Less Prize Money: Unlike the normal broadcast version, Over The Top will feature a cash prize of $250,000.
No Event Blackouts 24/7: Unlike the normal broadcast version of the live feeds, the Over The Top live feeds will have no blackouts during competitions, ceremonies, and evictions.
Shorter Season: Unlike its previous seasons this season will last only 65 days making this the shortest season of the American version of Big Brother.
Contestant Curfews: Similar to international versions, there will be mandatory curfew hours for contestants to be awake or sleep.
Incentive for HouseGuests to Stay Awake: There will be multiple things to keep the House Guests awake at all times to make sure viewers have something to watch other than sleeping.
Twists
Fan Vote: There are various Fan Votes to give the viewers power like never before.
No Jury: For the first time since the Jury was introduced in Big Brother 2, America will vote for the winner of the season.
Safety: For the first time, Big Brother: Over The Top will not have Nomination Ceremonies. Instead, two Safety Ceremonies will take place. On Saturday, the Head of Household will press the button of the HouseGuest they would like to be safe. After a certain number of HouseGuests is selected the ceremony will end. Then on Sunday, the HOH will press the rest of the buttons leaving the two nominees unpressed.
Final Three: Due to the fact that America will be voting on a winner, the final vote will come down to three HouseGuests rather than two.
Sister Twist: Two HouseGuests in the Big Brother house are actually sisters. Those two are Morgan and Alex.
Fan Voting
Returning HouseGuest: During the Big Brother 18 finale, it was announced that either Jason Roy or Jozea Flores will enter the Big Brother: Over The Top house. Jason ended up being the contestant who returned for the season.
America's Nominee: Each week America will vote for a third nominee. However, America cannot nominate the same person two weeks in a row. And if America's Nominee is vetoed off the block, there will be no replacement.
America's Eviction Vote: Each week America will vote for one of the nominees to be evicted. America's vote will be an additional vote to the eviction vote, essentially voting in the place of the houseguest they put up. Even if America's Nominee is vetoed, America still gets an eviction vote.
America's Care Package: Just like in Big Brother 18, each week America will vote for a HouseGuest to get a Care Package that will give that HouseGuest an advantage in the game.
America's Have-Nots: Each week America will vote for the Have-Nots for the week.
Winner: For the first time since Big Brother 1, the winner of the season will be voted upon by America rather than a Jury composed of evicted HouseGuests.
To start off the fall, the HouseGuests competed in the "BB Bug" Head of Household competition. After being the last HouseGuest standing, Monte became the first Head of Household of the summer. After being threatened by the returning player, Monte decided to nominate Jason and Danielle for eviction. Cornbread was voted to be America's Nominee, likely because he eliminated Jason from the HOH competition. Jason went on to win the Power of Veto, securing himself a spot in the next week. When Jason used the Power of Veto on himself, Kryssie was put up as the replacement nominee. After convincing Shane that Kryssie was not as big of a threat as Cornbread was, Danielle and Shane decided to flip the vote. Despite Monte and his alliance's efforts to evict Danielle, Cornbread was evicted by a vote of 9–1–0, with Alex casting a vote against Danielle to cause paranoia.
Following Cornbread's eviction, the remaining HouseGuests competed in the "Live by the Sword" Head of Household competition, in which Alex became the new Head of Household. Later, the HouseGuests were informed of the return of America's Care Package. America gave Kryssie the first Care Package, which contained the Save-A-Friend power; she decided to save her alliance member, Jason, from being nominated by Alex and by America. Wanting to weaken the opposing side of the house and take out a big target, Alex decided to nominate the showmance for eviction, Shane and Danielle. Later, it was revealed that Monte was nominated for eviction by America. At the "Veto for Sale" Power of Veto competition, Shane won and used the veto to save himself. Kryssie was nominated as a replacement. Despite both sides of the house trying to deceive the other, the vote came out as 4–4–0—four votes against Danielle and four votes against Monte—so America's vote decided the evicted HouseGuest. By a vote of 5–4–0, Monte was the second HouseGuest evicted from the Big Brother house.
Following Monte's eviction, the HouseGuests competed in the "BB Bar Code" Head of Household competition. After competing for three rounds, Scott became the new Head of Household. Scott also received the second America's Care Package, which allowed him to choose the Veto that would be up for grabs in the Veto competition. Scott originially planned to nominated Danielle and Shane with Shane as his main target. However, following the Care Package announcement, Scott decided to nominate Kryssie and Neeley as pawns. America then nominated Danielle. By selecting the Double Veto, which allowed the top two finishers in the Veto competition to each receive a Golden Power of Veto, Scott hoped to have one of the Vetoes used so that he could backdoor Shane. At the "Fitting In" Veto competition, both Alex and Justin went on to win the Power of Veto. At the Veto meeting, Alex decided not to use her Veto, while Justin used his to save Kryssie. Scott named Shane as the replacement, completing the second part of his plan. At the eviction, the house was once again split when three HouseGuests and America voted to evict Danielle, and four voted to evict Shane. After Scott broke the 4–4 tie, Shane was the third HouseGuest evicted from the Big Brother house by a vote of 5–4–0.
