Big Brother USA

Big Brother 9 is happening early this year

bigbrotherusa — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 04:18:01 +0000

Big Brother 9 will be returning early this year. Rumors are because of the writers strike this is happening. So mark you calenders for February 12, 2008!!

Wrap Party / Finale Photos & CBS BB8 Gag Reel

bigbrotherusa — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:57:47 +0000

Phillip Journeys Photos

Jessicas Wrap Party Photos

Jens Wrap Party Photos

Naters Wrap Party Photos

Sarahs (BB6) Photos

Finale Night

Dick Donato posts on his fav. website

bigbrotherusa — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:42:47 +0000

Dick Donato mentioned earlier in the Big Brother 8 house that his favorite website on the world wide web was metal sludge. He was also the Sludgeaholic of the month in October of 2004. Since leaving the Big Brother house Evel Dick has posted on the websites forum. Check it out http://www.metalsludge.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=127666

Warning: The posts in that forum do contain language that is not suitable for everyone.

Jessica Hughbanks Myspace Blog

bigbrotherusa — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:15:23 +0000

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=35004834&blogID=312684291&Mytoken=51DC9598-CE97-4C8D-A634E9ECC2D728C184201677

BOOYAH Family, friends, and BB8 fans,

In my wildest dreams, I could never have anticipated the outpouring of love and support, compliments and good wishes you have shown for me and my family while I was on the Big Brother 8 show!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!!!

I have received literally thousands of comments, emails, art work, and tributes that are simply amazing, and I love every single one of them. Thank you to those of you who came to the airport to welcome me home, and to the Liquid Limos for the party bus, and to the Patriot Guard for the beautiful escort you gave us the night of my return.

I would love to respond to each and every one of you individually, but due to the overwhelming amount of mail I have received, that is simply not realistic at this time. I hope that you will accept my genuine heartfelt thanks in this note, and I will now try to answer the questions that I received most often:

The best thing about the experience for me was: the challenge of the game itself. I am a very competitive person, and BIG BROTHER is a once in a lifetime opportunity that very few people will ever get, and I was honored to be selected for this season and loved every minute of it.

My least favorite thing about living in the house was: the boredom. As a houseguest, you are not allowed to bring any reading or writing material with you. In the house, there is no music, television, computers, or communication of any kind with the outside world. If you sign up for this show, you need to be prepared to make your own fun and keep yourself entertained as there is quite a bit of down time when there is no structured competitions and all you have is time fill, think & talk about the game/strategy, and think about everything you are missing back at home.

Given the opportunity, I would absolutely do it again!!

I learned that I need to listen to my own instincts more; and other people less. Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but I did make my decisions based on what I believed was true at the time.

My personal bond with Eric was both amazing and strong. He was my best friend and ally in the house. I had so much fun with Eric, and loved every minute I spent with him. Now that I am back in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Kansas and he is in New York, it is hard to predict what the future holds for us. We do still talk on a very regular basis, and have agreed to just take one day at a time, and see what happens. (Thank you all for your good wishes for us!) You will be able to keep updated on us if you want to, through our fan sites.

Thank you to all of you who have signed the petition for Eric & me to be considered for the next edition of The Amazing Race. If you have not done so yet, and would like to support our effort, here is the link: http://www.petitiononline.com/JericTAR/petition.html

My best advice for those of you wanting to apply for the show is to completely fill out the application forms in great detail. Do not leave anything blank. The casting crew is looking for people who are able to entertain, and have stories to tell. So don’t be shy!!! Good luck to all of you ~ I’ll definitely be watching for you on the show next season!

Thanks again for all the prayers, support, kind words, tributes that you sent to me! It was so awesome to come home to see it all!

Love,

Jessica

Interview with Amber Siyavus

bigbrotherusa — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:13:16 +0000

By JOHN PRZYBYS
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Amber Siyavus still seems a little gun-shy, talking about her just-ended, sometimes tumultuous stint on “Big Brother 8.” “This isn’t going to be edited, right?” she asked last week at the end of a telephone interview from Los Angeles.

Siyavus’ concern with editing is understandable: She, like, every other reality show veteran, has learned firsthand how real life can be sliced and diced to create televised drama.

But Siyavus makes no excuses. She admits she said those horrible things about Jewish people on the show, and that she’s sorry about it. She admits she does tend to be a crier, although not nearly to the degree “Big Brother” producers would have you believe.

And, Siyavus admits, now that her time on the show has ended, she’s nervous about returning to her own reality back in Las Vegas.

