Our Interview with Maggie, 9/21/05

[hepcat]

In the season finale of Big Brother Six, Maggie Ausburn, an ER nurse from Las Vegas, was crowned the winner of the “Summer of Secrets.” Maggie was the unofficial leader of “The Friendship” - a group that insisted it was not an alliance and had no leader, but that proved itself to be one of the most solid alliances in Big Brother history. When her partner was voted out in Week Three, Maggie was left in the precarious position of being in a group with two sets of confirmed partners. Yet, somehow she managed to avoid appearing like a target to either side of the house. As the HOH’s in both alliances struggled to break up the pairs, Maggie stuck to the shadows, where she encouraged her group to stick together, no matter how great the temptation was to vote each other off. While it wasn’t as glamorous as winning every physical challenge, it worked, and left her the last hamster standing in the end.

Hi Maggie, thanks for answering questions from FansofRealityTV.com. First of all, now that it’s all over, congratulations on your win!

Thank you very much!

Did you have a strategy throughout the whole game? Did you set up your alliance members as targets, as James said?

Oh, god no. James has a lot of bitterness, and he really wanted Ivette to win, so when he was asking questions it was all he could do to take the target off Ivette and put it on me. Which I’m fine with, that’s the game. No, there was not one time that I ever went to anyone on their alliance and said, hey, put up my own teammate. There was never any encouragement for any of us to be put up. I think I proved on many occasions that I never crossed the line and I never encouraged any negative things for anyone on my team.

How did you survive so long in the game?

I have no idea. I was told early on that I was going to be evicted, and then I was told week by week that I was going to be evicted, and it just didn’t happen.

Eric was sort of a lightning rod in the house, an obvious target because he was a leader, he was outspoken, and sometimes you had to tell him to cool off. Do you think it was better for your position in the house that he left, or was it harder to continue without him as a partner?
It was harder, absolutely. We all came in as partners, and you can 100% trust the partner you came in with. Once you lose that partner, you’re playing against everyone else who has a partner, so in that way, it’s a disadvantage because you don’t have someone to vent to that you can completely just tell him everything you’re thinking about the game. And the support of a partner is essential, so losing him so early was very difficult. I’ve heard from quite a few other cast members that losing your partner in the beginning may be an advantage, though.

It seemed like you didn’t see it that way when you were going through it.

It’s hard losing a friend, it is.

Didn’t you find it odd that Ivette was so obsessed with Eric?

No, I think that got blown out of proportion. It was not the way I saw it. I love the guy, I have nothing bad to say about him ever, so to see someone else appreciate him the way I do, I’m fine with it. She’s a very vocal person, and I think when she really loves someone she really loves them. I just saw her constantly talking good about him, I had no problem with that at all.

You balanced Ivette and April, each thinking they had a closer relationship with you than the other. Was that difficult to manage?

I think it’s the same thing with any friend relationship. When you have multiple friends involved, you have things that bond you to some and different things to others. I think it was more of a society-type thing in the house. I found things in Ivette that I totally cherished and I found other things in April that were different that I absolutely adored her for. So I think that I was able to appreciate both of them being individuals and very different people, and really enjoyed their company and enjoyed having them as teammates.

What did you think of the America’s Choice results?

Do you mean why she [Janelle] won?

Yes, what did it seem like to you while you were in the house?

It was interesting, because in the beginning of the game she talked about how she was not lucky and never won anything, and later on she was like, “I’m so lucky!’ so you’re not sure how to take it when someone is constantly winning something. You’re happy for the person who wins things. It would have been awesome if it had been more balanced and other people could have won things. You want to share the good stuff in that house - sharing is such an essential part of that game, and you just didn’t see it enough. I would have been happy with anyone winning those prizes.

Were you aware that everything said or done in the HOH room was broadcast on the Internet? At times, people mentioned they thought the HOH room had internal cameras only.

You know, we never knew which rooms had the Internet cameras on, and it was not all rooms at once. We were told they were rotating, and we had no idea which cameras were the Internet cameras.

Well...they were rotating in the sense that they were following you around the house so that you were on camera pretty much all the time.

Yeah, well, we didn’t know that! We never saw any production side of the show, not at all. Nothing.

When it was down to you three, it appeared you were trying to keep Ivette from being alone with Janelle.

Oh really?

Like when you wanted to go to bed and Ivette didn’t, you stayed up with her for hours even though you were yawning, it just seemed like you were trying to make sure Ivette was never alone. Did you think Ivette would take a deal from Janelle?

Oh, no! Actually, I wasn’t thinking about that at all. There were a lot of times where if you knew other people were up in the house you couldn’t sleep. It was a very loud house. It was almost like it was one giant room with pieces of cardboard in between. If there were a number of people awake in the house, then pretty much you were awake too. So that was not a strategic move.

