Julie Chen Moonves has changed her mind about Rick Devens ahead of the Big Brother finale, saying the Survivor veteran grew on her after she first dismissed him as performative. What started as irritation over his first impression ended with the host saying he now deserves to win if he gets there.
That reversal matters now because the finale is close and Devens is being framed as a possible first former Survivor player to win Big Brother. Chen Moonves spoke about the shift ahead of the season finale, putting her own about-face at the center of a game that has already turned a familiar reality-TV crossover into a real chance at history.
Her initial reaction was blunt. Before Big Brother Season 28, Chen Moonves said she did not appreciate Devens’ cockiness and said she did not get the hype around him. She later said she had been rooting for him at first because she had something in common with him, but that reaction collapsed once she saw him in the house. During the first live eviction, Devens went into the diary room in a suit and tie with a Survivor buff, and Chen Moonves said that moment angered her because it looked like he had packed for a performance rather than for Big Brother.
From her point of view, that was the friction. She thought the look felt carefully staged and said it seemed like he was trying to bring Survivor into a game that was supposed to be its own thing. She even said she was being a jerk and that her own foolish ego got in the way. But the same contestant she had written off then started doing the one thing that changes opinions fast in this format: he kept winning. Chen Moonves said she ended up loving him after watching him win competition after competition, including competitions he was apparently trying to throw.
That is why her comments land with more force than a routine compliment. She is not just praising a player she now enjoys watching. She is admitting that the player she once mocked may have earned the right to go all the way, and she made that point plainly by saying that if Devens wins, he deserves it. In a season built around Big Brother Season 28 and a late-game run toward the finale, that is as close to a stamp of approval as a host can give. What remains unresolved is the only question that can settle the story cleanly: whether Devens can turn that praise into the first former Survivor win on Big Brother.
