Considered a Big Brother legend, Danielle Reyes is a two-time player, and her potential return to CBS’s long-running reality competition franchise was teased ahead of its 25th season. On July 31, the next iteration’s cast was announced; 16 new houseguests will move into the Big Brother house, and it’ll premiere on Wednesday, August 2.
Two days before the big reveal, Danielle was featured in a Big Brother 25 promo alongside two other veterans: season 12 and 14’s Britney Haynes and season 16’s Frankie Grande (he also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother 18 in the UK). The short clip showed them breaking into the Big Brother house, leading fans to speculate that the three could be joining the other 16 hopefuls this summer.
You can watch the video below:
So, when was Danielle on Big Brother, and did she win? She made her reality show debut as a contestant on season three back in 2002 — 21 years ago! Although she didn’t win, Danielle was regarded as the season’s best player. She came in second, which stamped her ticket to season seven’s All-Stars.
She played against a cast full of the show’s veterans in 2006, which was the final time she was a Big Brother houseguest. She placed sixth overall.
Danielle’s eviction helped usher in the sequestering of jury members on Big Brother
Danielle is not only touted as one of the best old-school players ever, but she’s also viewed by many as a top-10 villain. Caring and kind, she utilized her solid social game to forge friendships and alliances during season three.
In the Diary Room, however, Danielle let her hair down and her diabolical side run free. She’d speak coldly and objectively about the remaining houseguests and what she needed to do to eliminate them. Danielle would often disregard her housemates while celebrating their demises as well. She was also known to count down the number of people left in her way of the $500,000 after every eviction.
In the biggest blindside of the season, Danielle voted to evict Marcellas Reynolds at the final four after he decided not to use the Golden Power of Veto to remove himself from the block. It was an extremely dramatic exit and helped solidify Danielle’s legacy as a villain.
Danielle collected one Head of Household and one Silver Power of Veto during Big Brother 3 en route to finale night. She sat beside Lisa Donahue as the final two remaining players. But, even though Danielle played a much better game than Lisa, she lost a landslide vote.
The jury voted 9-1 in favor of Lisa taking home the $500,000 check over Danielle.
This was when every evicted houseguest was a part of the jury. Not only that but after they were booted out of the house, they could head home and watch the show live. So, before the final vote, the jury members were privy to Danielle’s Diary Room sessions. They decided to award Lisa because of them, regardless of Danielle’s game prowess. The only vote Danielle received was from third-place finisher Jason Guy.
Since then, CBS has always sequestered jury members instead of letting them watch the show after their eviction, thus helping prevent what went down during Big Brother 3’s finale.
Danielle was evicted for the first time during Big Brother 7
Big Brother 7 marked the first season returning players competed against each other. Twenty notable names from the first six iterations of the US-based version faced a vote to earn a place on the 16-person roster. Americans could vote for eight houseguests to compete on Big Brother All-Stars while the show’s brass filled the other six spots.
Danielle was picked alongside the man she betrayed a few years back, Marcellas.
Unfortunately for Danielle, she didn’t realize the same success she had in her original show. She faced off against some of the franchise’s most significant gamers, including season two winner Will Kirby and season six standout Janelle Pierzina, and ultimately came up short.
Like Big Brother 3, Danielle was the Head of Household once. She picked up the Power of Veto on one occasion as well.
Most notably, Danielle assembled the “Legion of Doom” alliance with Will, season six’s James Rhine and season two’s Mike “Boogie” Malin. But, she was ultimately betrayed by Will and Boogie on day 54’s eviction night. She was sent to the jury over season one’s “Chicken George” Allen Boswell.
She went on to toss Boogie a vote to win, and the season two veteran took home the $500,000 over season four’s Erika Landin.