'Big Brother' houseguests evict Howard Overby from the house and crowns new HoH

Big Brother evicted Howard Overby during Thursday night's broadcast of the fifteenth season's fifth live eviction show.


Howard, a 29-year-old youth counselor from Hattiesburg, MS, was evicted from the Big Brother house via a 7-1-0 vote after being placed on the chopping block by the season's fifth Head of Household -- Aaryn Gries, a 22-year-old college student from San Angelo, TX who currently resides in San Marcos, TX.

"I don't know if it's the physical nature in this house this season. I feel that it's more mental," Howard told host Julie Chen after his eviction when asked why the house considered him such a huge threat.

"I think there's a power in the house and if you go up against that [you're done]... Unfortunately I got with 'The Moving Company' early and that was dismantled. I was on the outs and I think they were already together pretty solid and there was no getting in there."

Aaryn initially nominated Howard and Spencer Clawson, a 31-year-old conductor from Conway, AR, for eviction.


Aaryn nominated Spencer solely as a pawn to get Howard out, and she put both guys on the block in order to hold up her end of the deal she had made with Elissa Slater -- a 27-year-old nutritionist from Concord, NC who currently resides in Kannapolis, NC and is the sister of former Big Brother winner Rachel Reilly -- and Helen Kim, a 37-year-old political consultant from Falls Church, VA who currently resides in Chicago, IL.

Helen and Elissa told Aaryn, who was the biggest target in the house and on the block last week prior to winning the Head of Household competition, they'd keep her in the game as long as she allowed them to select the nominees for her.

Helen and Elissa wanted Howard gone because they believed he was the biggest threat in the house and wasn't really trustworthy. Aaryn, however, wasn't thrilled about nominating the guys because she didn't think they were coming after her unlike Elissa at the time.

America, the week's "Big Brother MVP," nominated Amanda Zuckerman, a 28-year-old real estate agent from Long Island, NY who currently resides in Boynton Beach, FL, for eviction. She and McCrae Olson, a 23-year-old pizza delivery person from Zimmerman, MN who currently resides in Oak Grove, MN, were convinced Howard was the MVP and the pair led Spencer to believe Howard was lying to him about it. 

Spencer subsequently won the Power of Veto competition and took himself off the block. Aaryn therefore had to name a replacement nominee and she opted to put Candice Stewart, a 29-year-old pediatric speech therapist from New Orleans, LA who currently resides in Houston, TX, on the block.


Aaryn's decision to nominate Candice was a personal one, as she said Candice had been responsible for every negative experience she had gone through in the house. Helen was okay with Aaryn's choice although she wanted Candice to know she had nothing to do with it.

However, Candice thought Helen was controlling Aaryn and the entire house, so she confronted her about it and threatened to bring her down along with Elissa, Amanda and McCrae. At that point, Helen was completely onboard with potentially getting rid of Candice, because if word got out she had control over the house, it could ultimately ruin her game.

Spencer originally wanted to vote Amanda out but hid his tracks by telling people he wanted Candice gone. Candice ended up getting wind of what Spencer was saying and didn't realize it was a cover story, so she called a house meeting and chewed him out for being a lying backstabber in front of everyone. After that meltdown, Candice became Spencer's first target.

In the end, Spencer was the only person who voted for Candice. Everyone else voted to evict Howard.

Also during Howard's post-eviction interview with Julie, he touched upon the racism controversy that's been going on in the house.


"You were very aware of the racist behavior and the racist things that were said in the house. How hard was it for you to hold your tongue?" Julie asked him.

"Probably the hardest thing in the world. Outside of the Big Brother house, it's easy to walk away and stay out of those situations. But when you're face to face with it, when you're in the fire and you can't go anywhere and you know it's right next to you, it's terribly hard. But I thank God that Candice was there," Howard explained.

"But why didn't you confront it head on and say, 'I'm not going to put up with this?'" Julie questioned.

"My temper, Julie. I didn't want anybody to see it and that was something that I just chose to take the high road, you know, let them have that. I'm not going to dip down to their level and I'll just accept it as it is and pray about it, and there it is," Howard replied.

Following Howard's eviction, the remaining houseguests -- minus Aaryn, who as the outgoing HoH, was deemed ineligible to participate -- competed in the season's sixth HoH competition.


Dubbed "Bull in a China Shop," the competition required the houseguests to stand on top of a giant rolling barrel while holding onto a bull head on a string for as long as possible. If a person fell off, their collection of china would shatter. The first three houseguests out could choose to open one of three mystery boxes -- one of which contained $5,000 -- and the last person standing would win.  

While the results of the challenge are already known to the show's 24/7 live Internet feed viewers, CBS will reveal the winner during Sunday night's Big Brother broadcast. (If you don't want to wait until then to find out what happened, highlight the area below.)

GinaMarie Zimmerman, a 32-year-old pageant coordinator from Brooklyn, NY who currently resides in Staten Island, NY, won HoH.

Big Brother's next fifteenth-season episode will air on Sunday, August 4 at 8PM ET/PT.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski