Warning: spoilers ahead! Don’t continue without watching the “Big Brother 28” finale.
And the winner is…
Rick Devens is the winner of “Big Brother 28”.
Devens – who competed on “Survivor 38” and “Survivor 50” – won the $750,000 grand prize against Taylor Brown by receiving six of seven possible votes from jury members.
That means Brown is our runner-up this season, winning the $75,000 consolation prize.
Devens received votes to win from Angela Murray, Barrett Pfeiffer, Yash Patel, Melody Morris, Dee Valladares and Drew Campbell.
LaTrice Verrett was the only one to vote for Brown.
Devens also took home the $50,000 for winning America’s Favorite Player and an additional $10,000 for unleashing the Pharaoh’s curse, bringing his total winnings to $810,000 this season.
The final showdown took place after Devens defeated Brown in part three of the final Head of Household competition.
As the final HOH, Devens chose to take Brown to the bottom two, thus making Campbell the final member of the jury.
Devens’ decision to take Brown over Campbell until the end came as a shock to fans, as the two had been extremely close throughout the season and often referred to each other as “father” and “son”.
Before the final eviction, host Julie Chen Moonves told viewers that Brown made a strong argument for Devens to take her to the end — and she clearly succeeded.
Devens, Valladares and Murray (who competed on “Big Brother 26”) were invited this season as reality TV “icons” alongside a cast of newbie players.
Throughout the season, several houseguests told Page Six they felt most betrayed by Campbell — including Mallory Aurichio and Patel, who were evicted before the jury.
“I’m surprised by a lot of things Drew has done,” Aurichio told us.
“I always knew he was close to the ‘Icons’ and I knew he talked too much, but I kind of assumed he had my best interests and he didn’t,” she said, also criticizing him for playing both sides of the house and “passing information” to the ‘Icons.’
Patel also had harsh words for Campbell, telling Page Six: “As far as the game goes, you better believe I have a grudge against him.”
However, he doesn’t hold grudges outside of the game. “Everything that happened in this house stays in this house,” Patel said. “The game is a game. So I’m not going to bring that into the real world.”
Even Morris, who was “flirting” with Campbell this season, told Page Six that she “wouldn’t consider a romantic relationship” with him in the real world.
“I love Drew and I think he’s great,” she told us. “I want to continue to be his friend, but Drew has many traits that I would never want to date.”
Valladares — who won “Survivor 45” and competed alongside Devens on “Survivor 50” — told us that, had she won the HOH finale, she would have eliminated her “Survivor” castmate.
“As much as my heart wants to stay true to Devens, he could absolutely beat me,” she said after her eviction, doubling down on the fact that she “would never want to bring him” to the end.
“I also feel like he would have done that, because we need each other for jury votes,” Valladares continued. “So I would have stayed loyal to him until the last two games, because I need his vote, just like he needs my vote.”
Earlier this season, during an exclusive interview to celebrate 1,000 episodes of “Big Brother,” Season 13 winner Rachel Reilly told Page Six that she hoped one of the “Survivor” players would “run full steam ahead” this season.
“I feel like if Dee and Devens can outwit, outplay, outlast these people, and if they can win competitions and use their powers at the right time, I hope that for future seasons, if we see another ‘Survivor’ player or if we see more returnees, we’ll have more of a straight battle from the start,” she told us.
Reilly added: “So I think the fact that they’re able to outplay these people so easily…I give them props. You have to give it to the player.”
Gn entert