Why did you say that Janelle made no friends in the House?

Hmm. (to herself) No friends in the house. (to me)No, I think that everyone knew she was part of the opposite alliance, that she was close to them. I think everyone realized her relationship with Kaysar, Michael and Howie.

What did you think of Howie’s speech when he cast his vote?

I think what a lot of people forget is that we are human beings. You never want to hear bad things about yourself. We all went into this house, we all knew we had a game to play, and we’re all amazing Americans that were put in that house - fourteen people with very strong personalities. It’s hard to have someone hurt your feelings. I think people forget that yes, it is a TV show, and yes, it is a game, but we have hearts.

But wasn’t it kind of surprising? I didn’t expect that from Howie.

No, I was absolutely completely 100% surprised because he had taken so much of the game as game, and then to do a personal attack is hard to hear from a teammate.

You and the other members of you alliance often said you were playing a clean game, playing with integrity, etc....how does constantly trash talking the other “side” in the house playing clean or with integrity?

To be honest, now that I am done with the game, it’s very difficult to answer that. You only see the way you are playing, and you have no realizations as to how others are playing the game or how anyone on the outside is perceiving it. A lot of the way I played, I thought I was playing with the highest moral standards possible. I know that everyone in this game did things they probably would not do again, or things they would take back because they ended up hurting someone. I don’t think anyone came into this game saying they wanted to hurt people.

Maybe James.

(Laughs) Well, maybe James. But there’s a lot of people who really had big hearts in that game and I don’t think it was shown enough. You say you want to play a clean game, but there’s twenty different ways to play poker - it’s still poker. As long as you don’t cheat, it’s still a game of poker.

Did you feel anyone cheated in the game?

Everyone’s perception is going to be different. I feel like I played a clean game, but someone on the opposite alliance could say the opposite. You only go with what you know, and you try to be the best player possible.

When you and Ivette were discussing what she would do if she beat Janelle in the final HOH competition, you urged her to keep her promise to you instead of taking the sure route to winning the money. What do you think of her final decision now, knowing that it cost Ivette first prize?

I think everyone is forgetting that I had no idea I was going to win that.

You didn’t think you would win against Ivette?

No, that was not a guarantee any way you slice it. I had never talked to Janelle or Howie. I assumed, James and Beau would vote for her. But we do not know how the jury sees things or how they are going to vote. It was not a clean sweep at all, we thought it was a crap shoot. For me, I would have made the same decision, I would have brought her - she was in my alliance and it was a promise I had made. But I had no idea that the public did not see it the same way we did. Neither of us knew what was going to happen.

You didn’t have a good feel for what people thought about you?

Everyone [on the outside] could see what people were saying but I had no idea how people felt about me when I was in that house. Only the diary room does, and only the public.

Thank you for your time, Maggie, and congratulations on your win!

Many thanks to CBS for jumping through hoops to hook us up with the contestants all season. We appreciate it!

[Google]

 

[ConfusedONE]

She still seems self righteous and to be dodging your questions just a tad. You sound so professional too.

Thanks for a great season of recaps and interviews hepcat!!!

BTW, WOW is Dave not a good looking guy.

[Alphabet Soup]

I didn't enjoy reading this.. you were very hard on her.

[ChgoBurbs]

Thanks HC.

I'm wondering if she can really go back into healthcare. Maybe at a Hospice.

[bb1572]

Originally Posted by Alphabet Soup

I didn't enjoy reading this.. you were very hard on her.

she was hard on herself... hard to watch, hard to listen to, hard to sympathize with.

great interview Hepcat

[LiVvV]

Hepcat . Maggot deserved this interview and good questions. HA HA

[Stethoscope]

Maggie is exactly the same person in the game and outside the game...Heartless, Hypocrit, Liar, Manipulator, and she thinks the public is so dumb to not see her for who she really is. She's still trying to manipulate the public..."we have hearts"....."I was playing with the highest moral standard possible".......blah blah. America is a lot smarter than you think Maggot. America has hearts, that's why we hate the bad guys! People with good hearts tend to cheer for the good hearts! Gameplay wise, Congrats Maggie! But don't give us the crap of "highest moral standard possible"...Please!

Hepcat, thanks for all the interviews. You've always done a wonderful job and I enjoy reading your post. I think you should be one of the host on House Calls, you ask wonderful questions!

[JLuvs]

Hepcat, thanks for yet another brilliant interview. I read the questions thread last night and was wondering what zingers from there you would be able to use and you did not dissapoint me. Excellent job.

[GabbyG]

Great questions . . . the answers sure seemed evasive (to me).

[Zaius]

Great interview hepcat! A couple hard questions never hurt anyone