The longtime host of the hit reality series is looking back at some of the show's most surprising twists.
After 24 seasons, Big Brother has seen some truly wild moments, shocking twists and simply inspired, unexpected gameplay. Now, stalwart host Julie Chen Moonves is breaking down some of the show's most memorable and surprising moments.
Julie recently spoke with ET, ahead of the forthcoming Big Brother: 25th Anniversary Celebration, and shared a few of her favorite shocking moments -- starting with Dan Gheesling throwing himself a symbolic funeral.
"Season 14, Dan staging his own funeral. This guy was dead man walking," Julie recalled. "He had some sort of punishment where he was in solitary confinement, and he had to be by himself for 24 hours... That punishment was a blessing in disguise, because he had time alone to think and have no other voices in his head."
In what is considered by many to be one of the greatest gameplay and strategy moments in the show's history, Dan -- who many felt was a done deal to get voted off -- held a house meeting, in which he delivered a eulogy for himself, shared kind words with his housemates and threw one of his allies under the bus.
"As we're watching Dan conduct his own funeral, we're thinking, 'This guy is either totally Looney Tunes and has sealed his own fate or he's going all the way," Julie said. "It was genius... Watching the other houseguests and their reactions said it all. It was more fascinating to watch how it was working on the others in the house."
The gambit paid off, too. Dan sowed so much chaos and uncertainty, he escaped from the chopping block and wound up coming in second in the season.
Julie also shared some praise for the wild and unpredictable "Evel Dick" Donato, who practiced his own brand of pre-planned chaos during season 8.
"Evel Dick's pots and pans, as a viewer, made me laugh every time," Julie said, referring to the infamous way Evel Dick would wake up the rest of the house in the mornings, banging together pots and pans and generally annoying everyone else in a brilliantly villainous ploy to exhaust the other houseguests.
"It is so immature. It is so wrong. It is so evil. And so funny," Julie shared. "Now, if I were one of his housemates, I would want to strangle this guy. But I wasn't! I could turn down the volume on my TV and just laugh."
Julie also recalled the notorious Shannon Dragoo, who, in a fit of rage at Hardy-Ames Hill during season 2, committed revenge in one of the grossest ways imaginable.
"Shannon taking the electric toothbrush that belonged to Hardy and making it a toilet scrub," Julie recalled, listing off some other shocking turns.
"[Or] Marcellas [Reynolds] not using this brand new power we introduced in season 3 called The Power of Veto," Julie continued. "He was lulled into this false sense of security and convinced he was so safe, and so beloved that he didn't save himself."
"The thing with Big Brother is something crazy can happen in the house," Julie explained. "After 24 seasons, we've seen it all, we've thought it all through. We've had every type of shenanigan... that's why we have rules in the Big Brother house! Nothing surprises me after all these seasons."
In addition to opening up here, Julie will also sit down with ET's Nischelle Turner in the upcoming special, Big Brother 25th Anniversary Celebration, which is an Entertainment Tonight special presented by CBS premiering on Wednesday, July 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It will also stream live and be available on demand on Paramount+ or Paramount+ with Showtime.
Hosted by Turner, the special, which will look back on all the biggest and best moments, features archival footage from the past 24 seasons and exclusive new interviews with fan-favorite houseguests including winners Cody Calafiore, Taylor Hale, Derrick Levasseur, Jordan Lloyd, Xavier Prather and Rachel Reilly, and other houseguests, including Azah Awasum, Hannah Chaddha, Derek Frazier, Frankie Grande, Tiffany Mitchell, Janelle Pierzina, Danielle Reyes, Kaysar Ridha, Jeff Schroeder and Brendon Villegas.
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