Oh, 'Brother': Michigan's Nicole Franzel finishes third on 'Big Brother: All Stars'

Though she made it to finale night, Nicole Franzel couldn't go all the way, and the shining star of Ubly, Michigan — it's in the Thumb just south of Bad Axe, population 800 — finished in third place on Wednesday's finale of "Big Brother: All Stars." 

Franzel — the only previous winner in the final three — was ultimately cut by Cody Calafiore, who wound up being crowned the "All Stars" champ in a unanimous 9-0 jury vote, winning the CBS reality competition show's $500,000 game prize. 

With the clean sweep, Calafiore becomes only the second unanimously voted champ in "Big Brother" history, after Metro Detroiter Dan Gheesling's win on "Big Brother 10" in 2008. 

Enzo Palumbo — who, like Calafiore, hails from New Jersey — came in second place and was awarded $50,000 in prize money.

Franzel's ouster came after she lost the final competition of the season to Calafiore, a trivia competition, by a score of 8-7. Calafiore got to choose who to bring with him to the final two, and when he chose Palumbo over Franzel, she was blindsided. 

Franzel was visibly shaken during her tearful exit interview with host Julie Chen-Moonves. "I did not see that coming," the 28-year-old social media influencer said, just moments after Calafiore sent her packing, despite their season-long partnership in the game. "I thought our bond was so close, and I did not see it coming. First thing this season I haven't seen coming." 

She later complimented Calafiore's gameplay — "he's got guts," she said — and she voted for him to win. 

Franzel's previous win, on "Big Brother 18" in 2016, painted a target on her back among the season's other houseguests, and the fact that she still made it to the finale "is pretty cool," she told Chen-Moonves. But she wasn't surprised she made it to the end. 

"I honestly just thought I was gonna make it to the finish line. I never saw any other way around it," said Franzel, who also competed on "Big Brother 16" in 2014. Her strategy in the house was to "lay a little bit low, but not too low" and to build a weak persona around herself, so that others wouldn't see her as a threat. "And people believed it!" she said. 

Wednesday's finale came after 12 weeks of alliances, scheming, lies and backstabbing inside the "Big Brother" house.

Da'Vonne Rogers, a 32-year-old acting coach from Inglewood, Calif., won the title of America's favorite houseguest, and was awarded a $25,000 consolation prize. 

While she didn't win the season or get crowned the first two-time "Big Brother" winner in history, Franzel did manage to nab another honor this season: she became the longest-tenured houseguest in "Big Brother" history, as over her three seasons of play she has spent a combined total of more than 240 days inside the house.

agraham@detroitnews.com

@grahamorama