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An army of one

Great comeback season for Big Brother. That’s what better weekly competitions and interesting houseguests can do for a reality show. This year’s winner was Dan Gheesling, a 25-year-old Catholic schoolteacher. It became clear very early on that Dan was the shrewdest player to come along since the master wrote the book on how to play this game seven years ago.

It looked like Dan’s days were numbered right out of the gate. The very first guy he teamed up with got blindsided and voted out in Week 1, so Dan had to make an immediate strategy adjustment. He started throwing competitions in order to appear weak. He became non-committal to the two major alliances in the house in order to position himself as the critical swing vote week after week. Most importantly, he betrayed and offended just enough people to create the illusion of a potential final two member who could in no way secure enough jury votes to win. To top it all off, he delivered a great performance during the final jury interview session. Again, all tactics executed to perfection by the master. The end result? Dan became the first unanimous Big Brother champion in the show’s ten season history.

Great job, Dan. Thanks for saving the show.