Andy Herren won Big Brother 15 in September 2013, beating GinaMarie 7–2 on the jury vote after taking the last two parts of the final Head of Household — and he did it having been nominated exactly once all summer and never once receiving a vote to evict.
Zingbot called him a floater. The house called him a rat. The feeds recorded something more specific: Andy was in every alliance that decided the season — the Goof Troop, the Knockouts, 3AM and finally the Exterminators — and he was on the winning side of every eviction vote he cast.
- Season: Big Brother 15 (2013). Winner, 90 days.
- Final vote: 7–2 over GinaMarie. For Andy: Candice, Jessie, Helen, Amanda, Elissa, McCrae and Spencer. For GinaMarie: Aaryn and Judd.
- Head of Household wins: 3 — Week 7, the final four, and the final HOH.
- Power of Veto wins: 2 — Week 7 and the final four. He used neither.
- Nominations: 1 — Week 9, as Elissa’s replacement nominee. He survived 5–0.
- Votes to evict him: 0.
- Prize: $500,000. America’s Favorite went to Elissa.
Who is Andy on Big Brother?
Andy came into the Big Brother 15 house at 26, a college professor from Chicago, and left it 90 days later with the cheque. In between he played a game the broadcast barely showed and the live feeds could not miss: he was in every room, in every conversation, and in more alliances than most of the people sitting next to him knew about.
He was also blunter about it than the floater label suggests. Six days after winning his first Head of Household, Andy told Aaryn — the person he called his secret weapon — that he was not there to carry anybody:
Andy: “I’m playing this game to win .. Elissa and Ginamarie are both expendable” — from the feeds, 14 August 2013.
Was Andy a floater?
Zingbot said so. When the robot hosted the Week 9 veto competition on 24 August, it zinged Andy as a floater, and on the feeds afterwards Andy was still stewing about it — he said it pissed him off, because he had been loyal to people since the beginning. A year later, in the Winners Tell All chat, he had changed his mind: he loved it, because it reinforced that he was not a threat. He called himself a strategic floater.
The record supports the second reading more than the first. Andy was not nominated until Week 9. At the end of July he was pointing out, on the feeds, that the four members of the Goof Troop were the only people who had never been on the block. When his name finally went up it was as a replacement nominee, after Amanda used the veto on McCrae, and he survived 5–0 as Aaryn went out beside him. Every vote he cast — from David in Week 1 to Judd at the final five — landed on the winning side.
Inside the house the word was not floater. By the third week of August Helen was warning Elissa that Andy was a rat, and by the Week 9 eviction the live-feed archive had adopted the name: the rat, AKA Andy. It stuck.
What the rat did with his one Head of Household is the clearest picture of the game. The day after winning it, sitting in the HOH room with Spencer, Andy laid it out:
“If anyone f—s me I can turn so many people against them” — Andy to Spencer, 9 August 2013.
Which alliances was Andy in?
Four that mattered, and he was the only person in all four.
- The Goof Troop — Amanda, McCrae, Judd and Andy. Named on 15 July, the final four inside the bigger group.
- The Knockouts — the Goof Troop plus Helen and Elissa. Amanda suggested the name on 16 July and Helen approved it. This was the six-person majority that ran July.
- 3AM — Andy, Amanda, McCrae and Aaryn. Named on 9 August, the day after Andy won HOH, on Aaryn’s suggestion. In the same conversation Andy and Aaryn agreed that Helen would have to go.
- The Exterminators — Andy, Spencer, Judd and GinaMarie. Formed in the backyard in the small hours of 26 August, hours before Elissa put Andy on the block. Judd suggested the name. Target one was Aaryn; targets two and three were Amanda and McCrae.
Each move had a body count among the people he had been closest to. Judd, his Goof Troop partner, was blindsided 7–0 in the 8 August double eviction with Andy’s vote among the seven — the next night Andy told McCrae that from a game standpoint he was happy and from a personal standpoint he was sad. Helen, who by her own account had held a final-two deal with him from the beginning of the game, went out 4–1 on 22 August with Andy voting to evict her. In the have-not room that morning she had already worked it out:
Helen: “Andy made a final two deal with me in the beginning of the game and what does that tell you when he is not voting to keep me in the game” — 22 August 2013.
Then came the alliance that finished it. The night the Exterminators formed, Andy was still telling Spencer and Judd that everything Amanda had done that day was to help him, and that it proved her loyalty. He was in a new final four aimed at her by 3 AM, and on the block by the afternoon.
What was Andy’s biggest move?
Andy’s own answer, given in the Winners Tell All chat the following summer, was the 5 September double eviction: getting rid of Amanda and framing Elissa for it.
GinaMarie was Head of Household. Amanda and Spencer were the final nominees after McCrae won the veto and took himself off. Andy and Judd voted to evict Amanda; Elissa and McCrae voted to evict Spencer; GinaMarie broke the 2–2 tie and sent Amanda out. Amanda walked to Julie believing Elissa had flipped on her. Elissa, evicted 3–0 later in the same episode under McCrae’s HOH, believed McCrae had done it. Andy had voted out the ally he had ridden with since the Goof Troop, and let two other people take the blame for it in the same episode.
The cover held for another week. Judd came back from the jury house into the Exterminators and was blindsided 2–0 at the final five — Andy had argued on 7 September that Judd had to be blindsided because if he knew he was going he would raise hell all week. McCrae only learned the alliance existed on the afternoon of his own eviction, 12 September, when Andy told him in the kitchen:
Andy to McCrae: “3 weeks ago we formed an alliance while sitting outside. From then we decided who would go and when.” — 12 September 2013.
How did Andy win Big Brother 15?
By winning when it counted. At the final four Andy took the Head of Household and then the Power of Veto, nominated McCrae and Spencer, and left the veto in the box. GinaMarie cast the only vote and McCrae was gone on 12 September.
The three-part final HOH went the way the numbers said it should. GinaMarie won Part 1, the roller-skating endurance competition. Andy beat Spencer in Part 2 on 14 September, and GinaMarie knew what was coming:
GinaMarie: “I don’t know if I can f— beat him in questions bro” — 14 September 2013.
She could not. Andy beat her in Part 3 on finale night, 18 September, and evicted Spencer, telling him he had given GinaMarie his word on night one. Then the jury made it comfortable: Candice, Jessie, Helen, Amanda, Elissa, McCrae and Spencer for Andy; Aaryn and Judd for GinaMarie. Seven of the nine people sitting in the jury voted to give him the money.
The full ballot and results are in the Big Brother 15 finale results.
