Big Brother 4

Big Brother 4 (also called Big Brother 4: The X-Factor) was the fourth season of the reality television series Big Brother. It aired for 82 days. This season winner's was Kel Ying, who beat his closest ally and showmance Summer Mitchell in the Final 2 by a 6-1 vote.

Pre-jury alliances of this season include the Better Six (Angie, Ruby, Kel, Vanessa, Brandon, & Jeremy), and the Other Five (Summer, Max, Katrina, Rebekah, & Nolan). When the jury hit, four houseguests banded together to make the Double Date alliance (Ruby, Kel, Brandon, & Summer).

Twists/Changes

 * Golden Power of Veto: Introduced in the previous season as the last veto competition of Big Brother 3, was the Golden Power of Veto, was now the mainstay veto for this, and future seasons.
 * The X-Factor: While 8 Houseguests entered the house initially, they were told that 5 of the remaining Houseguests were ex-lovers with one of the 8.
 * Power of Veto Played Before Nominations: In Weeks 7 & 8, the veto competition happened before the nominations ceremony was held.
 * Diamond Power of Veto: The Diamond Power of Veto was introduced as the final veto power in the final 4. It allowed the holder to save a nominee from eviction and name the replacement.
 * Sequestered Jury: A Jury of seven who would decide the outcome of the game. When there were nine players left in the game, the evictees formed the jury.

Alliances

 * The Better Six (Angie, Brandon, Jeremy, Kel, Ruby, and Vanessa)
 * The Other Five (Katrina, Max, Nolan, Rebekah, and Summer)
 * Double Date (Brandon, Kel, Ruby, and Summer)

Week 1
After the eight new houseguests moved into the house, they were informed that some houseguests would be joined by one of their exes. At the Head of Household competition, Angie Parcuso won. Before the nomination ceremony, Angie formed a six person alliance with Brandon Wentworth, Jeremy Osbourne, Kel Ying, Ruby Versa, and Vanessa Griffin. Honouring the alliance's wishes, Angie nominated an ex couple for eviction; Grant Rossen and Summer Mitchell. At the Power of Veto competion, Katrina Kappers won the Golden Power of Veto. Katrina chose to keep the nominations the same. Liam McGee was expelled from the house on Day 10 after tormenting his ex, Angie. Grant was evicted by a vote of 7 to 2.

Week 2
Max Downing, Sr. was crowned the new Head of Household at the end of the competition. Max formed an alliance with Katrina, Nolan Fanderos, Rebekah Kwan, and Summer out of necessity to counter the alliance of six. The alliance decided to target Kel and Vanessa for eviction. Brandon won the Power of Veto but decided not to use it. Summer told the alliance of six to vote Kel, but told her alliance to vote Vanessa. Both alliances were extremely confident that Summer would side with them. Ultimately, when the vote was announced, it was a tie. Max had to break the tie, and cast the deciding vote to evict Vanessa from the house, citing her as the bigger threat.

Week 3
Nolan was crowned Head of Household after winning the "Out In the Cold" competition. Jeremy told Nolan that Summer was playing both sides after she told Jeremy to evict Kel. Nolan used this information and told his alliance. At the nomination ceremony, Nolan nominated Jeremy and Summer for eviction. Nolan exclaimed that he wanted Summer out of the house, due to her flip flopping. Shortly before the Veto competition, Summer, Kel, Ruby, and Brandon formed a Showmance alliance and all agreed to use the veto if any of them won it. At the Veto competition, Jeremy was victorious. At the Veto ceremony, he decided to remove himself from the block. Nolan decided to nominate Angie, as he saw her as a threat in competitions, and as another pawn to get out Summer. During the live vote, Jeremy thought that Kel would be the only one to vote to evict Angie, so he decided to cast a rouge vote against her. However, Angie was ultimately evicted by a 4 to 3 vote.

Week 4
At the Head of Household competition, Kel was victorious. Kel's alliance told her to nominate Nolan for eviction. At the nomination ceremony, Kel followed his alliance's plan, and nominated Nolan and Rebekah. Her reasoning for this was that he believed Nolan was the head of his alliance and wanted to chop the head off the snake. And that Rebekah had made it very clear that she didn't like Summer, who Kel was in an alliance with. Katrina won her second Veto, but decided not to use it. Nolan was evicted unanimously.

