‘Big Brother 26’ episode 7 recap: Who won Power of Veto on July 31? [LIVE BLOG]

Heading into the seventh episode of “Big Brother 26,” Chelsie Baham had just won the second Head of Household competition of the summer and decided to nominate Kenney Kelley, Angela Murray and Lisa Weintraub for eviction. But with the Power of Veto on the line, it was still anyone’s guess as to who would eventually be the three nominees come eviction night.

Below, read our minute-by-minute “Big Brother” Season 26, Episode 7 recap/live blog to find out what happened Wednesday, July 31, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite “BB26” houseguests on CBS’s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Big Brother” winners list. Julie Chen Moonves once again hosts the series.

Here are the names of the 15 remaining houseguests: Angela Murray, Brooklyn Rivera, Cam Sullivan-Brown, Cedric Hodges, Chelsie Baham, Joseph Rodriguez, Kenney Kelley, Kimo Apaka, Leah Peters, Lisa Weintraub, Makensy Manbeck, Quinn Martin, Rubina Bernabe, T’kor Clottey and Tucker Des Lauriers.

Keep refreshing/reloading this “Big Brother 26” live blog for the most recent updates.

8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Big Brother’!” In the sixth episode, the house reacted to Matt Hardeman‘s eviction and theorized about which three people voted to keep him (for the record, it was Makensy, Leah and Lisa). The HOH competition then took place in the backyard, with Chelsie prevailing. She created a five-person alliance with Cedric, Cam, Quinn and Brooklyn, and they decided to name it The Pentagon. Later, Chelsie nominated Kenney, Angela and Lisa for eviction, and all three vowed to give it their all in the upcoming Power of Veto competition. Let’s go!

8:04 p.m. – In the DR, Chelsie explained that her nominations were based on “not drawing a line too early” and so she left Makensy and Leah safe, opting to go with the three people the house is least involved with instead. Angela understood well enough that she was an easy nomination to make based on how hard she played as HOH last week. The move also made Makensy feel good about trusting Chelsie because she didn’t force her to expose/use her power by nominating her.

8:06 p.m. – Quinn brought Brooklyn into the storage room where they discussed that they’re number four and five in The Pentagon alliance and so they’d need to stick together within the five Quinn was also busy building alliances elsewhere, like with the guys he was Have Nots with and then T’Kor and Kimo (The Visionairies) based on common temperament. He said that The Visionairies is the alliance he’ll be most loyal to.

8:14 p.m. – In a conversation with Cam, Cedric and Chelsie, T’Kor suggested an unofficial alliance of them all looking out for one another in the hopes that they all at least make it to jury. T’Kor knew that they’d have to stay aware of the perception of an alliance if they spend too much time together as a group. Little did she know that at that moment, Angela was witnessing them from inside the house and went to Quinn to point the four of them out as “the group to worry about.” Quinn knew that Angela is “an alliance destroyer” and could blow up the alliance he has with three of them so he wanted to give them a heads up about Angela’s concern eventually.

8:17 p.m. – He was able to warn T’Kor about Angela later in the presence of Kimo and Joseph, who were already discussing how dangerous Angela is and whether they’d want to evict her. T’Kor took that information to Cedric next, placing her on Cedric’s target list as well.

8:22 p.m. – The veto comp player selection ceremony, Chelsie drew the chips of Brooklyn and Joseph to join her and the nominees as the competitors. Then, for the challenge, the six houseguests competed in “Code Tower,” a race to build a tower of square and circular building blocks tall enough to reach a laser. In the start, Kenney was able to find the most sturdy base quickest and got to a second level first while the others were lost in their own coding errors. Soon, with no one else close to catching up (Brooklyn reached four levels), Kenney was able to secure the win for himself. Though Kenney’s win secured that the two main house targets remain on the block (for now), Chelsie was dismayed that it meant she’d have to nominate a replacement once he takes himself off the block.

8:36 p.m. – After the veto comp, Cedric got his chance to fill Chelsie in on what he learned about Angela, inciting her to be worried about what her next move should be. To “squash it immediately,” she went directly to Angela to ask her about what she heard. Angela said that Quinn must have told people because he’s the only person she said something to about it and insisted that there was “no malice” from Angela toward Chelsie. It felt like a betrayal of trust from Quinn for Angela so she pulled him in for a chat as well. Quinn said he told T’Kor because he was worried it meant she lost trust in T’Kor, but Angela was confused by that because she says they “were never a thing.” In front of T’Kor, Angela started crying that it wasn’t malicious and she wasn’t trying to paint a target on anyone. Quinn stood his ground and reiterated that she did pose the conversation as something to be worried about. T’Kor pointed out that she was saying that about a group of Black people and that she needs to be aware of the perception that can put across when she called them a group. Angela wanted it to be clear that her calling out that group was not racially motivated at all and it was just about seeing a group of people acting like an alliance. Cedric hugged it out with her and didn’t think it was racially motivated, but still another instance of Angela’s emotions getting in the way of her game and more bad decisions on her part.

8:43 p.m. – Seeing that Angela and Lisa were huge targets at this point, Tucker told Chelsie that he’d “do something chivalrous” and volunteer to “go up as a pawn” as the replacement nominee. He was sure that he could beat them both in the AI Arena anyway.

8:44 p.m. – In the fallout of their argument, Angela privately contemplated if Quinn was purposefully trying to paint a target on her back because she knows about his secret power and no one else does.

8:50 p.m. – Later that day, Angela pulled T’Kor aside for an apology which T’Kor accepted and said she “really appreciates” it because she wasn’t trying to place anything on Angela, but rather just give her a heads up about how reactions and comments can be perceived.

8:52 p.m. – Ahead of the veto ceremony, Tucker did his best to catch Makensy off guard and get her to admit about her secret power by guessing at what it was, but she didn’t fall fully into the trap at first. But later, Makensy realized that if Tucker thinks she has the power she should admit it to him otherwise he will start to see her as a threat Privately, she told him that she has it and that Chelsie knows about it. She gave him some info about it, but did’t mention specifically that it would be America’s Veto. So in the end, she did fall into his trap and now he had a reason to target her soon. He went to Chelsie and said she can still put him up, but she should consider equalizing Makensy because of her power. Chelsie considered it, but she told him that it would draw a line in the sand even if the whole house would be against Makensy and Leah anyway. Was she ready to make a “boss move”?

8:56 p.m. – As anyone could predict, Kenney removed himself from the nomination block with the Power of Veto and so Chelsie had to name a replacement. She decided to go the safe route, not make a big move, and nominated Tucker as the replacement with the comment that she has faith in him to win the AI Arena since he’s not her target.

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