CBS’ “Big Brother” show sequesters a group of contestants in a house. There, they’re watched by cameras as viewers follow the goings-on in weekly prime-time recaps and online 24/7.

Siyavus easily was this season’s most polarizing presence. Some viewers — most, actually — didn’t like her and enthusiastically ripped everything from her looks to her intelligence.

Siyavus says she didn’t realize the depth of critics’ enmity until the show ended. It was her sister who turned on the lights. “She told me that she was reading a lot of the fan boards and I was like the least-liked houseguest.”

That surprised Siyavus, who had thought that her struggles — which she says includes kicking a meth addiction — would strike a positive chord with viewers. While the show portrayed her as self-absorbed, overemotional, vain and shallow, Siyavus says it didn’t show the times when she was supportive and helped others in the house when they were down or upset.

“I was just not what they portrayed me to be, and they made me out to be this horrible person,” she says. “I’m so not that. I’m the complete opposite.”

Siyavus thought viewers would like her because she’s honest. “Obviously, I was wrong.”

Many fans were turned off by — and lampooned her on YouTube for — her apparent propensity for crying, and even dubbed her “Waaamber.”

“When I cried, that was my downfall,” she says. “They took that and magnified it. Yes, I did cry a lot, but they showed nothing else but me crying.”

Siyavus says she had no strategy going into the game other than to be herself and get to know her housemates. That, she now sees, was naive.

“I don’t like to screw people over, I don’t like to lie to people,” she says. But other players may not have that hesitation, she adds.

“A lot of people who are really into reality TV and people who know how to play the game went in there with the mind-set of, ‘I’m going to play this game.’ That was my disadvantage. I didn’t realize that.”

Getting used to the constant filming wasn’t difficult, Siyavus says. “You get so used to being in there, you spend so much time doing nothing and you get so comfortable, it’s like you just forget what’s really going on and (that) you’re being watched and taped all the time.”

Yet, it was that atmosphere of artificial casualness that contributed to Siyavus’ most controversial moment on the series: Angry at fellow contestant Eric for betraying her trust, Siyavus made derogatory remarks about Jewish people while talking to another contestant.

“I have friends of every religion and every race and I in no way, shape or form meant to offend anyone,” Siyavus says. “I’m not prejudiced at all.

Siyavus, who says she is still mad at herself, says the comment was made in anger during the heat of the moment.

“If I had my way, I’d go to each person I’ve offended and tell them I’m so sorry,” Siyavus says. “Obviously, that’s impossible, because so many people are offended. But I’m so, so sorry.”

Except for that, if she had to do it again, Siyavus wouldn’t change much of what she did.

“The only thing I’d change is, I’d play the game more for me and not be so trusting of people,” she says, even though “it’s hard not to be trusting of people.”

Siyavus’ 8-year-old daughter, Lexi, watched the shows and “enjoyed it,” Siyavus says. “She’s proud of me.”

Lexi stayed with Siyavus’ sister during the show. Siyavus now is looking forward to reading a journal her sister kept of Lexi’s activities while she was gone.

“I have a journal for the whole three months,” Siyavus says. “That means a lot to me.”

Then comes the challenge of returning to normal life. Siyavus admits she’s not sure how that will go.

“You know, I never realized it was going to be this big, and I know people are going to be coming up to me, saying things,” she says.

“It does suck, the (loss of) privacy part. I’m going home and I don’t know what I’m going home to. I have a daughter and I’m with her all the time, and I don’t want people harassing me and saying things to me.”

And what’s next?

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Siyavus says. “I haven’t thought much about it. I just want to go back home and be with my family and see how everything goes.”

http://www.lvrj.com/living/9954776.html

Eric Stien on Housecalls

bigbrotherusa — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:14:36 +0000

To see the rest click

Vincent Donato – His thoughts on the finale

bigbrotherusa — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:14:03 +0000

Dick Donatos son Vincent Donato was at the finale Tuesday night and wrote about his experience on his myspace blog after his father won the grand prize of $500,000 and his sister Daniele Donato coming in 2nd won $50,000 read below:

September 19, 2007 – Wednesday

Last night was incredible

Show and winning all that money aside… It was so incredible. All of the house guests were amazing. It was so great talking to them all and meeting their friends and family. I had dinner with the first 5 two nights ago (Thank you so much Carol!!) and it was amazing. Joe is hysterical, Nick is even cooler than he seems on TV, Carol is gorgeous, there is definitly more to Mike than the show let us know, and Kail is AMAZING, inside and out.

Walking through the room and having people call me over and want to talk to me (and having no idea who they were) was SOOOO much fun!! I had a great time hanging out with dustins brother and finally meeting erics brothers.. they all kick ass. Everyone I had dinner with the night before rule.

p.s. Jameka apologized to my grandma

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=4543855&blogID=311598255

Superpass Interview with Nick, Dick and Daniele

bigbrotherusa — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 08:11:18 +0000

TVGuide interview the Donatos

bigbrotherusa — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:56:17 +0000

Daniele and Dick Donato, with Julie Chen, Big Brother 8

After 81 days and countless dramas, Evel Dick emerged as the $500,000 winner of Big Brother 8, with his daughter, Daniele, taking the $50,000 second prize. The dynamic Donato duo certainly faced their share of controversy and managed to survive being on the block — with each other — three times. The day after their big win, the two shared their favorite moments of the summer, what they plan to do with the money and some surprisingly tender insights about each other.TVGuide.com: What was the key to your success?
Dick: Working together. Best teammates ever, best team ever!

TVGuide.com: That’s been your motto since making it to the final two. Why do you think you worked so well together?
Dick: Nobody else did what we did, including Danielle and Jason and their secret alliance in Season 3, Will and Boogie in All-Stars, the twins in Season 5, the exes in Season 4. I’m not comparing our style or personalities or anything to Boogie and Will, but everyone knew that they were a threat and a team from the beginning in All-Stars. Everybody knew that we were a team, and I’m sure they thought we were a threat and working together, but we made it all the way to the end, something that no other two-person alliance has ever done.
Daniele: He was the mouth and I was more of the competitor. People say that he did all the dirty work, but I never asked him to — that wasn’t my game style. We both came into the game separately, and we had our different strategies. That made it a lot harder — him being so loud and open about everything kind of stepped on my toes and my own game play, so I felt like, personally, I was playing two games: my own game and damage control for his game. To be honest, I never in a million years would have thought we would’ve made such a great team. I think it’s just putting two opposites together, then you have a whole round of everything in the mix.

TVGuide.com: It was interesting watching how your interactions changed throughout the season. What happens to your relationship now?
Dick: It’s off in a positive direction. We’ve taken care of a lot of the surface things of trying to get along. I think we really need work on communication, just working out some deep-rooted issues and resolving those, so we can get on with more of a normal father-daughter relationship, which I’m really, really excited about.
Daniele: We didn’t really have a choice: It forced us to come together. The first night, I told him I don’t know what’s going to happen with our personal lives, but if you have my back, I’ll have yours. We had to put things aside and work together. The best times we had in the house with each other were all three times that we were up on the block together. Even though it was stressful, working together, getting along and just showing these people what we’re made of was fun.

TVGuide.com: Dick, you must be the first player to ever genuinely focus your game on helping someone else advance.
Dick: Playing the game like that was extremely tough. It’s hard playing for one player, playing like that for two… I don’t think I could’ve won the game if me and Daniele weren’t working together. And yes, I was willing to sacrifice myself to push Daniele forward. I was very vocal about it and genuine about it.

TVGuide.com: Daniele, how have your feelings about your dad changed?
Daniele: From the first day, seeing him walk down the stairs, it was a lot for me to take in…. It’s like this person who I don’t really want to see right now, I’m going to be stuck in this house with him for three months, are you freaking kidding me? I don’t know what to do. I’m trying to deal with the game, I’m trying to deal with this. I didn’t know how I was going to handle it. But we spent a lot of time together learning a lot of things about each other, trying to put our personal lives aside and just focusing on other things, concentrating on good times as opposed to the bad times.

TVGuide.com: Are you two surprised at the outcome?
Daniele: I absolutely knew he was going to win. As soon as the jurors asked their questions, when it was all personal stabs at me, I knew for a fact they wouldn’t be voting for me. I told my dad I thought it was going to be a six-to-one vote, with me only having one vote. I was kind of surprised I got two. I thought it was going to be Zack, because he told me that he was going to vote for me, and his last words out of the door to my dad were that he didn’t respect his game play at all. And surprise, we lived with liars! [Zack voted for Dick.] But I really don’t care; I don’t take any of the votes personally. Look who they’re coming from — no, I’m just kidding — or am I? I could not be happier. Being in the final two, it didn’t matter who won — we won!
Dick: Honestly, I thought the vote was going to be 4-3 in my favor, especially from the questions, with people like Amber highlighting that she’s a “good person” and she wanted to give it to the “good person” in the house, and as it turns out, with all the controversy about some of her statements, it seems that she’s the bad person in the house and not as glorious as she portrayed herself.
Daniele: I also told Amber, after she asked me her juror question, “Don’t vote for me. I don’t want your vote if you’re going to be voting on personal reasons rather than game reasons.” [She's] a waste of a juror. This was about playing a game. When she made that comment, it just showed what kind of person she is. I don’t care what you think of my personal life.

TVGuide.com: Do you have any advice for next season’s contestants?
Dick: Don’t do what I did!
Daniele: Trust no one, always have some sort of wall up, always play for yourself. And don’t put yourself in a big alliance of seven people called the LNC [Laughs].

TVGuide.com: How are you planning to spend the money? Dick, you said you wanted to travel to Scandinavia…?
Dick: I have this thing for Norwegian women, and I haven’t been to Scandinavia before.

TVGuide.com: Daniele, are you going back to school?
Daniele: I do want to go back to school, I don’t know when….
Dick: I will be paying for her schooling. Absolutely.
Daniele: And a new car — just kidding! I also plan on taking a trip to Europe, but not with my dad.
Dick: We’re going to meet in some cities for dinner.
Daniele: If he’s lucky. I do need a new car really bad and I did promise a friend of mine that I will be buying him a monkey.

TVGuide.com: Are you planning to share the money?
Dick: There’s laws governing splitting up prize money….
Daniele: But that doesn’t mean he can’t buy me presents!
Dick: My kid’s school is the most important thing. She’s talked about going back to school, which I’m absolutely thrilled with.
Daniele: I plan on making photography my minor and education my major. I think I want to be a second-grade teacher.

TVGuide.com: Daniele, where do you see your relationship with Nick going?
Dick: [Teasing] Nick’s moving to California, to Orange County, where Daniele lives.
Daniele: I don’t know what’s going to happen with it. I can neither confirm nor deny.

TVGuide.com: I have to ask about Janelle’s PoV visit. Dick, the two of you were doing some serious flirting! Would you want to see her again outside of the house?
Dick: Janelle has a boyfriend; I’ve been told I have no shot — but people said I had no shot at winning, so…. I’ll see her at the wrap party and we will talk some more. I think she’s absolutely gorgeous, she seems smart, funny and very, very cool. I think if nothing else, we will end up pretty good friends after this.

TVGuide.com: What was your favorite moment of the summer?
Daniele: Mine’s a cheesy answer, and it’s obvious: My favorite moment was meeting Nick. I didn’t come in there expecting to make such a good friend and care about somebody so much. It definitely was a surprise to me.
Dick: The first was when Daniele won HoH in that bat hang [in Week 5]; when I was still up on the bar, she looked over to me with tears in her eyes, just saying, “I can’t do it, I can’t do this,” and even after I went off, she was still up there for well over an hour. I know that it was will, determination, fortitude and heart that brought this girl — this amazing woman that is my daughter — through that, and it really showed me what kind of person she is. The second thing was hell week, when I got to bang pots and pans over Dustin’s head and I won the PoV in the last shot… and then seeing Dustin go. Hell week was a hell of a week.

TVGuide.com: And finally, last night you found out about the summer’s big twist — Eric as America’s Player. Dick, it seemed like America was really on your side — first there was the vote to keep you in the house, and then the vote to win it all.
Dick: I thought America hated me — I used to say that I was No. 15 out of 14 [in popularity], but to find out that there’s actually a lot of people that really liked me and that I was one of the more popular players who’s ever played this game is very surprising. I still haven’t digested the whole thing. I thought so many people hated me — and, of course, there are — but there are a lot of people that really like me. And America voted to keep me in, for me to win the show. Maybe it’s because I was the most real person and said things the way I saw them, no matter what they were. I might have said things in an offensive way, but the bottom [line] of what I said was honest. The truth isn’t always roses and daisies — sometimes it’s a load of bulls–t.

www.tvguide.com

Dick Donato on HouseCalls

bigbrotherusa — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:47:36 +0000

To see the rest click

Daniele + Dick on the Early Show

bigbrotherusa — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:13:04 +0000

Dick and Daniele joined Julie Chen on the Early Show this morning for an interview.

To see the rest click

Final BB8 Episode online + Pictures from ‘behind the scenes’

bigbrotherusa — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:39:52 +0000

If you missed the final episode of Big Brother 8 tonight never fear! You can watch the full episode right now by clicking here.

Also some pictures of the finale. -Click here + here-

After the finale interviews

bigbrotherusa — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:53:49 +0000

To see Jen, Amber, Carol, Mike, Kail, Joe, Nick, Zach, Jessica, Dustin, Jameka and Eric click

How many times does she say like?