Tear Jerker / Big Brother

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

• In BBCan, Emmett telling Talla that she was going to be evicted. She was reduced to tears. When she walked out of the house, she stopped and spread her arms over the door, still fighting back tears.
  • Funnily enough, it was just like what happened in BB12 to Britney, although Britney took it better.
  • Before Talla, BBUK had Kathreya. Similar to Talla, she was one of the most carefree and friendliest houseguests ever, and at one point a choice to win. However, a surprise double eviction a few days before the finale started with the eviction of Mohamed (somewhat of a Shoot the Shaggy Dog story given his status as an Elimination Houdini) and then the next evicted houseguest was Kathreya. You could hear her and the rest of the houseguests crying because she had to leave.
• Big Brother 1 (AKA BB 2000) had a sorrowful moment only a few days in when one of the chickens got caught in the chicken coop doorway and threw her neck out of whack trying to escape. For a while, it looked like the chicken, "One-Eye", was going to die, and her heartbeat slowed while George was holding her and she dropped her head down. No one knew how to keep her from death's door. The houseguests had to leave the poor chicken in the Red Room (Diary Room name in Season 1) so she could be rushed to the animal hospital. This caused Brittany to burst into tears. Fortunately, One-Eye got better and came back to the house in a cage with instructions from the vet on how to nurse her back to health. But even so, there's a reason they don't have animals on the show anymore.
• Judd's eviction in Big Brother 15. It was unanimous. Almost everyone was crying about it. Poor Judd...
  • It was even worse in the recap that Sunday, where it showed us that during the commercial break everyone burst into tears while Judd sat there pleading for his life in the game.
• Say what you will about Amanda, the episode before her eviction was one of the biggest tear-jerkers on the show yet.
  • For starters, she was expecting Ginamarie to put Elissa and Spencer up on the block, so when she and her boyfriend McCrae were put up instead, it came as a total surprise.
  • She then angrily accused Ginamarie of betraying her, going as far as to say she didn't want to be in the house anymore.
  • During the veto competition, it came down to Amanda and McCrae of all people during the final round. Cut to McCrae beating Amanda by less than a second to win the Veto and keep himself safe. This was one of the few times they didn't play the happy winning music, instead leaving the scene silent as Amanda cries her eyes out, realizing she is going home on Thursday.
  • During the Veto ceremony, Amanda again bursts out in tears as McCrae uses the Veto on himself and sealing her fate in the game.
  • Finally, despite getting a Hope Spot when Elissa decided to save her (which means she would have the majority of the votes to be saved), Amanda's former ally Andy formed a new alliance, turned and evicted her. After that she had to face the boos by the audience due to her behavior in the house..
  • McCrae's Heroic BSoD after Judd's eviction makes it seem like he lost his significant other. And he didn't react that way when Amanda was evicted.
• Even though Devin was a divisive character in Big Brother 16, when he loses the Veto competition that meant do-or-die, he is miserable and says that is probably the saddest moment of his time in the house. He retreats to the Have-Not Room and breaks down in tears, deliberately making sure no one will see him getting emotional, and in his Diary Room entry, he says he doesn't want people to see him getting emotional and begins to talk about Jayden, his little girl. What he says next is crushing:
  Devin: Every daughter looks at their dad like he's their superhero... I wasn't her superhero.
• The fourth eviction of Big Brother 16 had several:
  • Frankie receiving news that his grandfather had passed away from cancer.
  • Brittany being greeted by her children after she was evicted.
  • Derrick throwing the HOH so that Frankie would get a picture of his grandfather.
  • Made even sadder with Derrick's grandfather passing away the day after.
• From Big Brother 2, Monica finding out about 9/11 and finding out that her cousin was missing. Tragically, she and her family eventually learned that cousin Tamitha Freeman was among the employees of the World Trade Center killed that awful day.
• It's hard not to feel for Britnee and Sarah in BBCan3 after Canada voted them Have Nots for the week. Sure, the reason they were voted in was because Canada wanted one of them to win a huge secret power, but they didn't find out about that part for a while - which means they spent several days thinking that their entire country hated them.
• Also from that season, the entirety of Willow's eviction. Firstly it was the result of Sarah thinking that nobody would vote to save Willow, even though if she had voted for her then she would have kept her in the game. As soon as she realized what she'd done, Sarah burst in to tears. A few weeks later, when Willow was in the jury house and Bruno arrived, he told her that Sarah was the one who voted her out. Since nobody knew what Sarah had been thinking, they all thought that Sarah had stabbed her best friend in the house in the back just for the sake of it. Everybody felt sorry for her.
