Dearborn’s Dan Gheesling nearly pulled off the biggest win in “Big Brother” history on Wednesday, a win which would have undoubtedly earned him the title of best “Big Brother” player ever. But when the final votes were tallied, he ended up on the short end of a surprisingly lopsided 6-1 vote, dropping the show’s $500,000 prize to engineering student and “Big Brother” superfan Ian Terry.
We spoke to Gheesling by phone from Los Angeles after his loss about his gameplay, where he went wrong and his plans going forward.
1. 6-to-1. What happened?
That’s kick in the pills, huh? I can’t really explain it. My whole goal was to just fight and claw and scratch my way to that final two spot, and I thought sitting in that chair I’d have a chance to sway a couple votes and then see what happened. Obviously I knew the way I got there was definitely going to hurt me, but I didn’t think it was going to hurt me that bad. The vote that I saw come out of the box that was really the nail in my coffin was Jenn. I thought at the end of the day we had a really good relationship and I knew she didn’t really care for Ian, and I thought I could count on that vote. And when I saw that Jenn voted for Ian, I knew it was pretty much wrap city for me.
2. Were you surprised at the outcome?
I guess in hindsight, knowing all the information I know now and looking at it from a different perspective, you have a 29-year-old guy who’s won the game before and has had some success sitting next to an underdog 21-year-old college student with loans to pay off. It’s a pretty easy sell from the outside looking in. I think I probably miscalculated that and didn’t take that into consideration as much as I probably should have.
Blood up to his elbows. (CBS)
3. Where did your game go wrong?
I don’t know exactly if I would say it it went wrong anywhere, because the game that I had to play wasn’t very conducive to rallying votes in the end. In season 10, I knew people were mad at me, but in my speech with them I knew they weren’t that bitter, and I knew I had a shot to convince them. I was hoping for the same thing with this jury. I just didn’t anticipate so much bitterness, and I couldn’t even win over one or two votes that could have possibly swayed the whole thing. I didn’t see that coming.
4. How was everyone acting toward you last night after the finale?
I didn’t get too much chance to talk to too many people, just because it was so busy. And at the wrap party I was talking to the people behind-the-scenes. I talked to Danielle a little bit, she hasn’t said anything to me as of yet. I talked to Kara, Kara was awesome. I didn’t talk to Shane very much. Real quick I did try to pull Frank aside right after he won the money. I said, “Frank, are you mad at me?” He said yeah, a little bit, which is understandable. But I knew these new players especially are going to need a little help decompressing and getting back to the real world, and as long as they know I’m there to help them regardless of how they feel about me, that’s all I can do. I don’t have any ill will towards any of them.
Danielle Murphree. Not the happiest. (CBS)
5. Danielle seemed pretty upset at the finale.
That’s what people are telling me. I spent a couple minutes with her this morning and she hasn’t said anything. I’m sure she’s going to have a rough go-round with some things. And like I said, I’m going to be here to help her out with any of the rough times. Because now that the game’s over, I’m back to just being me. And you know how I am in my real life, I don’t host my own funeral on a daily basis, and I don’t stab people in the back.
6. What do you mean when you say Danielle “didn’t say anything” to you?
It was very cordial talk. It was just me, my wife Chelsea and her. I asked her how she was doing, she said she didn’t sleep very much. I didn’t sleep at all last night either. But it’s part of the decompression process. She didn’t really disclose any displeasure in me thus far, maybe she will in the future, and I would anticipate that and I would expect that.
7. How do you feel about Ian’s win?
It’s good. At the end of the day, as a fan of “Big Brother,” I like to see people win that at least play the game. Ian wasn’t a floater, he played a pretty good game. He won a bunch of competitions. I can’t really knock his game. Obviously… (trails off). I don’t want to say anything bad. He played a good game and he was a deserving winner.
8. Are you excited to watch this season?
Yeah, very much so. I think just to see how things were put together in the DR (diary room). It’s going to be an interesting edit for me to watch, because the first time around, I got a very good edit. This time around, I knew things I had to do, I might be painted in more of a villain-type role, which I can accept. I took the knife out and I can deal with the scars that are going to get exposed.
9. How did it feel when Janelle said at the finale it would be a travesty if you didn’t win?
Janie (CBS)
That’s huge. Janelle is one of the best players to ever play this game. It made me feel good to hear that from such a competitor like Janelle. It made me feel really good about how I played. Last night on Twitter, the support for me was overwhelming and wild beyond my dreams. Twitter wasn’t around that much in season 10, and I’m just getting constant tweets of “you got robbed” and this and that, and “you played a great game.” One in particular that I laughed at was someone sent me a tweet and said I got “Hantzed,” and I knew right away what they were talking about. Russell Hantz played “Survivor” twice and he played an incredible game, but he had to deal with a bitter jury so he didn’t win, and obviously I can relate to how he feels.
10. Going back to the beginning of the season, why did you pick such a weak team?
Right away, I liked Kara off the bat. When you walk in the house with 16 people, the only thing people are doing are spilling their guts and running their mouth about how great they are. And here I saw Kara, and she was sitting back, listening, and letting people talk about themselves. I liked that a lot about her from day one. She was reserved, and I knew she was smart. I told her last night I was the most disappointed in myself with her. I feel like I really let her down and I felt like I could have done more to coach her up to stay in the game and she was nothing but smiles and happy for me. But I really felt Kara had a potential to go very deep in this game.
11. Not quite the Dream Team: Dan with Kara, Jodi and Danielle. (CBS)
When I drafted Danielle it was between her and Willie. And Danielle came up to me very overbearing, but I knew she really wanted to play for me. Kind of like in football, you can get any kind of talented player, but the ones that really want to play for you are going to go that extra mile, so I wanted to roll the dice on her. I didn’t pick Willie because I knew who he was. He wasn’t straight up with me. But on top of that, when I went to pick my second round, his body language was completely tilted away from me and he was looking only at Britney, so to me that made my decision for me. And obviously, picking fourth out of the entire draft process means I was going to pick last, so I didn’t really get to pick Jodi.
12. When you say you knew who Willie was, do you mean as a person or as a Hantz?
Hantz (CBS)
I knew he was a Hantz. I saw him right away and I asked him, and he came up with some lie that, “oh, people confuse me with Russell from Survivor all the time,” and I’m thinking, “no they don’t.” And then when I saw his picture on the memory wall, and I was thinking, that’s Russell Hantz incarnate. And the thing was, if he would have told me, that would have only helped him, because I know the genes he was coming from, and I would want to play with that type of a player.
I don’t fault Britney, but at the same time I feel like if I would have picked Willie, Willie needed a coach that was gonna put a leash on him and really ride him hard and guide him, and I think Britney being his coach was not the best match because Willie wasn’t going to listen to a lot of people in that house, and he certainly wasn’t going to listen to Britney. And I just feel like I wish I had the opportunity to coach him up and ultimately I didn’t pick him, so it was my decision. But I think Willie could have been a great player under the right guidance.
What would you change if you could change something in the house?
I guess the only thing I would change is maybe, in hindsight, maybe a little bit of the jury speech. Maybe I wouldn’t focus so much on trying to play to the egos of people and really explain myself a little more. But even so, I played this game with no regrets and no fear. I really look back at everything I did and I can’t find anything that would have really changed this outcome.
Would you have thrown less competitions?
No, because some of them I threw, some of them I just flat out got beat. I’m 29-years-old, and my legs don’t work like they used to, and the physical competition this season was unlike anything I’ve ever gone against and maybe ever seen in the show. There were some great physical competitors I knew I couldn’t compete with, but I still had to get them out of the house. And if I couldn’t beat them, it’s not like the saying, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” My saying is, “if you can’t beat ‘em, you gotta stab ‘em.”
Did you throw the final HOH last night?
I did not. Contrary to popular belief, I just got beat. The one that got me, and got me a little bit rattled, is Britney’s. Because she talked a lot about how much she hated the name “Quack Pack,” but what I overlooked is the fact that Julie said verbatim, something like this, Britney’s quote was, “I was embarrassed to say the Quack Pack, like, 1,000 times.” Well, Britney’s a very eloquent speaker, she doesn’t drop the word “like,” and that’s what I overlooked. So at that point I got a little rattled, and I’m going against the brain in Ian, so I really had no room for error.
Britney was a huge fan of yours and talked a lot about your gameplay and how much she appreciated it. Were you surprised that you didn’t have a vote from her in the end?
Brit (CBS)
I think that was a little “Big Brother” production magic. Because when people told me she was defending me in the jury house, I was extremely shocked, because her and Ian were like Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They were inseparable. I knew she had promised him her vote. I knew that was the one vote there was no chance I could get, and I was cool with that. So to hear that in the jury speech, that’s a little production magic I think.
But even on the feeds there were hours and hours where she was defending you and saying to others they were beat by a great player, etc.
Well that’s great to hear. Because one thing with Britney, heading into this game, on day one, I was like, “why is Britney here?” She got duped by her alliance, she didn’t really play a good game, etc. But after playing with her, she was extremely dangerous and she proved herself. She scared the heck out of me, because she was great at all aspects of the game, everyone liked her, and she saw through the mist, essentially. She was the only one I knew I couldn’t mist, and she’s a great player.
What are your plans now?
For me, it’s getting back with the wife and just spending a lot of time with her and going back to what I love to do, and that’s helping people get on reality TV. On day one Ian came in the house and he told me, “Dan, I read your book, and it helped me get on the show,” and to me it’s like, holy cow! Ashley read the book too. There are a lot of people that want to get on reality TV and they’re super close, they just need a little guidance and a little tutelage, so I want to do anything I can do to help people achieve their goal.
Are you going back to coaching too?
I talked to my brother-in-law this morning who’s a senior, a captain on the team, and St. Mary’s is 2-1 right now, but really it’s going to take me a little while to decompress and I’m not going to rush back into it. But I’m definitely going to be at the games and try to help out as much as possible.
All smiles. (CBS)
Are you done with “Big Brother” now, or will you go back if they ask you back for a third time?
For me, to get to the final two again, I kind of feel like taking Chelsea’s hand and riding off into the “Big Brother” sunset. Because really, at this point, what more do I have to prove? I struggled through this entire game, I pulled off a few miracles, I did what I had to do and I got to the end again, so at this point I feel like it’s great closure in my life. But at the same time, you can never say never.
Had you pulled off the win last night I think you would have been recognized, undoubtedly, as the best “Big Brother” player ever. Will you settle now for being tied with Dr. Will as the co-best player?
It’s funny, he sent me a text this morning. We’ve talked in the past, he knows I have nothing but the utmost respect for him, and he was my idol in this game. So to get a text from Will this morning saying I played “a (expletive) phenomenal game,” is great. He’s like, to do that twice is unbelievable. So to be up there with Dr. Will, I can sit back and be happy with that, because it doesn’t get much better than him in this game.
so happy
