The Invisible Head of Household (also known as the Secret HOH, Anonymous HOH, and BB Power of Invisibility) is a twist first introduced in Big Brother Canada 9, which hides the HOH's identity from all other houseguests.
A variant of this power where a different individual dethrones the HOH and anonymously steals their power was first introduced in Big Brother 20 (US), known as the Identity Theft Power App. Another name for this power would be the Deepfake HOH. These variants are similar to the Coup d'Etat, with the key difference being that the usurper remains anonymous (unless they reveal themselves) and overtakes the entire week, while still allowing for the new nominees to compete in a Veto Competition, whereas a Coup d'Etat is publicly activated on live eviction night, moments before the voting begins.
How it Works[]
Retrieved from Global
Whoever won this week’s HOH Competition on Friday is the Invisible HOH and will make their nominations in secret and can play not only in this week’s Veto Competition but next week’s HOH Competition as well. However, they were still unable to cast an eviction vote.[1]
In Big Brother 23 (US) during Week 8, houseguests had an opportunity to spend 250 BB Bucks to play for the right to flip the Coin of Destiny. The winner would call the coin toss, and if they called it correctly, they would anonymously dethrone the reigning HOH and their nominees would be taken off the block, eligible to go back up again.
History[]
Big Brother 20 (US)[]
In week 3, Bayleigh Dayton was the most trending houseguest at that point, and she got to select a Power App in the BB App Store. She chose the "Identity Theft" Power App, which would give her the power to "steal the HOH's identity" and anonymously control their nominations. However, that is where the power ends; the proper HOH still gets to play in the Veto Competition, name a potential replacement nominee, and cast a potential tiebreaker vote, while Bayleigh would cast a traditional eviction vote (so long as she was eligible). Bayleigh had until the Final 8 to activate the power, but news of her power spread throughout the house and ended up causing her eviction at the Final 11, so she never got to activate it.
Big Brother Canada 9[]
In week 5 of Big Brother Canada 9, houseguests had to count falling rocks and whoever was the closest would win HOH. Temptations were provided for houseguests to choose from such as:
- Resetting the count to receive a letter from home. For being the furthest away from the count, Tina Thistle eventually took this offer to receive her letter.
- Winning a slop pass by turning around the longest. Only Tera Gillen-Petrozzi and Victoria Woghiren took this offer with Victoria winning the slop pass.
- Eating in a feast if three of them turned around for a minute. However, nobody took this offer.
The competition ended with Tera and Victoria tying so a tiebreaker secretly were done, which Victoria eventually won and marked her second HOH reign.
As the Invisible HOH, Victoria had to name 4 houseguests to be Have-Nots so she chose Kiefer Collison, Austin Dookwah, Breydon White and herself thinking she could use the slop pass. She eventually chose not to use it to hide the fact that she was the HOH.
She decided to secretly nominate her previous allies Breydon and Austin with the latter being the target as she felt neglected by them in the previous week. Rohan Kapoor won the POV and decided not to use it. On eviction night, while Victoria was called to cast her vote to the Diary Room, she could not as she was the HOH. Austin was then evicted by a 7-0 vote.
Big Brother 23 (US)[]
A variation on the twist occurred in Big Brother 23 (US); however, it involved dethroning the current and public HOH, as opposed to someone just initially winning in private. The Secret HOH twist worked in tandem with the High Roller's Room twist.
During week 8, Tiffany Mitchell was the reigning HOH. Two houseguests spent 250 BB Bucks to compete in the Coin of Destiny, them being Claire Rehfuss and Derek Frazier. Claire ultimately won by a score of 3 to 1, earning the right to flip the coin. Head of Household Tiffany had nominated Kyland Young and Sarah Beth Steagall for eviction that week. Also, Xavier Prather was up as a third nominee due to a veto punishment from the previous week.
After the houseguests had all visited The High Roller's Room, it was announced that The Coin of Destiny had been won, but the identity of the winner as well as the identities of those who competed would remain anonymous. Reigning Head of Household Tiffany flipped a coin to determine whether she would be dethroned as Head of Household that week or not. In the event that she won, Claire had secretly called heads ahead of time. The coin landed on heads, dethroning Tiffany and removing both Kyland and Sarah Beth from the block, however Xavier remained on the block as the punishment nominee. However, Claire had also secretly made her nominations in advance as well, in the event that Tiffany was dethroned. Given that Claire's closest ally was Tiffany, she honored her wishes, putting Kyland and Sarah Beth back up on the chopping block.
Claire was chosen to compete in the POV by random draw, but did not win. Xavier was taken off the block by Hannah Chaddha, leaving Kyland and Sarah Beth on the block, with Sarah Beth ultimately getting evicted in a 5-1 vote, with Claire entering the Diary Room to cast a vote in the event of a tie. Claire then had to compete in and throw the following HOH competition, to keep her reign a secret while also preventing her from being HOH twice in a row.
Big Brother Canada 11[]
A variation of this twist returned in Big Brother Canada 11 as part of the "Whodunnit Week" twist during Week 4. This time, it worked in tandem with the Secret Power of Veto, as both competition winners would be anonymous for the week. Santina Carlson won the HOH competition and nominated Ty McDonald and Dan Szabo with the latter being the target. Santina was not chosen to participate in the POV competition, and Daniel Clarke went on to win. He then removed Ty off the block, while Santina named Claudia Campbell as the replacement nomination. By the end of the week, all eight housemates voted unanimously by evicting Dan, making him the third houseguest to be voted out (sixth eliminated overall) and the first member of jury. Santina was called to the Diary Room but did not vote, although she had already left her potential tiebreaker decision with production prior to the eviction taping.
Big Brother 25 (US)[]
Week 11 of Big Brother 25 saw the twist return once again, being called the "BB Power of Invisibility" as part of the "BB Comic-Week" twist, alongside the "BB Power of Multiplicity" affecting the POV competition. Jag Bains went on to win the competition and secretly nominated Blue Kim and Felicia Cannon for eviction. Due to the twist, there were two Veto competitions and all players competed in the first one, which was won by Jag. He then had to sit out of the second one while everyone else competed, and that one ended up being won by Blue. Blue saved herself, and was replaced anonymously by America Lopez, while Jag then saved Felicia and replaced her with Cory Wurtenberger. His efforts to break up the showmance were successful, as Cory was eventually evicted by a 5-0 vote on Day 79. By this point, Jag had told the entire house his secret, but production still had him enter the DR anyway on eviction night and pretend to cast a vote to maintain secrecy on their end. The twist also differed from past iterations, giving Jag an extra "super-powered" advantage. He was allowed to play and win the upcoming HOH competition, in order to preserve his secret, which he then went on to do, becoming HOH for the second week in a row.
Big Brother 26 (US)[]
During the second part of the two-night premiere, Quinn Martin and Leah Peters passed AINSLEY's morality test, and were granted the chance to compete in an Upgrade Competition to earn a game-changing power. Quinn ended up winning the competition and was granted the power of the "Deepfake HOH", which was an enhanced version of BB20's "Identity Theft". For the first four weeks of the game, he could activate the power and control the nominations for the week, with them being delivered by a "deepfake" version of the HOH. After sharing news of the power with his allies, word eventually spread to the entire house and Quinn was called out for having the power in a house meeting during week 3. After surviving eviction, he activated the power in week 4, dethroning Angela Murray as HOH before she could even name her own nominations. After nominating Cedric Hodges, Makensy Manbeck and Tucker Des Lauriers via Angela's "deepfake" clone, he publicly confirmed to the house that he did indeed use the power and explained his reasons for the nominations. Angela, as the proper HOH, was still guaranteed to play in the Veto Competition, and was allowed to play in the next HOH Competition. Unlike the "Identity Theft" however, Quinn did control a potential renomination, but could not cast an eviction vote unless it tied, which was mathematically impossible this week. The former came into play when Tucker won POV and saved himself, leading Quinn to "anonymously" nominate Rubina Bernabe in his place.
Trivia[]
- The first five times this twist occurred, the Invisible HOH was a woman.
- Jag Bains is the first man to become an Invisible HOH, and also the first Invisible HOH to then win their season.
- In the Canadian versions, only women became the Invisible HOH.
- All female Invisible HOHs except for Claudia Bouvette were evicted within two weeks after their reign.
- Both Victoria Woghiren and Claire Rehfuss were backdoored and evicted the week after their Invisible HOH.
- Santina Carlson was evicted eight days after her reign as HOH because of the Fatal Feast twist.
- Marianne Verville was evicted a week after her reign.
- Ève Salvail was already evicted when she became HOH as part of a twist but stayed in the HOH room during the week before finally exiting the house at the end of her reign.