Vince Panaro made final two deals with pretty much everyone in the Big Brother house. The good news for him is that he indeed ended up making that final two. The bad news is all those different burned bridges eventually caused his game to go up in flames.
Ashley Hollis brought Vince to the final two after winning the last Head of Household competition, feeling he would be easier to beat due to all the bad blood from the jury. She was right, walking away with $750,000 in a 6-1 jury vote. For Vince, it was a bittersweet finish. He made it all the way to the end and scored $75,000 for his efforts, but still felt short of his ultimate goal in a resounding jury defeat.
How dies Vince feel now about being so close, yet still so far from the title? Which votes surprised him the most? What does he have to say about his meltdown during stage two of the final Head of Household competition? We asked the season 27 runner-up about all that and more, including getting an update on his status with pre-season girlfriend Kelsey.
CBS
Vince Panaro on ‘Big Brother’ season 27
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Tell me about the emotions. On one hand, you just fulfilled a decade-long dream and made it all the way to the very end and won $75,000. On the other, not the final result you wanted, and we’ve seen you take defeat pretty hard before, so where are you at right now with all of that?
VINCE PANARO: I’m at peace. I’m all right, man. It was a dream to play the game. I got to do it and I got the full experience, and that’s what I was really hoping for. Obviously, the ultimate goal was to win first place and to win that 750K, but ultimately the jury management wasn’t there. I played the game that I played and second place, I’m not gonna complain.
We’ve seen you beat yourself up before in the house. Are you going to beat yourself up over this, or do you think you’ll be able to put it in a big picture perspective?
I think so, yeah. I mean, when you’re living it, it’s like the only reality you know, but then as soon as you’re outside of it, you could kind of look back with fresh eyes and look at the experience for what it was. I did the best I could and that feels good. I did the best I could in that moment.
I’m sure you were doing jury math in your head leading up to the very end, so once it was set with you and Ashley, what did you think the vote was going to be before the jury Q&A started?
I thought it might be split, to be honest. I knew she had a lot of friends on the jury. She had people who she was close to, and she did build those close relationships. But I didn’t know what their perception was of the game. I only knew my own perception of my own game. I didn’t know the elements and aspects of her social game. So I didn’t know what their perception of her was. I didn’t know what her pitch was going to be.
It was a very interesting final two, because I only knew my game. She didn’t know a whole lot about mine. She knew her game. I didn’t know a whole lot about hers. And when she started speaking, she’s a very good speaker and, you know, well earned. So that was awesome.
CBS
Vince Panaro on ‘Big Brother’ season 27
Which votes surprised you the most?
I was bummed I didn’t get Lauren’s vote, but I’m figuring me putting her on the block because of the whole Veto usage was probably a good indicator that she was not happy with my gameplay. And understandably so, by the way. So no hard feelings there. She is the sweetest person ever.
I saw you made a face when her vote came up. It sort of came through that you clearly thought you were going to get that one.
I was hoping.
And probably knew you needed that one.
Oh, I needed every single one I could get. I needed four. I only got one for Morgan. I needed three more. I didn’t know how I would scrape by and get them, but I thought maybe my final speech would help explain the efforts that I put into the game. But, ultimately, it played out how it did, and I didn’t have the votes.
Matthew Taplinger/CBS
Vince Panaro and Morgan Pope on ‘Big Brother’ season 27 finale
How did you feel about your Q&A answers and final speech and how Ashley did with her answers and speech?
She’s such a good public speaker. I am not. I’m an introverted person. I am not a public speaker. So the Q&A was hard on me. I felt like I stumbled quite a bit on that. And that’s when I started thinking like, “Oh, shoot. I might not be giving great answers.”
But I knew my final two speech, so I was like, “All right, you know what, forget those. They’re past, let me just say what I want to say. And hopefully they’ll understand and respect it as the Big Brother game, which is built around all of these elements of people lying and deceiving and ultimately outplaying each other.” Um, so I didn’t know where it stood. I thought it was a tossup.
Could you feel it? Could you essentially feel it sort of slipping away during the Q&A?
I knew I was gonna get grilled. I knew I didn’t have picture perfect jury management, I’ll say. So I knew I’d get grilled, but yeah, I kind of started to see it slip away a little bit, but I didn’t want to give up hope. So I still wanted to speak with passion in my final speech, but ultimately it is what it is.
