After being nominated for eviction by Danielle Reyes, Big Brother 7: All-Stars' fifth Head of Household, Kaysar Ridha became the fifth houseguest to be evicted from CBS's Big Brother 7: All-Stars house.
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Kaysar was evicted in a 5-1 vote in which fellow nominee James Rhine only officially recorded one eviction vote. Forced to choose between two of their own Big Brother 6 alliance members, both Howie Gordon and Janelle Pierzina had cast votes for James' eviction, however James, who had previously won the right to nullify one houseguest's vote during the Week 5 HoH competition won by Danielle, used that power to nullify Janelle's vote against him. As always, neither the current Head of Household nor the two eviction nominees were eligible to vote in the eviction balloting.
After winning Big Brother 7: All-Stars' fifth Head of Household competition, Danielle had initially nominated James and Janelle for eviction. James, upset that Janelle had refused to nominate former Big Brother 2 winner Will Kirby for eviction during her Week 4 HoH reign, had secretly formed a new alliance with Danielle, however Danielle felt that nominating James as a "pawn" would not only prevent anyone from suspecting that the pair were allies but also ensure that James, who won five Power of Veto competitions on last year's Big Brother 6, would be eligible to compete in the week's Power of Veto competition.
"The Season Six alliance for me is done... done... over... Janelle is gone, she's a piece of shit," James vented in the show's private Diary Room after Janelle had announced her decision to nominate Diane Henry (last week's eventual evictee) instead of Will, who, along with "Chilltown" partner Mike "Boogie" Malin, had made no secret of their intentions to come after the house's Big Brother 6 foursome as soon as possible. Upset about Janelle's actions, James decided to secretly join forces with Danielle (whom he had already covertly established a side alliance with) and the "Chilltown" duo.
Unfortunately for Danielle and James, the week's Power of Veto competition ended up being a "secret ballot"-type competition that favored those houseguests who were willing to do anything to win the Power of Veto and tempted those who felt more secure with valuable prizes and additional house privileges, resulting in Janelle -- who appeared to have little doubt that she was the true target of Danielle's nominations -- easily winning the challenge.
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After Janelle opted to remove herself from the chopping block during Tuesday's Big Brother broadcast, Danielle -- who had previously promised Howie that she wouldn't nominate him -- had nominated Kaysar, other only other remaining member of the Big Brother 6 foursome, in Janelle's place.
Kaysar, a 26-year-old graphic designer from Irvine, CA, learned his fate during last night's live Big Brother 7 broadcast. After leaving the house, Kaysar was interviewed by Big Brother host Julie Chen about his experience. "I could no longer sit back and watch Janelle single-handedly destroy our group, her selfishness and her stupidity were taking our team to a path of destruction," James told Kaysar in a pre-recorded Diary Room "goodbye message" that played during Julie's interview with Kaysar. "I gave you guys four weeks of chances and you stabbed me in the back every chance you got so I had to take matters into my own hands."
Once Kaysar was evicted and interviewed, the remaining houseguests competed in what was supposed to be Big Brother 7: All-Stars' sixth Head of Household competition. As the outgoing HoH, Danielle was not eligible to compete.
A true/false buzzer quiz, the live challenge required the houseguests to recall various details of a cheesy "Big Brother All-Stars Seance" event the houseguests had participated in on Wednesday night. Each of the eight participating houseguests had two buzzer buttons -- green for true and red for false. Every houseguest was required to buzz in with an answer to each of Julie's questions. If a houseguest answered a question incorrectly, they would be eliminated from the challenge. If all the remaining houseguests answered a question correctly, the houseguest that buzzed in last would be eliminated.
George "Chicken" Boswell and Marcellas Reynolds, both of whom answered correctly but were the last houseguests to buzz in, were eliminated in the challenge's first two rounds. Janelle -- the only houseguest to incorrectly answer the third question -- was eliminated in the challenge's third round, however in the latest example of Julie's legendary hosting incompetence, she seemingly failed to notice that although "Boogie" had clearly pressed one of his buzzers, neither of the large true or false signs in front of his booth had lit up and recorded his answer.
