There's a new HOH and a returning juror in the Big Brother 18 house, and while it may look to be a repeat of last week, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Head of Household: Nicole Franzel

Other houseguests: Corey Brooks, James Huling, Michelle Meyer, Natalie Negrotti, Paul Abrahamian and Victor Arroyo

The joint HOH/Returning Juror competition was seen on the feeds Thursday night, and it was a real battle to the finish on both sides. Da'Vonne and Zakiyah decided only 10 minutes in to jump off together, with none of the other houseguests really knowing why. Corey fell soon after, leaving three houseguests on each side.

Around the 25-minute mark, Bridgette found herself really struggling and wound up falling off. As such, it was between Paulie and Victor to see who would return to the house. Both showed signs of struggle but Paulie really looked to be pushing through the pain. At the 40-minute mark, Paulie finally couldn't take it anymore and dropped off.

This meant Victor won his way back into the game for an unprecedented second time. Many of the other houseguests cheered for Victor, who quickly fell off.

It was down to James, Nicole and Paul, and all three struggled on for almost an hour, at which point Paul fell off. James and Nicole immediately started making deals to keep each other safe. Nicole told James she really wanted a letter from her mom, while James told Nicole he really wanted to have four "Wall competition" wins, having won the last three he's competed in.

As the competition hit two hours, James reaffirmed the deal to keep both him and Natalie safe, to which Nicole agreed, and he decided to jump off. Nicole became the new HOH, celebrating that she wouldn't get seventh place this time like she did in Big Brother 16.

In the immediate aftermath, Nicole stressed to Corey that she didn't want to put Paul up but she also wanted to honor her deal with James, suggesting that she might nominate Michelle and Victor. She wanted Michelle as the target considering she's been after her for weeks. Paul and Victor made their best pitches to Nicole that James, Natalie and Michelle were the ones who placed blame on Nicole and Corey for getting them (Paul and Victor) on the block. Paul and Victor also agreed privately that they should work with Corey and Nicole moving forward.

Nicole regretted promising James safety, but she also remembered that James promised safety to Shelli Poole and Clay Honeycutt last season and broke that promise. She came to the conclusion that she might have to nominate James next to Michelle, with Michelle still being her main target.

It will be interesting to see how this week goes, especially if Nicole goes through with the plan to backstab her fellow veteran.

Big Brother 18 returns with another new episode Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Tags: Big Brother Reality TV CBS