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Each and every Friday up until the jury, Rob Cesternino will interview the latest player evicted from Big Brother 16. This week, Rob will speak to one of the architects of The Bomb Squad alliance, former minor league baseball player, Devin Shepherd.
Our Exit Interview with Big Brother 16‘s Devin Shepherd, Recently evicted from the Bomb Squad and the BB16 house
Devin says he’s doing fantastic, doing great, re-adjusting to normal life. Rob says his three weeks in the Big Brother house were some of the most wonderful and outstanding Big Brother that he’s ever seen in entire life so thank you for all of the entertainment. Devin thanks him for the kind words. Rob asks him if he’s talked to his daughter yet and if everything is good at home. Devin says he hasn’t had a chance to talk to little Jayden Sophia yet, but that will probably happen within the next few hours at the end of the day and that he’s super excited for that.
Interview Transcript by @kayleyandcolour:
Rob: You came out of the gate shot out of a cannon, some very aggressive play in the first couple of weeks of the game, but in the past week seemed a lot more subdued, was that a conscious strategy for you when you realized you were going to be potentially going out the door?
Devin: 100% the last thing I wanted to do. I knew there was a potential for me to get backdoored going into this week especially blowing up the alliance, so the last thing I wanted to do was go out there and make a huge spectacle that would obviously give them a solidified ‘Bam,bam,bam… This is a definite reason why Devin should leave’, I was hoping by, you know, being a little bit quieter, a little bit calmer… I was thinking back to days when they had cast members like Renny and she was kind of boisterous and out there. You know she had to lay low and she was able to get back into the woodworks and I was hoping to do something similar to that and I kind of realized after the veto competition once I heard all the cheers from the houseguests, once Donny beat me that that was going to be a very, very hard task, so yeah that was something that I was trying to do strategy-wise.
Rob: Yeah, I wanted to ask you about the cheering of the houseguests. Of course we saw that in the veto competition, and then I’m not sure what you can see on the monitor when you’re sitting there with Julie, but it seemed like there was cheering as well in the house, and you know, I don’t like to see that sort of stuff from, you know, when the house bands together it feels sort of like a mob mentality. How did that feel when you saw that from the other people who were voting against you?
Devin: I’ll just put it this way I’ve been through athletics so, I’ve been a visitor in many different arenas and parks… so seeing people cheer and root against you is not foreign to me… um, I’m definitely used to it so I was OK with that. I knew going into this game I was going to be a huge target day 1 just based upon my physical looks and my abilities, and it only took me winning a couple of competitions to show that to that house, so you know, I was kind of damned if I do, damned if I don’t… um I came in there to play hard. I knew it was going to rub some people the wrong way, and you know I wasn’t surprised how the house banded together. If I was on the other end of that I probably would have done the same thing, if there was a strong competitor in there that I was afraid of, at the same time, when the house comes together like that, it takes the heat off of each individual houseguest and they’re able to focus on one main target, and they’re able to extend their stay in the game, so I think that it was a smart move. It sucks on my end; it was a smart house move, and I respect each person in that house for their moves this week.
Rob: OK, so in your speech last night, you went pretty hard after Caleb and called him out on having the final two deal with Amber, but you and Caleb were very, very close in the game at one point You guys even talked about cuddling; you would even sing him a song, so do you feel like Amber is going to be Caleb’s downfall in the game?
Devin: I hope not. You know, what people don’t realize Caleb is a warrior; he’s a competitor. He’s just a beast of a guy, but he’s got this huge soft spot. He’s definitely looking for that special person and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had that talk with Caleb privately, or well not privately. Hey man, this is not the place to find love, but you know Amber is very, very beautiful. She knows what she’s doing; she’s able to work some of the guys in the house with that sweet Southern twang so, it potentially could be, I tried to give him a little bit of help before leaving… You know, for him to wrap him mind around competing and just, you know, blending in with the house not standing out so much, but he’s definitely got to get Amber out of his mind. If he does do that he’ll be fine; he’ll be great, and I could see him going all the way down to the end, but if he’s still, after last night, latched on to Amber’s hip hoping for a showmance or a romance after the game, he’s definitely not going to last very long because his mind’s not where it’s supposed to be.
Rob: OK ,so thinking back on your stay in the Big Brother house, have you pinpointed one thing like you feel like was your fatal mistake in the game?
Devin: Umm…you know, the biggest thing that I can say… You know, obviously there’s two things– starting an alliance on day two, it took me until day 28, yesterday, to really get to know everyone in the house, get to know their personalities, what set them off, just really overall what kind of people they are, and it’s a shame that I went out on day 28 because that could have been used to my advantage throughout the rest of the game.
The other was, I wish that I would not have put up Zach, because that was definitely a personal reason, and I wish that I would have taken down Brittany, and put up Victoria next to Paola, and if that would have happened, I don’t think that there would have obviously, you know, been ruffled feathers in the Bomb Squad, and that could have carried on a little bit longer regardless of any potential side alliances that may have been taking place.
Rob: You know there was so much that happened that week when you were HOH and you took Brittany off the block and put Zach up in her place, but part of that was that you also told Paola if she threw the competition that you would take her off and that you would potentially use the veto on her. Was that a real deal at any point and it changed, or were you never going to use the veto on Paola?
Devin: Yeah, that was definitely a real deal going into the Battle of the Block. I was going to stay true to my word. I was going to use it on Paola; two things had happened: Once Paola had done what she said, there was a little bit of I’ve scratched your back now you definitely need to scratch mine, and she was very aggressive in voicing that she wanted Victoria gone, and I kind of felt that there was a little bit of power play going on, that she felt like she was owed something greater than what I promised her. I promised her that I would use the veto on her and I didn’t give her the right to tell me who I should put up, you know, potentially as a replacement nominee… if I had won the veto obviously later in that week, but then on top of that the conversation I had with Brittany right after I had won the veto, it really got me to, you know, that was a move for my game as well. People had voiced in the house that they didn’t want Brittany gone so I thought by using the veto on Brittany, that would get me back in the good graces of the house. Also Brittany’s story is amazing, just some of the things that she had to go through, and I was raised by a single mother… I just could not see myself doing that to somebody… sending them home with three kids waiting and feeling like she did it all for nothing, that was the ultimate underlying factor of why I pulled Brittany down.
Rob: OK, let’s go back to Zach for a minute, because definitely you guys had a severed relationship after that point with putting him up on the block with the veto. Last night he said that you were one of the worst Big Brother players of all time, do you still have hard feelings towards Zach?
Devin: No, not at all, this is a game, and even when Zach had said some [harsh?] stuff to me during the veto ceremony I just look at it hey, you’re in this game; you get one shot at it there’s no dress rehearsal, and you’ve gotta fight for your life in this game. There’s real life and then there’s game life and I was getting ready to take Zach’s life and he was fighting for it, and even last night, even though my game is over, he’s still playing. He’s still in that mentality, and I respect Zach one hundred percent no matter what. I can’t walk out of this game taking things personally, or you know what, it wasn’t worth it. I know going in some things are going to be said but I respect Zach one hundred percent and there’s no hard feelings at all.
Rob: OK, let’s talk about some of the other bros from the Bomb Squad. Now I don’t know how much you’ve learned about the other people that you were playing with since you came out… How do you feel knowing that Derrick was an undercover police officer?
Devin: Man, you know what, when I found that out… I actually just found that out a couple of minutes ago… that blew my mind. He’s a smart cookie, dude; he said he was a superfan, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. I was just laughing because he was the one saying: “Watch we’re going to get out of this and Devin’s gonna be the one that’s like a correctional officer or a cop”… and you know what, I can’t be surprised by anything that happens in Big Brother, man, at all, so I smile and I applaud his gameplay. He’s an amazing player, and these are great moves he’s making.
Rob: Now, what about Frankie and his famous sister who is the popstar Ariana Grande?
Devin: Yeah, just found out about that, too, and I’m a huge fan of hers, and Frankie’s such a performer… that I should’ve known that he had it in his blood and that it runs in the family. I mean, that is amazing in itself. I mean, I was almost speechless. I didn’t even know what to say about that, but hey… you know what… Frankie’s a talented, amazing kid so it definitely runs in the family.
Rob: Now the one guy that you thought had something up his sleeve, but really did not, was Donny, and you had such an on-again, off-again relationship with Donny where you guys came in and started the Double D alliance, but then you were working against him… but then you came back to him a couple times, then you told him what was really going on and he was such a nice guy about the whole thing… where he was just like [perfect Donny impression] “Devin, I understand what you had to do” and so you guys had this very interesting relationship. What are your feelings towards Donny now outside the house?
Devin: You know what, I’m glad he is who he says he is; nonetheless, if I was ever able to get back into that house, he would be my target. I would have like a never-ending quest to evict Donny.
Rob: Why?
Devin: Oh man, dude, he’s a smart dude and he beat me in a (die?) game, the irony in that I wanted to put him out week one… didn’t. We didn’t get that plan through; he accepted my apology. I saved him basically three times throughout the second week when I was HOH, not putting him on the have-not, not backdooring him, not doing any of that, not putting him up, and then come to my final week, and he’s the one that basically takes the veto and my game life out of my hands… and the irony in that, if I would’ve taken Donny’s game life in week 1, I wouldn’t have even had to worry about that, so he would still be my target.
Rob: The three people that we actually just mentioned: Derrick, Frankie and Donny, those three guys are actually in this Team America alliance. Did you have any idea that those three people were working together?
Devin: No chance… no clue… doesn’t surprise me again, again it’s a smart game move. You’ve got Derrick in there and you’ve got Donny. In my opinion those are the two smartest players in the house at this moment. I can totally see them making it all the way down to the end, potentially with Christine, and you know that’s a smart game move. It’s proven to be a winner in seasons past having double alliances; it doesn’t surprise me. It just surprises me that it was the three of those guys. I did not see the three of them forming an alliance whatsoever.
Rob:When you had the Bomb Squad running, and basically you had the six guys going, what was it that made you say to yourself “Devin, bro, we need to add Amber and Christine to the alliance here”? Why did you feel like that was the right time to add those people to the Bomb Squad?
Devin: Simply, we needed numbers. We were going to lose a vote that week because we were going to have one of our alliance members as the sole HOH in that first week. We needed seven votes. I needed two extra people (#DevinMath), Joey was trying to start an all-girls’ alliance that evening, and the last thing I wanted to do knowing Christine was a superfan… and she’s very to herself… I felt like she was very calculating, being very cutthroat… The last thing I wanted to do was have to compete against her, so I would rather work with her than work against her and that’s why I decided to bring her in. Amber was just an extra tag-along that happened to be there in that moment, and I thought by… I didn’t first see Caleb ever, you know, trying to evict Amber or going against her so I said you know might as well keep her close and underneath my thumb where I could watch Caleb and her together. But the only reason is we needed the numbers, and me putting up Zach, I could care less about numbers because obviously we needed one less vote every week and I was going to continuously try to dwindle down the alliance as we went through.
Rob: Devin, thank you so much for coming on and being such a good sport. You seem to have such a great attitude about the game coming out of the house, and we’re gonna miss you. I’m telling you… This was a lot of fun.
Devin:Thank you so much. I appreciate everything you said and thank you. Have a great day, brother.
Rob: All right and all the best to you and your family, Devin. Bye.
Devin: Thank you.
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