While this season of Big Brother has provided us with a few memorable characters (e.g. Audrey AKA “The Blanket”) and a modicum of comic relief (James’s pranks, Austin’s beard ponytail), it has been strangely devoid of tension between the players. Oh, sure, someone’s always going to be put up for eviction and feelings are invariably going to be hurt, but there hasn’t been a really nasty blow up of the likes we’ve gotten used to seeing in previous seasons. So in honor of BB17’s coming to an end, we’ve decided to put together a list of the Top 8 Down-and-Dirty Fights in Big Brother History. Remember these goodies?
8. Danielle vs. Lori (Season 3)
Waaaaay back in the first week of Season Three, houseguest, Lori, got upset that everyone else was making a big deal out of how old-man-in-the-house, Gerry, didn’t wash his hands after going to the bathroom. She actually kind of freaked out over it and demanded to know who started the rumors. When media buyer and mom, Danielle, admitted that she did (and also insisted it wasn’t a rumor), Lori and Danielle got into it, with Danielle going what she called “ghetto fabulous” on country girl, Lori. Lori was evicted that week — and the rules around proper hand sanitation have never been contested on Big Brother again.
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7. Ian vs. Frank (Season 14)
In this season, in which four houseguests from past seasons returned to “coach” new houseguests, fans were treated to one of the most unique fights ever to take place on Big Brother. The fight was unique for so many reasons, not the least of which being that it took place between two of the “nicest” guys in the house, and the fact that one of them was dressed in a carrot costume the whole time. Ian, the nerdy engineering student, and Frank, the laid-back, unemployed beach bum, got into it when Frank accused HOH Ian of playing dirty by nominating both Frank and his coach, Mike “Boogie,” and then voting Mike “Boogie” off — right after Frank had convinced Mike to give a $3,000 prize to Ian in the veto competition. The fight was also memorable for the cuts to a tear-stained Britney and a laughing Dan Gheesling, who was lying on a bed in another room, killing himself while listening to the whole schmozzle through the wall.
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6. Gina Marie vs. Amanda (Season 15)
This is the season that saw outspoken Miami real estate agent Amanda go from being one of the most powerful players in the house to the most despised houseguest, and the drama that ensued after Amanda’s fall from grace was nothing short of epic. The blow out between Gina Marie and Amanda started with Staten Island pageant coordinator, Gina Marie, randomly insulting Amanda just to get a rise out of her, presumably, by alluding to the fact that Amanda was “using” her Big Brother boyfriend — nerdy pizza delivery boy, McCrae. This turned into a ten-minute-long profanity-laced insult competition between these two potty-mouthed houseguests, during which every possible insult was exchanged between them. But the weirdest thing about it was the fact that Gina Marie was playing with Jenga blocks the whole time, and the rest of the houseguests continued to meekly sit around the kitchen table not saying anything while Gina Marie ripped Amanda to shreds (not even McCrae spoke up to defend her). Could anything be more cringe-worthy? Caution: Lots of profanity and offensive language used!
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5. Ragan vs. Rachel (Season 12)
This was just a good old-fashioned battle of wits between notorious Big Brother villainess Rachel Reilly and gay college professor, Ragan. It began with Rachel approaching Ragan, who had been exercising in the backyard, and sarcastically offering him some freshly baked cookies, which Ragan took as a thinly veiled insult (not sure what the insinuation was, exactly, but these two were enemies, and enemies do not offer each other cookies — unless they’ve been laced with poison). They then proceeded to get into it — insulting everything from each other’s fashion sense to each other’s careers — with Ragan clearly gaining the upper hand. “Everything about you is a lie,” Ragan said to Rachel, in one of his funnier barbs. “Your boobs are a lie, your face is a lie — the only honest thing about you is the pimples on your chin.” He also called her a “wicked witch” and a “disgusting, repulsive human being,” with Rachel coming back with some weak dig at Ragan’s uncoolness. She might have been outmatched in this battle of wits, but — unbelievably — Rachel Reilly did go on to win Big Brother 13 (the next season).
