Julie Chen Moonves says Xavier is the best Big Brother winner ever

Each week, host Julie Chen Moonves weighs in on the latest events in the Big Brother house. Here, she discusses the season 23 finale, including Xavier's big win, an Azah versus Big D final two, which contestants she would like to see play again, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Okay, Julie. Xavier made history as the first Black winner of a non-celebrity edition of Big Brother, and he did it in epic fashion with a dominant unanimous fashion. How would you sum up his win and how it stacks up against other winners from the past?

JULIE CHEN MOONVES: He's only the third player to ever get an unanimous win… and in my humble opinion, he may be the best ever to do so. Think about it: The first houseguest to ever do that was Dan Gheesling in season 10 (back then, the jury was only made up of seven people and he got all seven votes). The next time was only last summer when Cody beat Enzo in All Stars. Cody won in large part because he is a competition beast. The kid is unstoppable and so impressive.

Xavier won by knowing when to lose and winning when he had to, and was liked and admired by all in the house. How many times have we ever seen that? In addition to winning all nine votes, not a single negative comment was made from any juror when it came time to insert the keys! If that's not proof of God and miracles, then what is?!

I have to also give a nod, however, to Tamar Braxton. She too got an unanimous win, but it was not in a regular season. It was in our second season of Celebrity Big Brother, and that lasts only about three weeks as opposed to three months! She did provide me a lot of laughter and entertainment. My dream is to one day have a BB version of Mount Rushmore somewhere in the house. I see it being the faces placed in chronological order of unanimous winners: Dan, Tamar, Cody, Xavier, boom!

Let's play a little game of "Big Brother What If" and pretend we had an Azah and Big D final two. Who do you think wins in that scenario?

Here would be my educated guess — or my uneducated guess, depending how you look at it. My guess would be the following people would vote for Azah to win: Britini, Derek X, Sarah Beth, Claire, Tiffany, Hannah, and Xavier. I think Xavier would respect the "game move" on Azah's part if she ever evicted him.

My guess is Big D could maybe get Alyssa's vote because of his strong social game. I also think he might have gotten Kyland's vote. Who knows? Only God does. Only He knows what's in people's hearts.

Azah seemed really shell-shocked in her interview with you after being evicted. What was your big takeaway sitting across from her in that studio?

My takeaway is that Azah has a healthy fear of the Lord — and that's the first step towards true wisdom. She spoke about how she did what she could to glorify Him in her actions and speech while playing this game where lying and deception are both allowed.

She acknowledged she failed in some areas of pleasing the Lord (I believe she was referring to misleading Hannah on double eviction night). What I felt as raw honesty on stage with me is what I think will take her far in life. She gets it that there is so much more to life than money and winning at all costs. She gets that God allowed her this opportunity to play BB and make it thus far. She will now meditate and pray on it to lean in to Him and figure out what His purpose is for her life. I am a big Azah fan.

Even beyond the racial diversity of the cast there was something different about this group of players, who rarely took anything personally and seemed to genuinely enjoy and respect each other. What was your big takeaway from the group?

My big takeaway from this diverse group was that they showed America, we as a human race are more alike than different. If you can set aside personal selfish agendas, we really can do as God commands and the Bible says and love one another.

There were so many great players and characters this season. Give me your top three you'd like to see come back and play again.

Tiffany, Derek X, and Frenchie.

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• Xavier Prather makes history as Big Brother's first Black winner
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• Julie Chen sizes up the chances for the Big Brother final 3
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