Week 5
At the Head of Household competition, Summer prevailed and was crowned the next Head of Household. Summer wanted to nominate Rebekah due to their shared dislike for each other. But Kel convinced her to nominate Max and Katrina. The goal was to evict Katrina from the house, as she perceived her to be the bigger threat. At the Veto competition, Summer won the Power of Veto, giving her all the power. As a last ditch effort to save herself, Katrina tried to promise loyalty to Summer. At the veto ceremony, Summer decided to leave the nominations intact and to not use the Veto. Katrina was evicted by a vote of 3 to 2.

Week 6
After the Head of Household competition, Ruby was crowned Head of Household. Ruby nominated the last two members of The Better Six Alliance; Max and Rebekah for eviction. At the Power of Veto competition, Kel won his first veto of the season. Following the competition, Rebekah promised Kel that if he used the veto on her and evicted Jeremy, she would keep both him and Summer off the block if she won HOH. Kel honored this deal and used the veto on her, with Ruby naming Jeremy as the replacement nominee. Jeremy was evicted unanimously.

Week 7
At the Head of Household competition, Kel was victorious for a second time. For the first time ever, the Veto competition was held before the nomination ceremony. At the Veto competition, the host gave each of the houseguests dilemmas in the diary room. The houseguest that accepted one of the dilemmas would win the Power of Veto. All houseguests rejected the first offer. However, Brandon accepted his second offer which meant that he won the POV. This meant that all houseguests, except for himself, would have to eat only PB&J for one week. Kel decided to nominate Max and Rebekah for eviction. His plan was to spare Rebekah because they made a deal the week prior, and he wanted to stick to it. At the veto ceremony, Brandon decided to leave the nominations intact and to not use the Veto. However, Ruby became suspicious of Kel scheming with Rebekah and spoke to Brandon about evicting Rebekah instead of Max. Ultimately, Rebekah was evicted by a vote of 2 to 1.

Week 8
At the Head of Household competition, Ruby was victorious. Straight after Ruby was crowned HOH, she was called to the diary room and told that she would be leaving the house to have dinner with a loved one from outside the house. Once again, the Power of Veto competition occured before the nomination ceremony. The objective of the Veto competition, was to discover where Ruby had gone. The houseguests were provided with clues to help them figure out where she was. If none of the houseguests correctly guessed where Ruby was, then she would win the Veto. No one guessed correctly, so Ruby won the Power of Veto. After Ruby returned to the house, she was told that she had won the POV. She decided to use this as an opportunity to show Kel she was no pleased with his actions last week. So she nominated Kel and Max for eviction, knowing that no one would save themselves with the Veto. At the Veto ceremony, Ruby left her nominations intact. Shortly before the eviction, Ruby told Brandon to vote against Kel, claiming she wanted to send him a message. But in actuality, Ruby used this as an opportunity to cover herself if Kel won HOH so he would go after Brandon instead of her. Ultimately, when the vote was announced, it was a tie. Ruby had to break the tie, and cast the deciding vote to evict Max from the house due to him being the outsider of the house.

Week 9
At the Head of Household competition, Kel was victorious for the third time. At the nomination cermony, Kel revealed that he had decided to nominate both Brandon and Ruby for eviction. Though his main objective was for Summer to make the final decision. Summer won the first and only Diamond Power of Veto of the season; this meant that she had sole power over who was evicted. At the live Veto ceremony, Summer discarded because there were no other people to name as a replacement nominee. This meant that Summer had to evict either Brandon or Ruby. Summer decided to take who she thought was less likely to win the final Head of Household and chose to evict Brandon.

Week 10
The final Head of Household competition is played out in three challenges, to give the remaining houseguests a fair shot at securing a place in the final two. During the first endurance HOH competition, Kel won the challenge. Days later, Summer beat Ruby in the next challenge, meaning Ruby was nominated. At the live HOH part 3 competition, Summer successfully beat Kel in a personality guessing quiz, claiming the final HOH. She then chose to evict Ruby.

Trivia

 * This was the first season to feature an uneven number of houseguests.
 * This was the first season to feature houseguests that had formerly met each other prior to entering the House.
 * This is the first season with an Asian-American winner (Kel).