This season's twist on CBS' Big Brother felt less like Team America and more like Team "What Ever Benefits Frankie." The three members of Team America, Donny, Derrick, and Frankie, initially seemed eager to work together on behalf of America, but when it came down to actually allowing fans to have a hand in the game, Team America lost its stars and stripes. Like when Team America was asked to make up their own mission and Frankie insisted on creating a play instead of saving Donny, which felt like a huge slap in the face to those watching that wanted Donny to stay. So did Donny feel betrayed by his fellow Team Americans? "Absolutely. I don't think they were on board with me from day one," he says in an interview with Bustle.
There were a few missions that Team America successfully completed, although it always felt like they were always just getting by. And once Donny was evicted from the house, and Frankie said he was relieved he didn't have to carry his "dead weight" any longer, it felt like there was definitely some tension between the "Americans." "I was put together by America with two people I wouldn't have aligned with, and I was loyal to them," Donny says of Derrick and Frankie.
But the one time Donny wasn't "loyal" to Derrick was when he voted for Cody to win the final prize of $500,000 at the Big Brother finale. So was it all a grudge against a man he felt betrayed him, or was there more reason to it? "I held a little bit of a grudge," Donny says. But when it came down to his final vote, it was really about his word. "During the last show, I didn't know who I was going to vote for, and it was going to come down to questions and answers." That's when Cody said that he had received a lot of information from other houseguests and brought it to Derrick, who ultimately made almost all of the decisions in the house. It was then Donny knew that Derrick was gong to win the votes of all the other jury members.
"Then it dawned on me, I had told Cody that I was going to vote for him," Donny says of his decision, "I didn't want, three years from now, for me to regret my vote, no matter if it chose the winner or not." As if we needed to add more reasons why we love Donny, we now learn that he is a man of his word and truly loyal.
But even Donny admits that as a fan of the show, he might have seen it differently if he was sitting at home watching. "I would probably pull for Derrick," he says. Thankfully, the end of the season ended the way it should have, with Derrick — the best game player — winning first place, and Donny — the most sincere player — winning America's Favorite Houseguest.
Images: CBS; Sonja Flemming/CBS
