Makaya Knight

Makaya Knight
Age:	20
Hometown:	Cambridge, MA
Occupation:	Communications Student
Season(s) in:	Big Brother: Rivals and Redemption
Finish:	5/14
Challenges Won:	2 (1 HOH, 1 POV*)
Alliances:	Girl Power Alliance, Team Kendra Alliance
Loyalties:	Anders Connelly, Haegan Powell, Kendra Benson, Michelle Blausk
Times Nominated:	3 (Weeks 2, 8, and Day 57)
Votes Against:	3
Days Lasted:	64

Makaya Lynda Knight was a contestant on Big Brother: Rivals and Redemption.

In-Game History

The youngest competitor of the fourteen houseguests, Makaya was selected by Kendra Benson to join her team on Day 1, during the initial houseguest draft. Makaya quickly became prevalent due to her sassy personality. Despite this, Makaya formed a close bond with teammate Michelle Blausk, and the pair later joined a three-person alliance with fellow female superfan Sophia Olzacki. As the first week progressed, and the formation of other alliances began to become more apparent, including Makaya's own, both Makaya and Michelle were omitted from the plan to evict fellow Team Kendra member Jason Garland. Makaya voted to keep Jason in the house due to his perceived strength for their team, but was ultimately left in the minority. The following week, as opposing team captain Brock Knutson became the new Head of Household, Makaya found herself nominated against her closest ally, Michelle, as a pawn. Although her former ally Sophia attempted to throw Makaya under the bus to the rest of the house in an attempt to save Michelle, Makaya ultimately survived, only receiving Sophia's hinky vote against her.

In Week 3, Team Kendra pulled out their second straight Rival Team Challenge victory, with the prize being a special game-changing advantage, to be randomly bestowed in an envelope, to be opened in secret, to a member of the winning team. Upon reaching the Diary Room with her envelope, Makaya learned that she had won the advantage, dubbed the "Pocket Power of Veto", a special Power of Veto that could be used at any veto ceremony, to which Makaya was overjoyed and celebrated saucily. Feeling alienated by Sophia's strategic plots, Makaya returned the favor the very next week, voting to evict Sophia, who ultimately became the third houseguest evicted by a 6 to 3 vote.

With Michelle and Sophia both evicted, Makaya was the only person left standing from her three-person alliance, and was thus deemed much less threatening, and became allied with team captain Kendra, along with Kendra's closest ally and showmance partner, Haegan Powell, especially after a rekindling of both Brock and Kendra's mutual rivalry. Makaya also began growing close with teammate and fellow superfan Anders Connelly, bonding over their love of Big Brother. Whilst Makaya stuck with the Team Kendra Alliance's intended plan and voted to evict Yissendau Martins later that week in order to save teammate Felice Marroquín, Felice was still evicted by a vote of 5 to 3.

Makaya, along with both Haegan and Kendra, learned of Anders' vote to evict Felice, but joined the rest of the alliance in re-welcoming Anders back into the fold after learning of his reason for doing so and apology. Makaya joined the majority in evicting Lucio Moreno under ally Kendra's HOH reign, and furthermore joined the rest of the house in reluctantly evicting Kendra only a short while later, in the second half of the first double eviction. However, Makaya celebrated happily when ally Haegan proceeded to win the following Head of Household competition, and followed Haegan's plan to evict Mottéo Iglacias.

Makaya's personality clashes began to show more and more with Brock, as the game continued on, and when Makaya finally won her first HOH competition in Week 7, Makaya took the opportunity to target him, nominating Brock alongside his closest ally in the game, Kat Adle. However, when Brock managed to save himself by once again winning the Golden Power of Veto, Makaya instead tried to sway her allies, Anders and Haegan, into forcing a tie, in order for Makaya to cast the tiebreaker vote to evict Kat, and thus weaken Brock in the game. Although both Anders and Haegan considered in siding with Brock, both men decided to stick to the Team Kendra Alliance, and carried out Makaya's wish, allowing for Makaya to cast the deciding vote to send Kat to the jury, and leaving Brock all alone in the house. However, upon the revelation of a surprise second double eviction, Brock managed to secure himself safety with another HOH win, and decided to target Makaya, nominating her once again, this time alongside Yissendau, as a pawn. When Makaya was unable to win an all-important POV that night, the communications student shocked everyone by using her secret power, her Pocket Power of Veto, thwarting Brock's plan and forcing him to name a replacement nominee. Makaya then joined her alliance in unanimously voting out Jim Waxweiler. 

With only five houseguests remaining, Haegan began to target Makaya for being a jury threat. Although Anders decided to stay loyal to his alliance, and had additionally become conscious of Haegan playing both sides, Anders named Makaya the replacement nominee after Brock managed to win yet another POV competition and saved himself from the block. Despite her feeling confident about herself and Haegan's relationship, Makaya was blindsided by a 2 to 0 vote, and became the fifth member of the jury.

At the live finale, Makaya congratulated both of the finalists on their accomplishment, and applauded Anders on his strategic game-play and authenticity, whilst Makaya praised Yissendau on being resilient, and thanked her for being a strong, confident African-American woman like herself. Ultimately, Makaya decided to vote for Anders to win for his loyalty, strategic prowess, and strong social game, joining the rest of the jury in voting for Anders to win the game by a unanimous vote of 7 to 0. Makaya was then later revealed to be the winner of the title of "America's Favorite Player", receiving over 36% of the total votes cast by America, beating out runners-up Anders and Kendra for the $25,000 prize. 

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5a	Week 5b	Week 6	Week 7a	Week 7b	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10a	Week 10b
Vote	Yissendau	Nominated	Sophia	Yissendau	Lucio	Kendra	Mottéo	Kat	Vetoed Jim	Nominated	Evicted (Day 50)		Anders

HOH History Table:
Big Brother: Rivals and Redemption:

HOH History

	Original Nominees		Post-Veto Nominees		Intended Target
Week 7	Brock	Kat	Evicted Kat	Yissendau	Brock

Trivia

• Makaya was the youngest houseguest competing on Big Brother: Rivals and Redemption.
• Makaya is the first houseguest in the Big Brother: Rivals and Redemption franchise to win the title of "America's Favorite Player".
• Makaya is good friends with former college roommate and Big Brother: Rivals and Redemption 3 contestant Amanda George.
  • Coincidentally, both were 20 years old at the time of competition and were the youngest houseguests competing on their respective seasons.