Haley Thogmartin Exits Big Brother in Medieval Times Twist

Haley's Elimination

Haley Thogmartin, a telemedicine executive from Missouri, was eliminated from Big Brother during a twist the show called Medieval Times, which played out while the program's 24 hour live feeds were switched off.

Gold Derby reported that the feeds came back early, at 5 p.m. PT on Saturday, opening on a close-up of Thogmartin's black-and-white photograph on the house Memory Wall. That is the show's standard way of confirming a player has left. Global TV noted the feeds had been advertised as staying down until after Sunday's episode.

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The Twist

According to Gold Derby, the twist brought back former Big Brother players Britney Haynes, Tiffany Mitchell, Keanu Soto and Cody Calafiore to host a series of games for the 10 remaining houseguests, with one of them sent home at the end.

Host Julie Chen Moonves described it this way: "The houseguests [will be] transported to Medieval Times. The year? 1,000, of course. This unprecedented twist will challenge the houseguests socially and competitively. There will be no Head of Household, no Veto competition, no Block Buster. But, when all is said and done, someone's game will come to an end before the next live eviction."

Gold Derby said fans have been comparing it to the previous season's White Locust twist, in which Rachel Reilly was eliminated after failing to finish a hamster wheel maze.

Drew's Nominations

When the feeds returned it was also revealed that Drew Campbell, a dental assistant based in California, had won Week 8 Head of Household, the role that controls the week's nominations. Gold Derby said it is his first Head of Household win, claimed at some point after Thogmartin's exit.

Campbell nominated LaTrice Verrett, Taylor Brown and Yash Patel for eviction. Gold Derby reported that those three, plus Campbell, Melody Morris and Dee Valladares, appeared in matching folk costumes ahead of the Power of Veto competition, hosted by Barrett Pfeiffer, with the feeds cutting out around 6:45 p.m. PT. The result of that veto competition is not reported in the sources.

Global TV described houseguests wearing old west cowboy gear when feeds returned from the Saturday veto competition, and reported that Dee Valladares told Angela she wanted Verrett gone this week and thought Rick Devens would go up if Patel came down. Valladares said she had told Devens that volunteering for the block was a bad idea, and both women said they would refuse to serve as pawns.

Season Context and the 1,000th Episode

The Detroit News reported that the show's 1,000th episode aired on Aug. 27 and named Dan Gheesling of Dearborn, the Season 10 winner from 2008, the best winner in the show's history in an online fan vote. His Season 14 "Funeral" was voted favorite moment.

Gheesling, 42, also weighed in on the current season and the two former Survivor players in the house. "The 'Survivors' in the house are running this game, and someone has gotta break them up," he told The Detroit News's account of the episode, adding that otherwise "Dee or Devens are going to run away with it."

Big Brother airs Sundays and Thursdays from 8 p.m. ET/PT and Wednesdays from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., with the Thursday live eviction hosted by Chen Moonves.