CBS
Vince Panaro on ‘Big Brother’ season 27
I remember early in the season watching you make a lot of promises to a lot of people and thinking to myself, this is a good way to get really far in the game, but it’s almost impossible to win that way because people then always feel burned. Was the sort of tell-everybody-what-they-want-to-hear approach an intentional strategy before you entered the house or did it just sort of happen on the fly?
Yeah, it’s interesting, and that’s a great point you bring up is because I was in such extreme self-preservation mode where it was like, I would say anything just to make sure that I make it past one more eviction, one more eviction, just to go as far as I can. But then I knew once the jury started, I would have to probably cut that out. But the game speeds up and it just gets crazy.
I probably shouldn’t have gone that route, but it felt like a little bit of desperation. It’s like, you want something so bad for so long and you get there, so you you’re clinging to it and you’ll say anything to make sure that you maximize that experience, but then you realize: Well, this is the game still, and they’re gonna have opinions, like you said. Maybe this is great to get me far, but is it great to win it all at the end? And as I have now lived, yes for getting far, no on winning.
CBS
Vince Panaro on ‘Big Brother’ season 27
Let’s talk about part two of the final HOH competition. You misread the instructions and really took it hard. Tell me about you having that sort of mini-meltdown after realizing what had happened.
I mean, yeah, not my proudest moment. Not my proudest moment, but it’s like your whole game is on the line. I was viewing it as a $750,000 competition, and I had such a massive lead. I mean, for the knocking down the billboards and then putting the puzzle together and reading the instructions. I had a pretty sizable lead.
But for some reason in my brain I had been studying days, because I was expecting this for so long that my brain said “In the order, boom, perfect. Okay, I know the order. They went home on day 66, they went home on day 17, they went home….” In my brain, I was crossing it as in order by day. It just said by order, meaning first, second, third, fourth. And my brain just never went to it. And when it’s that like high stakes of a situation, you just feel so silly for not slowing down, reading the clue and thinking.
I knew my days were correct. So why was I second guessing my days? I knew the days were correct. So what’s off? I should have reread the clue, thought about it, and gotten more creative thinking about the different way it could have been intended. And for some reason, I didn’t. And something I want to work on is that composure. You know, I always looked up to a Cody Calafiore type. He stayed calm, cool, and collected through everything. He’s my idol. And then I threw the polar opposite. I’m like, “Oh, great.” Well, it’s a process. I’m working on it, you know. Lesson learned in a big way.
Sonja Flemming/CBS
Vince Panaro and Morgan Pope on ‘Big Brother’ season 27
We saw you get extremely close with Morgan with lots of caressing and long hugging, and it became a big storyline on the show. We saw your housemates talking about it — Keanu even making a reference to being on Cheating Island. How concerned were you about how your girlfriend Kelsey was going to view all that stuff?
I mean, Kelsey is the… she’s the most secure person in the world. We know our relationship, we know the boundaries we set. So I’m not worried about any of that. It’s just the Big Brother house. And, you know, II’m not worried about that aspect when it comes to my relationship.
You looked a little worried when you didn’t get the video from her. Have you gotten any sort of indication yet from anyone in terms of her reaction to all that?
I haven’t gotten my phone yet, so I mean, I’ve hardly…. All I’ve said is hi to my parents, so I’m not super worried about it. I mean, I’m excited to get back to the real world.
CBS
Vince Panaro on ‘Big Brother’ season 27
Would you play again, and if so, would you change anything up about your game?
I would play every summer for the rest of my life. Maybe it’s surprising with all the lows and all the highs. I mean, it was just the best experience. I’m an even bigger of a fan of Big Brother than I was before entering the house, and I was already a massive fan. So yeah, I would do it again in a heartbeat immediately, no questions asked.
And would I do anything differently? To put it brief: Yes, yes, a hundred times, yes. I would do everything differently. I would keep my composure. I would make only one final two. I would be cautious with my alliances. I would be cautious with my emotions and my composure within competitions and being hard on myself outside of competition. So totally. If I got a second opportunity at any point in my life, it would be a night and day game that you would see from Vince.
It’s not $750,000, but it is $75,000 — maybe $40,000 to $50,000 after taxes — but what are you going to do with the money?
I’m going to try to be smart with it. I’m going to try to make it last as long as I can. I am currently unemployed, so I do have bills. Maybe I could pay off the remainder of my school loan if I’m not burning too much of it. I’m just going to be smart with it. I’m going to be very cautious and mindful of what I do with it, because yeah, it’s not three quarters of a million, but it’s something, so I’ll utilize it wisely.
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