Makensy Manbeck, the runner-up on Big Brother season 26, says she does not regret taking Chelsie Baham rather than Cam Sullivan-Brown to the final two, even though she acknowledges another choice might have given her a better chance to win. The jury voted for Baham, and Manbeck has framed the decision around loyalty, grace and wanting to be proud of how she played.
What Manbeck had to decide
Manbeck won the final Head of Household competition, which gave her the power to choose which of the remaining finalists joined her in the final two. Her options were Baham and Cam Sullivan-Brown. She chose Baham. The choice meant that the person she sat beside on stage would be the one the jury judged against her, and it is the reason the outcome drew attention: most viewers expected the stronger competitor to be the one she avoided.
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Why she took Baham
In a TV Insider interview published October 14, 2024, the day after the live season 26 finale, Manbeck explained that she wanted to play a game she could stand behind. Her answer was not built on strategy charts. She described her goal in personal terms:
“I came into this house wanting to be a loyal, respectable player, play with grace, play with kindness and play with my heart.”
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She said she was proud to face a strong opponent and that she would rather lose to a player she respected than win a version of the game she was not comfortable with. She also said Baham’s win felt like a win for her too.
The expectation of Leah’s vote
Manbeck said she had expected to receive the vote of Leah, one of the jurors, and that this expectation was part of why she felt comfortable with her choice. That expectation did not carry through to the result, and she was open about the fact that a different final pairing could have changed the outcome.
Her view of her own game
Manbeck described her own game as less complex than Baham’s and said she had hoped her gameplay would speak for itself. She acknowledged that Baham was able to explain her strategy clearly to the jury, and that jury persuasion is part of what the final two has to deliver.
Did she regret it?
Asked in the interview whether, given the results, she would ever regret bringing Chelsie to the finale, Manbeck said no. She recognized that the choice might have reduced her chances of winning, but she did not see that as a reason to change her answer. For her, the decision was consistent with the kind of player she had set out to be.
The competition records behind the choice
Manbeck’s season totals, as reported by TV Insider in 2024, were three Head of Household wins, five Power of Veto wins and three AI Arena wins. The same report gives Baham four Head of Household wins and an AI Arena victory, and Cam one Power of Veto win. The table below sets out only the figures the reporting supplies for each finalist.
| Competition | Chelsie Baham | Cam Sullivan-Brown |
|---|---|---|
| Head of Household wins | 4 (TV Insider, 2024) | Not stated |
| Power of Veto wins | Not stated | 1 (TV Insider, 2024) |
| AI Arena wins | 1 (TV Insider, 2024) | Not stated |
These records show that Baham had the stronger record in the competitions the report covers, which is why the choice looked surprising to many viewers. They do not show what Cam would have done against the jury, because a head-to-head jury vote depends on each finalist’s speeches, answers and relationships, not on competition totals alone.
The jury result
Baham won the jury vote 7–0 over Manbeck, according to a Yahoo Entertainment report from 2024. That margin is the only jury figure in the coverage, and it reflects a unanimous decision by the jurors who voted that night.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the decision can and cannot show
The available coverage consists of post-finale interviews and entertainment reporting from October 2024. No independent analysis has established how the jury would have voted had Manbeck taken Cam to the final two, and the coverage does not provide that counterfactual. Manbeck’s own explanation is her stated perspective on a decision she made, not a measured account of the jury’s reasoning.
The interview is also retrospective. It is not a current-season update, and it does not describe any later plans or projects on Manbeck’s part.
What the record does support is narrower: Manbeck chose the finalist with the stronger competition résumé, she did so on the basis of loyalty and the kind of game she wanted to play, she lost a 7–0 jury vote, and she has said publicly that she does not regret the choice.
Why the choice keeps getting discussed
Final two decisions on Big Brother often look like pure strategy in hindsight, but this one put a personal value at the center of the choice. Manbeck’s answer invites a question that viewers can judge for themselves: is it fair to expect a player to optimize for a title, when the same player’s standards for how to play are part of who she is on screen?
Whether one agrees with her choice or not, the interview is useful because it shows how a finalist explains a decision under the pressure of a lost title, and it gives a clear first-person account of the reasoning behind a move that shaped the season’s ending.
The question her interview answers is the one readers asked most often about this finale. It is worth reading her own words in the TV Insider interview rather than relying on summaries of them.
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