I’m completely OK with admitting I only started watching Big Brother during Season 28. I’m a Survivor fan, and I jumped on the Big Brother bandwagon about two episodes in after I found out that my guy Rick Devens and my girl Dee Valladares were on the show. Turns out I’m not the only one. On average, Big Brother was up 8% this season over last year, and I’d be willing to bet a bunch of those newbies were Survivor fans. That didn’t stop the hate from the Big Brother core, however.
As a first season viewer, I had a very limited understanding of how this game has been played in the past, and how winners usually land the ultimate prize money. I had seen a few episodes before just from my TV work and knew the gist, but had never committed to watching a full season of the great reality competition series, so I was very much surprised by the fan response to the crossover.
The Gameplay Rubbed Some Longtime Fans The Wrong Way
From what I generally saw online, Dee and Devens played Big Brother more aggressively than most former players, latching onto and betraying alliances earlier and more frequently, and generally saying and doing whatever they needed to in order to remain in the game for as long as possible.
In short, they were kind of playing a long haul game of Survivor, only on a different series on the 2026 TV schedule. As someone who watches Jeff Probst’s show, this was familiar and exciting for me, but a lot of the regular fanbase hated it. Even some former Big Brother players were vocal about rooting against Devens and Dee. Heck, even host Julie Chen Moonves was anti-Devens for a time (though she seemingly came around).
Many fans and even alum came out of the woodwork to express anger and dismay about the Survivor cast members joining the show. This includes alum Danielle Reyes, who actually went on to join another reality show, The Traitors, after her Big Brother run. She said during the show’s run she was OK with Dee and Devens playing but certainly didn’t want either to win.
We want to see them play the game, but we don’t want them to win because that’s our kingdom.We don’t want them to come into our Big Brother house and win, when we have this inner struggle of what’s the harder show, Big Brother or Survivor? So that’s where I stand in watching these two play this game.
So, a lot of people who have been involved or watched the show for a long time were not excited about the icons getting a shot at the prize money, and even Big Brother alum Angela Murray was lumped into that.
Honestly, Big Brother Producers Didn't See It Coming
Apparently, the creative team behind the show did not see this response coming, despite the fact Big Brother fans and alum are notoriously vocal and sometimes toxic. (To be fair, I didn't either, as I thought the Icons made the gameplay really exciting.)
Executive producer Allison Grodner actually told EW the response to having on the icons was a “surprise,” and they thought the cross-promotional connectivity between the two shows would be more positive.
That was a surprise for sure. Everyone has their tribe, right? It’s like the UCLA versus USC kind of idea. We’re all under the CBS banner and it’s all part of the same family, but there’s definitely a territorial thing that happens. And I don’t think we realized how important that would be to our alumni.
The discourse this season was particularly interesting because this isn’t the first time a Survivor player went on Big Brother. Cirie Fields also participated a few years ago. She didn’t win, but she also pulled some moves out of the Survivor playbook during her time on the air. Perhaps that’s the difference. Dee and Devens certainly had an advantage playing together, and not being able to be voted out in Week 1.
Fellow executive producer Rich Meehan also said that Big Brother is not going to bring on just any Survivor player who asks. Dee and Devens were selected specifically because the creative team thought they could hang in the game.
When we were thinking of who we wanted to bring on, it was always about who would be a great Big Brother player. So yes, they have their Survivor legacy and they’re amazing Survivor players, but we’re like, ‘Well, who’s actually gonna be good at this game and who has the personality and the ability to endure three months?
And hang they did. In fact, Rick Devens took home the winning prize, as well as $10,000 in curse money and $50,000 for being America’s Favorite House Guest – despite the haters. Just don’t ask him to choose Survivor o Big Brother over one another.
