Rick Devens has been through a lot of reality TV, and he finally won the whole thing. Big Brother 28 wrapped with Devens beating Taylor Brown for the $750,000 grand prize, plus America’s Favorite Houseguest and the Pharaoh’s Curse cash, bringing his total haul to $810,000. TVLine spoke to the winner about the hardest decision he made all summer, the two times he almost left the house, and why he thinks the icons were actually at a disadvantage.
The Decision To Evict Drew
The headline moment of the finale was Devens cutting his in-game son, Drew. Taylor Brown threatened both her and Lala’s jury votes if Devens took Drew to the Final 2. Devens told TVLine he wrestled with that choice all night.
“It was tough,” he said. “I did not want to cut Drew. I wanted to take him to the Final 2, so I really kind of went and I thought about it. All that night, I was mulling it over and I tried to take total emotion out of it because I didn’t want to make the mistake I made on my first season of Survivor and make an emotional decision that cost my family a lot of money.”
He got up the next morning and proposed a deal to Taylor: they would take each other to the Final 2 if they won the Final 3. He kept that plan secret from Drew.
“I didn’t say anything to Drew about it. He’s too good. He would have been all over me. He probably would have changed my mind, so I kept that to myself until you saw it on TV.”
The Emotional Moment
Devens said the moment before he evicted Drew was the hardest of the summer. He thought the worst-case scenario would be facing Dee in the Final 2, which would have meant cutting Drew to protect himself.
He really thought the toughest moment of the summer would be if it was Dee, Drew and I in the Final 3, and I would have had to cut Drew, because I was so scared to face her in the Final 2, he said.
When Taylor brought the threat out, he saw it as a smart move on her part. It upped her earnings from third place to second place, so I can’t hate on that, he said. But it was definitely the toughest decision I made all summer.
The Jury Question About Icons
During the jury question-and-answer session, several contestants argued that the icons came in with advantages. Devens pushed back hard.
“That perspective was interesting to me, and she wasn’t the only one who shared it,” he said. “A lot of these newbies were going, ‘Wow, they came in with such crazy advantages in this game,’ and I’m going, ‘What? That there were two other people that might want to work with me because we’re outnumbered 14-to-3?’ I don’t know that that’s a huge advantage.”
He pointed out that the icons were the first three to get a chance at the time capsule, but framed that as a natural result of coming in as icons rather than a special perk.
“My argument is, I made a pretty big splash Week 2. When I won HOH against the entire house, made a circus of the nomination ceremony, put up the biggest threat in the game… I feel like if we were all newbies, America might vote for that guy to go in the BB time capsule anyway. One of us was gonna win Week 1, but then we had 11 more weeks to worry about.”
He argued that the newbies could have taken the icons out at any point during the season and never did. The fact that three of the newbies got to go in the BB time capsule and two came out with punishments, I’m just like, listen, sour grapes, OK? I think it was a big disadvantage, he said.
The Dee Close Call
Devens had two close calls with eviction, and the first came when Drew chose between him and Dee. Devens woke up that morning assuming he was done.
“I woke up that morning thinking, ‘I’m done. He’s gonna keep Dee. I’m toast,'” he said. “And then he came to me and he said, ‘Hey, if I keep you, will you throw the first part of the final HOH, which is gonna be endurance?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely,’ you beat me at endurance all season. Endurance has never been my thing on Survivor or this. I will absolutely throw this because I can’t get to the end without getting the Final 3.”
He asked Drew if he had asked Dee the same question. Drew said yes, but that Dee’s response was blunt.
“He said, ‘She said, ‘I’m gonna pretend like you didn’t ask me that,'” Devens recalled. “So at that point I started feeling like, I think he’s gonna keep me. I think I’m gonna be his dude, and felt really a lot more confident about it.”
The Week 8 Flip
The other close call came in Week 8, when Devens volunteered to go up as a replacement nominee against Lala and Taylor. He ended up winning the Blockbuster, but he admitted he did not know the house was planning to flip and send him home if he had stayed on the block.
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The Numbers Behind The Win
Devens won the final three-part Head of Household competition. He then faced a jury of his peers and won the $750,000 check by a vote of 6-1. The breakdown of his total haul:
| Prize | Amount |
|---|---|
| Grand prize | $750,000 |
| America’s Favorite Houseguest | $10,000 |
| Pharaoh’s Curse | $10,000 |
| Total | $810,000 |
What We Make Of It
Devens’s performance was grounded in careful decision-making. He understood the dynamics of the house, he managed his alliances carefully, and he made the hard decisions when they mattered most. The fact that he survived two close calls shows he was paying attention.
His argument about the icons being at a disadvantage is clever, but it is also self-serving. He is not wrong that the newbies could have eliminated him at any point. But the icons did come in with advantages — the time capsule, the early visibility, the pre-existing fan bases — and Devens acknowledges that himself in his own words.
The most telling moment may have been the endurance part of the final HOH. Devens threw it for Drew, knowing it was not his strength. That is the mark of a player who understands what the game wants from him in the moment.
The Takeaway
Rick Devens won Big Brother 28 because he was better than everyone else. He made the hard decisions, he read the room, and he executed when it counted. His arguments about the icons and the jury questions were entertaining, but the proof is in the prize money.
$810,000 is a lot of money. Devens earned it.
Source material: “Big Brother 28 Winner Reflects On 'The Toughest Decision I Made All Summer' And Two Close Calls With Eviction,” TVLine.
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