Big Brother 26 was an odd season, with fans falling in love with a player who didn’t even make it to the jury house.
Tucker Des Lauriers is the first pre-jury evictee ever named America’s Favorite Houseguest on Big Brother. The honor earned him a nice $50,000 prize on the season finale.
Julie Chen Moonves announced the AFH winner soon after she revealed that Chelsie Baham had won Big Brother 26. Julie also announced that the final three vote-getters were Tucker, Angela Murray, and Quinn Martin.
Chelsie won $750,000 for her time in the Big Brother house, winning a unanimous jury vote over Makensy Manbeck. This is only the third time a unanimous vote has decided the Big Brother USA winner.
Chelsie set a high bar for the Big Brother 27 cast. Julie urged folks to begin applying if they want to play Big Brother during the summer of 2025. Applications are open on the CBS portal.
Some Big Brother fans noticed that Tucker (shockingly) may have made more money than Makensy did this season. This is shocking because Tucker finished 11th place, and Makensy was the runner-up.
Did Tucker make more money than Makensy on Big Brother 26?
Makensy won $75,000 for finishing second place on BB26. It has been reported that the top two finishers don’t get their weekly stipend.
Tucker made $50,000 for being named the AFH. Tucker also earned $20,000 for being the Instigator after fans voted for him to receive the maximum amount.
Tucker was evicted on Day 45 after playing the game for six weeks. Houseguests used to receive a $1,000 stipend for each week in the game. The amount may have been increased, but it is unconfirmed.
Using those numbers, Tucker made at least $76,000 playing Big Brother. That would put him ahead of the $75,000 Makensy made.
While many Big Brother fans would argue that Tucker deserved it due to how entertaining he was, it’s still shocking that 11th place could out-earn second place.
Maybe that second-place prize needs to be increased for Big Brother 27?
Imagine if Tucker had kept the $5,000 from the Veto Competition that he let T’Kor Clottey take.
Tucker walks away with $20,000, well deserved. He brought a lot of chaos to the game and competed very well. Definitely made his mark.#BB26 pic.twitter.com/kt70ii4O6g
— Mel ✨ (@melbrown00) August 30, 2024
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Cam was “pissed” and felt he should have won BB26. Cam Sullivan-Brown thought Makensy was about to take him to the final two, where he stated that he had the jury votes to win.
Makensy admitted to being manipulated by Chelsie. She spoke about it during her exit interviews and even revealed when she figured it out. To her credit, Makensy continues to compliment Chelsie’s gameplay.
A Big Brother winner is on Deal or No Deal Island 2. The reality competition show returns to NBC this winter. The new DONDI cast also features two former Survivor players.
Wait lol did Tucker technically win more money than Makensy LMFAO #bb26 pic.twitter.com/RqVYMFc3RD
— tweakingdiva111 (@tweakingdiva111) October 14, 2024
Previous episodes of Big Brother are streaming on Paramount+.
Big Brother 27 airs on CBS in the summer of 2025.