Dustin Erikstrup, a single 22-year-old shoe salesman from Chicago, IL, became the sixth houseguest evicted from Big Brother's eighth season during last night's live broadcast of the long-running CBS reality show.
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In addition, Dustin's eviction marked the third time in four weeks that the houseguest booted from the competition wasn't an original Head of Household nominee. Instead Jessica Hughbanks, a single 21-year-old college student from Haysville, KS and Big Brother 8's sixth HoH, had originally heeded the advice of her "Late Night Crew" alliance and nominated Dick and his daughter Danielle Donato, a single 20-year-old waitress from Huntington Beach, CA, for eviction.
Dick decided to play the role of the martyr and verbally abused the other houseguests -- especially Dustin, Amber Siyavus, Jameka Cameron and America's Player contestant Eric Stein -- hoping they would ultimately choose to evict him instead of his daughter.
The plan became a moot point when Dick narrowly edged Dustin during Big Brother 8's Power of Veto competition, which aired on Tuesday night's broadcast. Dick used the Power of Veto on Danielle, taking her off the block.
"It means probably more than anybody would ever know," Danielle said of her dad's generosity.
Dustin had previously told Jessica he would be pleased to play the role of the pawn and be nominated as Danielle's replacement, confident the "Late Night Crew" would evict Dick. She decided to take him up on his offer.
"There's always a twinge of a risk, but in this situation, I just don't feel it," said Dustin.
"I am thrilled to be up on the block against Dustin," said Dick. "I'm probably going home, but this could be a really, really big coup."
Dick's plan for a coup d'etat began to take shape when Zach Swerdzewski attempted to convince Jessica to keep Dick around and instead boot Dustin. Viewers also instructed Eric as America's Player to lobby Jessica for Dustin's eviction -- and while he was hesitant at first, Eric eventually accepted the task and rallied to see his fellow "Late Night Crew" member be sent packing. Dustin's eviction appeared to be a done deal when Dick approached Eric and asked him and Jessica to form an alliance with Danielle and himself.
"I'm listening to you, and I'm going to take it into consideration," answered Eric, who then immediately informed Jessica they should "get rid" of Dustin. "We have a chance to make a big, big move that would change things a lot," added Eric to Jessica.
Prior to the houseguests' casting their eviction votes live, Dustin seemed oblivious to what was taking place and attempted to use Dick's negativity against him in his plea.
"It's been very fun the past several weeks getting to know every single one of you," said Dustin before the houseguests cast their votes. "I hope that you guys make the decision to make the next six weeks even more fun than the first six weeks."
RELATED LINK: 'BIG BROTHER' SHOWMANCES NOWWhile Jameka and Amber stayed true to the "Late Night Crew" alliance and voted to evict Dick; Eric, Jessica, Zach and Jen Johnson all voted for Dustin, leading to his ousting.
"Ohh," sighed Dustin after the eviction vote was revealed. "Interesting..."
Once outside the Big Brother 8 house, host Julie Chen asked Dustin how he felt about the vote.
"So stunned..." he answered, adding he was "absolutely" certain his eviction nomination had been as a pawn. "I think that Eric was the sheisty person he was and he was the fourth vote against me. I think that Jameka and Amber kept their word and Zach and Jen did not. So there are the votes... four to two. It is what it is. Everything happens for a reason."
While Dustin took some solace in the fact that he'll be the first member of Big Brother 8's jury -- ultimately having a say in which remaining houseguest claims the $500,000 grand prize -- he still couldn't help but feel betrayed.
"I do regret volunteering myself [for nomination]," he continued. "I guess I put my faith into people and I was wrong... I felt it earlier this afternoon when I was talking to people. There's always that risk. I made a risk, and it was a bad move on my behalf."
After Dustin's elimination was revealed, the rest of the houseguests -- excluding Jessica, who as the outgoing HoH was ineligible, and Jameka, who as part of Week 5's PoV competition, had agreed to be ineligible for Big Brother 8's next five HoH competitions -- competed in the seventh HoH competition "Strange Visitors," which saw them answering true or false questions about a group of costumed visitors that had appeared in the house the previous day.
Danielle won the competition and became the first Big Brother 8 houseguest to become HoH for a second time.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio
