‘Big Brother Reindeer Games’ episode 5 recap: Who makes it into the Top 4? [LIVE BLOG]

Following the first four evictions of Cameron Hardin (BB25), Cody Calafiore (BB16 & BB22), Danielle Reyes (BB3 & BB7) and Josh Martinez (BB19) from “Big Brother Reindeer Games,” just five contestants remained inside Santa’s lodge. The ultimate champion of this Christmas-themed mini-season will take home a cool $100,000. So who made it into the Top 4 during Tuesday’s penultimate hour?

Below, read our minute-by-minute “Big Brother Reindeer Games” Season 1, Episode 5 recap/live blog to find out what happened Tuesday, December 19 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comment section about your favorite houseguests on CBS’s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Big Brother” winners list. Regular host Julie Chen Moonves is sitting out this show, and she’s replaced by fan-faves Jordan Lloyd, Derek Xiao and Tiffany Mitchell as “Santa’s Elves.”

Here are the five remaining players: Britney Godwin (BB12 & BB14), Frankie Grande (BB16), Nicole Franzel-Arroyo (BB16, BB18 & BB22), Taylor Hale (BB24) and Xavier Prather (BB23).

9:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘BB Reindeer Games’!” In the fourth episode, Frankie won the Naughty and Nice Challenge and gained the ability to pick his partner in the Jingle Bell Brawl; he chose Taylor. The other pairs were Xavier & Nicole, and Josh & Britney. Frankie & Taylor won the ginormous puzzle challenge and each got to name one person to compete in Santa’s Showdown; he picked Josh and she picked Nicole. Josh and Nicole battled in the Candy Cane Rodeo with Nicole prevailing by a matter of milliseconds. That resulted in Josh being the fifth person ousted from the competition.

9:03 p.m. – As soon as Taylor got some time away from the guys she pulled Nicole and Britney into a room to apologize once again for putting Nicole in the Showdown against Josh. Privately, Nicole accepted the apology because she knows it doesn’t make sense to let Frankie stay in the house and make it to the Reindeer Games against any of the women.

9:05 p.m. – Derek took a day off today to make room for Tiffany Mitchell to take over duties as the Elf Ambassador. Her first task was to host the Naughty and Nice Challenge where the players had to search for the right key among many throughout the house to unlock Santa’s office first. With so much on the line, this time everyone was willing to compete as hard as possible to win this advantage. Their first move was to look at the lock to get an idea of what the shape of the winning key should be. Nicole was the first to try a key and sure enough she found it and won straight away.

9:09 p.m. – Nicole’s advantage was combined with the disadvantage she was to declare for someone else. Tiffany informed the players that there would be two Jingle Bell Brawls with the two winners advancing straight to the Reindeer Games while the others would compete in Santa’s Showdown to avoid the final eviction. As her advantage, she got to decide which one player would have to single out the first Jingle Bell Brawl, giving them the disadvantage of having that shot at earning safety.

9:13 p.m. – Frankie and Britney were the first to make a pitch to Nicole, but she assured both of them right away that they had nothing to worry about. She told them that she’d be sitting Xavier out of the first Brawl because it removes “one comp beast from the competition.”

9:15 p.m. – Before the first Jingle Bell Brawl began, Nicole announced her decision that Xavier would have to sit out. That left the other four to compete in a search of the missing ingredients in different egg nog recipes through taste tests. The player with the most correct after eight taste tests would be the winner.

9:17 p.m. – The first nog had cranberry, sardines, mint, banana and the missing ingredient of coffee. Frankie was the only one to get it correct. The egg nog had bread, turkey, cheese, pickle and the missing ingredient of mayo. Nicole was the only one to get it correct. The third nog had squid, clam, lemon, cocktail sauce and the missing ingredient of parsley. Only Taylor got it correct. In the next nogs, Taylor got two correct and Frankie and Nicole both got one correct. Taylor went into the seventh nog with a one point lead. That nog had beef patty, chicken nuggets, cola, sweet & sour sauce and the missing ingredient of fish fillet. Taylor got that correct as well and won the first Jingle Bell Brawl.

9:27 p.m. – In addition to advancing to the Reindeer Games, Taylor earned the power to bring one other player with her to the final competition. In their pitches, everyone wanted to Taylor to not choose Xavier for the free ride to the end because he’s her biggest competition in a challenge. She shocked everyone when she made the decision to bring Nicole along with her, leaving Xavier, Frankie and Britney to play in the second Jingle Bell Brawl. Taylor said privately that she knows she can beat Nicole in challenges and that she needed to leave Xavier in the challenges to take Frankie out.

9:34 p.m. – For the second Jingle Bell Brawl, Tiffany asked questions about the performances the players saw in the lodge over the course of the entire competition and the most correct answers would earn that player a spot in the Reindeer Games. They all got question 1 correct. Frankie and Britney got questions 2, 3 and 4 correct, but Xavier got them wrong. Only Frankie got question 5 correct, giving him a single point lead going into the final question. They all got the final question correct which meant that Frankie became the third player to make it to the Reindeer Games and setting up a Santa’s Showdown between Britney and Xavier.

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