‘Big Brother 18’ finale: James Huling on Natalie, third-place finish, more (CBS backyard interview)

James Huling finished “Big Brother” in third place this season, but we’ll give him a little bit of credit: He didn’t vote against Paul because he evicted him. Instead, James was one of the four people who gave the purveyor of friendship a vote, and that got him close to the win. Still, that didn’t happen.

So what went wrong for James? That’s something that we hoped Jeff Schroeder would get to the bottom of during the CBS backyard interview. We’ve got some highlights for you below!

On finishing third – “It is definitely tough. I thought I had a clear path with Paul. I didn’t think he was going to take Nicole, but expect the unexpected.”

On him sleeping a lot through the game – “Johnny Mac slept a lot, and he made it to final four.”

On throwing competition – “I threw a lot of comps. I threw OTEV, I through the competition when Victor got backdoored.”

On his relationship with Natalie – “I didn’t expect to do a showmance … It’s the ‘Big Brother’ house, but there are emotions and you connect with somebody. It’s hard to stay alive … Me and Natalie connected on a personal level, and that’s what brought me and her together.”

On where they are at now – “I don’t know … I just got off the show. She gave me a good sign. She was holding my hand. I’m no female, but I’d say those are some pretty good signs. I hope we are on good terms.”

On this season versus last season – “Last season was tougher game-wise, because I had to win a lot of competitions to stay in the game … This season, what was actually the hardest for me was being in a showmance. It put a lot of toll on my game in terms of making sure she was protected, and then making sure I was protected [in alliances].”

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