A big congratulations goes out to Ian Terry on his Big Brother 14 win. Making it to the end is no easy feat nor is beating a previous winner and season long mastermind. Pulling off both of those put an extra $500,000 in his pocket as he heads back to school. I had the chance to chat with Ian and ask him about the season and his plans for the future.
Big Brother Network (BBN): You said some rough things about Dan last night in the backyard interviews. Now that you’ve had a little time to decompress, do you still feel the same way about Dan?
Ian Terry: No. At the end of the day it is a game show. Was I disappointed in the cross thing? Had he voted me out if he won that final HoH? Or the fact that he dangled the $50K in my face? Yeah, it was definitely disappointing, but at the end of the day it is a game show. I’m over it.
BBN: You had a few moments of your own where you were backstabbing and betraying your own team with Boogie and Frank. How did that compare and why are you more okay with how you did it than what Dan did?
Ian Terry: When the game reset I had never actually made any sort of promise to Boogie or Frank that late in to the game. I think they just assumed they had me and I knew full well from things I heard in earshot that I was expendable to them the whole time.
BBN: Even when you told Boogie you’d vote to keep him?
Ian Terry: Yeah, that was hard but I mean they really just assumed they had me wrapped around their finger. It hurt. I cried like hell.
BBN: As a superfan, did you ever feel starstruck by the coaches and did that effect your gameplay?
Ian Terry: Yeah, I would definitely say I was starstruck by all four of them. It’s really crazy to play with some of the legends. Fortunately by the time they entered the game I was sort of used to them. So I really treated them like they were just any other player. I didn’t see them as coaches. I saw them as other players.
BBN: Now that you know the Quack Pack was formed differently than you thought, has your perception of that alliance changed?
Ian Terry: No, I still adore the Quack Pack. I think are a great group of people, especially Britney. I think she’s going to be a friend for a long time outside of this house. I’m really, really happy about it.
BBN: Did you agree to throw the first round of the final HoH comp, or did you actually fall off and just tell Dan you threw it?
Ian Terry: I did throw it. Though I don’t completely trust Dan at times, he’s kind of a shady character, I kind of owed him at least that. It wasn’t an entire competition, just part 1, and he did just save me from certain death so I owed him that in my mind.
BBN: Lots of fans want to know, will you be taking the hammock back home with you?
Ian Terry: I didn’t request it. I think I will be getting a hammock for my own house. I really enjoyed having it this summer and it was a really great way to relieve stress for me.
BBN: Would you come back for an All-Stars?
Ian Terry: I would like to finish my degree, but I would come back for an All-Stars, if asked. I would say quite likely, yeah.
BBN: Thanks, Ian. Congratulations on your win.
A couple of other interesting moments from the call included Ian’s plans for the first thing he’ll buy with all his winnings. He’s going to buy thirty pairs of colored sunglasses. As for another big moment of drama at the finale, when it came to Dan’s gold cross, Ian believes that won him the game or at least got him a few more votes. As we heard from the Jury members over the past day it seems unlikely that they were still deciding on how to vote or were swayed by this. Dan had already lost at that point, but Ian’s view does explain why he pushed that so hard during the show.
I also asked Ian if he appreciated the irony of railing against Dan’s “scumbagging,” as he called it, considering that behavior is what kept him in the game and sent Shane home. Without Dan’s “scumbagging” Ian would have been evicted and it’d have likely been either Shane or Danielle winning instead. He said he did get it, but then started talking percentages about Dan’s chances. I’m not sure he really got that he was slamming a game play that while it nearly cost him it ultimately pushed him to the win.
It was nice to see a superfan do so well in the game as they’re typically not so successful, or if they do make it far they flub it in the end. Hopefully he’ll inspire more longtime fans to get out there and get in the game.
Take a walk down memory lane with Ian Terry’s Big Brother 14 preseason interview: