Big Brother 7: All-Stars voted out the second of its special double eviction week evictees last night, with James Rhine becoming the eighth houseguest to be evicted from the show's All-Stars house.
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James, a 30-year-old Chicago resident who had been nominated for eviction by eighth Head of Household Mike "Boogie" Malin, was evicted via a 3-1 split vote in which fellow nominee George "Chicken" Boswell only received a vote from Danielle Reyes, James closest ally and fellow member of the now broken "Legion of Doom" alliance that had also included Mike and Will Kirby, Mike's "Chilltown" ally. As usual, neither the two eviction nominees or (pending a tie) the current Head of Household were eligible to vote in the eviction balloting.
Mike, who began his abbreviated Head of Household reign after winning the HoH competition that followed Big Brother: All-Stars' pre-taped Sunday night broadcast Howie Gordon's initial double eviction week eviction, had originally nominated James and Janelle Pierzina for eviction. However, after deciding that James (the other remaining member of Janelle's one-time dominant "Season 6" alliance) was untrustworthy and keeping Janelle in the house might help the keep the remaining houseguests from coming after their own two member "Chilltown" alliance, Mike and Will decided to try and help Janelle win the Power Of Veto competition and remove herself from the block. Their plan worked, and once Janelle removed herself from the chopping block Mike -- who, along with Will, had continued to reassure James that his nomination had just been a decoy nomination intended to make sure their "Legion of Doom" alliance remained secret and he would not be evicted -- nominated George in Janelle's place.
Thinking that his nomination was just a decoy and "Chilltown" wouldn't want to risk making an enemy of Danielle, James had remained fairly confident that he wouldn't be getting sent home. However, in the end, Janelle and Will both ended up casting their live eviction votes for James, resulting in James (who also received Erika Landin's eviction vote) unexpectedly being evicted during Thursday night's live eviction broadcast.
Unlike Howie -- who nearly came to blows with Mike following his own surprise eviction -- James took the news of his surprise eviction well. "It's All-Stars, I got beat by the best," he told Big Brother host Julie Chen during a live interview the followed his eviction. "I kinda like going out this way, at the hands of Will, 'Boogie,' and Janelle because I got beat by the best... I got beat by the best and I'm happy with that." "They were an alliance I thought I could trust -- 'Season 6,' I gave them their chance the first couple of weeks and I saw that I could not trust them so I had to form another one, unfortunately [it was] the same situation but getting to work with Danielle and Will was an amazing accomplishment, I had fun."
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"Don't blame anyone but me [for your eviction]... my concern was the double dipping, I felt like you were looking out for your best interests rather than interests of the 'Legion of Doom,'" Will told James during his pre-recorded goodbye message. As she had during her private Diary Room sessions that proceeded James' eviction, Danielle used her own goodbye message to vow that she'd avenge James' eviction. "If you're out there for some reason, then 'Chilltown' has not seen the bad side of me yet, I will take care of them, I guarantee it."
After James was interviewed by Julie, the remaining houseguests competed in "But First," Big Brother 7: All-Stars' ninth Head of Household competition. As the outgoing HoH, Mike was not eligible to compete.
A true/false challenge, the HoH competition tested the houseguests' memory of the chronological order in which two of the season's previous events had occurred. If the order of the two events described by Julie was correct, then the houseguests would have to step up onto the top step of their three-step platform. If the order of the two events was wrong, then the houseguests would have to step down onto the bottom step of their three-step platform. Every houseguest had to answer each question. If a houseguest answered a question wrong, they were eliminated from the challenge. The last houseguest left would be Big Brother 7: All-Stars' new Head of Household.
George and Janelle both got the first question wrong, leaving only Danielle, Will, and Erika to make it to the second question. Danielle and Will got the second question wrong, leaving Erika -- who had hesitated in answering and originally started to incorrectly step up before finally, after being chided to answer by Julie, finally stepping down -- winning the competition and becoming the show's ninth Head of Household.
After Erika's HoH victory, Julie informed Big Brother 7: All-Stars viewers (but not the houseguests) of the season's next upcoming twist -- for the first time ever in Big Brother history, next Thursday's live broadcast will feature a live double eviction. According to CBS, next Thursday's live one-hour broadcast will see "what normally plays out in one week play out in one hour, with the first ever live HOH, veto competition, nominations, veto meeting and double eviction taking place all in one hour of television."