'Celebrity Big Brother' crowns Tamar Braxton Season 2 winner over Ricky Williams in unanimous vote!

Celebrity Big Brother crowned Tamar Braxton the winner of its second season during Wednesday night's live two-hour finale broadcast on CBS.


The singer and Braxton Family Values star walked away with the $250,000 grand prize as a result of a shocking unanimous 9-0 vote. She defeated the show's runner-up, former superstar NFL running back Ricky Williams, who received 50,000 for finishing in second place.

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"I feel so amazing and so grateful to God," Tamar said in tears after Celebrity Big Brother host Julie Chen announced her victory.

"Thank you to my family and thank you [cast] for being my lifelong friends. Thank you guys so much! I am so grateful. And now I can buy my baby a house!"


Tamar received jury votes to win from actor and TV host Jonathan Bennett, former Olympic swimming medalist and What Would Ryan Lochte Do? star Ryan Lochte, actor and singer Joey Lawrence, actor and former O.J. Simpson houseguest Kato Kaelin, former WWE wrestler and Total Divas star Natalie Eva Marie, comedian Tom Green, The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burress, Lindsay Lohan's mother Dina Lohan, and Olympic track and bobsled star Lolo Jones.

"The only other time Big Brother has ever had a unanimous vote was Season 10 when Dan Gheesling took it home," Julie revealed of the 7-0 vote in Dan's favor over runner-up Memphis Garrett.

In addition, Tom Green was named "America's Favorite Houseguest," so he earned a bonus prize of $25,000.

The Season 2 live finale of Celebrity Big Brother began where Monday night's episode had left off, with four of the Final 5 houseguests competing in the penultimate Head of Household competition.

The players who participated in the HoH competition were Kandi, Ricky, Tamar and Dina.


Lolo was deemed ineligible to compete since she was the outgoing Head of Household.

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Hosted by Season 1 Celebrity Big Brother winner Marissa Jaret Winokur, the Broadway-inspired Head of Household competition that began airing on February 11 required the players to hit a button to activate a magnetic puzzle board with 20 seconds on the clock.

The goal of the competition was to fly like a bat while racing to assemble a "Bats the Musical" poster.

However, if a player didn't fly back to the starting point and hit his or her button before the 20 seconds was up, the puzzle board would demagnetize and the metal pieces would drop, forcing the person to begin the task all over again.


The first houseguest to solve the puzzle and press his or her button at the starting point would become the new HoH and automatically win a spot in the Final 4.

Ricky ended up winning Head of Household and becoming an automatic member of the Final 4, which told Kandi she was in trouble and would definitely be placed on the chopping block again.

At the Nomination Ceremony, Ricky announced he had decided to nominate Dina and Kandi for eviction.

"You all know the deal," Ricky insisted, before telling the cameras the Power of Veto competition could change everything.

Ricky then talked to Tamar how Lolo would be his replacement nominee if either Kandi or Dina saved herself with the veto. Both individuals thought it would be a good idea to backdoor Lolo since she was such a strong player and probably the frontrunner to win the $250,000.


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For the Power of Veto competition, all five of the remaining houseguests were required to steal four priceless artifacts from the "BB museum" in the fastest time.

Instructions provided the order in which to steal the items, but the goal was to not step on a laser while collecting the artifacts and moving them to a case, as green security lasers protected the entire museum.

If a player tripped on a laser at any point, he or she must start the series of tasks all over again.

The houseguest to successfully steal the correct artifacts in the fastest time would win the Power of Veto.


Lolo won the Power of Veto with a time of five minutes and eight seconds. The player to finish in second place was Ricky with a time of nine minutes and 21 seconds. Dina landed in last place, as the competition took her well over 17 minutes to complete.

Lolo was thrilled her safety was secured and she'd be competing as one of the Final 4 houseguests.

Ricky and Lolo then discussed their course of action, and Lolo admitted it scared her to keep Kandi in the game. Ricky, however, argued how he couldn't imagine people voting for Kandi to win when she never won anything this season.

