Big Brother 26 is over, but fans are still talking about the season they absolutely loved and keeping tabs on the Houseguests. Unfortunately, it's not just good news, because while plenty of people are thrilled that Chelsie Baham won, others are very upset and have shared shocking and inflammatory posts on social media. Baham pointed to some of the racism she's faced after the game, and also called out those sending her death threats.
It's fair to say that the Big Brother franchise has had many problematic moments over the years, and while it has taken measures to prevent that from happening, the toxicity of the online fandom can still be an issue. Season 24 winner Taylor Hale had to remove her email from social media due to people calling her slurs, and Chelsie Baham has faced racism following her win as well. Chelsie, who many saw as the deserving winner of the season, posted just one example of the comments she's seen since leaving the house.
This stuff can stop now. It’s getting old. pic.twitter.com/gqy2Kjf1CwOctober 22, 2024
The upsetting comment references the fact that Makensy "MJ" Manbeck took Chelsie to the Final Two over Cam Sullivan-Brown and effectively ruined her chances of winning the game by doing so. MJ surprised Chelsie by not attacking her game, and perhaps, as a result, she ended up losing the jury vote unanimously to Chelsie. Big Brother fans believed that had MJ chosen Cam, she might've won in a landslide.
However, MJ chose loyalty to Chelsie, which ultimately led to the latter winning despite almost seeing her game collapse at the last minute. The decision upset members of the fandom, some of which are taking their frustrations out on Chelsie as a result. She's even receiving death threats, which she talked about in a follow-up post on X:
The death threats are crazy. Please find something better to do with your lives than wish death on me. I played a 90 day GAME. And it’s over. It’s. Getting. Old.October 22, 2024
It's always disappointing and upsetting to see this part of the game, and this kind of behavior is unacceptable. As Chelsie Baham said above, Big Brother is just a game. As disappointed as fans may be by the result, there's nothing that justifies that type of behavior toward another Houseguest.
Unfortunately, this isn't exactly a problem exclusive to Big Brother, and I'm not optimistic that trolls and anonymous hate messages won't be stopping anytime soon. The good news is that Chelsie Baham has support from others who have played the game, such as Season 23 winner Xavier Prather. Xavier shared support for Chelsie while using his legal experience to issue a strong warning to fans on X:
Death threats are generally considered some form of assault and are not considered protected speech under the First Amendment, meaning the person sending the death threats may be prosecuted under applicable federal or state laws. Is a TV show really worth becoming a criminal?🤦🏾♂️
Xavier Prather is right. Death threats are not protected under freedom of speech. Potentially spending time in jail over the result of a Big Brother season is pretty silly, so maybe the people responsible can just work on being decent human beings instead before the next season hits the 2025 TV schedule? We can only hope so because this was a truly remarkable season, and it sucks to have it soiled by the behavior of a few fans after the fact.
Big Brother 26 is over, but anyone hoping to revisit this season can binge it with a Paramount+ subscription. I'm still bummed out we have to wait until next summer for another season, and still keeping my fingers crossed for some surprise announcement of a spinoff coming this winter.