72. Tyler Crispen (Big Brother 20, 2nd place) I initially had one more person below Tyler above Shannon, but when I went to go do their write-ups I had to find a way to justify putting Tyler above them and I couldnt come up with one, so I swapped them. Doesnt matter too much, theyll be next anyway. And honestly, just a little less praise for Tyler is never a bad thing.
So this is going to be one of the more unique write-ups on the list, as well as one of the longest because Im going to refer almost entirely back to a comparison I made earlier in the season of Tyler to a particular former Survivor contestant. Thats right, I actually had the balls to compare Tyler to Russell Hantz, and needless to say I got a LOT of criticism for that. And with the season finally over, not only do I stand by what I said, but I think the comparison has even MORE weight behind it. While its true that Tyler wasnt a proudly overbearing shithead like Russell was, everything else about his gameplay, edit, bits of personality, and even the hype surrounding him bears an uncanny resemblance to Russell.
First, gameplay. Much like Russell, Tyler doesnt understand the most fundamental aspect of his game - the social element. In Russells case, he thought that having an alliance that did what he said was playing a good social game. In Tylers case, he thought that being nice (though Ill argue this point in a bit) and making empty promises of final 2 to more than half of the jury was playing a good social game. Its not. It pisses people off and makes them question everything you said. Furthermore, Tyler admitted to intentionally making enemies on the jury to make himself seem like less of a threat. Newsflash - having enemies on the jury, intentional or not, doesnt make you SEEM like less of a threat, it MAKES you less of a threat. Russell had the same problem. He thought he could be a douchebag to people on their way out the door and have them overlook that at the end. To the surprise of literally nobody else in the world, they didnt.
Second, edit and personality. Like Russell, Tyler got a rather unique edit in the beginning because it was very clear CBS was hyping him up to be the breakout star of the season. So it was made to look like he had a small alliance against 10 other people and had to work to gain the majority, and managed to turn a 6-10 minority on day 1 into a 9-5 majority by the second eviction. But once he had the numbers, his once lively, intriguing confessionals became quite monotone and turned into slight variations on three generic ones - Level 6 has the power this week so were good. I have to convince _____ to put up their own allies so that Level 6 doesnt lose a member this week. and I need to make a final 2 deal with _____ so they will never vote me out. with the occasional Angela is hot. I once again refer back to Russell Hantz and his 100+ confessionals that were just variations on a few themes. It was not only very gamebotty but as the season progressed and it became more and more clear that FOUTTE was not going to mount an epic comeback, it got cockier and cockier (sound familiar), and some of the nastier aspects of his personality started to come out, like with Bayleigh (sound familiar) and really just made for an all around frustrating viewing experience.
