Mobile Register article on Jason
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TV ClubHouse: Archive: USA 2002: Outside the House: Mobile Register article on Jason

Ark

Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - 11:05 am EditMoveDeleteIP
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TV Columnist Mike Brantley



No regrets: Jason Guy calls 'Big Brother' 'fun'


09/24/02

By MIKE BRANTLEY
TV & Media Editor


After living for three months in what he described as a "fish bowl," Mobile's Jason Guy said he walked out of the "Big Brother 3" house on live television Saturday with no re grets about how he played the game.


That's despite missing his chance to compete for the $500,000 top prize in the final episode of the popular CBS reality show. The two remaining "house guests," as the players are called, will vie for the cash during the installment airing at 8 p.m. Wednesday on CBS affiliate WKRG-TV5.

The second-place finisher will get $50,000.

Lisa Donahue of Los Angeles and Danielle Reyes of Fairfield, Calif., are the final players still in the house.

Guy, a 25-year-old videographer with aspirations of becoming an actor, finished third when at the end of Saturday's show he became the 10th house guest to be evicted from the game that three months ago placed 12 strangers inside a sealed house. The dwelling was outfitted with hidden cameras and microphones to record their every move, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The show has aired three nights a week, with the most devoted viewers choosing to check in more often via Internet live feeds and regular recaps.

"This is the greatest summer of my life and probably one of the best experiences of my life, if not the best experience," Guy said Monday from Los Angeles during a telephone interview. "It was so much fun. It was so challenging. There were the highest highs and the lowest lows. You can't even imagine how great it was."

While he was inside the "BB3" house, Guy had almost no contact with the outside world. Winning a viewers' choice competition one week earned him a priceless letter from home.

Since leaving the house when the show's final Head of Household winner evicted him, he has learned from friends and family members how widely watched the show has been -- particularly in his hometown. An episode last week attracted 14 million viewers nationally, according to CBS.

"Seeing that Mobile has supported it and that people have loved it, I am just blown away," said Guy, a graduate of LeFlore High School. "I am just so encouraged about that."

He is particularly pleased, he said, that he was able to play a strong game without compromising any of his beliefs. He is just as pleased to be a role model for young Christians.

"It's just mind boggling, and I hope in the days, weeks, months and years to come that I will have an opportunity to be an impact in young people's lives," he said. "And I hope that in some ways this will open some doors for me in other areas."

Those other areas include his aspirations to be an entertainer. In Mobile, Guy is known for his teen years spent on the former "Fox 15 Breakfast Club," as well as for local theatrical roles and for spinning tunes on Christian music radio.

"I love being in front of people and I guess people like me, so I might be good at it," Guy said. "I would love to do some acting, and I said it early on in the process. I think it would be amazing, and I will see what happens. At this point I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch."

On Monday, Guy was focused more on his immediate future -- specifically, his task on Wednesday's episode of "Big Brother 3." On that show, all 10 evicted house guests will return to choose the final winner.

As of early Monday, Guy was halfway through a crash course of watching videotapes of all the "BB3" episodes. Inside the house, Guy said, he didn't see or hear everything that viewers and Web surfers witnessed via all those spying cameras and microphones.

"I feel like Wednesday night's show is going to get nasty," he said. "Wednesday night is going to be tough for the house guests. They are going to be held accountable for the choices and decisions they've made the last few weeks and months."

Guy's parents, Don and Sandra Guy of Mobile, surprised their son when they greeted him in person, on live television, after he was evicted. It was an emotional reunion, and afterward they helped bring him up to date with aspects of the game not known to him inside the house.

"Their comment was that Danielle is going to have a tough time winning it," Guy said. "In the house, you don't have a feel for how people will react to things -- whether they will go, 'Danielle has played an amazing game. You go, girl, you've got my vote,' or if they will feel she was really down and dirty."

The best-kept secret inside the house was Guy's alliance with Reyes, formed during the first week of the contest. He said he and Reyes took great care to keep their secret.

He explained, "Danielle and I tried to keep a lot of distance between us, and we tried to keep from communicating a lot with each other in the house even on a personal level. We didn't want people to see we were really good friends."