• The events that led up to Ramsey's Non-Gameplay Elimination (His father having a triple bypass)
• Jade Goody finding out she had cervical cancer during Bigg Boss 2, and dying just 6 months later.
• Ensuing Black Comedy aside, Angie Bowie finding out about her ex husband's passing in CBBUK 17.
• Pete from BBUK 7 had such a bad drug problem that he later admitted that he was on LSD during his interview, and only wanted to get on the show because he couldn't save up enough money for rehab. He only successfully became clean after spending all of his prize money and being homeless.
• Vanessa finally collapsing into tears after turning against Austin. Not helped that Austin retorts, "You're not gonna get the jury votes."
• Jason's completely accidental breaking of Christmas's foot on BB19 when he was letting her ride him on piggyback but tripped and fell, knocking her to the AstroTurf on it. Initially, it seemed like it would be a simple break that she'll be able to heal from... then she learns it is a Career-Ending Injury that is going to have real-life consequences, requiring surgery, a donor bone to replace one too broken to mend, and the very real possibility that she will not regain full mobility of her foot. Being an athlete, this is the darkest possible outcome. Jason inadvertently did one of the worst possible things ever to happen in the Big Brother house without meaning to- crippled somebody for life- and nearly broke down upon hearing the news. And yet she still chooses to stay in the game even when she knows she will need more surgeries in the future and already had to temporarily leave the house to go to the hospital, and will not be able to participate in some challenges if she isn't cleared to compete with her injury. Christmas is thus forced to sit out most of the competitions and spends half of her time on the show in the sidelines.
• The second Double Eviction Week of 19 hits everyone like a ton of bricks, especially Josh, who is being forced into choosing his alliances over friendship. Jason and Raven are betrayed out of nowhere and Kevin stays in the house, leaving Alex in a state of despair, Jason dumbfounded and sore, Raven in hysterical sadness, Paul exhausted, Christmas on the verge of crying, and Josh... Josh is just blubbering by the end of the night. Jason is blindsided and has no words to say about the so-called "friendship" in the house and all the counterfeit people in the house who have been played by Paul just as he has now (an irony which is not lost on Jason when he tells Paul he can take his "FRIENDSHIP" bracelets and throw them). Worse, Paul's goodbye video to Jason is a thinly-veiled effort to gain his sympathy for the jury votes. Raven doesn't even get the benefit of the goodbye messages because there was no way to anticipate the need to record them for her in the span of such a short eviction, and runs out of the house rejecting the apologies from the rest of the house. Alex sits by the fridge, grabs the whole bottle of Coke, and looks ready to up and cry. Paul also admits he hated the entire night and was crying by the end of it. This night was so bad, the producers actually loosened up and allowed Alex to have alcoholic beverages on the show, just so Alex and the houseguests could drink away the pain... minus Kevin.
• Megan Lowder. Her short time on BB 19 saw her Mistaken for Racist, ostracized, vomiting and diarrheic from nervousness, and finally collapsing into a panic attack in the Diary Room, causing her to walk from the game at the urging of the show's producers and be rushed to the hospital, where she spent several days drying out from the house's toxic atmosphere. And after she walks from the house, she's virtually erased from the show, never featured in any evictee-themed competitions, and doesn't even come to the finale celebration.
• On December 23, 2017, Season 2's Kent Blackwelder became the first US houseguest to pass away. Several houseguests made statements about the death, but most notable was that from his extremely close friend Bunky.
• Sam Bledsoe's disastrous luck in the first week of BB 20 leads her down a long, hard, and absolutely crushing series of defeats with no mercy. It actually brings unwilling HOH Tyler to tears when he has to nominate someone just to avoid upsetting anyone else and Sam and Steve are the two weakest links by manner of statistics. Others in the house are also distraught that her name goes up for eviction. Worst of all, she's been punished to intermittently assume the form of a robot and we can't even see the pain behind her robot's goofy face on her real one, but we can hear it, and it is horrible.
• In the final seven, the houseguests receive a video message from their family. Everyone that is... except JC. JC's relationship with his family isn't the greatest, so his friend Regina gave him a message instead.
• Haleigh's game in general is just one big tear jerker. She gets in an alliance that ends up being unable to get anything to go their way. She is criticised for picking Kaycee to compete in a veto challenge (Which in all fairness, wasn't that bad of a move since nobody even so much as suspected her for being the hacker), for sinking Bayleigh's game (which was due to Bayleigh's actions, not hers), and thanks to Kaycee winning the hacker competition caused Rockstar to go out on her head of household. She's the last person left of her alliance, and despite multiple attempts to integrate herself with the others, nobody is having it. By the final week in the house, Haleigh's just standing there practically in tears due to the fact that her game was one big "Shaggy Dog" Story. During the final week, she's reduced to what's practically an Empty Shell since there's absolutely no point.
