Nominations

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

The Nomination Ceremony
The Head of Household selects two houseguests to nominate for eviction. The exception to this rule arrives during Big Brother 15, where a new twist requires three nominees each week. The HOH still nominates only two houseguests.The HOH place the keys of the players who are safe into the Nomination Box, a circular device with numbered key slots. The keys of those who are nominated are placed in a smaller box located in the HOH suite. 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 his or her neck, and pulls the subsequent 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 his or her 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.

During double eviction and "Fast Forward" weeks the HoH simply names the nominees.

For Big Brother Canada, nominations take place in the lounge area instead of the dining table and instead of the nomination box a combined memory/nomination board is used. A rectangular key card is used instead of a key.

The traditional key pulling Nomination Ceremony was discarded completely for Big Brother 16 and Big Brother Canada 3. On BB16, the Head of Household put the keys of the nominees of their choice in the new nomination boxes. The HoH would twist their keys and the photos of their nominees appear on the memory wall screen. This format was used throughout, during both the 2 HoH twist and when the game reverted to the regular format. In Big Brother Canada 3, the HoH would enter the Big Brother vault and input the nomination on a touch screen computer. Once this was done, a compartment containing a cylindrical tube was open. The HoH would take the tube and put it in steampunk nomination machine in the lounge area, in front of the other houseguest. Upon pulling the leaver of the nomination machine,one of the nominations would be revealed on the screen. Upon pulling leaver again, the second nomination would be revealed.

Nomination Block
Nomination Block are the 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 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 (or Arisa Cox for the Canadian edition). 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 Big Brother 5 by Jennifer "Nakomis" Dedmon, 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. A rule change to prevent the backdoor was implemented during season 7, making the players in the POV competition randomly selected, meaning there is always a chance for everyone to play in the competition, greatly reducing the odds of a successful backdoor.

Trivia

 * The only time all 13 slots of the nomination box was used was week 1 on Big Brother 15.