Rick Devens is one of the most chaotic players in the history of Survivor. Between finding real hidden immunity idols, planting fake hidden immunity idols and lying about what advantages he may or may not have, he played harder and weirder than his fellow castaways during both of his seasons. Big Brother producers are hoping they’ll get that same outside the box weirdness from him this summer, but unfortunately, there’s one problem with that.
During the refurbished Big Brother Unlocked, Devens said during an interview that producers told him he isn’t allowed to make up his own advantages. Unlike Survivor, there are rules on Big Brother that prevent contestants from manipulating their fellow players, at least when it comes to production directives. That guardrail is staying in place this season, despite Devens’ presence. In fact, Executive Producer Rich Meehan made that very clear during an interview with Entertainment Weekly when Devens’ outrageous history came up…
Look, he’s a mischief maker, right? He’s so fun and he’s so creative in how he chooses to play games. So we’re like: That could be really interesting to see what he does within our game and our rules. What can he do that maybe we’ve never seen before?
This article isn’t long enough to rundown Devens’ entire shady history with rule-bending on Survivor, but I’ll give one specific example to illustrate what I’m talking about. During Survivor 50 at the beginning of the season, he took materials he found around the beach, wrapped them up in a pocket square and planted the package inside the Tribal Council set.
Weeks later, when he thought he was at risk of going home, he told everyone he found a clue to an idol that would keep him safe but hadn’t been able to retrieve it. He then got up, tore apart the set and grabbed the package he left to the absolute shock of the other castaways. He easily survived the night’s vote, as well as several more during a deep run.
I would love to see an alternate universe where Rick is allowed to lie to everyone and says he has an advantage that lets him put four people on the Block or some such nonsense. That’s not going to happen, but I’m hopeful he’ll still find a way to do a few really unexpected things. That’s certainly what production is hoping for. Here’s another quote from Meehan…
We’ve been on the air a lot of years. If we get surprised or there’s something new that happens, to us, that’s always a great successful season. Because when you’re this far down the road, anytime something new and unique happens, we’re like, ‘Yes, that’s awesome!’ He could be a guy that could do that.
As of now, Rick is still playing it pretty low key in the house. If the live feeds are any indication, he’s built up a lot of strong relationships already, and he looks like he’s in a pretty good position with most of the houseguests, apart from Jason who is skeptical of him and the other reality show veterans like Dee and Angela. I suspect he’ll continue to blend and try not to get too crazy for a few weeks, but if at any point he starts to feel his back against the wall, that’s when we might see something really wacky, even if he’s been partially handcuffed by producers.
You can follow along all season, as we'll be covering everything going on in the house, from early season spoilers to late game strategy.