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Undeterred by the fact that the competition rules that she had explained only moments earlier required each houseguest to give an answer to each question and she hadn't received a third round answer from "Boogie," Julie proceeded (with "Boogie" still in the competition) on to the challenge's fourth question, after which -- just like "Boogie" in the third question -- the buzzer system failed to register the buzzer presses of both Howie and James. Recognizing that his green true sign had failed to light, James immediately re-pressed his button, leaving Julie -- who this time around, actually noticed that both of the signs for one of the remaining houseguests was still unlit -- to prod Howie that she needed an answer. After Julie's prodding, Howie re-pressed his true button and, like everyone else, answered the question correctly, however since Julie deemed him to have been the last one to buzz in, she declared him eliminated.
Despite Howie's immediate protest that he had hit his buzzer when the question was first asked and a "I had to hit mine twice too" comment from James, Julie continued with the competition. No one appeared to have buzzer problems with the fifth question that resulted in Will's elimination (in addition to being the last one to buzz in, he also answered it incorrectly.) The sixth question also appeared to proceed without issue, resulting in "Boogie" -- the slowest houseguest to answer -- being eliminated. Finally, with only Erika Landin and James remaining, Erika beat James to the buzzer on the seventh question, resulting in Julie declaring Erika the winner of what was clearly -- at least to home viewers -- a technical difficulty-riddled challenge.
The remaining few minutes of the broadcast made no mention of the buzzer problems and instead focused on revealing some more details about the "Coup d'Etat," a mysterious new three-week twist that might allow one houseguest to stage a last-minute Thursday night overthrow of the reigning HoH and their eviction nominees.
"Beginning tonight, there is a new power up for grabs that could completely change the course of the game, but only the person who wins it will know what it is and it will remain a secret to everyone until it is used," Julie told the surprised houseguests just before Thursday's live broadcast ended.
"Over the next few days you'll be given clues to a well-known phrase that applies to the Big Brother game. Once you think you know what the phrase is, you will disclose your answer in the privacy of the Diary Room. The first person to answer correctly will win this power and could make Big Brother history by shaking up the game as never before, but be careful, you will have only one chance to give your answer so please be a 100% sure. The winner will find out who they are and just exactly what this special power is one week from tonight. Everyone, your first clue is waiting for you in the house." Upon entering the house, the houseguests encountered a ewe -- a female sheep.
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CBS later announced that as a result of challenge's technical problems, Thursday night's Head of Household competition will be "redone." "Due to technical malfunctions of the buzz-in device, Big Brother will be redoing the Head of Household Competition," CBS announced in statement posted on CBS.com after the episode's West Coast broadcast. "It will be broadcast during Sunday night's show." The CBS statement made no mention of any plans to address the Chenbot's malfunctions (as noted before, being married to the network's president and CEO clearly has its advantages.)
UPDATE: According to the show's live feeds, Big Brother 7: All-Stars re-did the Head of Household competition at around 2AM ET this morning. Although there was no evidence that any buzzer problems occurred prior to Mike's third round question and the system's failure to properly record his answer had no impact on Janelle's elimination (since she answered the third question wrong, Janelle would have been eliminated regardless of Mike's response), the show's producers decided to allow "Chicken" George, Marcellas, and Janelle to all compete in the HoH "do-over." Highlight the below area if you want to see who won.
Janelle won the new HoH competition. Instead of electronic buzzers, the second competition -- which was once again based on trivia questions about the former houseguest "ghosts" that visited the house -- utilized manual "A or B" answer wheels. "Boogie" and Janelle were the final two. After the competition ended, Janelle asked "Boogie" if he intentionally answered the final question wrong and he said yes. Before the competition was redone, Danielle submitted what she believes to be the correct phrase answer to the new Coup d'Etat twist that Julie introduced at the end of Thursday night's live broadcast, however since the producers still haven't told the houseguests the name of the twist or what it allows, no one is aware that if Danielle has actually submitted the correct phrase, the Coup d'Etat power would allow her to completely invalidate any nominations that Janelle makes this week.
This morning, CBS released a formal press release statement about the Head of Household competition:
"During last night's live broadcast of Big Brother: All-Stars, a technical malfunction occurred with the buzz-in device during the Head of Household competition. Therefore, the initial results of the HoH competition, in which Erika was named the winner, were deemed invalid. The HoH competition was replayed last night and broadcast live for subscribers of the Big Brother online 24/7 feed and will be shown during the Sunday, August 13 broadcast. Janelle was crowned the winner of the second HOH competition and is this week's new HoH."