Big Brother 19 spotlight: Meet Jillian Parker, a reasonably normal houseguest

Note that we say “reasonably normal” within discusses Jillian Parker on Big Brother 19, mostly because we’re pretty much convinced at this point that if you are joining this show in any capacity, you probably have a little bit of crazy going on. She’s not someone who is going to have some huge personality or be a challenge beast, but she is likable, seems to understand the game on a certain level, and isn’t going to make anyone mad.

Below, we’ll do our best to get into what Jillian offers as a player to this game, and some of what she may still need to work on if she wants to be the winner in the end.

Current City – Las Vegas, Nevada. She claims that she’s really good at winning money at the casinos after she breaks a phone, which is one of the stranger talents ever. Also interesting is that she comes from Celebration, Florida, the master-planned Disney community close to Disney World.

Age – 24. She’s younger, but doesn’t come across as the typical contestant found by casting at a local Santa Monica bar.

Job – She sells timeshares. Not the most standout job in the world, but there have surprisingly been a number of houseguests involved in real estate on the show, let alone ones (see Zach Rance) who become involved after the fact.

Past houseguest comparison – She says Dani Donato, which we love just because we love Dani Donato. If this ends up being a reality, it’s pretty clear that all of us out here are going to be winning in some shape or form. For the time being, we’d say that she is a little bit of Dani meets Jackie and Becky from Big Brother 17.

Strengths – She seems very smart, and to understand the game and how she wants to play it. While not everyone may love the strategy of her feeding information to the guys, it could work provided that she doesn’t get herself set up as the Victoria or the Britney, the obvious outlier who gets voted out close to the end of the game. She’s also pretty resilient; one of the things she discussed in her interview with Jeff is her weight-loss surgery and how she’s fought to get her health on track.

Weaknesses – She says that she’ll have to be careful about what she says, which isn’t great because you never want to see someone torpedo their own game because of something silly that they say. Also, we get the sense that she could end up being one of those under-the-radar personalities who has a hard time getting people to buy into everything that she’s doing; with that, she’ll need to almost keep track of every move throughout the game so she can point back to them later.

Prediction – Jillian does have the potential to win the game, though in order to do that, she’s going to have to win a few competitions here and there and show that she is a driving force strategically in the game. She just needs to make friends and make sure she’s at the end with someone who isn’t super-popular.

How do you think Jillian is going to fare on Big Brother 19? Share in the comments!

For some further spotlights of the houseguests this season (we’re posting several of them a day), be sure to head over to the link here! (Photo: CBS.)