The Big Brother 18 Jury definitely surprised a lot of viewers with their decision to give the win to Nicole Franzel over Paul Abrahamian this week during the season finale and it certainly left me scratching my head. So what happened and how did they make that choice?
With the Big Brother 18 cast and its Jurors now out in the wild answers are starting to arrive. TV Guide caught up with each of the nine voters and asked what was going through their minds and what guided their votes.
So how did Nicole win Big Brother? Even Google was wondering and, though it’s gone now, for the past few days if you typed in “how did n” its auto-suggestions’ top pick was “how did nicole win big brother.” Even more pressing of a need-to-know apparently than “how did Nelson Mandela die” or even Napoleon’s death. That’s kinda funny.
Of course several of the votes were of no surprise so we can skip over the decisions by Victor and Corey, but what about the rest of them? Let’s run down the list and see what they had to say.
James on his vote for Paul to win: “I voted for Paul because he didn’t know anything about the game when he came on… And the fact that he survived the block six times, no one tried to take a stab at him, and any time I tried to take him out, no one wanted to. He made it all the way to final two, so I gotta give the kid props. Nicole was a vet. She knew what she was doing. I felt like he definitely deserved to beat her and I thought he was going to take it.”
Sounds like James weighed in all the advantages Nicole had in the game and went with Paul. An interested aside from James was his comment to TVGuide that if he had won R3 he would have taken Nicole because she was a Vet while Paul got there as a newbie against the Vet threat.
Natalie on her vote for Nicole to win: “I really honestly wanted a girl to win this season… In my final week, I went up to [Paul] and I told him he and Victor had my final if they made it to final two – obviously not over James – and he made fun of me for it and he went behind my back and didn’t believe it and just really pooped on me. When I heard he was pooping on me, I decided he lost my final two vote. Sorry, Paul, it was your own mouth that got you this vote.”
Okay, let’s take a moment here. Weeks ago after Natalie had her conversation with Victor and Paul where she threw James under the bus saying she trusted his judgment and opinions but shouldn’t have done that. Later Paul was out in the Tokyo bedroom discussing medieval life. He was called to DR and made loud comments mocking his “medieval conversation.” Natalie was in the London bedroom and overheard him mistakenly thinking he said “meaningful conversation” which she thought was in reference to her talk upstairs. She was so upset that she never forgave him and ended up voting against him citing that as a reason and Nicole won the game. If that doesn’t make you pull your hair out, then I don’t know what will.
Bridgette on her vote for Paul to win: “I didn’t even know who I was [going to be] voting for until I was up on the stage and I decided… If James had been there, then I knew for sure I was going to pick the other person… I think both Paul’s and Nicole’s gameplay were so impressive.”
Interesting that Bridgette was still undecided aside from “anyone but James.” I didn’t think either Paul or Nicole gave great Q&A’s though Paul’s final speech was better at contrasting his accomplishments so maybe that was it.
Paulie on his vote for Nicole to win: “I was sitting there weighing both of them and I realized Nicole made it through all these competitive dudes who were just crushing the game. She did it. I think they both nailed it and it could’ve went either way… I’m reliving moments of BB16 — Cody had the opportunity.”
Of course if you’re comparing this to BB16 then Paulie’s generic explanation could substitute Victoria for Nicole as she survived “all these competitive dudes” but no one would have voted for Victoria over Cody if they were there together so that’s not a very good justification. And NO, I don’t think Nicole’s and Victoria’s gameplay styles were comparably. You’ll still never convince me that Paulie wasn’t completely set on voting for his family friend Nicole anyway the F2 turned out if she was there.
Michelle on her vote for Paul to win: “I knew it was going to be close. It was 50-50. It all depended on Day, I knew that. I do think Paul played a better game, but at the end of the day, she won. It is what it is.”
I doubt most were surprised by Michelle’s vote and apparently Nicole was upset that she never got a “congrats” or hug from Michelle after the show. Did Nicole miss the past few weeks? Even though Paul dropped some nasty words on Michelle she wasn’t going to vote for Nicole.
Da’Vonne on her vote for Nicole to win: “America, don’t hate me! I didn’t think it was going to come down to me… He played a great game, but you’ve got to give credit where credit is due. I chose her because I liked Nicole’s gameplay from the inside… I was so pissed he didn’t take James.”
Despite not liking Nicole’s game while in the house and repeatedly voicing hope for Paul to reach the end she then went and voted for Nicole. Well, the Vets stuck together on that one and Da’Vonne says she liked what she saw.
Day also mentioned on Twitter that she only knew what she heard coming in from evictees and heard more about Nicole doing things than Paul. You could argue then Nicole’s game was just less hidden while Paul’s moves were subtle (hard to say anything else about Paul was subtle). Or maybe Paulie and Corey were just better champions for Nicole’s case than Paul had with Victor.
Want more? You can read the full report and commentary from the Jurors at TVGuide.com.
Well, I was bummed by the results but I’m sure many fans were pleased. Do you think Paul was robbed or did Nicole was the rightful winner of Big Brother 18? Cast your votes below and watch Julie draw the keys one more time.