Following Shane's eviction, the HouseGuests competed in the "Perfect Shot" Head of Household competition, where Kryssie became the new Head of Household. Alex won the third America's Care Package, which granted her safety for the week while also forcing her to wear a costume and obey Big Brother's commands to serve Kryssie. At the Safety Ceremony, it was revealed that Kryssie nominated Morgan and Scott for eviction with Scott as her main target. Then, Neeley was nominated as America's Nominee. After having the fastest time in the "Wall of Shame" Power of Veto competition, Morgan won the Veto. At the Veto meeting, Morgan used the Veto on herself, and Kryssie named Whitney as the replacement nominee. As the week progressed, the house remained split once again. The HouseGuests' votes fell at a 3–3 split, and America's vote became the deciding vote. At the end of the week, Neeley was the fourth HouseGuest evicted by a vote of 4–3–0.
Following Neeley's eviction, the HouseGuests competed in the "One Strike, You're Out" Head of Household competition, where Danielle became the new Head of Household for the week. Shelby won the fourth America's Care Package, the ability to cancel three votes at the next eviction. At the Safety Ceremony, Danielle nominated Shelby and Whitney for eviction. Later, America chose to nominate Scott as the third nominee. After having the fastest time in the "The Haunting of Clementine O'Grady" Power of Veto competition, Danielle won the Power of Veto, making her the first Head of Household to win the Power of Veto this season. At the Veto ceremony, Danielle decided to veto Whitney and nominated Morgan in her place. At the eviction ceremony, Shelby used her care package to cancel the votes of Jason, Justin, and Kryssie. Scott was announced as the evicted HouseGuest by a vote of 3–0–0, the first unanimous vote of the season.
Following Scott's eviction, the HouseGuests competed in the next Head of Household competition, "Big Brother: Over the Top Freshman Class", which won Shelby her first Head of Household of the season. Jason won the fifth America's Care Package, becoming Co-HoH with Shelby. After realizing they have to nominate members of their own alliances due to the Safety Ceremonies, Shelby decided to nominate Whitney, and Jason decided to nominate Danielle for eviction. Later, America chose to nominate Alex as the third nominee. In the Power of Veto competition, Jason pulled out another win. Jason chose to take down Danielle, and Morgan was nominated in her place. At the live eviction, Alex was evicted by a vote of 4–0–0.
Following Alex's eviction, the houseguests began the double eviction and played in the "Big Brother Shopping Network" Head of Household competition where Danielle won her second HOH competition of the season. Prior to this, Julie announced that there would be no America's Nominee or America's Eviction Vote. Morgan then went on to win America's Care Package, which granted her the Power of Veto for the week. Since she won this power prior to the Safety Ceremony, Morgan was ineligible for nominations. Since Morgan was safe from nominations and would use the veto on her ally Shelby if necessary, Danielle was ultimately forced to name two of her own alliance members as nominees for the week. As a result, Danielle nominated Justin and Whitney for eviction. After breaking the 2-2 tie, Danielle chose to evict Whitney for eviction by a vote of 3-2.
Trivia
This is the first season where the HouseGuests' move-in was truly LIVE and seen by the audience. In previous seasons, while treated "live," the premiere episode had been taped days earlier, and by the time feeds turned on, the HouseGuests had been in the house for a week. The audience got to see the HouseGuests' first interactions with each other with very minimal editing.
This is the first season to be entirely online.
Technically, the pilot season of Big Brother China was the first season to be entirely online, but it was only the pilot. Season One took place the next year.
This will be the second season to air out of the normal summer schedule, following Big Brother 9.
This will also be the first season to air in the fall.
This is the third season to feature a cast with a larger number of females than males.
This is the first season since Big Brother 12 to feature thirteen HouseGuests. It is the fifth season overall to do so.
This is the second season in which the three lowest-placing HouseGuests were of the same sex, following Big Brother 15, where the three lowest placing HouseGuests were all males.
Big Brother 14 and Big Brother 18 also featured the first three evicted HouseGuests being of the same sex, but the final placements were affected by an expulsion and a return of an evicted HouseGuest, respectively.
So far, all males that have won HoH have been evicted, while all females that have won HoH are still in the house.
This is the second season since Big Brother 13 in which the Final Nine consisted of three males and six females.
