‘Big Brother: Over the Top’ finale: Where does Morgan Willett stack up against other winners?
The finale of “Big Brother: Over the Top” is now officially in the rear-view mirror, and with that, we do have several questions to ask over the coming days. Today, we’re starting with the one related to the winner of the season!
Was Morgan Willett the right person to take home the title? You can debate that all you want, but the reality now still is the reality, and she is the person with the title. The purpose of this article is to mostly see how she stacks up against some other recent winners of the franchise.
We’ve been asked over the years to do a winner ranking for this show, and we’ve resisted for one simply reason: We didn’t start covering the show full-time until season 11, and while we’re very familiar with some seasons before that, we’ve also got noticeable blindspots like season 5 and season 9. It’s not fair for us to rank winners we don’t know very well. It’s also admittedly tough to rank someone like Morgan, who won a season with an extremely heavy viewer influence, against people from other seasons where there were different set of rules.
If we were to boil down what we consider to be the core of Morgan’s game, it is this: She won competitions when she absolutely had to, but relied more on a fairly strong social game and hiding behind bigger targets. She was the recipient of a little bit of luck courtesy of a controversial twist (the Double Eviction Care Package), but she still made it to the end and did what she needed to in order to get the jury — in this case the voters — on her side.
The easiest comparison to draw between Morgan and a past winner of the American show is easily Jordan Lloyd, interestingly enough, from season 11. Neither were bad players, and we feel like if Morgan were to return she’d do just about as well as Jordan did during season 13. Both were very social, well-liked among the majority of the people in the house, and made the moves that needed to be made in order to make it to the end. They could each win competitions, even if they weren’t dominant. Jordan also benefited heavily from a controversial twist in the coup d’etat, which benefited her #1 ally Big Jeff.
Another comparison to draw here is Sarah Hanlon from “Big Brother Canada” season 3. Granted, we think that Sarah was a little more strategic and out in front strategically, but she also had a close ally in Brittnee who was effectively her Shelby and she also benefited from a huge twist in what happened with the Veto in the Have-Not Room. Sarah’s win over Godfrey, someone considered to be very strategic, was also rather controversial.
None of the players mentioned are bad by any means, nor are they the worst winners in the history of the franchise. Yet, at the same time they aren’t close to the upper tier, either. All had some help making it to the end, and while they weren’t always in control, they survived. There’s something to be said about that.
Where would you put Morgan among “Big Brother” winners, recognizing that this is a different sort of game this season? Let us know right now in the comments! Also, be sure to check out some additional coverage now of “Big Brother: Over the Top.” (Photo: CBS.)