‘Big Brother’ Explains ‘Hacker Competition’ Twist

We finally know the secret behind Big Brother Season 20’s Hacker Competition.

In Sunday’s episode of the CBS reality series, the show explained the twist host Julie Chen had teased at the end of Thursday’s episode, during which she said “Each week, one houseguest will win the power to secretly hack the game,” and warning fans to “expect the unexpected.”

It was a fair warning. The Hacker Competition has serious power to switch things up this season, with one player winning the ability to hack the game in three different ways for a whole week.

“The next big twist if the summer is about to be unleashed,” a voice explained to the shocked players. “For the next two weeks, a new competition will be played following the nomination ceremony. Everyone will compete, but only one of you will secretly win, becoming the BB hacker. This houseguest will secretly hack the game all week long.”

The first power of the BB hacker is to anonymously remove a player from the block and replace them with another person following the nomination ceremony. The second, to secretly choose one houseguest to play in the veto competition. The final power allows the hacker to choose one houseguest whose vote to eliminate in the eviction ceremony at the end of the week.

The players were nearly speechless after hearing about the competition.

“This is totally ludicrous, the BB hacker is a total gamechanger,” Scottie Salton said.

But Head of Household Angela Rummans was upset that the hacker power could be taking away from her control of the game this week.

“This is going to throw my HOH for a loop,” she said, adding, “My level of control this week just plummeted. This sucks.”

The curve ball sent such a ripple of fear throughout the house that player Sam Bledsoe tried to get everyone to agree to throw the competition to her, at which point she said she would promise not to use it.

“She wants to keep things even keel and Kumbaya, but it’s not gonna happen,” Angela told the cameras. “There are too many snakes in the house, and there’s no way her plan could ever work.”

She wasn’t the only one to poo-poo the plan, calling it unrealistic or a plot for Sam to take control of the house.

Haleigh Broucher ended up winning the first hacker competition, keeping her victory a secret from her fellow players. But what will she do with her newfound power?

Big Brother airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. CBS All Access subscribers have access to the online live feed.

Photo credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS