Paul Abrahamian watched $500,000 slip through his fingers when Josh Martinez was named the winner of Big Brother by only one vote. It was a brutal moment, but Paul has seemingly realized he had poor jury-management skills.
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"I don't know who I could have been up there with [in Final 2] and won seeing as how all the things that I did managed the jury to be upset with me," Paul told Entertainment Weekly following Wednesday night's finale broadcast.
If Paul had won the final Head of Household competition, he said he would've brought Josh to the Final 2 anyway.
"I thought I had a better chance with him, because he had so many crazy arguments with jury members and they didn't like him and always bad-mouthed him, so I went ahead and assumed, 'Okay, the jury is going to be pissed at me, but I know they definitely don't like Josh. And hopefully they can see my gameplay and get rid of the emotions.' Because I thought that was the point of jury roundtables. I guess not," Paul explained.
Paul said it was a "pretty gnarly" experience to listen to Big Brother host Julie Chen read the votes for Josh to win one by one. (Josh received 5 votes and Paul earned 4).
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RELATED LINK: PAUL ABRAHAMIAN WAS ROBBED OF 'BIG BROTHER' WIN, JULIE CHEN SAYS
"Coming that close and falling short by one vote was definitely not easy," Paul said, admitting that he anticipated a completely different turnout.
"I thought it would probably come out to like 6-3 [votes in my favor] or something of that sort. [Alex Ow] gave me her word to give me her vote and she said she would fight for me in jury, but she didn't. She did the exact opposite, it seems like," Paul explained.
In addition to Alex, the other jurors who voted for Josh to win were Jason Dent, Cody Nickson, Mark Jansen, and Elena Davies.
"So I guess I had the numbers wrong in my head," acknowledged Paul, who received votes from Raven Walton, Matt Clines, Kevin Schlehuber, and third-place finisher Christmas Abbott.
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Paul apparently doesn't feel that Josh played a better Big Brother game, so the returning houseguest would not concede that the loud and emotional Miami native deserved to win.
"It's not that I don't think he played a good game. It's that countless times during the season he admitted that if it weren't for me, he wouldn't even be there. And I definitely flipped the house to keep him a few times and kinda kept him safe under my wing," Paul insisted.
"So arguably, if you're looking at it from his perspective, he attached to the vet and made it to the end, so you can't say he didn't play a good game, but I definitely think I put in more footwork during the season."
RELATED LINK: CHRISTMAS ABBOTT: I'D HAVE WON 'BIG BROTHER' IF I'D MADE THE FINAL 2 AGAINST PAUL ABRAHAMIAN OR JOSH MARTINEZ
Most of Paul's work was done behind the scenes, as he often allowed his allies to become Head of Household or win the Power of Veto in order to do his dirty work for him.
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Paul, afraid of a bitter jury, didn't want the blood on his hands after finishing as the runner-up on Season 18 behind Nicole Franzel.
However, Josh chose to expose Paul's objectives in the goodbye messages he had taped for evicted houseguests, which played following each juror's ouster from the game.
When asked whether he thought Josh's message for each departing houseguest was a smart move or low blow, Paul replied, "I guess it was a little bit of both because he won."
"But, at the same time, in that same moment [he] admitted that I was the mastermind behind the plan, so it's kind of ironic that they would still toss it to him," Paul continued to EW.
"But I guess he had a better understanding of the jury and their emotions or whatever it may be, and I guess throwing me under the bus was the best gameplay for him. So it worked."
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Had Josh taken Christmas to the Final 2 instead, Paul said he would've voted for Christmas to win. (Although Josh told EW that he'd vote for Paul to take home the $500,000 over Christmas).
"I think she made more strategic moves in the house and her broken foot still making it to the end I think was pretty impressive," the veteran player noted.
And if Paul had gone to the end with Christmas, he believes he still would have lost the game.
"Seeing as how this outcome came out, I probably would have lost as well. I would have lost regardless, really," Paul confessed.
On a side note, Paul called Cody winning "America's Favorite Houseguest" a "very, very bizarre" notion given Kevin and Jason were also in the running for the honor.
RELATED LINK: JOSH MARTINEZ ON 'BIG BROTHER' VICTORY: I THOUGHT I HAD "NO SHOT" TO BEAT PAUL ABRAHAMIAN, IT'S CRAZY!
"I think there were a lot of other houseguests that showed a bit more of their personality, and just based on the way Cody kind of treated houseguests and carried himself in the house, it's not something that I really thought was impressive. But kudos to America, I guess," Paul said.