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On Big Brother, Rick Devens was labeled a reality television icon. After winning season 28 on Thursday night, he definitely has entered “icon” status, becoming the first Survivor player to win Big Brother.
His casting was part of a larger twist for season 28 that saw three former reality TV players join a pool of new contestants; competing alongside Devens was his fellow Survivor 50 opponent and season 45 winner Dee Valladares and Big Brother season 26 alum Angela Murray. Devens himself competed on season 38 and 50 of Survivor.
The show labeled them icons after they entered the Big Brother house, and the name stuck. So did their strong three-person alliance, which through strategic gameplay and season-long dominance ensured at least one of them would have a real shot at winning the game.
Devens ultimately won Big Brother in a vote of six to one from the jury, beating out runner-up Taylor Brown. Plus, the audience also took to Devens, awarding him the title of America’s Favorite Houseguest, which fans vote upon at the end of each season.
He’s also the most-winning player from a single season, earning $750,000 from winning the show; the $50,000 prize for America’s Favorite Houseguest; and an extra $10,000 he pocketed during a competition while filming.
Below, Devens breaks down why he wasn’t sure if would have won Big Brother if Drew Campbell made it to the final two, his thoughts on season 28 houseguests asserting that the icons had “privileges and advantages” this season, James Gunn revealing he was supposed to make a cameo in Man of Tomorrow, and what competitive reality shows he’d do next (Survivor part three? Big Brother All-Winners? The Traitors?).
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After you won the final HOH, you decided to evict Drew. Do you really think that Taylor would have had enough time to flip Lala and tell her, “We’re going to vote for Drew to win”?
I really don’t think it would have taken much time. I think if Taylor walked out on stage and said, “Lala, we’re voting for Drew,” Lala would have gone, “Okay. You’ll explain to me later.” I think that’s all it would have taken, because those two were so tight. I was legitimately very concerned about it.
Now that the show is over and you potentially had time to talk to everybody, if there was a scenario where Drew was in the final two with you, did the jury tell you they would have voted you to win?
No, I didn’t. I haven’t had those conversations. I now know that Drew and Taylor, neither of them were gonna take me to the final two, so that makes me feel better about it. But I haven’t had any conversations about how a Drew, Devens vote would have gone.
Wow! So do you really still think that Melody [Morris] and Barrett [Pfeiffer] would have voted for Drew?
I think it’s very possible. I think Drew’s and my game was super similar, very intertwined. A lot of the moves we made, we made together. We’d won about the same number of comps. He dragged me to the final three. I would have dragged him to the final two. So I think that they had every right to vote however they wanted. I would be shocked if Melody hadn’t gone for Drew, and then Barrett would have been the deciding vote. And that’s a little closer than a six-one vote. I had to do what I had to do, unfortunately.
Let’s go back to when you made it to final three. If there would have been a scenario where it would have been you choosing if Drew or Dee would have moved forward, do you think you would have taken her with you?
I don’t. I think I would have cut Dee at final three to not sit next to her, and I think Dee would have cut me at final three to not sit next to me. Two Survivor players: We know each other too well.
What elements of gameplay that you learned on Survivor do you think served you best for Big Brother?
On Survivor, everything is so much faster, so you turn a vote at the last second almost out of necessity. Dee and I came on here, and I think a lot of Big Brother is you set your vote, you decide what you’re going to do, and then you just wait ‘til the live show. Whereas her and I would go, “I think we can still flip this. Let’s go work on this.” Even sometimes, to our own detriment, we were just bored and were like, We can flip this. Let’s do it. Why not?
Also, I learned on Survivor that there’s no shame in going home early or making a dumb move and getting voted out. Great players do that all the time, so you can’t be afraid of that. On this season of Big Brother, I would make a pitch to someone, and they’d be like, “No.” I think a lot of other houseguests would have gone, Oh, that didn’t go well, not doing that again. Whereas I’m like, I got all week, I’m going to make that same pitch to him tonight, and then I’ll pitch it to him again tomorrow morning. And by the end of the week, so many times they were like, “Okay, I get it, let’s do it.” I think just not being embarrassed and not being scared of going home early is a huge power in games like these.
Why do you ultimately think these Big Brother players did not opt to get the icons out at the very beginning of the game? Obviously that was a mistake.
Yeah, and then they blame that we had all these privileges and advantages. It’s like, you guys had week two through 11 to come together. There’s 14 of you, there’s three of us. You could have gotten us out at any time, and you didn’t do it. Don’t blame our privilege now. Like, come on.
I think some of them made a really good move; the [players] that we were working with, they realized that we were valuable to them, that we were good shields for them, and that’s what we sold them. Others, I think, just didn’t want to make a big splash, didn’t want to put a target on themselves, and that’s obviously something that we weren’t worried about. We made big moves every chance we got, so I don’t know. I’m annoyed that they want to blame us having all this special stuff when they outnumbered us 14 to three, and they had 11 weeks to get us out. I feel like if you wanted us out, you could have gotten us out. Get it together, newbies.
What advantage do you think they thought y’all had? Because as somebody who loves reality TV, I would want to get y’all out because you have that knowledge of gameplay, and you have targets on your back coming in.
That’s what I feel like. I think they’re like, “You were automatically a three-person alliance,” and it’s like, okay, so all it takes [to vote one of us out] is a four-person alliance. And by the way, if it had been Rachel [Reilly] there instead of Dee, I don’t think we’d be [an] automatic [group of three working together]. I don’t think Angela and Rachel were going to work together. I don’t know if Rachel and I were going to work together.
