Nurse sews up ‘Big Brother’ victory
‘Big Brother 6’ HouseGuest and Jedi Knight in training, Howie Gordon, said it best. Finalists Maggie Ausburn and Ivette Corredero were indeed “America’s last choices” to win the CBS reality show.
Despite being despised by the overwhelming majority of die-hard fans, Maggie Ausburn, the 26-year-old nurse from Las Vegas, took home the $500,000 U.S. grand prize while Ivette, the 25-year-old waitress from Miami, came in second and scored $50,000 U.S. by a vote of four to three on the finale of the series. Fittingly, the self-proclaimed star of the show, Howie, cast the deciding ballot.
Former HouseGuest turned CBS on-air personality Marcellas Reynolds, who has lived with the label of making the biggest strategic mistake in ‘Big Brother’ history, can most likely rest easy now as that honour probably goes to Ivette for picking Disciples Alliance mate Maggie over her arch-nemesis in the house, Outcasts member Janelle Pierzina, in the final three. Ironically, when the jury cast their votes, Janelle picked Ivette to win.
Ivette, who had claimed over and over again that she was playing for her family, justified her decision by saying she couldn’t break her promise to the Disciples because she would lose the jury vote. Some jury members argued Ivette picked a friend she had known for just 80 days over her own family. In reality, Ivette’s shabby treatment of jury members April and Rachel, her outspoken nature and her persistent trash talking in the house behind people’s backs (which included racist comments about Iraqi-born player Kaysar Ridha), probably cost her the victory more than anything else.
“I have a lot of gifts to buy,” Maggie told host Julie Chen as she celebrated her win with friends and family. “I have family to take care of. I have a house to actually put furniture in, taxes to pay and animals to take care of.”
The gloomy finale concludes a disappointing ‘Big Brother’ season devoid of any creativity by the producers who seemed content to rehash twists and happenings from previous seasons. The ‘Summer of Secrets’ theme failed to live up its hype with the clandestine partners twist being unraveled early on and the supposed secrets of the new ‘Big Brother’ house amounting to nothing more than a hidden room and puzzles that were for the most part awarded to and not solved by the HouseGuests.
Although the casting of the series was commendable, the gamesmanship itself was the worst of any season thus far with the bumbling players making cardinal mistake after cardinal mistake such as openly discussing strategy with their sworn foes time and time again. Howie’s decision to nominate members of his own alliance for eviction, Kaysar surrendering the Head of Household title to Jennifer at the end of a 14-hour endurance challenge and Ivette’s final three decision will rightfully go down as the most appalling strategic blunders ever.
The transparent recycling was evident too in a finale that hung its hat on the town hall concept torn right from the pages of ‘Survivor’. In front of a live audience full of many past ‘Big Brother’ contestants, jury members and returning players squared off without the fireworks many might have expected. Fan favourite Kaysar Ridha, who was voted back into the game by the viewing public, did get a chance to confront Jennifer Vasquez over the promise she broke that eventually led to him being booted the same week he returned.
“Jennifer, next time, think for yourself,” said Kaysar bluntly.
When asked to if she wanted defend herself by host Julie Chen, Jennifer replied that she did think for herself but that her group (The Disciples Alliance) swayed her decision.
HouseGuest Eric Littmann, whose eviction was orchestrated by Kaysar, weighed in with his two cents.
“He did the same exact thing to me but I guess the same medicine doesn’t taste the same,” he said.
Maggie is scheduled to be appear on the House Calls, the ‘Big Brother’ Internet talk show hosted by Gretchen Massey and Marcellas Reynolds on CBS.com on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Final ‘Big Brother 6’ Jury Vote
Beau: Ivette.
April: Maggie.
James: Ivette.
Rachel: Maggie.
Janelle: Ivette.
Jennifer: Maggie.
Howie: Maggie.
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