• Nicole Anthony is just one sad story after another. In her debut season (21), Nick and a bunch of dickish houseguests don't think she has anxiety and believe she's faking it. Then, she gets bullied by the dominant alliance. After the show, she gets ghosted during her podcast. Finally, in 22 (All-Stars), she gets pegged as an easy target and evicted second. The only good things were that she made it to third place and got the America's Favorite Houseguest prize in 21.
• BB22 (All-Stars):
  • Da'vonne, Bayleigh, and Kevin (alongside Dani) have a heart to heart about race issues they dealt with growing up, and then we cut to Da'vonne in the Diary Room, crying about all the hardships she's had to overcome in life.
  • Janelle is downright sulking in week 2. She lost Keesha despite all her attempts, and she's worried about Nicole A, feeling unable to save her game and blaming herself for her friend's position all the while Nicole A feels like Janelle is the one targeting her. Nicole A self-destructs her game and gets evicted.
  • Then, the house comes after Janelle and Kaysar for being old-school players and Janelle is evicted for the fourth time in a row, and Kaysar becomes the next target in a house being silenty run by Cody and Enzo.
  • Memphis repeatedly targeting and belittling David as a rookie and forcing David to keep quiet to stay safe if he kept Memphis's nominations the same or he'd become public enemy number one while secretly trying to backdoor him, and on top of that, Dani instructing Nicole F to flip her vote and then go to Da'Vonne to frame David. David can't catch a break until Tyler screws Memphis by choosing not to veto his nominations. Andy from season 15 and Tommy from season 21 objected to this behavior. Andy's response is very surprising and compassionate, despite the dirty way he played, and Tommy had to deal with Miche pulling a similar framing.
• Big Brother 23:
  • Tiffany having to tell Claire that she was putting her on the block, despite Claire being one of the nicest contestants and having Undying Loyalty to Tiff. It was painful for both of them, since Tiffany was so dedicated to the Cookout alliance’s mission of guaranteeing Big Brother’s first black winner that she was effectively throwing away both Claire’s and her own game for that mission, due to most of the Cookout alliance already starting to turn on Tiffany too. Claire hears out Tiffany’s explanation and tearfully assures her that she supports the decision, remaining a loyal friend to the end.
  • The whole second double eviction episode, thanks to Hannah’s spirit looking completely crushed. As a Moe Nice Girl through and through, and only being targeted for not abandoning the aforementioned Tiffany when the rest of the alliance did, many viewers felt very bad for her.
• The final episode of Big Brother Canada 8. The houseguests receive the news that the season has been Cut Short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main factor was Ontario premier Doug Ford ordering the closure of all non-essential businesses for two weeks, and production of a reality show happened to fall under that banner. And what follows it everyone first crying about the end of their games, then reminiscing and saying their goodbye to each other. The episode ends with everyone leaving the house in ones and twos, and after the doors close several shots of the now-empty house are shown as the lights turn off.
  • Nico is also kind of sad - the reason he self evicted was because he thought it was Better to Die than Be Killed. He, Chris, Mihn-Li, and Susanne were apparently the least liked by the viewers. Nico took it to heart, and knew that he was going to be evicted so he chose to leave on his own terms.
• In 2007, the second season of Big Brother Serbia was canceled due to three former houseguests dying in a fatal car accident.
• Cassandra Waldron, the first African-American to play the US game in Big Brother 1, had a catastrophic car crash that caused a head injury that later led to her death. She is the first female to die in the US show's history, and the second houseguest we've lost.
• Aaron’s ejection in the UK's Big Brother 16. You can tell he deeply regrets him flashing Joel and he is weeping and crying as he is told he has been ejected.
• Canada Season 9's brief memorial for Nikki Grahame (BB UK S7/Ultimate Houseguest & Canada BB 4 Houseguest) who several days earlier had died due to complications regarding both mental health and anorexia.
• The final episode of UK Big Brother ends with the lights in the house being turned off one last time as Andra Day's "Rise Up" plays in the background, putting a fitting end to the poster child series. Fortunately, after 5 years off the air, it returned on another network for Season 20.
• The penultimate episode of CBB UK in 2024. Each of the remaining celebrities were told to go to a special room to be visited a friend or loved one. Last to be called was Bradley Riches, who was instead greeted by host AJ Odudu, who announced his eviction. He got the chance to say goodbye to the others, who were really shocked about the whole thing, before having to leave through the Diary Room. Afterwards, there were a few shots of Bradley's frog headband left on his bed.