Lolo considered using the veto on Dina and forcing Ricky to nominate Tamar for eviction, knowing he would save Tamar over Kandi at every opportunity.

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Everyone had an opinion on what should happen, but Lolo needed to decide what was going to be best for her endgame.


With that being said, Lolo announced at the subsequent Veto Meeting she had decided not to use the veto because she was torn between saving both ladies and she loved them both.

"Using the veto just wasn't worth upsetting Tamar because she'd have to go on the block, Lolo explained in the Diary Room.

Tamar's goal was to vote Dina out of the house, but Lolo wanted Kandi gone. Ricky therefore realized he may have to cast the tiebreaker vote.

When it became time for the houseguests to cast their votes to evict someone, Kandi pointed out Dina was amazing and so she could win the game.

Kandi also wanted to stick around so she could break the record for most times on the chopping block on Celebrity Big Brother.

Dina then admitted she and Kandi were floaters in the game and failed to make many alliances but they always had each other's back.


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Lolo voted to evict Kandi and Tamar voted for Dina, so Ricky had to break the tie with his vote. Ricky then faced the nominees and said he wanted to send Kandi out of the house.

"Tamar said they wanted to get rid of me because they felt I was a stronger player than Dina," Kandi told Julie in her post-eviction interview.

"Ricky didn't do the right thing because I'm a woman of my word... but I don't hold any grudges in this game. I honestly didn't think I was going to make it this far; I was just trying not to get kicked out in the first week."

Kandi also said she was grateful to have mended her friendship with Tamar because they will continue to be supportive of each other.

Next up was the final Head of Household of the season, which instructed each of the four remaining players to watch a series of videos that each featured a young "celebrity lookalike."


In each video, the junior lookalike made three statements, and after each video, Julie asked the houseguests to identify the false statement. The answers were in the form of "A", "B" or "C," and every correct answer earned a player one point.

The houseguest to receive the most points after seven rounds would become the final HoH of Celebrity Big Brother 2.

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In the end, Ricky was crowned Head of Household again, and so he was given the power to select the one houseguest who would accompany him to the Final 2.

This was a huge decision to make, as Ricky would be battling the person of his choice for the $250,000 grand prize.

Ricky decided to evict both Dina and Lolo from the house, which left the former professional athlete and Tamar as the Final 2. Lolo appeared blindsided because she and Ricky had been close allies for most of the game.


"Yeah, [I'm in shock]. It's frustrating because I could have kept my pact with Tom and Kato," Lolo told Julie in her post-eviction interview.

"I saved him multiple times throughout the game. He said he offered me a deal, but that deal -- I didn't think it was fair to my alliance. I always tried to be a team player in this game, even if it was costly. So I felt it was a very one-sided deal."

Lolo added that while Ricky probably made a good financial decision because she would have received a lot of votes to win, she may not want to continue their friendship outside of the game.

Lolo suggested Ricky pushed the idea of friendship all season long and turned out to be a bit of a hypocrite due to his betrayal.

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Meanwhile, Dina wasn't upset that Ricky evicted her. She was just happy to have made it this far.


It then became time for the jury to question the two finalists before voting for the winner of Celebrity Big Brother's second season.

Tom asked them to describe their biggest game moves, and Ricky said it was not freaking out when he was on the block and having faith he had enough allies in the game "to not do anything [irrational]."

Tamar said her best move was to gun after Tom and Kato during her Head of Household reign because they were going to win the game otherwise.

Natalie then asked Ricky for his "biggest regret" in the game, and he said it was not winning the "Slaughterhouse" Power of Veto competition because a victory could have kept his alliance together.

As for Tamar, she wished she hadn't played such an emotional game because it cleared her judgment at times.

Both finalists made it clear they played the game to the best of their abilities while maintaining integrity and loyalty -- for the most part.


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Tamar also told the jury she could really use the money because she was trying to get back on her feet after losing her job, her husband, her friends and more.

Jonathan said he ultimately voted for the person who had his back as much as possible, Tom voted for the person who made him laugh the most, and Lolo took a shot at Ricky by saying she voted for the person who made decisions with heart and not for the sake of "deals."






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski