BB24’s winner and finale made Big Brother history

Exactly twenty years ago after Danielle Reyes made it to the final two of Big Brother 3, a second Black woman made it to the final two: Big Brother 24’s Taylor Hale.

Taylor then did something no other Black woman has done: she won Big Brother. She’ll receive $750,000, plus $50,000 for being viewers’ favorite houseguest, the first time the season’s winner has also won that prize.

A Black woman, Tamar Braxton, won the second season of Celebrity Big Brother, but it has a much more condensed format.

Taylor’s victory comes several months after Maryanne Oketch became the second Black woman to win Survivor.

This is the second season of Big Brother in a row won by a Black houseguest—and the second season overall won by a Black houseguest, since it never happened before.

The BB24 finale was also only the second time in the history of the CBS show that two Black houseguests were the final two: Monte Taylor and Taylor Hale, who are both 27 years old.

While, back in 2002, Danielle on received one jury vote on BB3 and lost to Lisa Donahue, Taylor received all jury votes except for one.

‘I am not a victim, I am a victor’

Taylor’s success is even more remarkable considering how she was targeted week one and shunned by the house.

Taylor and Monte’s success is notable considering another player, Kyle, tried to target the people of color in the house while making implicitly racist comments.

Monte ended up with $75,000 as the runner-up. He got just one vote: from Turner.

The most votes for America’s Favorite Houseguest went to Kyle, Michael, and Taylor—and again, Taylor won it.

Taylor was also nominated for eviction five times out of the 13 regular evictions, and on the block one more time, in the finale. No other player was nominated that many times. She also won HOH twice.

Taylor’s argument to the jury

Taylor mentioned those things and more in what I thought was an incredibly strong argument to the jury. It acknowledged what she’d been through and argued for the jury to consider resiliency as a strength:

“I’m so much more than the wins I’ve had. … Monte may have more blood on his hands than me, but as someone who has sat on this eviction block six times on eviction night, I have bled out the most in this game. But I have bandaged myself together every single time and gotten up and continued to fight, because like so many other women in the world, that is what we have to do to get to the end: we have to take care of ourselves and put ourselves first, while also looking out for the rest of the ones who are behind us.”

She also said:

“I have been falsely accused and unjustly accused of using someone’s mental health. … I have been called the b-word so many more times in this house than I have in my real life—not to mention there was an attempted all-white alliance and I had to sit on the block … next to the person who tried to form that alliance.”

That person, Kyle Capener, was there on the jury, and cast a vote—for Taylor.

Taylor also made this argument:

“We can have the same Big Brother wins that we’ve had in the past. … But I am challenging all of you to decide what type of winner you want to have this year. Do we want the same thing where we see evictions and comp wins be the path to success? Or do we want a winner where we choose resiliency, we choose persistence as a reason to win this game? I have never given up on myself, and I refuse to do it tonight when I am sitting next to such a strong winner.”

Taylor ended by saying: “I am not a shield, I am a sword,” she said. “I am not a victim, I am a victor.”

She was, and quite a strong one.

Correction: This story initially incorrectly said Taylor and Monte were the first Black players to make the final two; that record was actually set last season, when Xavier Prather and Derek Frazier were the final two.