Vanessa Moves 1 Step Closer To $500,000 On 'BB17'

On Wednesday night, as the special live eviction episode of Big Brother 17 aired in the West Coast, the three remaining houseguests began an endurance competition to determine the first winner of the three-part final HoH competition. After a grueling hours-long competition, Vanessa won the first HoH comp of the Big Brother 17 finals and moved one step closer to victory. Her win was a big deal because the winner of this first competition automatically moves on to part three. After that, the two losers battle it out in part two, and that winner goes up against the part one winner in part three. From there, the winner of part three becomes the final HoH of the season, and, with only two houseguests eligible for eviction, determines which houseguest becomes the last juror and which one he or she takes to the final two.

Honestly, it's the most important HoH of the summer, and after securing her victory in part one, Vanessa is one step closer to the Final 2 and the ultimate Big Brother prize: $500,000

So, how did she do it? Here's a recap of the first part of Big Brother's three-part competition to crown the final HoH.

The Comp Begins

At around 8:42 p.m. PT on Wednesday, the live feeds returned to show Steve, Vanessa, and Liz mounted on small discs over large red balls and dipping into a pool of red liquid. We later learned that the competition was carnival-themed, and that they're supposed to be on big candy apples. Liz was right, though: It looked more like a pool of fake blood.

One Hour In

In addition to getting dunked in the pool of red liquid, the houseguests also had to put up with being slammed against a wall and having powder, confetti, a white substance, and who knows what else thrown at them.

Three Hours In

You never really know how long an endurance competition is going to take, but I don't think people expected this one to last more than three hours with all houseguests still in the game. They really wanted to win this thing! Past the three-hour mark, production had each houseguest move down from the disc to the ball itself.

Steve Goes Down

Steve has never been good at endurance competitions, and almost everyone was surprised he lasted as long as he did. As should be expected, he was the first one down.

Liz Goes Down

Vanessa insisted that she has to win the competition because it would take her all week to recover from it and that Liz has a better shot at winning round two, so she told Liz to drop. About 14 minutes later, Liz dropped and Vanessa won.

Later that night, Steve revealed that, according to the producers in the Diary Room, this was the longest final three endurance competition in six years. Wow! That's great work from all three houseguests. Vanessa has a week until she needs to compete again, but Liz and Steve need to gear up for part two. Vanessa's in a good spot right now to make it to the very end, which was her plan all along, I'm sure.

Image: CBS