Now that Big Brother 23 Finale Week is here, it’s time to start looking back at the best and worst moments of the season. We’re going to start by ranking all of this season’s Head of Household reigns. We did this earlier in the season, but now that all the regular HOHs have played out, and only the Final HOH is left, we thought it would be a good idea to take a final look.
1. Derek X. Even though Derek took out a potential shield for himself, I still think his HOH was the most successful of the season. He set his sights on his target, Christian, and didn’t waiver. Christian was a huge threat, both socially and competitively, and Derek X was able to send him out in a true backdoor.
2. Xavier (2nd HOH). When Xaiver won that Final 4 HOH and secured his spot in the Final 3, he could have just sat back and let the others decide what to do. But had he done that, Kyland would still be in the game, and Xavier would have a slightly more difficult shot at getting to the end and winning. I don’t really think he would have lost to Kyland, but Kyland would have been harder to beat than Azah or Derek. So Xavier pulling on Derek’s strings to make sure the right person went home was one of Xavier’s biggest feats of the season.
3. Kyland (1st HOH). Oh how the mighty have fallen. All the way back in Week 2, we had a lot of high hopes for Kyland. When he targeted Frenchie and sent him packing, he was an early favorite to win the season. Frenchie was a huge threat, and causing all kinds of mess in the house, so Kyland going after him and getting him out was a great early move in the game.
4. Hannah. Even though Hannah was doomed the very next week, she pulled off her HOH flawlessly. What she wanted to happen in that fast double eviction reign happened. And Alyssa was a definite threat to her and the Cookout. Xavier for sure wanted Alyssa to outlast the Cookout women, so sending her out when they did was a smart move, based solely on their mission, anyway.
5. Xavier (1st HOH). This wasn’t an incredible reign by any means, but any time someone gets out one of the jock guys early, I’m on board. I think Xavier going after Brent, and sending him out was a smart move, and helped pave the way for the rest of the season.
6. Azah. When Azah first won HOH and sent Hannah out, I was furious. I thought that was the absolute dumbest move ever, but now that I’ve had time to think on it, and have seen where Azah is now, I think it makes way more sense. I think Tiffany and Hannah leaving are the only reason Azah now has a shot at winning the game. If she wins Part 3 and evicts Xavier, she wins Big Brother 23. I don’t see that path opening up like that without Tiffany and Hannah going out. I still can’t believe I’m ranking her HOH this high, but compared to the other HOHs ranked lower than hers, it makes sense.
7. Sarah Beth. It pains me to rank her HOH this high, but she did target who she thought was the actual biggest threat — Derek X — in the house, and successfully backdoor him. I hate to say it, but she set out to do something, and did it. Of course she also listened heavily to Kyland, and I’m already regretting putting her this high, but again, I think the others lower than her have reasons that just make their reigns worse.
8. Claire. Even though this was Tiffany’s reign initially, Claire took over with that stupid twist, and then kept Tiffany’s nominations the same. So if this was just Tiffany’s HOH, this definitely would have ranked about 6th because Tiffany set out to eliminate Sarah Beth and that’s what happened. But since Claire had no reason to target Sarah Beth and could have gone after one of the men, SECRETLY, but didn’t, this was just a bad reign. I know she didn’t know about the Cookout at the time, though, and that’s the only reason this reign isn’t ranked even lower.
9. Tiffany. I think Tiffany played a great game, but was so tied to the Cookout’s mission, that she used this HOH to get her No. 1 ally out. I still say Tiffany shouldn’t have won this HOH, and things could be so different right now, but here we are. I’m a Tiffany fan, so don’t think I’m trashing her. I’m just being very objective. This was a bad move, and a bad HOH. But she still ranks higher than some others because her targeting Claire helped her and her alliance achieve their mission.
10. Christian. Not only did Christian waste his HOH on Whitney, he ignored his biggest threat, Derek X, and was sent out by him the very next week. It wasn’t a disastrous HOH, but it did nothing for his game, and that’s why his HOH ranks so low.
11. Kyland (2nd HOH). At the time of this HOH, I wasn’t sure Kyland could have a worse HOH, but I was wrong (see No. 12). This one he wasted on countless on-on-ones and getting Britini out, and made all of social media and half of his alliance turn on him.
12.Kyland (3rd HOH). As I said, I didn’t know Kyland’s reign of terror could get any worse, but it did. Only this time it was a total backfire that makes this HOH one of the worst. Kyland targeting Tiffany and Hannah, when they were completely serious about going to the end with him, was the dumbest move of the season in my opinion. Kyland put all of his eggs in Xavier’s basket, and we saw what happened there. Kyland would probably be poised to win BB23 had he just gone after Xavier instead of Tiffany (I’d like to think it would really be Tiffany poised for a win, but I want to make Kyland look dumber here).
13. Frenchie. You didn’t think I was going to forget about the first HOH of the season just because Kyland had two bad reigns did you? No way I could rank Frenchie’s reign any higher than last. That whole week was a DISASTER. From Frenchie saying he wasn’t going to target minorities and women and then putting up a minority and a woman, to him making himself the main target for the following week, it was just all so bad. I think this HOH might go down as one of the worst in history, actually, not just this season.
So there’s technically one more HOH to be won, and that only involves the most important decision of the season, but I don’t really think that one should be included in rankings because it’s just such a different and direct power. And besides, I don’t want to write this AFTER the season is over.
How would you rank the Big Brother 23 Heads of Household?
