“People Made the Same Mistakes from Earlier Seasons” – An Interview with Big Brother 10’s Winner, Dan

Dan somehow kept his cool and played his game while people all around him were going crazy. And he even had fun doing it! From talking to him, it seems like he’s still having fun, and probably will for quite some time. Read on and enjoy what he had to say!

RealityNewsOnline: First, let me say congratulations and thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at RealityNewsOnline!

Dan: Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I’m just trying to fathom that I won half a million dollars!

RNO: It was apparent that you were on Big Brother to play the game. What was your strategy coming into the house, and how did that change once you got there?

Dan: Coming into the house, I treated Big Brother like an exam. I was a huge fan but I went back and studied all the seasons, especially Season 2 because of the master playing in that season. To have a set strategy is presumptuous. I felt confident I could win, but when I stepped into the door, my confidence was shot. I saw these people who were strong and intelligent. I felt I didn’t excel in any one area so I had to attach myself to someone, and that was Brian. I felt I was a fish out of water and didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I knew it would be a tough ride.

Because I’d studied all the seasons, I felt I’d had an edge because other people didn’t really see a full season and didn’t know what it was all about. People in Season 10 made the same mistakes from earlier seasons, especially Ollie. How many times have you watched Big Brother in an endurance competition where somebody makes a deal with somebody from the other side – for him to trust me, are you kidding me?

RNO: You mentioned attaching yourself to Brian, and after Brian’s eviction, it looked like you were going to be voted out early – how did you manage to avoid getting the boot for those next few weeks?

Dan: I think one of the moves I made that was probably overlooked was that I voted against the entire house in week one to put up a persona that I could be trusted when really I couldn’t be. That bought me some time in the house – they were like, you know it was honorable to stand by your word. That one vote got me about three weeks worth of mileage to push me through to the next part of the game.

RNO: So once you got past that point, to what do you credit being able to make it to the final two?

Dan: A couple things. One, I have to thank America – I owe them some of the money. If they choose to vote out Memphis, I’m in a world of hurt. I did set up a plan to get out of it but it wasn’t my best case scenario – I didn’t want to align with April, Ollie, and Jerry! When I had a chance to vote Memphis to stay in, that was the most bang for my buck, and that was the start of the Renegades.

RNO: Why do you think the jury voted unanimously in your favor?

Dan: That’s something I’m still trying to comprehend myself. I tried to go back and don’t know if that’s been done before. [I don’t think so.] I thought I’d be lucky to get four-to-three, I had a 50/50 shot. I thought Libra and Jerry would go for Memphis, and Michelle, Ollie, and April would decide this game. Why they did, maybe my final speech. I tried to tell them I made people upset, but [I wanted them to] vote based on who played this game hard and made the better moves, then I had a good shot. If I couldn’t get them to put aside their personal feelings, I couldn’t have won this game.

RNO: In your final speech to the jury, you claimed you purposely made Ollie and Michelle mad at you to help your case with Memphis taking you to the end. Was that that truth?

Dan: Are you saying I would lie to everyone in the jury house?

RNO: Yes!

Dan: You’re right. The replacement nominee roulette, I pushed the limit on that one to be entertaining. That was a little payback for Brian. But like I said, if I could spin that into strategy, so be it. I wanted to try to prove that everything I did in the game, whether true or false, was strategy. The majority was strategy, but if I lost my head a bit, I tried to put a positive strategy spin on that.