How Many Women Have Won 'Big Brother?'

With Big Brother 25’s 100-day battle for $750,000 finally coming to a close, we figured it was the perfect time to reflect on past winners. And specifically, we wanted to look back on the women who’ve won the CBS flagship series and its spin-offs.

How many women have won Big Brother?

All in all, eight women have beat the rest of the houseguests during their seasons to earn the illustrious accolade of a mainline series Big Brother winner — a sharp contrast to the number of male victors. But, if you count the two American spin-off series, Celebrity Big Brother and Big Brother: Over the Top, that number rises to 12, which is much more comparable to the male side.

Which women won Big Brother, and what season were they on?

Without further ado, here are Big Brother’s female champions.

Lisa Donahue – Big Brother 3
Jun Song – Big Brother 4
Maggie Ausburn – Big Brother 6
Jordan Lloyd – Big Brother 11
Rachel Reilly – Big Brother 13
Nicole Franzel – Big Brother 18

Morgan Willett – Big Brother: Over the Top
Marissa Jaret Winokur – Celebrity Big Brother 1
Kaycee Clark – Big Brother 20
Tamar Braxton – Celebrity Big Brother 2
Miesha Tate – Celebrity Big Brother 3
Taylor Hale – Big Brother 24

Let’s take a brief look at each of the players’ winning games.

It took three seasons of Big Brother for a woman to ascend the throne. And the honor went to Lisa Donahue, who came out on top of season 3 in 2002 by besting Danielle Reyes in the final. Although Danielle is considered one of the greatest players to never win, Lisa is sometimes a forgotten winner because of her low-key gameplay. Regardless, she’s in the history books as the first woman to climb Big Brother’s proverbial mountain top.

Jun followed up Lisa’s win by evening the score with the men 2-2. Jun Song survived eviction night as a nominee three times while notching one Head of Household and one Power of Veto. After Alison Irwin chose to bring Jun to the final two instead of Robert Roman, Jun was awarded the $500,000 by receiving six of the seven Jury votes.

Big Brother 6 in 2005 brought us our next women’s champion — Maggie Ausburn. At the helm of the “Friendship” alliance, Maggie and Ivette Corredero outlasted the “Sovereign Six,” one of the most beloved alliances of all time. And when the game ended on day 80, Maggie left out the front door $500,000 richer by overcoming Ivette in a razor-thin 4-3 Jury vote.

Interestingly, Big Brother fans had to wait four more years until another woman was victorious on Big Brother. It was Jordan Lloyd on 2009’s Big Brother 11 who ended the men’s streak. After meeting her future husband, Jeff Schroeder, on the show, Jordan sat beside Natalie Martinez and addressed the Jury on finale night. And with five votes, Jordan became one of the most unlikely winners in the show’s almost 10-year-long run.

Next up was Rachel Reilly, who triumphed in Big Brother 13. She was the first returning female player to win the show, and she outlasted the likes of Jordan to do so. She won a narrow vote against Porsche Briggs in 2011 and is regarded as one of the most iconic players of all time.

What followed was another women’s drought. Big Brother 14, 15, 16, and 17 all ended with a man raising their hands in victory. But, Nicole Franzel halted the men’s momentum in 2016’s Big Brother 18. She was the second woman to win as a returnee as well as the first woman to defeat a man in the final two. She went against Paul Abrahamian and snagged the victory via five votes to four.

Later that year, CBS introduced its first and only exclusively online season, Big Brother: Over the Top. The game ran for 65 days and by the end of it, Morgan Willett repeated what Nicole achieved — she defeated a man in front of the Jury, something every woman did moving forward as well. Morgan was picked as the face of the spin-off series over veteran player Jason Roy.

The idea of Celebrity Big Brother finally jumped across the pond from the United Kingdom to the United States in 2018. For 26 days, actors, athletes, public figures, and other notable names competed in the first US iteration of the spin-off. And by the end of it, Tony-award-winning actress Marissa Jaret Winokur beat television host Ross Matthews and the rest of the celebrities.

Big Brother 20 then featured the rise of Kaycee Clark — a reality star who has also gone on to win another competition series, MTV’s The Challenge. Kayce and Tyler Crispen worked alongside each other as part of their six-person “Level Six” alliance. After the dust settled, they were together as the last two houseguests left standing. It was a close 5-4 vote, but Kaycee ultimately reigned supreme.

For the first time ever, three women won in a row as Tamar Braxton became Celebrity Big Brother 2’s champion in 2019. The singer and entertainer also became the first woman to win the game by a unanimous vote. She earned all nine of the Jury’s votes when she and former NFL player Ricky Williams vied for the season’s trophy.

However, the women’s streak was snapped by three male winners in a row. Then, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate earned another belt for her mantle. She won Celebrity Big Brother 3 — the most recent addition of the spin-off series — by securing seven votes against singer and actor Todrick Hall in 2022.

And then came Taylor Hale, the most recent woman to win it all on Big Brother. She played in Big Brother 24 in 2022, and even though she was greeted by host Julie Chen Moonves as a nominee ahead of an eviction in six of the 12 weeks, Taylor’s social game and two Head of Households drove her to victory. She was taken to the final two by Monte Taylor and won by a near-unanimous vote.

With Big Brother Reindeer Games coming around the corner, there’s a chance we’ll add another name to this list by the end of 2023. Only time will tell!