Big Brother 3: Why Jason Lost

Jason appeared to be in a great position - he had a solid deal with Danielle that had lasted since the very first week. He had rarely (if ever) lied or backstabbed, and even when he did the dirty work, it always seemed so clean. He was on his way to half a million dollars. So what happened? Why did Jason lose?

Well, the first reason is that he lost the critical Head of Household (HoH) competition that could have kept him there. First he messed up barely an hour into the endurance segment of the contest, knocking himself out by accidentally grabbing for his hat with the hand that was supposed to be holding the key. This put him in a position of needing to win both of the next two segments. The second was fairly easy, as Danielle was barely competing - but just think of how much better off he would have been if he'd won the first one and Danielle had an actual reason to win the second. Still, he made it into the final round of the final HoH contest - and was blown away by Lisa. He simply did not have the grasp on feelings and opinions of the evicted houseguests that Lisa had. Watching her pick almost every one correctly was amazing, and he didn't have a chance.

But that's not the only reason. After all, Danielle didn't win any of the HoH contest segments, and she's still there. Actually, you have most of your answer in the first paragraph. Jason was great. Jason was loved by all. People would get in line to vote for Jason.

Lisa knew all of this. Which means if she had brought Jason along to the finals, she stood a good chance of losing. Since Lisa is not Colby from Survivor 2, she was smart enough to know that this is a game, and the object of the game is not to make friends, but to win. In this case, Jason holds no grudge and they will likely still be friends outside the house, so it's kind of a two-for-one deal as far as that goes. But Lisa realized that the important thing was taking the person she thought she could beat in the finals. Alas, that's not Jason.

It's hard to say how much Lisa realizes about what the others now think of Danielle. Considering that Jason walked out of the house and told Julie Chen that he thinks Danielle has the $500,000 locked up, it may be that all three of them in there are a bit ignorant of what folks on the outside think. Indeed, time after time we've seen houseguests evicted and tell Chen that they want Danielle to win, only to later watch the tapes and change their stories. But surely Lisa has to realize that Jason was more well-liked than Danielle, even if she doesn't have the full benefit of outside knowledge.

Lisa has shown herself to be a savvy game-player - at least once she no longer had Eric occupying her time and attention. Her last-minute deal with Danielle in the pool during the first segment of the HoH competition was similar to the one made by Neleh with Vecepia at the end of Survivor: Marquesas. It was a deal that didn't really need to be made, because just as Neleh always planned to bring Vecepia with her to the finals - as she thought Vee would be more easily beaten than Kathy - I'm sure Lisa always planned to bring Danielle, for the very same reason. She may not be sure she can beat Danielle, but she has to know that Jason was more universally-liked than Danielle was (and in case she didn't already, Roddy's description of Danielle as "soulless" for the third HoH contest segment may have been a bit of a clue!).

So Jason won because he was too much of a threat. He was too nice, too All-American, too boy-next-door. He was just too damned good. Since Lisa wanted to actually win the game, she had to get rid of him and use the proper procedure of trying to bring somebody you can beat to the end. That is why Jason lost.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline, and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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