Although he isn't allowed to say how he will vote, Guy indicated his vote "won't be a shocker" to anyone who has watched the show.

After coming out of the house, Guy said, he has learned that Reyes' potential downfall in the quest for the $500,000 top prize could be the result of her painfully direct diary-room interviews. In the house's diary room, players reveal to viewers their secret strategies and what they think about other house guests.

What Reyes may have failed to take into account, he said, is that evicted players are scrutinizing what is said in that room and played back on national TV. Those evicted house guests ultimately decide who wins and who must settle for a second-place finish.

"Things you say in that diary room can and will be used against you on the finale," Guy said. "It's part of the game, and you have to play the game in the diary room even though you are letting people know your secrets about the game. It's a fine line that you walk to avoid taking anything on a personal level."

Nevertheless, Guy said he feels the same about Reyes as he did inside the house.

"I think Wednesday night is going to be tough for her, and she is going to be grilled and I'm not sure she can win the game," he said. "But she's an amazing, strong woman. I think that she just didn't take into account the power of the diary room."

Guy, who watched previous incarnations of "Big Brother" with his family, said he was acutely aware of the unyielding eyes of the cameras when he first moved into the house. That takes getting used to, he said.

"You never forget that you are in a house with cameras and microphones, because you get up in the morning and you are told to go the storage room and change your batteries," he said. "You can hear the robotic cameras in the house follow you sometimes, and so you never completely forget. But there are moments when you do let your guard down."

Eventually, he said, "you begin to live life as if it were normal....You become comfortable, and once again you start living your life like you did on the outside world even though you are in this fish bowl being watched."

After leaving the house Saturday, Guy was shown something the two remaining house guests haven't yet been allowed to witness. He saw the behind-the-walls operation in which members of the "BB3" production team operate hidden cameras and microphones and keep the Internet feed going.

"If I had seen this before, I would have been freaked out at every moment," Guy said.

In a live segment on Thursday's episode, Guy was one of the last three house guests when they began the first phase of the final Head of Household competition. The winner of that contest would be guaranteed a spot as one of the final two house guests, since he or she would decide who was to be evicted Saturday.

It was an endurance contest in which Guy, Reyes and Donahue were sitting in rubber rafts in a swimming pool while cold, artificial rain fell on them. They had to bail water from their rafts while each keeping one hand gripped around a large, golden key.

Guy said he could imagine the collective groan coming from Mobile when he became the first competitor to let go of a key -- thus, losing the first round of the Head of Household contest that Donahue would eventually win.

"I knew my family did that and that all of Mobile and my friends just went, "Ohhh! He let go of the key! Honestly, I felt like I could have gone the distance. I got distracted."

Guy said he saw something in the sky that distracted him, and "when the rain came down again I wanted to reach for my rain hat with my left hand, and I let go of that key. It was just for that moment a lapse, but it was all over at that point."

The biggest shock of the game came earlier this month, in another live segment, when Marcellas Reynolds, a fashion stylist from Chicago, made what was for him a game-ending error. Reynolds and Amy Crews of Memphis, Tenn., were nominated for eviction, but Reynolds had won the Golden Power of Veto that he could have used to save either himself or Crews.

Reynolds decided not to use his veto, trusting the other house guests to evict Crews instead of himself.

Guy, as that week's Head of Household, had the tie-breaking vote that sent Reynolds home.

"When Marcellas didn't use that Golden Veto I was completely shocked and blown away," Guy said. "And it happened on live television, and in that moment I glanced at Danielle and I knew we had talked about what I had to do. Any moment you deviate from the plan you were in trouble. Danielle and I really tried to stick to the plan. I did that, and that's what took us so far."

When it came time to leave the house himself, Guy said, he decided on a "no tears" policy.

"It was not a sad thing," he said. "It was an exciting thing. I played the game well, and I am glad I made it that far. It feels like a new chapter in life is beginning."

Laura11103

Tuesday, September 24, 2002 - 12:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Cool, thx for the article. Nothing new really, just about what I figured Jason would say.

Ginger

Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 06:32 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks for posting the article, Ark. I continue to think that Jason is a stellar guy.