Big Brother fans love to debate the best moments and HGs of all-time. Sure, it’s fun to think about who’s better at the game, Dr. Will Kirby or Dan Gheesling, but just as important are the mistakes.
There have been several infamous moments in Big Brother history, times when HGs made such painfully awful moves that they ended up losing the game. And because of the towering incompetence of current HGs like Joey Van Pelt and Devin Shepherd, it’s only fair to look back and see what other players made huge errors in judgment.
Here are my picks for the five single worst moves in the history of Big Brother.
Season 16: Joey Confesses Her All-Girl Alliance
The first week of season 16 isn’t even over, but already Joey Van Pelt has set herself apart as quite possibly the worst player in the show’s history. Though Devin Shepherd telling two girls about his six-man alliance and bringing them in without telling anyone else first was bad, Joey’s decision to confess her sins was worse.
After trying and failing to get the girls to unite and form an alliance, Joey went around to everyone (including the men) and told them about her failure. She claimed that “transparency” was the best strategy, but instead it made her the easiest possible target and got her nominated by the male HoH. Big Brother is not a courtroom, so you don’t need to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In fact, if Andy Herren proved anything last year, it’s that lying is better.
Season 15: Nick Refuses Elissa’s Offer
In the second week of season 15, everyone knew Elissa Slater was the MVP and she tried to make a deal with Nick Uhas that, if he threw the PoV competition, she would keep him safe for two weeks. He was wishy-washy, but eventually accepted. However, after the competition which the MVP nominee Jeremy won, she asked Nick what he would do if she put up Kaitlin.
Nick refused to deny that he would vote out Elissa herself if she did that. He was so confident in the power of his Moving Company alliance that he broke one of the cardinal rules of Big Brother: If someone offers you a deal to keep you safe, you accept it. This even came after he said in the diary room that “I’m going to tell Elissa whatever she wants to hear.” He didn’t do that, and because of it, he was nominated and evicted thanks to McCrae abandoning the Moving Company.
Season 14: Danielle Trusts Dan…Again
Returning player and coach Dan Gheesling repeatedly broke Danielle Murphree’s trust during season 14, but she kept going back to him. When it was down to the Final 4, Danielle won HoH and nominated Dan and Ian. She also won the PoV, but instead of keeping her nominations the same and letting her boyfriend Shane evict Ian, Dan manipulated her into using it to save him. Dan then stabbed her in the back as hard as he possibly could by evicting Shane.
If Danielle had kept her nominations the same, Ian would’ve been evicted and, no matter who won the last HoH, she would’ve made it to the finale (both Shane and Dan absolutely would’ve taken her to the end). Instead she was evicted in third place and trusting Dan cost her at least $50,000.
Season 13: Lawon Offers to Get Evicted
At the start of week 5 in season 13, Julie Chen warned the HGs that whoever was evicted that week might not be out of the game. This caused mass paranoia and speculation. Kalia won the HoH and nominated veterans Jeff and Rachel. When Jeff won the PoV, Kalia’s ally Lawon Exum volunteered to be the replacement nominee, assuming that the person who gets evicted would come back with a special power in the game.
So not only did Lawon offer to be nominated, he offered to be evicted even though Kalia and Daniele had the votes to send home Rachel. If they did that, Rachel would’ve faced off with her fiance Brendon to get back in the game and, more likely than not, Rachel wouldn’t have gone on to win. This was collectively stupid, because Lawon was an idiot for offering, Kalia was an idiot for doing it and Daniele was an idiot for going along with it, something she admitted as she cast her vote to evict him.
Season 3: Marcellas Doesn’t Save Himself
With only five people left in season 3,HoH Jason nominated Amy and Marcellas Reynolds. Marcellas won the first ever Golden Power of Veto but, in the most infamous move in the game’s history, he refused to save himself. A few minutes later, a tied vote went to the HoH and Jason evicted Marcellas. Thus came the first rule of Big Brother: You ALWAYS save yourself.
Since that moment, there have been 64 times when one of the nominees held the Power of Veto (including when season 12’s Matt Hoffman had the Diamond Power of Veto and Donny Thompson in the first week of season 16). And 61 of those times, the person used it to save him or herself.
The only exceptions came twice in season 8 when father/daughter duo Dick and Daniele Donato were nominated together and saved the other instead of themselves one time apiece, and again in season 13 when Brendon Villegas saved his fiancee, Rachel Reilly, instead of himself.
Arguments could be made for any one of these people to be named the worst player in Big Brother history, but what do you think was the single worst move or decision made by an HG?
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
