Ranking every Big Brother winner (from first to worst)
Expect the unexpected in our fan-polled ranking of the first 19 Big Brother champs.
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Ranking the first 19 Big Brother winners (from first to worst)
Who is the best Big Brother winner of all time? And who is the worst? In 2017, we asked fans of the CBS reality show to rank the first 19 champions from first to worst, and then tabulated the responses. So what happens when you stack the best against each other? Read on to find out and see where your favorites landed. Just remember: As Julie Chen Moonves has said approximately 3 billion times — expect the unexpected!
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1. Will Kirby (Season 2)
The Chill Town member defeated Nicole Schaffrich 5–2 for the $500,000 and also handily beat the competition here to be named the best Big Brother winner ever, almost doubling the first place vote of the next highest vote-getter. All hail the Evil Doctor!
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2. Derrick Levasseur (Season 16)
The undercover cop played a genius undercover game, subtly influencing votes without ever making himself a target, and without ever being nominated for eviction. His silky-smooth game was respected by the jury, who rewarded him with a 7–2 victory over Cody Calafiore, and rewarded by fans, who voted him the second-best Big Brother winner ever.
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3. Dan Gheesling (Season 10)
You love him or loathe him. The season 10 champ and season 14 runner-up got the second-most first-place votes from fans in our best winner poll, but the man once dubbed "Judas" also shockingly got the second-most last-place votes. (Was Danielle Murphree from season 14 stuffing the ballot box to bring down Dan's score?) Still, Dan's Mist job on the season 10 jury — he defeated mixologist Memphis Garrett 7–0 — is impossible to deny.
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4. Mike "Boogie" Malin (Season 7)
Once overshadowed by his Chill Town (and Diary Room) BFF Will, Boogie showed he actually had some game himself when he mowed down the other All-Stars and defeated Erika Landin 6–1 in the finals.
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5. "Evel" Dick Donato (Season 8)
Loud and brash, Evel Dick's aggressive style caught the other houseguests off-guard. Dick entered the house as an estranged "enemy" of his daughter, Daniele. However, she saved him with the Veto on day 74, and he brought her to the final two with him, where Dick ultimately won by a vote of 5–2.
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6. Jun Song (Season 4)
She had to deal with her former boyfriend Jee Choe (thanks to the "X-Factor" twist) and won only one Head of Household (which actually allowed her out of the house to attend the MTV Video Music Awards) all season, but Jun's savvy social game gave her a 6–1 victory over future Amazing Race contestant Alison Irwin.
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7. Rachel Reilly (Season 13)
Rachel got the fourth highest amount of first-place votes from fans in our poll, but her divisive personality and gameplay gave her a high number of negative votes as well. Not like she cares: She has the $500,000 prize (after beating Porsche Briggs), which will buy her a never-ending supply of life vests to provide for any floaters she encounters in the future.
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8. Jordan Lloyd (Season 11)
Jordan's non-threatening nature allowed her to make it all the way to the end, even though she was nominated four times along the way. Once there, she defeated Natalie Martinez by a 5–2 vote, later returning to play both The Amazing Race and Big Brother again with showmance partner-turned-husband, Jeff "Technotronics" Schroeder.
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9. Ian Terry (Season 14)
In a season best known for Dan Gheesling's "funeral," Ian took advantage of a bitter jury to win 6–1 over the season 10 champ. But he scored four Head of Household victories along the way, cementing his status as a solid (if unspectacular) winner.
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10. Hayden Moss (Season 12)
On day two, Hayden formed an alliance with Lane Elenburg, Enzo Palumbo, and Matt Hoffman called the Brigade, which ended up being one of the most successful alliances in Big Brother history. The first three members made it to the final three, while Matt came in seventh. In the end, Hayden edged Lane by a vote of 4–3, and later went on to compete on Survivor: Blood vs. Water.
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11. Nicole Franzel (Season 18)
She may have often seemed more interested in her showmance with Corey Brooks than actual gameplay, but the returning favorite and self-proclaimed Freakazoid outscored Paul "Your Boy" Abrahamian 5–4 in jury votes to win one of the longest seasons (99 days) in Big Brother history.
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12. Lisa Donahue (Season 3)
Lisa's strongest move was secretly not voting her showmance partner, Eric Ouelette, back into the game, knowing that would make her a target. Her overwhelming 9–1 victory over Danielle Reyes is especially notable in Big Brother history because the non-sequestered jury had watched the entire season at home before voting and was especially bitter at Danielle after seeing all her harsh Diary Room critiques of them. As a result, starting the following season, jury members were sequestered and only shown competition footage.
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13. Maggie Ausburn (Season 6)
Season 6 gave us future Big Brother All-Stars Janelle Pierzina and Kaysar Ridha, but it was Nerd Herder Maggie who walked away with the half-million dollar prize, facing off against and defeating fellow (pre-Paul) Friendship alliance member Ivette Corredero. Yes, there was a Big Brother alliance called "the Friendship." I swear, I am not making this up. Seriously, go Google it! You'll see.
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14. Drew Daniel (Season 5)
Drew rode the Four Horseman alliance (with Michael "Cowboy" Ellis, Jase Wirey, and Scott Long) all the way to victory, defeating Cowboy 4–3. Actually, that alliance crashed and burned pretty spectacularly — as did the Santa Monica Van Boys — but Drew and his necklace still took home the loot.
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15. Andy Herren (Season 15)
The most infamous season — filled with racist, homophobic, and misogynistic chatter throughout — in Big Brother history ended when Andy bested GinaMarie Zimmerman by a vote of 7–2. Andy predicted a 15th place finish for himself on Twitter in this very poll, proving his Big Brother savvy extends outside of the house as well.
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16. Steve Moses (Season 17)
CBS has been obsessed with the nerdy superfan stereotype ever since John Cochran showed up on Survivor, and those players have a pretty strong track record of winning, with Cochran there in addition to Ian and Steve here. Steve soundly defeated Liz Nolan by a vote of 6–3, but, judging by his ranking here, fans did not find his gameplay to be quite so sound after all.
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17. Eddie McGee (Season 1)
Back when Eddie played in season 1, it was a completely different game. Contestants did not vote each other out — viewers did. With that in mind, it's hard to judge Eddie fairly against the other winners, but fans did…and they did not judge kindly, giving the actor the fourth-most last-place votes (behind Dan, Will, and our last two entries.).
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18. Adam Jasinski (Season 9)
Adam courted controversy both in the house (he referred to the autistic kids he worked with by the R-word) and out of it (he used his CBS prize money to fund an oxycodone ring that put him and castmate Matty McDonald behind bars). He also didn't do anything particularly noteworthy in this special spring edition of the show (due to the Hollywood writers' strike) other than just managing to not get voted out, hence his second-to-last place finish here.
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19. Morgan Willett (Over the Top)
Like Eddie, it's a bit unfair to rank Morgan against all the others, since her Over the Top edition aired only on CBS All Access (now Paramount+) and was therefore not seen by nearly as many people. But the people who did see her defeat Jason Roy and Kryssie Ridolfi and elected to award her the $250,000 prize did not seem that impressed, voting her into the bottom spot here. On the bright side, she also ranks as the best CBS All Access winner ever! So she's got that going for her…which is nice.