I do think we had an advantage in getting into the BB Time Capsule. [Writer’s note: Viewers voted which players to send into the BB Time Capsule, where they could earn a punishment or advantage.]
But even then, it’s a 50/50 chance of what you’re [going to get]. Actually, a lot of people thought it was random: I’m sure that I saw a pattern in there. I [looked] at the button for five minutes, saw the pattern, and got a power. Three newbies went in there, and two of them came out with punishments. That’s not because we came in with a privilege. I think if anything, we were at a disadvantage. I thought half the house was going to be returning players or players from other shows.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Why did you think that?
Because I thought that would be fair. Give us a chance. You know, half newbies and half returnees. That’s even.
When did this opportunity or conversation for you to go on Big Brother start? Did it come out of you being on Survivor 50?
I think it might have, but I don’t know the details, and I don’t think I’m even allowed to talk [about it]. But I think probably if I hadn’t done well or I hadn’t made a splash on 50, I’d never be here.
When you were approached about doing Big Brother, were you game on immediately, or were you like, I don’t know, maybe, maybe not?
I was really hesitant about it. I had always said the one [show] I’m not going to do is Big Brother, because it’s so long. And then it comes up, and I’m like, well, maybe I want to do it, but I was like, I can’t do this to my wife. And I went home to my wife Becca and was like, “Hey, this thing came up. I’m not saying I want to do it,” and she said, “You have to do it. You’re never gonna get this opportunity again.” And I was like, “Wait, what?” So it’s all credit to her that I ended up going into that house and winning the game.
You have been away from your phones and the outside world. Something that picked up once you got into the house was James Gunn said that you were supposed to do a cameo for Superman, but you canceled last minute because of Big Brother. Have you spoken with him since you’ve won?
I haven’t, not since I won, but I cannot wait. I shouted him out in the house. I was so upset that I couldn’t be there on the set of Superman 2. My whole family still went, and he apparently treated them amazingly and made it such a special experience for them. He was filming in Macon, [Georgia,] where I’m from. That’s why it was all going to work out. But now, I’m like: James, I will go wherever you are. Let me visit whatever set you’re on. I’m so excited to hopefully meet him and be able to talk some Big Brother and Superman with him. I’m a huge James Gunn fan, even bigger now that he’s shown what a great dude he is.
What former Survivor player do you think should go on Big Brother next?
I’ve got two. They were both on 50. Rizo [Velovic] and Tiffany [Nicole Ervin] would be absolutely incredible at Big Brother. Both of them would just knock it out of the box. They probably have even bigger targets now because the three Survivor players that have been on have done pretty well. But if anyone could pull it off, it would be those two.
Which player from this season of Big Brother should cross over and do Survivor?
It’s got to be Kamu [Kirk]. He’s got the physical to do those rough challenges. He has an amazing social game, and unlike a lot of the houseguests in there, I think he would actually thrive being out in the elements and going through all the suffering.
Which show between Survivor and Big Brother would you be more ready to do another season of?
Just because of how long it is, it’d be harder to come back to Big Brother until my kids were a little bit older. I don’t want to give up another summer while they’re 12 and nine years old. Whereas Survivor‘s a little shorter, so I’d probably be more ready to go back to Survivor just because of that.
What if the Big Brother team came to you next year and was like, “We’re doing All-Winners.” Would you do that?
I’d say, “Can you do it [for] season 33. Can Drew stand in for his dad?” Maybe, yeah. But that would be a tough one to say no to for sure. But the kids made a big sacrifice letting me go, and I made a big sacrifice leaving them behind. So I don’t know that Becca would be as supportive this time.
What were those first conversations like with your family when you ran off stage and reunited with them?
It was so funny. They were so proud of me, even the kids. It wasn’t like, “Hey, we’re rich. What are we gonna get?” It was like, “You did it! We can’t believe it.” And then they were very emotional, and it turns out the reason they were emotional is because they were upset for Drew.
They love Drew, their big brother, and they were not happy with me for cutting Drew. I have a lot to answer for with the Drew thing. They told me some of the funny things that happened with Big Brother while I was gone, that I missed some of their fun social posts, and then immediately it was like we were back in regular life, and they’re just telling me about the latest YouTube video they watched or what video game they’re playing. It’s like Big Brother‘s a thing of the past already.
If your children came to you one day and said, “I want to play Big Brother or Survivor,” what would you say?
I would say, “Heck yeah! Let me get on the phone with Julie [Chen Moonves]. Let me get on the phone with Jeff [Probst]. We’re gonna try to work this thing out. We have a lot to talk about to prepare you mentally and emotionally before you go in this.” Always need to be prepared that it could not go well, but I think they’d be great. I’d love to see them play.
Which one would you suggest or push them to take on first?
I’d get them to follow their hearts, but I can tell you this: They both really wanted to play Survivor. And now they’ve watched Big Brother, and they saw all the costumes, they saw that we got fed and that there was a bed, and I think they might both be leaning towards Big Brother now.
You have a huge name now in the reality TV space as the first Survivor player to win Big Brother. Would you do any other competitive reality TV shows? One that could definitely be in your future would have to be The Traitors. That’s the next big one, right?
I’m open to all invitations. I would love to take Becca on The Amazing Race. I think that we would be maybe not this successful, but very entertaining. I just love playing these games. I feel so much gratitude that I get to play these goofy games that I know people would kill to go and play, and I’ve gotten to do it three times. So if I get to do something else, I’m all ears.
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Season 28 of Big Brother is available to stream on Paramount+.
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