‘Big Brother OTT’ finale: How did Jason Roy lose?

Tonight, “Big Brother: Over the Top” crowned the winner of its first season, and to say that this was an upset would be an understatement. We were one of many people saying that Jason Roy had this in the bag, given that he had the more vocal audience on social media plus a number of alumni out there supporting him for the game that he played.

So when Morgan Willett was declared the winner, we were shocked — but there is one thing you have to remember here almost right away: Playing the “best game” is a subjective term. The winner of a season is simply the person who played the best per the people voting. We loved Paul last season, and were sad he lost to Nicole; yet, at the same time he specifically did things he didn’t need to that cost himself the game. His attitude towards Natalie was bad, and he could’ve been more upfront to Da’Vonne about his game with her heading out the door. Nicole was the right winner for those people at that time.

This season, we were the jury, and while Jason did a tremendous job at times strategically, he also needlessly hurt his game when he didn’t need to. If he hadn’t insulted Shelby on such a personal level, or done some of the gross stuff to other people’s belongings, odds are he would have received significantly more votes. We all love him when he’s dragging other people in a comedic way, but there’s a line and to many, he crossed it. He also hurt himself further with moves done seemingly out of malice, such as the fake deal before Alex left the game. Morgan is the right winner for this particular time.

We don’t think that Jason fans were complacent in the slightest. They voted hard! Go ahead and throw the whole “it was rigged” explanation out the window, given that CBS would’ve loved nothing more than an extremely popular, charismatic person winning the game over someone who gave a pretty mediocre speech earlier this week and has fewer big moves next to her name. Yet, Morgan won over people who were dissatisfied with Jason by being the more pleasing option. Juries often vote at times for the person they’re okay with representing the season, even if that person wasn’t perceived as a better player for most of the season. Social game matters, and Jason’s social game with all of America didn’t help him. It only helped him with a group.

One other thing we need to point out here is that we think, to a certain extent, that the zealous nature of the pro-Jason campaign hurt him. Let’s compare it to a fast-food chain who throws advertisements in front of you everywhere you go; if you already don’t like that fast-food chain, your frustration may compel you even more to go eat somewhere else and support their business. We do think Morgan fans looked at the fan videos, the social-media posts, and the extreme amount of attention as a call to action. They didn’t tweet as much or create as many videos, but they still voted, and in big numbers. They were in this case a quiet majority — they weren’t a silent one, but there was more of them than many of us thought.

Ultimately, we see this season as one where Morgan ended up doing just enough to win, but also one where Jason ended up making just enough mistakes to lose. We actually think that if you are a member of #JasonNation, the silver lining is that him losing may increase his odds of him coming back down the line. It’s probably a tough pill for some to swallow, but life will go on, and Jason will continue to love the game and will be around for people to support.

For more coverage of the “Big Brother OTT” finale, be sure to head over to the link here. (Photo: CBS.)