Big Brother 28 Winner Reflects On 'The Toughest Decision I Made All Summer' And Two Close Calls With Eviction

The following contains spoilers from the "Big Brother 28" season finale!

A former "Survivor" icon is now a "Big Brother" legend! 

From the beaches of Fiji to the "Big Brother" house, Rick Devens is known for always swinging big whenever he competes on reality TV. And thanks to his penchant for taking big risks and his ability to strategize under the gun, he not only made the Final 3, but won the last three-part Head of Household competition, to boot. In another shocking turn, he evicted his in-game "son" Drew after runner-up Taylor Brown made a convincing argument he couldn't ignore. And when the final two houseguests faced a jury of their peers, Devens won the $750,000 check by a vote of 6-1. (He also won America's Favorite Houseguest and the $10K from the Pharaoh's Curse, for a grand total of $810,000. Read our full finale recap for all the details.)

TVLine caught up with "Daddy Devens" Friday to talk about his big win, the Taylor conversation we didn't see, his tough decision to evict Drew, and so much more.

TVLINE | We've got to start with your eviction of Drew. Taylor threatened both her and Lala's jury votes if you took Drew to the Final 2. How long after that conversation with Taylor did you decide to cut him?
RICK DEVENS | It was tough. I did not want to cut Drew. I wanted to take him to the Final 2, so I really kind of went and I thought about it. All that night, I was mulling it over and I tried to take total emotion out of it because I didn't want to make the mistake I made on my first season of "Survivor" and make an emotional decision that cost my family a lot of money. And when I took the emotion out of it, it was a no-brainer that I couldn't take Drew. But I still asked Taylor, I was like, "Hey, I need to sleep on this. Can we talk about it in the morning?" And she was like, yeah, sure. And so that's what I did. I got up the next morning and I was like, "Taylor, alright. We've got a deal. We'll take each other to the Final 2, if we win this Final 3," and I didn't say anything to Drew about it. He's too good. He would have been all over me. He probably would have changed my mind, so I kept that to myself until you saw it on TV.

TVLINE | We saw you getting a bit emotional before you even got up from the couch to evict Drew. Was that the toughest moment of the summer for you?
Easily, easily. I really thought the toughest moment of the summer would be if it was Dee, Drew and I in the Final 3, and I would have had to cut Dee to take Drew, because I was so scared to face her in the Final 2. And luckily that problem took care of itself, and I'm like, "I'm off the hook now. I'm gonna go to the Final 2 with my dude, Drew, this is great." And then Taylor brought this out, which was a great move on her part. It upped her earnings from third place to second place, so I can't hate on that, but it was definitely the toughest decision I made all summer.

TVLINE | There was a moment in the jury Q&A when you seemed to have a strong reaction to Taylor saying you had advantages in the game. What were you feeling or thinking in that moment?
That perspective was interesting to me, and she wasn't the only one who shared it. A lot of these newbies were going, "Wow, they came in with such crazy advantages in this game," and I'm going, "What? That there were two other people that might want to work with me because we're outnumbered 14-to-3?" I don't know that that's a huge advantage. Obviously we were the first three to get a chance at the time capsule. That's because we came in as icons. But my argument is, I made a pretty big splash Week 2. When I won HOH against the entire house, made a circus of the nomination ceremony, put up the biggest threat in the game... I feel like if we were all newbies, America might vote for that guy to go in the BB time capsule anyway. One of us was gonna win Week 1, but then we had 11 more weeks to worry about. If these newbies thought we had such huge advantages, they could have taken us out at any time, and they never did. And so, the fact that three of the newbies got to go in the BB time capsule and two came out with punishments, I'm just like, listen, sour grapes, OK? I think it was a big disadvantage. I thought half the cast was gonna be "icons" to make it fair, so that was my reaction to that. Like, elitism? What? Because I played "Survivor"? I don't know.

TVLINE | Let's go back a little earlier in the season. You had two very close calls with eviction, the most recent one being Drew choosing between you and Dee. Did it feel to you like you were safe all along? Or were you genuinely surprised when he cut Dee?
I woke up that morning thinking, "I'm done. He's gonna keep Dee. I'm toast." And then he came to me and he said, "Hey, if I keep you, will you throw the first part of the final HOH, which is gonna be endurance?" And I said, "Yeah, absolutely," you beat me at endurance all season. Endurance has never been my thing on "Survivor" or this. I will absolutely throw this because I can't get to the end without getting the Final 3. And then I said, "Did you ask Dee the same thing?" And he's like, yeah, I was like, "Oh, what did she say?" And he said, "She said, 'I'm gonna pretend like you didn't ask me that.'" So at that point I started feeling like, I think he's gonna keep me. I think I'm gonna be his dude, and felt really a lot more confident about it. I would have thrown that too, in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, he fell off and then Taylor whipped the crap out of both of us.

TVLINE | The other close call — and I don't know how much you've heard about this elsewhere — came in Week 8, when you volunteered to go up as a replacement nominee against Lala and Taylor. You ended up winning the Blockbuster, but did you have any knowledge that the house was planning to flip and send you home if you had stayed on the block? What do you make of that in hindsight?
You know, I guess we're all learning together that it's a bad idea to volunteer to be the pawn, right? No one's ever said that before about "Big Brother"! [Laughs] Dude, I was so naive. Was Drew gonna turn on me? Because Barrett was gonna turn on me. He told me he was gonna vote against me, and I was so nice. I was like, "Barrett won't do that." Barrett's my dude. We're great friends and we're in the Crossovers. So Angela and Dee were coming up to me and going, "Dude, you're in a lot of trouble. You're screwed." And I was like, "Guys, calm down. I got this. No worries at all," and I was totally wrong. But I was telling them, I was like, "You're just gonna make me paranoid." Listen, nothing you can say is gonna make me work harder at this Blockbuster. I want it no matter what. So let me just go get it and thank goodness I did because I would have looked really stupid, Nick. I mean, I still looked stupid, but at least I got away with it.

TVLINE | How hard was it to leave your family for the summer? And tell me how it felt to be reunited with them last night after three long months.
It was so hard to leave them for the summer, and I really had to compartmentalize that because it would have torn me up. It was so much longer than "Survivor." I was in that house longer than both my "Survivor" seasons combined, so seeing them last night under the conditions of confetti coming down, "we won, guys," it was all worth it. This is why I left. Our life is gonna be even better now. You can chase your dreams. We can help fund it. It was awesome, man, and they were both so emotional. Becca looked amazing as usual. It was awesome just to be able to hug them. Literally, that's a fantasy I had is walking out in the confetti and hugging my family. I never got those moments on "Survivor" where the winner's hugging their family, so it was absolutely incredible.

TVLINE | You hedged a bit when Julie asked you which show was better last night, but let's spin that a bit. Which game, "Survivor" or "Big Brother" was harder for you?
I think it really depends on who you are. Ozzy could never play "Big Brother." Being trapped inside like that, he'd lose his mind, and I kind of lost my mind too. Half the people I played "Big Brother" with could never play "Survivor." They're too spoiled. They would disintegrate on Day 3. I think for me, it's a balance. Being in there so long was just brutal. Again, as a family man, that was really hard. And I love being out on the island in "Survivor" and all that freedom, but when it rains on "Survivor," lock me in the "Big Brother" house for a week rather than leave me out overnight in the rain. So, they're both pretty brutal. I think for me, "Survivor" is obviously a harder game because I didn't win it, but I think "Big Brother" was a harder experience.