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4. Chima vs. Russell (Season 11)
This season started off with houseguests being divided into four cliques: Populars, Brains, Athletes and Off-Beats — setting the scene for some truly high school-worthy (read, epic) fights. And the biggest blow up of the season began as most blow ups do, with a third-party (in this case, Michelle, the meddling neuroscientist from the Brains clique) telling another player (mixed martial arts fighter, Russell from the Athletes) that someone else had it in for them (Chima from the Brains). When Russell brought Chima in to confront her about her supposed desire to backdoor him, he asked Michelle to be there, too, and Michelle poker-face lied about having said anything to Russell, making him look like the bad guy to Chima. The accusations and denials quickly escalated into a full-fledged, in-your-face yelling match between Chima and Russell. And it led to Chima’s getting so out of control that she started breaking Big Brother rules left and right, refusing to wear her microphone and throwing it in the Jacuzzi, then refusing to wear a replacement microphone and refusing to come to the diary room at Big Brother’s request — which led to her expulsion from the Big Brother house by the producers. Now that is what we call some good drama!
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3. Michael vs. Eric “Cappy” (Season 6)
Another fight that started with a meddling contestant putting a bug in another contestant’s ear, this one was over a supposed insult that smarmy artist, Michael, made about someone in firefighter, Eric “Cappy’s,” family. When the guy who’d made it crystal clear in the beginning that “no one insults his family,” found out, he went on a mission to find out if it was true. Somehow, annoying, loudmouth Yvette, got involved and everything quickly spun out of control with Yvette proclaiming that she was “going to go Cuban on Michael’s a–” and imitating Michael by walking like a platypus. Peacemaker Kaysar tried to diffuse the situation, but, alas, it was too late, and Cappy very nearly got into fisticuffs with Michael. The Big Brother crew had to step in and separate everyone, in what was the closest thing to a real brawl in the show’s history.
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2. Jessie vs. Libra (Season 10)
This cray-cray fight began with body builder Jessie lying in bed eavesdropping on a private conversation being had between Libra and birthday girl, Keesha, in which Libra was explaining how upset she was that HOH April didn’t see her as a valuable player. Of course, Jessie had to go and tell April, who then confronted Libra with the information. The two girls got into it, with Keesha joining in, siding with Libra and saying she didn’t feel April gave her the time of day. But when Libra found out it was Jessie who had told April about the private conversation she’d been having with Keesha, she turned on Jessie instead, and the two got into a legendary yelling match. But what makes this feud so memorable is that it was interspersed with shots of Keesha, crying and shots of her birthday cake, sitting on the table, while the house erupted in chaos. At some point, someone decided to go ahead and try to diffuse the situation by singing “Happy Birthday” to Keesha, and the result was the most somber rendition of the song ever. It’s worth watching a clip of this one, if you can find it, if only to hear that sad, sad version of the song.
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1. Evel Dick vs. Jen (Season 8)
Oh, Evel Dick…the man was pure evil, from his name right to his dirty jeans, tobacco-stained teeth and umpteen tattoos. But when he and attention-seeking nanny, Jen, got into it, it was a feud of the magnitude Big Brother had never seen before and has never seen since. It all started when Jen decided she’d had enough and started packing up all her stuff into plastic garbage bags, which the rest of the house just saw as another one of her Drama Queen moves. But when Dick started in on her, telling her to “Go home, cry baby b—-,” Jen decided to one-up him by going into the house, stealing all his cigarette cartons and crushing the cigarettes one by one before throwing them in the garbage. It wasn’t long before Dick found out his cigs were missing and went totally ballistic on Jen, who kept her calm and decided to eat some real food even though she was supposed to be on a slop diet — for which Big Brother gave her a penalty vote. Later that evening, still not knowing what Jen did with his cigarettes, Dick sat down beside Jen on the outdoor couch and blew smoke in her face. Jen stood up and tried to grab his cigarette from Dick’s fingers and the two grappled for a moment, with Dick yelling at Jen not to touch him. When she lunged for him again, he burned her with his cigarette and when she accused him of purposely burning her, he burned her a couple more times. Amazingly, Dick did not get expelled from the house for burning a fellow houseguest with his cigarette, and what’s more, he was declared the winner at the end of the season, earning him a nice $500 grand to buy all the cigarettes he could possibly want.