Big Brother 27 had a wildly eventful endgame, but Ashley Hollis’ victory closely resembles a divisive winning game from 2015. After avoiding eviction throughout Big Brother’s exhaustive blockbuster twist, Ashley entered the endgame in multiple alliances with various paths to victory. Though Ashley had ample strategy, Morgan Pope and Vince Panaro dominated post-jury competitions, leaving the lawyer safe but powerless.
Nonetheless, Ashley won when it mattered most: the final HOH. With the season’s most powerful reign, Ashley separated Big Brother 27’s cheatmance by evicting Morgan on finale night. She won against Vince in a landslide 6–1 vote and became the 27th winner of Big Brother, but Ashley’s biggest move of the game follows an iconic precedent set ten years prior.
Ashley’s Final HOH In Big Brother 27 Perfectly Mirrors The Season 17 Finale
Morgan Pope Has Been Called The Return Of Vanessa Rousso
Ashley taking out Morgan was the obvious move, but it has larger implications within the BB community for the striking similarities to the Big Brother 17 finale. Just like Ashley, Steve Moses won the Final HOH, evicted the clear front-runner, and won Big Brother season 17 with a commanding lead over runner-up Liz Nolan.
All seasons of Big Brother are streaming on Paramount+.
While Morgan wasn’t a comp beast until the second half of the season, Steve went up against one of the best Big Brother contestants of all time: professional poker player Vanessa Rousso. Alongside the Nolan twins and Austin Matelson, Vanessa ran most of the game, only for her close ally to betray her on finale night and cement his victory.
Ashley’s Game Was Even Better Than Steve’s (But Casual Watchers Won’t Understand It)
Her Win Wasn’t Out-Of-The-Blue For Live Feed Fans
Sadly, just like Steve, many are already discrediting Ashley’s win because of one major flaw in Big Brother: its editing. In BB17, Vanessa was positioned as the main character of the season, often earning many diary room confessionals to frame the game from her perspective. In BB27, Morgan and Vince were similarly given predominant roles in the edit.
Yet, while Morgan’s game in Big Brother 27 was obviously impressive to casual fans, Ashley’s was severely downplayed in the episodes aired throughout the season. As live feed watchers can attest, Ashley has been gaming since the summer started, always having impeccable reads on the house and cleverly manipulating information to make allies.
Based purely on the edit, most fans only know Ashley for “Shower Gate” (which was only 15 minutes, despite its heavily exaggerated edit), but she was a mastermind in her own right throughout the season. Unlike Steve, who was seen as expendable by many BB17 players, Ashley earned the respect of the jurors through her nonstop strategic gameplay.
Why Ashley & Steve Are Both Deserving Big Brother Winners
Bitter Juries Are An Easy (But Unrealistic) Excuse
Regardless, it’s easy to be upset about the winners of Big Brother 17 & 27 simply because the edit did a disservice to them as players. In reality, however, Ashley and Steve were both incredibly deserving winners. As Ashley herself explained, it’s more impressive to secure safety when you don’t win competitions than it is to simply comp-out until the end.
Furthermore, Ashley was incredibly intentional throughout the summer, managing her threat level and going from the Week 1 target and house pariah to the most well-insulated player in the game. Some will argue Vince deserved to win based on pure numbers, but that defeats the purpose of the game. Big Brother, first and foremost, has always been a social experiment.
As such, games like Ashley and Steve are more than valid; they’re steeped in slow-burn strategy and impeccable timing. It would be an oversimplification to say they won purely for taking out the biggest target on finale night, but the 2015 and 2025 jury votes prove it can be part of a winning Big Brother game.