Spencer Clawson was a frequent lightning rod for controversy on Big Brother this season as an often unfiltered, outspoken houseguest. After 8 rounds of nominations he fell one step short of making to to the Final Two where I expected him to end up with a guaranteed fifty thousand dollars.
Following the finale I had the chance to speak with Spencer and ask him about the season, the moves he made, and even about the consequences he faced outside in the real world with his job, his employer, and more.
Big Brother Network (BBN): If you had made it to Round 3 and won, would you have taken Andy or GinaMarie to the F2?
Spencer Clawson: GinaMarie. Absolutely. I think I could have beat her in the F2. I believe I could have plead my case more eloquently than she had and I think I would have stood the best chance of beating her.
BBN: When Andy voted you out, did it catch you off guard or did you see it coming?
Spencer Clawson: No, I saw it coming. I knew Andy well enough to know when he was lying to me. I knew for two or three days that there was no way if he was final HoH that he was going to take me.
BBN: After Andy voted you out, was there any feeling of bitterness that made you consider not voting for him to win or had you already resolved that?
Spencer Clawson: There was a part of me that wanted to say, “Andy, you jerk. You voted me out and I’m not going to give you a vote.” But at the same time I’m a huge fan of the show and I think he played a phenomenal game and the fan in me could not be a bitter Juror. There’s nothing I dislike more than someone that’s mad that they got got. So I had to give credit where credit’s due and he deserved to win the game.
BBN: What was your best move all season?
Spencer Clawson: It wasn’t a solitary move, it was more like an evolution of my game. I realized I was going to be this pawn all the time. This was due to some of the weaker minded players they wouldn’t think for themselves. They were too afraid of Amanda and McCrae to go after them or Helen or Elissa. So they’d put me on the block because I didn’t have any allies or means to come after them the next week even if I wanted to and I could get their target out.
I wanted to come in and play a social game, but I was forced to get really good, really quick and being on the block. I wouldn’t say I mastered it or perfected it, but I’ve come as close as anybody. I certainly have had more practice than anybody at doing it. Just getting good at that was a huge game move.
BBN: After being on the block for 8 rounds, did you ever lose your fear of the block or was it just as intimidating every time as the first?
Spencer Clawson: I kinda lost my fear of it because I knew what to do. That’s not to say I didn’t lose my Thursday jitters because of it. Once it’s eviction day I’d go around and ask if anything’s changed. Nothing changed each week. So I yeah, I did. I would wonder who I was going to give my shout out to when I had my turn to plea to the HGs who were going to vote.
Well, let me rephrase that a little bit. The fear that everyone else had, they were scared. When it was my sixth or seventh time I was just more aware, not scared. Their fear is what got them out of the house. When you’re on the block, there’s three things you don’t do: don’t talk any game, stay calm, and be likable, build your social game at that point.
Everybody who was on the block against me would break one of those cardinal rules. If you didn’t seem calm, if you seemed panicky they’d want you out of the house. If you were going around griping, causing trouble, then they’d want you out for that reason. If you talked a lot of game and said, “if you keep me inside the house then I’ll go after Amanda,” then Amanda would get her cronies and you’d be gone. That’s the thing not to do. So I learned that very quickly and none of the other HGs I was nominated against did.
BBN: When you were HoH, why was Andy seemingly never even a consideration for noms or the renom?
Spencer Clawson: You know, it was a consideration. In all honesty I did toss around the idea in my head, but I don’t know if I shared the thoughts with anyone. Here’s the thing. I didn’t trust Judd. At that point I was trying to be really gung-ho Exterminators. My fear was if I got Andy out then Judd would align with McCrae and get me out. Then Judd, McCrae, and GinaMarie would be Final 3 because they thought they could beat GinaMarie in the Final HoH. That was the fear of mine. Judd was sneaky. I didn’t think he could be trusted the entire game. I don’t think he had a grasp of what was really going on which made him dangerous. He’d make any move at any time that he thought it’d benefit him.
BBN: What’s your favorite memory walking away from the game?
Spencer Clawson: Favorite memory is Day 77. The double eviction where the Exterminators got out Amanda and Elissa and I won Head of Household.
BBN: There was a LOT of talk about Elissa inside the house after she was evicted. What are your thoughts on her winning America’s Favorite and getting the $25K?
Spencer Clawson: That’s something we expected the entire season. She came in with an established fan base and that’s why we thought the MVP wasn’t fair. I know when you play Big Brother you are an uneven playing ground. Some players are going to have advantages that others just don’t have.
The fact that she got it, that’s fine. [sigh] I think that the way the system works with America voting I think she obviously has a very dedicated fan base and they were going to make sure she was going to win that money. We all knew it all season and we were kinda frustrated with it during the game.
Now that we’re out of the house, if America thought she was their favorite player then by all means she deserves that money and that’s good for her and I’m happy for her.
BBN: There’s been a lot of real world fallout from the game this season. As for your job, have you actually lost your job or are you worried that you might?
Spencer Clawson: I’m worried that I might. I’m protected by union and so they can’t just fire me especially since I was on unpaid leave. I may have said things that were completely out of line with Union Pacific’s mission statement and their core beliefs as a company. The things I said were completely out of line and I’m ashamed of them. I would like to put them in the past and move on and hope the people that I did offend can forgive me. I do hope that my employer can forgive me. I know that when I was in the public eye I represented them as well as myself and I feel terrible that I gave them a black eye, so to speak.
I love my job. I love what I do. I want to get back at it as soon as possible. Hopefully the union will argue and find that I did no wrong as far as that would lead to my termination. I’m more than prepared to make a full apology to the company and to anybody that I may have offended with my thoughtless words. If it all works out I hope to have a job. As of right now I know I have not been fired. I do have an investigation coming up that will establish whether I did indeed do anything that would be worthwhile of termination and then go from there.
BBN: What’s next for Spencer?
Spencer Clawson: I’m going back home. I’m going to try and handle this fallout. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as I fear. Hopefully I can put everything behind me and start back to work as soon as possible.
If any other opportunities come my way then I’d sure be interested to hear what they are. I’m not like a famehog or have any desire to be an actor or anything like that. Hopefully I’ll only be known within the Big Brother world and my town. Hopefully people will remember Spencer as a good social player and any of of the negative stuff will fall away and only the good stuff will be remembered.
BBN: There was certainly some ugly fallout from this season, but it was an entertaining one for us and you guys kept us watching. Thank you for that.
Spencer Clawson: Thank you. I certainly do regret some of that boneheaded stuff I said. I don’t have any excuse for it. I’m glad to hear that despite the negative stuff people enjoyed watching and I hope it doesn’t mar the season for next season. I hope that next season can be bigger and better than ever.
BBN: Thank you, Spencer.
Watch our preseason interview with Spencer and see how his plans and expectations turned out in the game.