With Celebrity Big Brother season 3 looming ahead, viewers are starting to look back at which famous houseguests won season 1 and season 2 of the show in previous years. With as many as 22 seasons, Celebrity Big Brother UK was a huge hit in the United Kingdom over the years and featured incredibly successful and famous contestants from different countries. The series featured many iconic rivalries, memorable showmances, and hilarious storylines as well.
In the US, Celebrity Big Brother was only greenlit by CBS in 2018. The Celebrity Big Brother season 1 cast featured 11 contestants: Ariadna Gutiérrez, Brandi Glanville, Chuck Liddell, James Maslow, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Mark McGrath, Metta World Peace, Omarosa, Ross Mathews, and Shannon Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Celebrity Big Brother season 2 featured Anthony Scaramucci (as a fake contestant), Dina Lohan, Joey Lawrence, Jonathan Bennett, Kandi Burruss, Kato Kaelin, Lolo Jones, Natalie Eva Maries, Ricky Williams, Ryan Lochte, Tamar Braxton, and Tom Green.
In 2018, Broadway actress Marissa Jaret Winokur won Celebrity Big Brother season 1 against runner-up Ross Mathews by a jury vote of 6-3. Over the course of the season, Marissa managed to win one Head of Household competition and one Power of Veto comp. She was nominated for the block twice but survived both times. In 2019, Tamar Braxton won Celebrity Big Brother season 2 against runner-up Ricky Williams by a unanimous jury vote of 9-0. Though this was a Celebrity edition, Tamar became the first-ever Black contestant to win a US season of Big Brother. It wasn't until 2021 that Xavier Prather won BB23 and became the first-ever Black winner of a regular Big Brother season.
Looking ahead at the upcoming Celebrity Big Brother 3, it is interesting to note that only women have won CBB thus far. In regular seasons of the show, men have created a habit of creating large alliances of mostly male contestants who can win a lot of competitions in order for them to run the house. Aside from alliances such as the Brigade on BB12 and the Bomb Squad on BB16, men have also forged final two deals that took themselves to the very end such as Cody Calafiore and Enzo Palumbo on BB22 and Xavier Prather and Derek Frazier on BB23, to name a few.
It is also interesting how the winners of Celebrity Big Brother seasons 1 and 2 were women beating out men at the grand finale. After 23 regular seasons of Big Brother, there have only been two female winners who beat out male contestants: Nicole Franzel against Paul Abrahamian on BB18 and Kaycee Clark against Tyler Crispen on BB20. Now, fans are excited to see how Celebrity Big Brother 3 will play out.