Rick Devens took away many life lessons after losing Survivor twice — and he applied them all to winning Big Brother.
“I think it’s from the things I’ve learned on Survivor,” Devens, 42, exclusively told Us of his win following the Big Brother season 28 finale on Thursday, October 1. “A lot of the time, I led with my heart, and you have kind of more freedom on Survivor to kind of come up with clever things.”
Devens continued, “Maybe I spent too much time hiding idols at Tribal Council and searching for hidden immunity idols and should have been playing the social and strategic game harder because in the Big Brother house, like, I really worked hard to develop these relationships.”
The former news anchor added that because of his strong connections in the Big Brother house, he had the ability to play how he wanted.
“When I knew something wasn’t going to work — like, I knew I couldn’t talk someone into something — I just went and did it anyway because I got all week. May as well just keep trying,” he explained. “So many times, like by the end, [my allies] did what I wanted them to do, and it was incredible. So I think experience, pure bullheadedness and just a willingness to be a fool and fail turned out to be exactly what I needed to win the game.”
While Devens believes winning the second Head of Household competition put him in a good spot at the start of the season, his real superpower was controlling his emotions — a task he didn’t do as well on the islands.
“I honestly turned off my emotions in this game more than I ever did on my Survivor games,” he told Us. “I find it really hard to turn off your emotions when you’re under the Milky Way out in Fiji — like, you’re connected to the whole world. Whereas in this house, it was so sterile, and I’m just like, I need to block off the fact that I’m away from my family all summer, and I locked in, and I was a lot more cutthroat.”
Devens, who was loyal to a fault on Survivor, pulled a 360 in the Big Brother house, where he was not afraid to make difficult moves.
“I cut people who I really loved and cared about, starting with Rome [Seymour]. Then I betrayed Yash [Patel] and got rid of Kamu [Kirk], who I loved and cared about,” he reflected. “I was just able to make the hard decisions that maybe on Survivor I wouldn’t have made. And in the end, it got me the win.”
Not only was Devens crowned the winner of Big Brother 28 and awarded the $750,000 prize, but he also took home the coveted title of America’s Favorite Player, which added an additional $50,000 in his pocket.
“I feel really good about it. I think maybe that is something I can partially credit to Survivor. Like, I came in a known quantity a little bit,” he said of winning America’s vote. “There were some amazing houseguests in this season of Big Brother, and I love them, and they’re all my favorite players. But I really appreciate that what was received at home was received so well because I tried to have fun. I tried to never make it personal.”
Devens credited his wife, Becca and kids, Jack and Juju, as well as ally and fellow Survivor alum Dee Valladares for helping him stay grounded for nearly three months.
“I was away from my family for so much longer for Big Brother than I ever was for Survivor,” he admitted. “If I concentrated on how much that hurt, it was just going to kill me. So I’d already kind of compartmentalized that and blocked off that emotion, and then because of that, I was able to kind of block it off with the rest of the game. And I think Dee was a really good bad influence because Dee is a killer and she’s able to compartmentalize in that same way. So we kind of fed off each other, and she was a huge, terrific ally to have in the game.”
Devens also credited Becca for his win because without her, he would have never walked into the Big Brother house.
“I’m the luckiest dude in the world. Like, those three power me through everything,” he said of his family. “I had their blessing to be on the show. Never would have happened without Becca. I was getting ready to say no, and she said, ‘What? You have to do it. This is the only chance you’re ever going to have.’”
