “America’s Veto” in the opening episode. Despite landing in those two coveted final chairs, she never really stood much of a chance against Baham, even though she did win the final HOH competition.

Manbeck chose to take Baham over Cam Sullivan-Brown. This was a clear misstep by Manbeck. If she had taken the latter to the final with her, she more than likely would have won. Instead, she chose to go the loyalty route, something she tried to preach throughout the season, and took Baham to form the first all-women final two since the 13th season. Even though she made many mistakes – like backdooring her closest ally Leah Peters, trusting the wrong people and listening to whatever Baham said to do regardless if it was good or bad for her own personal game – she still deserves credit for making her way to the end, especially considering she was on the outs for much of the game due to her “showmance” Hardeman being gone so early.

Season 26 of “Big Brother” was the season of the women. Every HOH from jury onward was won by a woman and only three HOH wins throughout the entire season were won by a man. The women also won six of the final seven POV competitions, resulting in the women earning a resounding 22 competition wins compared to 12 male victories across all HOH, POV and AI Arena contests. Competition equity and fairness was something the show had been greatly criticized for in its previous season. For comparison, Season 25 of “Big Brother” saw only six competitions wins by women as opposed to 26 for the males. Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction and proves that production is listening to the fans and adjusting the way these games have been frequently designed for a man to typically win.

To wrap things up, it’s important to touch on just how powerful Baham’s gameplay was once more. Baham became the first woman ever to play a perfect game, as she never received an eviction vote and the jury unanimously voted her to win in a 7-0 decision. She’s the third overall player to accomplish this with “Big Brother” greats Dan Gheesling and Cody Calafiore.

Baham’s game is up there with some of the best players to ever participate in “Big Brother.” It is certainly up for debate as to whether she is the best to ever play but she is, at the very least, in the top five discussion. In my mind, she’s the best female winner in the show’s history.

Baham wasn’t the only one who left finale night with some hardware, as Des Lauries took home the $50,000 grand prize of America’s Favorite Houseguest (AFP), making history in his own right as the only pre-jury player to ever win the award. Murray and Quinn Martin rounded out the top three in AFP voting.

Season 26 of “Big Brother” was a fresh edition of this devious game. It brought back memories of “old school Big Brother,” something that fans alike have been wanting to see from this new era. This season is top-tier and it will hopefully shape the way future houseguests play for the better. I can only hope to be half as entertained as I was this season for when next year’s season comes around in the summer of 2025.