After 85 days of lying, backstabbing, and tears; Big Brother has finally made history.
The long-running reality competition named its first-ever Black winner after 23 seasons on Wednesday night when Xavier Prather took home the record $750,000 prize after the jury votes were counted.
Xavier exited the house to confetti and cheers from his fellow housemates. After he left the house, he got hugs and spoke to host Julie Chen Moonves about his win.
“It’s surreal,” he told her. “I wouldn’t have been here without all the members of The Cookout and every single member of the jury. And those members not in the jury, who were part of the season, can’t thank you guys enough. I’m so blessed to have met every single one of you and we all made history this season, so I think we should all be proud.”
Derek Frazier, who is the son of legendary boxer Joe Frazier, won $75,000 for coming in second place.
The 2-hour season finale kicked off with Azah Awasum facing off against Derek in the second part of the final Head of Household competition. Part two saw Azah and Derek answer questions about the game by running on a giant slot machine. Azah advanced to face Xavier in part three.
In the final part, Xavier answered all eight trivia questions correctly to win the final Head of Household competition. As a result, Xavier chose to evict Azah from the game.
“I don’t regret anything,” she told Julie after her eviction. She went on to say if she would have won the last HoH, she would have taken Xavier to the final two — even if it meant her losing the game.
The season saw a historic all-Black, six-person alliance called “The Cookout” dominated the game. Along with Xavier, Derek, and Azah; the Cookout also had Hannah Chaddha, Tiffany Mitchell, and Kyland Young. The Cookout was formed with the sole mission of getting the first-ever African American winner of Big Brother in show history after years of accusations of racism by the cast.
Just before the night ended, Julie revealed Tiffany had won the $50,000 prize for being America’s Favorite Houseguest.
Big Brother returns to CBS in February for Celebrity Big Brother.
