Big Brother crowned Hayden Moss its twelfth-season winner during Wednesday night's live two-hour finale broadcast of the CBS reality competition.

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The 24-year-old college student from Tempe, AZ took home Big Brother 12's $500,000 grand prize on Day 75 via a close 4-3 jury vote over Lane Elenburg.

As the competition's runner-up, Lane -- a 24-year-old oil rig salesman from Decatur, TX who had also been part of the same secret four-man "The Brigade" alliance as Hayden -- won $50,000.

Hayden received jury votes from previously evicted Big Brother houseguests Ragan Fox, Kathy Hillis, Matt Hoffman, and Enzo Palumbo while Lane drew votes from Britney Haynes, Rachel Reilly and Brendon Villegas.

Hayden and Lane became Big Brother's final two twelfth-season houseguests after they competed in the third phase of the season's final Head of Household competition earlier in the live finale. 

Since he had failed to win either of the competition's first two phases, Enzo -- the only other houseguest still remaining in the competition and another member of "The Brigade," which he, Hayden, Lane, and Matt had formed on Big Brother 12's second day -- was not eligible to compete in the third and final phase.

Similar to the third part of other seasons' final HoH competitions, Big Brother host Julie Chen read the beginning of a statement one of the season's first six jury members had made while they were in the jury house and Hayden and Lane then had to guess which of two possible endings was correct.

The houseguest with the most correct answers after the six statements would be crowned the final HoH and get to choose which other Final 3 houseguest would advance to the jury vote with them.

However, Hayden and Lane finished tied with four correct answers each after the six questions, resulting in a tiebreaker question in which they had to guess how many times they were slammed into padded walls during "Rumble in the Big Brother Jungle," the first phase of the final HoH competition.

Hayden guessed 91 times and Lane guessed 55.  Since the correct answer was 250 times, Hayden won and was crowned the season's final HoH.

Hayden then opted to evict Enzo, a 32-year-old insurance adjuster from Bayonne, NJ, after he and Lane were each given the chance to make a final plea.

"I love both of you guys, you guys have been nothing but awesome.  I've been completely loyal to both of you this entire game.. No matter what's done here, I think we're going to be friends for a long. long time," Hayden told the men.

"With that being said, Enzo, I'm sorry man, I have to evict you."

After his eviction, Enzo told Julie he wasn't surprised by Hayden's decision.

"No, not surprised at all.  I had a great, great social game -- probably one of the best ever in here.  My competitions, that's another grenade, let's not get into that.  But my social game is probably one of the best ever," he said.

"I think he was scared to bring me [to the Final 2] because I probably would have swayed the jury.... I probably could have done it... but it wasn't in the cards."

The seven jury members then asked Hayden or Lane one question each.  While Brendon, Britney, Kathy, Matt, Rachel, and Ragan each asked a written question they had all previously agreed upon, Enzo -- having been evicted only moments earlier -- was allowed to ad-lib his question.

"Lane... were you really going to take me to the Final 2 if you had won that last HoH?" asked Enzo, who had told Julie he hadn't determined his jury vote yet and would be using his jury question to help decide it.

"I would think really hard about it, and I think I have a better debate to the jury if I took you.  But I didn't think I could win if I took you up here or against [Hayden]," Lane said in an noncommittal reply that ultimately seemed to cost him the season's $500,000 prize.

Afterwards, Hayden and Lane were each allowed to make a final statement.

"I feel blessed to be here, it's been amazing. You guys, the jury, your job here is to decide the winner of Big Brother.  The winner should be the person who played the game the best.  Lane is a great guy, we both played a great social game, we had an amazing alliance.  But the bottom line is, when it comes down to competitions I won five -- five competitions -- [while] Lane won one," Hayden told the jury.

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"Four of [my] competitions were HoH competitions, and in fact I won three in a row -- the last three HoH competitions.  I also won a Veto [competition] when it mattered the most, I won the Veto that carried the Brigade into the Final 3.  I feel like I deserve to won this game."

Lane was less aggressive in his final plea.

"I want to tell y'all thank you for an amazing summer, I had a blast.  And congratulations to making it to the jury, you know I didn't think in a million years I'd be standing here right now, but I am, and I don't think it's on accident," he said.

"From the first day I walked in this game I seen how many competitors we had in this house.  And each one of y'all has awesome, awesome aspects... you want to win every competition and that's the same way I am.  Even though I didn't win every competition I played this game in every aspect... I don't think this whole game is about winning the most competitions, even though I did win two -- not one competition."

Big Brother's twelfth-season jury members then cast their votes, resulting in Hayden later being crowned the winner at the conclusion of the two-hour broadcast.

After Hayden's win was announced, Julie also revealed that Britney -- a 22-year-old hotel sales manager from Huntington, AR who lost her home in a fire on Thursday -- had won the season's "America's Favorite Houseguest" viewer vote and will receive its $25,000 prize.
About The Author: Steven Rogers
Steven Rogers is a senior entertainment reporter for Reality TV World and been covering the reality TV genre for two decades.