The “live” two-hour season finale of Big Brother 23 finally arrived on Wednesday night.
At the beginning of the episode, just Azah Awasum, Derek Frazier, and Xavier Prather were still alive in the game.
A long recap was shown going back to when Tiffany Mitchell and Hannah Chaddha were evicted, and then Kyland Young was shown getting evicted shortly after that.
We also saw Xavier win Part 1 of the final HOH Competition to secure his spot in Part 3 on finale night.
Big Brother 23, Episode 37 recap
The first bit of new footage was Azah and Derek F battling in Part 2 of the final HOH Competition. The winner would advance to play against Xavier in Part 3.
Azah seemed to have fun in the challenge, while Derek was pretty frustrated and said that it really messed up his knees.
Azah finished with the best time and won Part 2 of the final HOH Competition.
Part 3 would now be Azah vs Xavier to decide the final Head of Household for the summer.
Derek drama toward Azah
A long segment was shown where Derek was expressing his frustrations in the house about Azah winning Part 2. We also saw some more chats from last week, where Derek was talking badly about Azah and saying that he carried her for most of the season.
She wasn’t keen on hearing any of that. He also continued to say that he had a final two deal with Xavier. It was not a good way to get Azah to take him to the end if she won Part 3.
Big Brother 23 jury roundtable
The first seven members of the BB23 jury were shown all dressed up at the roundtable (they looked good). They started out discussing who might be coming in as the eighth member of the jury. They did not guess it was going to be Kyland Young.
Kyland walked in and let them know that it was Derek Frazier who got him out of the game. And then it was time for the BB23 jury to talk about the final three houseguests and what they did in the game this summer.
At one point Kyland said that Hannah and Derek were interchangeable in the game when it came to contributions. It was an odd statement to make and Hannah was not pleased.
As a whole, the BB23 jury was impressed by what Xavier had accomplished and not at all impressed by Azah and Derek F being in the final three.
Some compliments were given to Derek for surviving this long without winning anything, and to Azah for developing relationships. Tiffany Mitchell tried to stand up for Azah, but Azah’s lack of a resume didn’t help her much.
Part 3 of the final HOH Competition
Xavier and Azah had to answer questions based on short videos about houseguests who were now on the BB23 jury. The person who got the most points after eight videos would become the final Head of Household for the season.
Xavier got every question right and became the final HOH of the summer.
Who makes the final two of BB23?
It was all up to Xavier who would go to the final two with him. Derek F and Azah both gave speeches about why they should go to the end before he made his choice.
Xavier told Big D he was sticking to their final two deal and taking him to the end. It meant Azah became the final member of the BB23 jury.
Azah met briefly with Julie, where she was pretty subdued. Azah told Julie that she was going to take Xavier to the end with her had she been the final HOH, and that she was still proud of the way she played the game. It also sounded like she had already decided she was voting for Xavier to win.
BB23 jury takes the stage
The first eight BB23 jurors were joined by Azah out on the main stage with Julie. They talked a little, but then it was time to ask Xavier and Derek F questions about the Summer 2021 season.
Xavier remained pretty on-point and well-rehearsed with his answers. Derek did not do the same and struggled to answer some questions while also getting emotional at times.
Time to vote for the Big Brother 23 winner
After Xavier and Derek F gave speeches about why they each felt that they deserved to win, it was time for the BB23 jury members to place their votes. They each made a few comments as they put their key in the block.
The first five evicted houseguests return through video chat
Whitney Williams, Brandon “Frenchie” French, Christian Birkenberger, Travis Long, and Brent Champagne were all on hand to speak through video chat on finale night.
Christian called The Cookout the best alliance in the history of the show. Brent took the time to give Tiffany a lot of credit for the season.
Secrets revealed by BB23 cast
The houseguests all told each other their real professions and backgrounds, including Xavier admitting to being a lawyer.
Derek admitted to being the son of Joe Frazier and Britini also told everyone that she has autism.
The Big Brother 23 winner is revealed
Britini voted for Xavier, Derek X voted for Xavier, Sarah Beth voted for Xavier, Claire voted for Xavier, and Alyssa voted for Xavier.
Five votes were already enough and Xavier Prather was named the Big Brother 23 winner by host Julie Chen Moonves.
The rest of the votes later revealed that Xavier was the unanimous winner of the Summer 2021 season.
America’s Favorite Houseguest
The top two vote-getters in the race for AFH were Derek Xiao and Tiffany Mitchell.
It was Tiffany who got named America’s Favorite Houseguest and won the $50,000 that came with it.
More Big Brother to come
On the way out, Julie Chen told Big Brother fans to apply to be on the show next summer. She also reminded everyone that Big Brother: Celebrity Edition is back on CBS this winter.
Celebrity Big Brother returns to CBS in Winter 2022.