Spoilers are ahead, so if you don’t want to know who won the Celebrity Big Brother Final 5 Head of Household or Power of Veto, do not continue. There are five house guests left, but in my estimation, there are only two who can win.
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With only one more TV episode left, Celebrity Big Brother is down to its Final 5, but really it’s down to its Final 4 because we’ve learned that Ross Mathews has won HOH and nominated Omarosa Manigault Newman and Ariadna Gutierrez. We also know that Ross won the POV and, almost assuredly, isn’t going to use it.
With Marissa Jaret Winokur and Mark McGrath left to vote, it’s almost a certainty that Omarosa is going home first on Finale Night. If not a 2-0 vote, surely Ross would be sending the reality television villain to the hot seat with Julie Chen. I always feel like when I mention Omarosa and “reality villain” that I should also note her credentials as a Trump and Clinton administrator. However, that’s only because she talks about it so much.
She’s been a good Big Brother player, but Ross has been a better player. I think he wins the first-ever Celebrity Big Brother. His social game has been terrific, and he’s won competitions when it counted, both the cerebral and the physical. The most recent HOH competition involved house guests hanging on to snow skis.
Ross managed to be part of two big alliances that covered every house guest except one, I believe. There’s nobody in that house who thinks Ross is a bad player, and I suspect they’ve all fancied him a favorite from the outset. Favorite as in “could win.” So, what each of these alliances did was associate themselves with a guy who would have both social and competitive power.
Smart by them. Good on him.
Yet the power moves in this game came from the women. Ariadna was responsible for the CBB demise of Shannon Elizabeth, who is sure to win America’s Favorite Houseguest. She pledged to donate the $25,000 to her charitable organization, Animal Avengers. Likewise, Omarosa is responsible for the eviction of James Maslow.
As of this writing (Sunday morning), we know that Omarosa is dead-man-walking, which leave us with Ross, Ariadna, Marissa and Mark.
See also: Diary Room Highlights
Omarosa has all but killed Marissa’s chances of winning by elaborately detailing why nobody would win sitting next to her in a Final Two. I do not think Omarosa is correct because both Ari and Ross would win sitting next to her. Even Omarosa might win sitting next to Marissa. The only person who has no shot of winning is Mark.
Heck, if Mark had been more competitive throughout the three-week season, he might have stood a chance. Probably the biggest reason he’s still in the house is because he’s such a fantastic roommate. In Saturday night’s retrospective episode, we see Mark doing all the cleaning.
All this leads me to a prediction: The only two house guests who have a real shot at the $250,000 are Ross Mathews and Ariadna Gutierrez. She’s proven herself to be a good competitor and a strategic player, as evidenced by her willingness to make the season’s first power move in eliminating Shannon.
It just comes down to that final HOH.
If Ross wins, he’s taking Mark McGrath. In Saturday’s episode, we see Ross and Mark talking about this. From Mathews’s perspective, we know why: beating Mark will be easy in a jury vote.
If Ariadna wins, she *should* take Mark, but I don’t know what she’ll do and I could see her taking Ross just because she likes him. I should give her the benefit of the doubt since she ushered Shannon out the door. However, you just never know.
Given the fact that she’s mostly known for having Miss Universe ripped from underneath her by an errant Steve Harvey and the fact that her dad is dying, which the audience saw in an emotional moment a few days ago, I’m rooting for Ariadna to win that final HOH, evict Ross and Marissa and take home the $250,000.
I just think she’s the house guest who could most use a little something good happen to her.
And if she wins that final HOH and makes the cutthroat decision to evict two of the game’s most popular house guests in Ross and Marissa, it will be hard to argue that she doesn’t deserve it as well.
With that said, I think Ross wins. Hoping for an Ariadna upset.
Anything else, to me, would be a big surprise.
