Big Brother's Season 23 houseguests evicted Christian Birkenberger instead of Sarah Beth Steagall, before a new "High Roller's" twist was announced to the house during Thursday night's live eviction episode on CBS.
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Christian, a 23-year-old general contractor assistant from Harwinton, CT, was evicted from the Big Brother house through a 5-2 vote over Sarah Beth, a 27-year-old forensic scientist from Boiling Springs, SC who currently resides in Fort Myers, FL, on Day 37 of the game.
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The Big Brother broadcast began with footage from Day 34 at the Veto Meeting.
Britini D'Angelo, a 24-year-old Kindergarten teacher from Niagara Falls, NY, who had won the Power of Veto, decided to use its golden power to save herself and take herself down from the chopping block.
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The Head of Household, Derek Xiao, a 24-year-old start-up founder from Baltimore, MD who currently resides in New York, NY, then boldly named Christian the replacement nominee. Derek X. announced how Christian was a huge competitive threat to everyone in the room and so it was his best move to make.
Christian called Derek X. "a coward," for nominating him for eviction during a week when he couldn't even fight for his own safety.
Christian, however, only needed five votes to stay -- and he already had Alyssa Lopez, a 24-year-old swimwear designer from Sarasota, FL, and Xavier Prather, a 27-year-old attorney from Kalamazoo, MI -- and so he hit the ground running.
Derek X. also thought it was smart to get rid of Christian pre-jury considering Christian would probably never vote for him to win at this point.
Alyssa tried to comfort Christian, who was clearly upset and disappointed by Derek X.'s decision. Derek Frazier, a 29-year-old safety officer from Philadelphia, PA, gave Christian a hug and Christian said he'd probably be the swing vote.
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"I got you, I got you," Derek F. said, although he didn't think it was a good idea to get rid of another guy in the house.
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Christian then threw Sarah Beth under the bus and said she had done nothing for him but take his $5,000 from a competition. Christian also reminded Derek X. how they'd be each other's shields.
Afterward, Claire Rehfuss, a 25-year-old artificial intelligence engineer from Chagrin Falls, OH who currently resides in New York, NY, showed off her "Duke of the Deck" costume and Kyland Young, a 29-year-old account executive from San Bernardino County, CA who currently resides in Venice Beach, CA, dressed in his "Jackass of Clubs" costume.
Claire was dressed like a giant deck of cards and would have to play 52 Card-Pickup all week long, and Kyland looked like a donkey and would have to make one club sandwich after the next for his fellow houseguests. His first round of sandwiches took over an hour to make.
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Christian then tried to get Tiffany Mitchell, a 40-year-old phlebotomist from Detroit, MI, on his side, and Tiffany noted how Sarah Beth seemed very relaxed in the house instead of crying about being on the block.
Tiffany, who said she has a soft spot in her heart for Christian, admitted she was going to vote with the house, but Christian said she and Claire are the swing votes and would carry the majority.
But Tiffany noted in the Diary Room how people were misleading Christian and didn't actually plan to vote for him to stay.
Britini admitted she was "conflicted" about her vote because she liked Christian more than she liked Sarah Beth, and Tiffany told Derek F. and Azah Awasum, a 30-year-old director of sales operations from Baltimore, MD, that she wasn't going to lie to Christian again if he confronted her because she wasn't truly the swing vote this week.
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Derek F. then determined he no longer wanted to be a part of "The Cookout" alliance with Xavier, Hannah, Azah, Tiffany, and Kyland because he didn't want to work with Tiffany, whom he called "a b-tch" anymore.
Derek. said Tiffany, who's not God or his mother, was trying to boss people around and that didn't sit well with him.
"You're not the boss," Derek F. complained to Azah, adding that Tiffany was trying to "play puppetmaster" and wasn't playing like a "team player."
"That's not loyalty -- that's a fake-ass b-tch," he added.
Tiffany then told Christian that he needed three more votes to stay, not just one, and the "Jokers" were not planning on voting for him to stay. Tiffany warned Christian that "Big D" and Britini are "flip-floppers," but he was convinced he could flip them in his direction.
Tiffany realized Christian may be good for her game and so she became emotionally and mentally conflicted. Tiffany decided to campaign for Christian as a result and told Xavier that if they kept Christian, they'd still have Derek X. to take him out later.
Tiffany also got Claire onboard with flipping since neither person trusted Sarah Beth or really anyone in their alliance. Tiffany then worked on changing Britini's mind to vote out Sarah Beth over Christian.
Tiffany then asked to speak to Britini in private, and both Derek F. and Azah came along for the conversation saying they should all be able to talk freely if they're on the same page.
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The situation pissed Tiffany off because she felt like "Big D" and Azah were acting like Britini's bodyguards and should trust her to have a conversation without them in the room.
Hannah Chaddha, a 21-year-old graduate student from Chicago, IL, was upset "The Cookout" alliance was falling apart because they were supposed to stay strong for their culture.
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In his eviction speech, Christian said he was proud of having played a loyal and competitive game, and Sarah Beth announced how she loves this game and wanted to stay. Sarah Beth said if she was on the jury, she'd make an objective vote and vote for the best person.
The houseguests then cast their votes, and Hannah, Kyland, Britini, Derek F., Tiffany, Claire, and Azah all voted to evict Christian. Only two houseguests, Xavier and Alyssa, voted to evict Sarah Beth.
When Christian walked out of the house, he gave Alyssa a big kiss goodbye, which made everyone cheer.
On dating Alyssa outside of the house, Christian told Big Brother host Julie Chen Moonves in his post-eviction interview, "I've discussed it with her. I don't know where we stand at the moment... [But] yes, I want something after this for sure, but two months of not seeing her potentially would be a long time, so I'm going to wait until after."
Christian said he fought hard for three days straight to stay in the house.
When asked why he couldn't turn the tide to his favor, Christian explained, "I had the numbers against me. With a 57 percent winning streak with all the comps, once I was up there, it didn't matter who I was sitting next to, they figured this was the time to take a shot at me because they didn't know if they could get another opportunity down the line. So I didn't stand a chance."
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Christian said he respected Derek X.'s game move because it was a shot he should have taken last week when he served as Head of Household.
"But I think it was not a smart decision because he's going to go out much sooner than if I stayed around," Christian noted, adding that he made some good friends and didn't really care about the money.
After Christian left, Julie announced to the Big Brother house that they had all made the jury at this point.
Julie also unveiled the next big twist of the game. Julie revealed a new room would open up at "The BB Beach Club" called the "High Roller's Room."
Inside the room are three unique BB casino games and three game-changing powers.
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"How would you like to take yourself off the block or win a second Veto, or even flip the ultimate power to your favor? All you need is some skill, luck and some BB bucks," Julie explained.
How do the houseguests receive "BB bucks?" America will be voting to give certain players this special currency, and each week, the Top 3 houseguests with the most votes will each get $100. The next three vote-getters will ear $75, and everyone else will receive $50.
Those bucks could be used to play the casino games and attempt to win different powers.
"But there's a catch: the better the power, the more it costs to play. The good news is, you don't have to spend your cash immediately if you don't want to. You can bank it for a bigger power down the line," Julie clarified. "So who's ready to gamble?!"
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Voting for the room opened up immediately after the Big Brother broadcast.
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The next Head of Household competition will commence on the upcoming episode on Sunday night,