Big Brother Winner Devens on James Gunn, Drew Eviction, Survivor, Traitors

On Big brotherRick Devens has been called a reality television icon. After winning season 28 on Thursday evening, he definitely entered the status of “icon”, thus becoming the first Survivor player to win Big brother.

Her casting was part of a larger twist for season 28 that saw three former reality TV players join a group of new contestants; competing alongside Devens was his comrade Survivor 50 opponent and winner of season 45 Dee Valladares and Big brother Season 26 alumna Angela Murray. Devens himself was on seasons 38 and 50 of Survivor.

The show called them icons after they entered the Big brother house, and the name stuck. So did their strong three-person alliance, which, through strategic gameplay and season-long dominance, ensured that at least one of them would have a real chance of winning the game.

Devens finally won Big brother by a six-to-one jury vote, defeating runner-up Taylor Brown. Additionally, audiences also loved Devens, awarding him the title of America’s Favorite Houseguest, which fans vote on at the end of each season.

He is also the highest earning player in a single season, earning $750,000 by winning the show; the $50,000 prize for America’s Favorite Guest; and another $10,000 he pocketed in a competition during filming.

Below, Devens explains why he wasn’t sure he won Big brother if Drew Campbell made it to the final two, his thoughts on season 28 guests saying the icons had “privileges and advantages” this season, James Gunn revealing he was supposed to make an appearance in The man of tomorrowand what competitive reality shows he would do next (Survivor third part? Big brother All the winners? The traitors?).

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After winning the final HOH, you decided to evict Drew. Do you really think Taylor would have had enough time to turn Lala around and say, “We’re going to vote for Drew to win”?

I really don’t think it would have taken much time. I think if Taylor had come on stage and said, “Lala, we’re voting for Drew,” Lala would have said, “Okay. You’ll explain later.” I think that’s all it would have taken, because these two were so close. I was legitimately very concerned about it.

Now that the show is over and you’ve potentially had time to talk to everyone, if there was a scenario where Drew was in the bottom two with you, did the jury tell you that they would have voted you to win?

No, I didn’t. I haven’t had those conversations. I know now that Drew and Taylor, neither of them were going to take me to the final two, so that makes me feel better. But I haven’t had any conversations about how a Drew and Devens vote would have gone.

Wow! So do you really still think Melody (Morris) and Barrett (Pfeiffer) would have voted for Drew?

I think it’s very possible. I think Drew’s and my game were very similar, very related. A lot of things we did, we did together. We had won about the same number of competitions. He dragged me into the final three. I would have dragged him to the last two. So I think they had every right to vote the way they wanted. I’d be shocked if Melody hadn’t gone for Drew, and then Barrett would have been the deciding vote. And it’s a little closer than a six-to-one vote. I had to do what I had to do, unfortunately.

Let’s go back to when you reached the final three. If there had been a scenario where you would have chosen whether Drew or Dee moved forward, do you think you would have taken her with you?

I don’t know. I think I would have cut Dee at the bottom three for not sitting next to her, and I think Dee would have cut me at the bottom three for not sitting next to me. Two Survivor players: We know each other too well.

What gameplay elements did you learn? Survivor do you think it served you best for Big brother?

On Survivoreverything is so much faster that you vote at the last second almost out of necessity. Dee and I came here, and I think a lot of Big brother you vote, you decide what you’re going to do, and then you wait for the live show. So that she and I were saying, “I think we can always turn this around. Let’s go work on this.” Even sometimes, to our own detriment, we got bored and said: We can reverse this. Let’s do it. Why not?

Also, I learned about Survivor that there is no shame in going home early or doing something stupid and getting rejected. Great players do this all the time, so you shouldn’t be afraid of it. In this season of Big brotherI was making a pitch to someone, and they were like, “No.” I think many other guests would have left, Oh, it didn’t go well, I won’t do it again. While I’m like, I have all week, I’m going to give him the same pitch tonight, then I’ll give it to him again tomorrow morning. And at the end of the week, they were often like, “Okay, I got this, let’s do this.” “I think just not being embarrassed and not being afraid to go home early is a huge power in games like this.

Why do you ultimately think that these Big brother didn’t the players choose to remove the icons at the very beginning of the game? This was obviously a mistake.

Yeah, and then they blame us for having all these privileges and advantages. It’s like you had week two through eleven to get together. There are 14 of you, three of us. You could have taken us out at any time, and you didn’t. Don’t blame our privilege now. Like, come on.

I think some of them made a very good choice; The (players) we worked with realized that we were valuable to them, that we were good shields for them, and that’s what we sold to them. Others, I think, just didn’t want to make a big noise, didn’t want to set a goal, and that’s obviously something we weren’t worried about. We made big moves every chance we got, so I don’t know. I’m annoyed that they want to blame us for all these special things when they outnumbered us 14 to one and had 11 weeks to get us out. I feel like if you wanted to get us out, you could have gotten us out. Gather round, newbies.

What advantage do you think they thought you had? Because as someone who loves reality TV, I would like to bring you out because you have that knowledge of gameplay and you have targets on your back that are coming.

That’s how I feel. I think they say, “You were automatically a three-person alliance,” and it’s like, okay, so all it takes (to take out one of us) is a four-person alliance. And by the way, if it had been Rachel (Reilly) instead of Dee, I don’t think we would be (an) automatic (a group of three working together). I don’t think Angela and Rachel were going to work together. I don’t know if Rachel and I would work together.

I think we had an advantage going into the BB Time Capsule. (Author’s Note: Viewers voted on which players to send to the BB Time Capsule, where they could get punishment or an advantage..)

But even then you have a 50/50 chance of getting what you (are going to get). In fact, many people thought it was random: I’m sure I saw a pattern there. I (looked at) the button for five minutes, saw the pattern and got a power. Three newcomers entered and two of them came out with punishments. It’s not because we arrived with privilege. I think we were at a bit of a disadvantage. I thought half the house would be returning players or players from other series.

Oh really?

Yeah.

Why did you think that?

Because I thought it would be fair. Give us a chance. You know, half newbies and half returnees. It’s even.

When did you have this opportunity or conversation to pursue Big brother to start? Is it because you were on Survivor 50?

I think that might be the case, but I don’t know the details, and I don’t think I’m even allowed to talk about it. But I think probably, if I hadn’t done well or if I hadn’t made a splash 50I would never be there.

When you were asked to do Big brotherwere you playing immediately, or were you like, I don’t know, maybe, maybe not?

I was really hesitant about this. I had always said that the show I wouldn’t do was Big brotherbecause it’s so long. And then it happens, and I’m like, well, maybe I want to do it, but I was like, I can’t do this to my wife. And I went home to my wife Becca and I told her, “Hey, this thing happened. I’m not saying I want to do it,” and she said, “You have to do it. You’ll never have this opportunity again.” And I was like, “Wait, what? So it was thanks to her that I ended up getting into that house and winning the game.

You’ve been away from your phones and the outside world. Something that happened once you walked in the house was James Gunn said you were supposed to do a cameo for Supermanbut you canceled at the last minute because of Big brother. Have you spoken to him since you won?

I haven’t, not since I won, but I can’t wait. I shouted it in the house. I was so upset that I couldn’t be on the set of Superman 2. My whole family went anyway, and he apparently treated them amazing and made it such a special experience for them. He was filming in Macon, Georgia, where I’m from. That’s why everything was going to work out. But now I’m like, James, I’ll go wherever you are. Let me visit any set…