All the cash prizes have been increased on Big Brother 23, so fans are curious to learn how much money the BB23 winner, runner-up, and America's Favorite Houseguest recipient will make. Since the inaugural BB1 season, CBS has been giving out a $500,000 grand prize to each Big Brother winner. Over the years, however, many fans and media personalities called for production to raise the prize to take inflation into account. Some even speculated that last year's Big Brother 22: All-Stars would be the perfect season to do it.
For reference, due to inflation, the $500,000 prize awarded to Eddie McGee in 2000 would've been worth $753,000 in 2021. In turn, the $500,000 that Cody Calafiore won on BB22 would've been worth around $330,000 when this series first premiered back in 2000. In 2020, Survivor: Winners at War raised its traditional $1 million prize to $2 million, but Big Brother didn't follow suit during its second All-Stars season. Thankfully, however, this grand prize was indeed raised in 2021.
All the main cash prizes have been raised on Big Brother 23. As announced by Julie Chen in the first episode, the winner of BB23 will take home a whopping $750,000 (an increase from $500,000). By placing second, the runner-up of the season will win $75,000 (an increase from $50,000). As it stands, Azah Awasum, Derek Frazier, and Xavier Prather are the three finalists who'll be competing for those first-place and second-place cash prizes. However, as longtime BB viewers know, the cash prizes won't stop there. For many days, fans have been voting for one player to win America's Favorite Houseguest, a.k.a. America's Favorite Player, on Big Brother 23. That AFH/AFP winner will take home a cash prize of $50,000 (an increase from $25,000).
Considering the aforementioned amounts, the three main Big Brother prizes had a 50% raise during BB23. In other words, this season will feature the highest-earning winner, the highest-earning runner-up, and the highest-earning AFP recipient in the history of the show. In total, CBS will be paying out $875,000 in cash prizes this year. Still, only three people will be receiving a cut from that pile, and the majority of houseguests are just competing to win the $50,000 that will be awarded to the recipient of America's Favorite Houseguest. With that said, these prizes are higher than they've ever been, so a few of the All-Stars who competed last year might be feeling jealous right now.
The time has come for Big Brother fans to find out who will be crowned the winner of BB23 and will get to take home $750,000. It will also be exciting to find out which fan-favorite player will win the title of America's Favorite Houseguest. Viewers will surely be expecting the unexpected.
Big Brother 23 airs Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST/PST on CBS.