Not once in his two-season run on CBS’ “Big Brother” did legendary player Dan Gheesling see his name written down for eviction. More than a decade later, it is still an impressive feat in the annals of reality competition history.
But Gheesling’s clean record came to an end on Thursday when he watched all but one of his 12 costars on “The Traitors” scribble his name on their chalkboard and banish him from the Scottish castle for correctly deducing that he, in fact, was a Traitor. But Gheesling’s exit from the game wasn’t exactly a shock after last week’s episode, when he made what would become the fatal mistake of trying to murder Carsten “Bergie” Bergersen based on false intel planted by Peter Weber, who suspected Gheesling of being a Traitor.
When the shield-protected Bergie walked into breakfast at the start of this week’s episode after surviving Gheesling’s attempted murder (one consigned by the other Traitors), Weber wasted no time in revealing to the group — over smoked meats and crumpets — that he fed his laced intel to three people: Gheesling, his fellow Traitor, Parvati Shallow and Chris “CT” Tamburello. From there, the tainted trio were left to make the case they didn’t take the bait, a task only CT managed to convincingly do. By the time the cast convened around the roundtable to deliberate who should be banished by night’s end, Gheesling was the first out of the gate to weave a somewhat baffling web against his other fellow Traitor, Phaedra Parks.
His case, albeit flimsy, included him taking issue with her theatrics at each breakfast when the murdered player is revealed — something she bit back at with the instantly iconic line, “I do too much because you do too little.”
When it came time to vote, Gheesling received every other player’s vote except Weber’s, the man who trapped him, who ironically voted for Shallow just to make sure people don’t forget he also suspects her of being a Traitor. So why did Gheesling try to bulldoze Parks’ game when Shallow’s target was far bigger?
“Everyone liked her, and no one suspected her,” Gheesling tells Variety. “And until I brought her name up, no one even considered her. To me, that is really dangerous and I hope she takes that as a sign of respect. I went after you because I didn’t think I could beat you in the end.”
Looking back on his gameplay, Gheesling shares the mistakes he made, the “gut punch” from his fellow “Big Brother” alum Janelle Pierzina and where he stands with Parks after the show.
“You spoke in your Circle of Truth about coming out of a decade-long retirement for this. So why was it ‘The Traitors’ that resurrected you, Dan?” Gheesling had seen the first season and it was the first show in a very long time that he watched that was centered just around the game. The second thing was that Sharon Vaughan at NBC just made it so easy for him to say yes.
“Did this make you want to jump back into the world of reality TV? Or was this a one-and-done until your next resurrection?” He really wanted to come back and play against some great players. But also, he says, “I just think so highly of this show and it’s really hard to top. And I don’t have an interest to come back and do something that has been done 100 times before.”
“Did the funeral challenge a few episodes ago bring back memories of when you staged your own funeral in ‘Big Brother 14’?” It was kind of bizarre because it truly was like a funeral! But also, he’s like, “Man, please don’t let anyone say that I’m familiar with funerals.”
“So do you think you were playing a solid game before this Janelle/Peter plan in the last episode or, looking back on it, would you take a different tactic from the beginning?” He feels like there are also some things that went against him. What really first knocked the wind out of him was Janelle coming after him. He didn’t know that she was going to come after him saying, “This dude is dangerous. He’s done X, Y and Z. He’s faked his own death.”
“Have you talked to Janelle since you were both banished?” Gheesling loves Janelle. He thinks she is a great player and he loves that she makes moves like that. He didn’t see it coming.
“That’s the beauty of this game plucking players from all across the reality TV landscape. There are some real wild cards. Did you know of Peter before this because he seemed to come out of nowhere for you?” Gheesling didn’t know much about Peter. He thought he was straightforward and honest. Even early on, when he watched the show, Peter faked a little fight with Kevin. But Gheesling can appreciate it.
“Why go after Phaedra at the roundtable when Parvati already had the target on her?” For “Big Brother” fans, Parvati was like Memphis and Danielle, a completely different level of trust. Gheesling trusted Parvati 1000% and he saw himself going to the end with her. The other thing was that he didn’t see a path to win with Phaedra in the game.
“After the episode aired, she posted on Twitter, ‘Bye, Dirty Dan.’ Have you talked to her? What would you say to her?” Gheesling has exchanged messages with Phaedra. He hopes with time she understands that it was just a game and he wasn’t trying to embarrass her.
“Have you started watching ‘The Real Housewives’ to take notes for future competitions against them? Those who know Phaedra knew she was not to be messed with.” Gheesling has always watched “Real Housewives” through osmosis with his wife. He knew who Tamra Judge was, and he knows now that Tamra thought he got rid of her, but he wanted to work with her in the game.
“Did your wife send you off with any words of wisdom in dealing with Housewives?” She told him that if Tamra was there, be friends with her and he can trust her.
“We only get to see so much of the roundtable. Were there other parts of your case against Phaedra we didn’t get to see?” Gheesling thinks they did a great job of distilling it down to the important parts.
“Was there anything in your Circle of Truth speech that we didn’t get to hear? As viewers, we want you all to say so much more before leaving!” Gheesling’s speech was longer and he likes to put a little something on it. He wrapped things up with the words, “Unfortunately, this is not one of those movies.”
“Since you are watching it in real-time, what do you think of Pavarti and Phaedra’s decision to try and recruit Peter as your replacement in the turret?” Gheesling thinks if Peter puts on the cloak, it is going to make for incredible television. If he doesn’t take the deal, he’s a dead man walking.