‘Big Brother OTT’ debate: How much of an advantage did Jason Roy have as returning player?

At this point, there’s really no sense in writing about the more granular of “Big Brother: Over the Top” subjects, given that the only thing of consequence coming up is the competition that will eliminate either Morgan or Justin from the competition — it’s pretty much assured that Jason will take Kryssie to the final three given that he’s a human being with a brain.

There’s no strategy really left this season, and that’s unfortunately given that there are still six days left — this is something that CBS really needs to analyze further if and when they bring this show back.

One other thing that do probably need to look at is the subject of returning players. Before this season even began, we picked Jason Roy to be the winner based on one simple thing: He already had hundreds of thousands of fans, and given that this was a season with a public vote at the end, he’d have these people and many former contestants rooting for him. The show moving this to a final three rather than a final two, and then also structuring the final four in a way that you always have a shot to stay alive via competitions, both are moves that play even more into his favor.

We’re not meaning to disparage in any way some of the moves that Jason made to get him to the point where he is now, where he’s pretty much a lock to win this game. Many of the Ballsmasher fans are resigned to the idea that even if Morgan makes it to the end, they probably won’t have the votes. We like Justin but not enough other people do, and Kryssie’s pretty much dead on arrival. Here are a few things that Jason did over the course of the game that were incredibly impressive.

1. Whenever he absolutely needed to win a competition, he did. This goes back to the very first week, when there was a chance that the house would just unite and get rid of him because he’s a returning player and an obvious threat. He did this again at the final five, and this week took away any drama by winning the final four Head of Household.

2. Incredible persuasion skills. Whether it be Danielle, Kryssie, or at times Justin, he managed to get multiple players thinking that him winning was an outcome just as good, or even better, than them winning. That’s insane, but he did it. That’s a move that you really don’t see that much on reality TV; it’s reminiscent in a way of JT on “Survivor: Tocantins,” though that may be the only thing JT and Jason have in common.

3. Excellent at creating division. While we very much dislike many of the comments that he made, in particular the insults that had nothing to do with the game at hand, we do think there’s something to bashing other players as a strategy. It creates a mentality where your allies won’t want to turn on you, which was why in part Jason never had to worry about a Danielle or a Kryssie flipping on him. He wasn’t the only reason why there was so much discontent there, but he played a huge role.

Did Jason make mistakes along the way? Certainly. He got very lucky that the fake final five deal he made, which really just seemed spiteful and a chance to get one over on Alex, didn’t come back to bite him. If this was a game with a jury, it would have, but we also think that Jason wouldn’t have done that if this was a game with a jury, and would have tried much harder to be nice to people even if he didn’t care for them.

Being in a situation where he and Danielle were on the block together was also incredibly risky for him, and looking back it’s clear that Jason should’ve been the target over Danielle, even if she is very good in competitions as well. (Yes, we know we’re being totally results-based.)

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Let’s get back to the title: How much of a potential Jason win is tainted by the advantage of him being a returning player? We’d say some, but not all. The biggest thing this did was instill fear in the minds of other players that if you targeted him, America would hate you. This happened with the Monte vote, and we think this move in itself bought Jason a good month of safety in the game, and that, coupled with Kryssie getting an early Care Package, likely empowered that side to think early on that they were the good guys who needed to stick together. That all proved invaluable in the early going.

The obvious other element to being a returning player is that you simply know how to handle the stress of the game and the people around you significantly better. Jason did that much in the way that Nicole did, establishing himself as someone people wanted to go to for understanding of the game, even though it was a different game at its core.

One element of Jason’s success doesn’t so much have to do with him being a returning player so much as it does the players who were eliminated early, and him managing to create enough of an impression on them early that they still felt like they were a part of his game. You’ve had people like Neeley out of the house for many weeks campaigning hard for him on social media — his social game, at least for the people he was close to, was still so strong that he was able to convince people to spend time outside of the house voting for him. He’s now also got Shane and Danielle on his side now that she’s out. Maybe he was able to use being a returning player in the early going as a bonding tool, but when the dust settled, he was still the person responsible for getting these people on his side after the fact. Maybe there’s a certain element subconsciously of “being friends with him = more friends in the BB community,” but if he was completely terrible to these people we don’t think it would happen.

In conclusion – We hope that there are no returning players if “Big Brother OTT” ever comes back, just because it does provide such a huge boost right out of the gate (provided you survive week one), and if the show does a final three again, it also gives someone like Jason another big advantage since there are fewer chances to get rid of you when it’s most obvious you are a threat.

Yet, at the same time, the players this season did have some chances along the way to get rid of him, and there were moves he made to contribute to his placement. So while you can claim that he entered the game with an enormous advantage, it would be wrong to call the entire season preordained for him because there were things that did not go his way. Whether or not you like him is a different story, but it’s clear why he’s made it this far and he can claim several different moves as his own. The twists don’t take away from that.

For more news related to “Big Brother OTT,” head over here to see our take on the possible people who could come back for another season. (Photo: CBS.)