We’ve had some blindsides and some questionable group decisions so far on Big Brother 28, but nothing has even come close to producing the level of reaction we got after last night’s vote. Survivor winner Dee Valladares, who was widely considered a dead woman walking if she ended up on the block next to Angela, somehow survived the vote thanks to a frantic few days of campaigning. Many fans hit up social media to express shock at Taylor and Yash’s decision to keep her, as well as admiration for the skills she showed to pull it off. In addition, we also heard from many legends of the show, and let’s just say they did not hold their opinions back.
The response from the Big Brother alumni community was one of collective shock. I saw dozens of popular former players hit up social media and overwhelmingly express confusion over Yash and Taylor’s choice to keep Dee. From their perspective, Dee is a significantly bigger threat than Angela to actually win the game, and with only eight people left in the season, most could not believe they wouldn’t take the chance to knock her out. Here’s a take from Dan Gheesling, widely considered the best Big Brother player in history, as an example…
Strategically and comp wise - if you’re playing the long game, what is the thought behind keeping Dee over Angela? You may never get another shot at Dee like this.
Gheesling explored his thoughts in several tweets and even a video. He clearly felt like it was a bad and potentially game-losing decision for Yash, and that was a recurring refrain from other players. Janelle Pierzina, widely considered the best player never to win Big Brother, hit up X and echoed his sentiments. She ripped the other players in a series of messages and even came out and said everyone other than Dee and Devens deserves to lose the game at this point…
Dee and Devens are killing it, everyone else deserves to lose at this point.
Seriously, if you made a list of the most notable Big Brother players in history, you would likely find a majority of them hit up social media to either praise Dee and her partner in crime Rick Devens, who won the Blockbuster, or call out the other players for their poor decision-making. It was just one after another after another, all making their feelings known.
Danielle Reyes accused the newbies of being in a “medically induced coma.” Derrick Levasseur dropped the Justin Timberlake gif with the are-you-kidding-me face. Morgan Pope said she was “in shock” and that this was huge for Dee’s resume. Josh Martinez dropped a Photoshopped image of Dee telling the haters to “STFU.” Cody Calafiore said the decision was all capital letters “WILD.” Evel Dick called it the most “idiotic move” in the last decade.
It wasn’t just legends either. A ton of random former Big Brother players and reality stars from other shows also hit up social media to talk about what happened. We got bigger and lesser names from Survivor, The Challenge, Traitors, and so many more. As a big fan of reality competition shows, it was fun to see everyone together and to see how many of us there are who are perhaps too emotionally invested in this drama.
There are now seven players left in the game. Yash and Taylor ultimately decided to keep Dee because they felt she will be a number for them moving forward and they can simply get her out later. Maybe that’s the case and this move, despite its unpopularity, will be looked back on as the key decision that won Yash the game. That’s certainly possible, because he’s the best player at the comps left and likely has plenty of win equity with the jury.
That being said, it’s also entirely possible that this vote goes down as the decision that unintentionally won Dee (or Devens) the game. Add together her fantastic usage of her Bribe power earlier in the season, which was originally seen as useless, and how she saved herself from certain death this week and suddenly she has a resume that rivals the top players on the board.
You can catch the next episode of Big Brother this Sunday on CBS or Paramount+. You can also get a recap of what’s going on with the live feeds in our latest article that’s full of spoilers.
