Dan Gheesling was crowned Big Brother's tenth-season winner during last night's live finale broadcast of the CBS reality show.

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The 24-year-old Catholic high school teacher from Dearborn, MI took home Big Brother 10's $500,000 grand prize on Day 71 by a unanimous 7-0 jury vote.

Big Brother 10 jury members Libra Thompson, April Dowling, Michelle Costa, Bryan Ollie, Renny Martyn, Keesha Smith and Jerry MacDonald all voted for Dan. Robert "Memphis" Garrett, a 25-year-old mixologist and party planner from Los Angeles, CA, was the runner-up and claimed $50,000.

Big Brother 10's finale broadcast began with Jerry arriving at the jury house following his eviction last Thursday night.

"That means Dan and Memphis," said Michelle upon Jerry's entrance.  "The two evil people are in there."

"They played us to the hilt.  They played everybody to the hilt -- everybody," Jerry told the rest of the jury of the Final 2.  "Both of them together was a force we couldn't reckon with... There's no easy choice for us -- who's the worse of two evils and who deserves it more."

After debating who they personally thought was the most deserving of the Final 2, the still-sequestered jurors questioned Dan and Memphis via satellite.

Libra asked Dan what his most strategic move was, and he answered "one of the hardest" decisions he had to make was when he "backdoored" Michelle during a special live double eviction on Day 52.

"It was a tough, well thought out decision in my opinion," he said.

April asked Memphis why he should receive her jury vote.  He explained he has nothing personal against her and added they were simply separated from the beginning and never connected.

"I wasn't trying to put up a front with you.  I wasn't going to feed you BS.  That's kind of how I played this game -- I've been a straight shooter," added Memphis, which brought laughs from the jury.

Michelle had a two-part question for Dan -- first asking why he decided to take her for a trip to a secluded island after winning a luxury reward and then who's idea it was to backdoor her from the game.

"I felt I played the dirtiest with you in this game.  Obviously I backdoored you, so I wanted to try and make amends with you by taking you on the trip," Dan answered before also pointing a finger at Memphis, Keesha and Renny for playing a role in Michelle's demise. 

"As far as backdooring you, the original plan was mine.  However I could not enact a plan by myself."

Michelle then asked Memphis why he deserved to win despite never winning HoH and purposely throwing a few of the competitions.  Memphis basically avoided the question and flattered Michelle by calling her a tough competitor before blaming Dan for her ultimate ouster.

"When the opportunity arose to backdoor you, I might not of been the first one to jump on," he said.  "But after a little bit of convincing I was."

Ollie asked Dan why he decided to renege on the deal the two struck during the "King of the Jungle" HoH competition despite the fact that Dan swore on the name of his girlfriend.

"I had to come up with whatever I could to get you to drop.  I knew you're an emotional player, and if I could make you believe that I was playing the same way and putting the things I love on the line, maybe I could get you to drop," explained Dan.  "I had to do whatever it took whether it was shameful or not."

Renny asked Memphis to name one thing he did for her in the competition, and he had a hard time answering.

"Umm... That's a hard question Renny," he said.  "I think if I did anything for you Renny I gave you at least myself and me.  I never tried to connive anything behind your back.  I was up front with you and this is me."

Keesha simply asked Memphis why he decided to evict her instead of Jerry.

"I felt like we were really close," Keesha told Memphis.  "I just want to know do you have any remorse about this at all?"

"It was the hardest move that I had to make in this house when I had to vote you out," said Memphis.  "From a game standpoint, I had to do it... It was the only way that I could get to this point.  It bothered me that I ruined a friendship that I might never get back."

Jerry finished up the questions by asking Dan if he thought he earned the jury's respect.

"I hope any of the moves I made, they were not meant to be disrespectful," said Dan.  "They were just meant to move me ahead in the game."

Jerry then asked Memphis that if he had won the final HoH instead of Dan, who would he have taken to the Final 2.

"I think that situation -- if it were to arise -- I wouldn't have been able to make a decision until that point," replied Memphis, dodging the question instead of telling Jerry what he wanted to hear.  "I didn't think too far ahead in this game.  I didn't think about who I would choose until it came to that point of having that opportunity.  The fact is I never had that opportunity, I never had to pull the trigger."

"Jerry, I might throw something in there," interjected Dan, going in for the kill.  "Maybe he didn't have to pull the trigger because he didn't want to win the final HoH so he didn't have to make that decision."

"Thanks Dan," said Memphis.

Both Memphis and Dan then had one final opportunity to address the jury.

"I was playing to be an asset to your game so that when you got the power, you didn't want to send me home because you thought I could help you in the long run," said Memphis. 

"Just to clear things up about the HoH -- I only threw two HoH competitions, that's it.  But I want you all to know I played this game very straightforward, I fed nobody BS and this is how I am in real life.  If you think I'm the better player in this game, then vote for me to win. If you don't, then I'm not asking you to vote for me.  I'm asking you to vote for Dan."

Dan said as soon as he entered the house he realized all of the other players had various attributes they excelled in while he had none he was especially good at.

"I thought to myself I'm going to have to try and be more creative -- try and outthink people if I can.  Everything I did in this game I did for a reason," he said. 

"I aligned myself with Memphis; Memphis is not going to do anything that doesn't benefit him.   What I tried to do with 'replacement nominee roulette' was upset Ollie and Michelle.  I needed them to dislike me.  Did it go overboard?  Possibly.  But I needed to get some dislike to me in the jury house so that Memphis would still take me [to the Final 2] should I get trapped in that position.  Maybe you can set aside your emotions and vote [based on] who played this game as a better player."

The live portion of last night's broadcast then commenced with each of the seven jury members casting their votes before host Julie Chen crowned Dan the winner.

In addition, Dan's role as America's Player during the fourth week of the competition was also revealed to the jury members for the first time.  Dan received $20,000 for serving as America's Player by successfully completing three tasks voted on by home viewers -- including casting what proved to be the deciding eviction vote when Jessie Godderz was booted instead of Memphis on Day 31.

Also during last night's broadcast, home viewers awarded Keesha $25,000 for being their favorite tenth-season jury member.  Jerry finished second in what Julie described as a "very close vote."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio

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