Nicole Franzel

Upon her entry onto Big Brother 16, Franzel was the second youngest contestant in the house.[2] She applied for the show as a self-proclaimed 'super-fan.' During her season, she earned a reputation for being a potential competition threat, winning the Head of Household role three times in Weeks 3, 6 and 7 (although due to the rules of the Battle of the Block competition, she was dethroned on two of these reigns when her nominees won safety). She also won safety from eviction in Weeks two and five courtesy of the Battle of the Block competition. On Day 56, she was evicted by a vote of 6-0 and became the third member of the jury, and the first person in Big Brother history to win the Head of Household title, be dethroned by the Battle of the Block competition and get evicted in the same week. Nicole returned to the house Day 63 after she won the challenge between Hayden, Jocasta, and Zach. On Day 71, Nicole was nominated for a sixth consecutive time and was re-evicted by a vote of 4-0 as the fifth member of the jury. Franzel voted for fellow house guest (and Big Brother 16 winner) Derrick Levasseur during the finale. After Derrick became revealed to be the winner, Nicole was revealed to be among the top vote-getters for "America's Favorite Houseguest" alongside Zach Rance and the winner of the $25,000 prize of America's Favorite Houseguest Donny Thompson.

After her appearance on Big Brother 16, Franzel later became a returnee contestant (along with James and Da'Vonne from Big Brother 17 and Frank from Big Brother 14) on Big Brother 18. Franzel earned the power of Head of Household two times during the season, first in week 1 and second in week 10. She also secured the Power of Veto (and thus the ability to remove a Houseguest from being nominated for eviction) twice, first in week 10 and again in week 12 (in both cases, she opted not to use the power). Unlike in her first season, Franzel opted for a less aggressive strategy to avoid being nominated for eviction, which proved effective as Franzel avoided nomination for eviction until the final four Houseguests, Franzel became nominated at that point alongside Corey Brooks. Ultimately, she survived eviction as James Huling (the only Houseguest eligible to vote for eviction that week) opted to evict Brooks over Franzel. Franzel entered finale night having won the second part of the three-part Final Head of Household, qualifying for the certain third and final portion of the competition. Although she lost the final Head of Household competition to Paul Abrahamian, he opted to evict Huling over Franzel, thus leading her to earn a spot in the final two. Franzel was then crowned the winner of Big Brother 18 by earning the votes of fellow Houseguests Corey Brooks, Natalie Negrotti, Paulie Califiore, Zakiyah Everette and Da'Vonne Rogers to win over Abrahamian by a margin of 5-4. In doing so, Franzel became the first female Houseguest to defeat a male Houseguest in the final two in the history of the U.S. broadcast series.[3]

Franzel competed in The Amazing Race 31 alongside her then boyfriend and now fiancée Victor Arroyo. They had many second place finishes, were the last "non-race" team to survive and placed fourth overall. Season 31 consisted of teams who previously appeared on either Survivor, Big Brother, or The Amazing Race.[4][5]

Nicole has been dating fellow Big Brother 18 houseguest Victor Arroyo. On September 8, 2018, Franzel became engaged to Arroyo.[6]