Nominations

Nominees are the two people targeted for eviction. It is the responsibility of the Head of Household to choose two houseguests to nominate for eviction.

The Nomination Ceremony
The Head of Household selects two houseguests to nominate for eviction. They place the keys of the players who are safe into the Nomination Box, a circular device with key slots. The HOH pulls the first key. That person is safe. The HOH spins the Lazy Susan to the owner of the key, who then puts it around their neck and pulls the second key. This proceeds until there are no more keys in the box and two players are without keys. They have been nominated. The HOH stands up and explains the reasoning behind their nominations. At this point, the HOH calls the ceremony adjourned and the houseguests return their keys to the Memory Wall. The Nomination Ceremony takes place at the kitchen table. The Ceremony occurs each week until the Final Three, at which point both houseguests are automatically nominated following the HOH competition.

Nomination Block
Nomination Block is two chairs in the Living Room where the Nominees sit on Eviction Night and during the Power of Veto ceremony. Once the Nomination Ceremony is over, the two houseguests without keys are considered on Nomination Block.

Nomination Block is surrounded by couches on either side and have a head on view of the television used to communicate with Julie Chen. Houseguests on Nomination Block are ineligible to vote.

The Backdoor
It is a popular strategy to place two houseguests in an opposing alliance to the Head of Household on Nomination Block. However, because both nominees get to play in the Veto, a popular strategy called "backdooring" places two "pawns" or "decoy nominations" on the block. The HOH doesn't want either of the nominees to go home, they are merely used as placeholders until after the Veto. This prevents a strong competitor from playing in the Veto, thus saving themself. Instead, the Veto is guaranteed to be used and the HOH selects their true target as the replacement, thus leaving them defenseless. This strategy was created in season 5 by Nakomis, then called her "Six Finger Plan", a nod at the fact that all 6 Veto players were in on the plan to backdoor Jase Wirey. The plan was successful and an enraged Jase was evicted without the chance to defend himself.