‘Big Brother 17’: Vanessa Rousso Reveals When She First Doubted Austin Matelson

Fans of Big Brother 17 have learned one thing about Vanessa Rousso: she is a gamer. Rousso spent the past week as Head of Household, and in her blog for CBS, she shows she’s all about strategy. She also provides insight into how she really feels about the other players, including her apparent closest ally, Austin Matelson.

Rousso reveals she and Matelson had a final two deal early in the game. But his actions this week were enough to make her doubt his loyalty to her. As Entertainment Weekly recalled in its episode recap, Austin threw the Veto to John, allowing him to take himself off the block and forcing Vanessa to name a replacement. EW admitted it was a smart game move but would only work if Vanessa believed John won legitimately, which the dentist probably could have.

Vanessa was “furious,” according to EW, and according to her CBS blog, she began to question Austin’s motives.

“[W]hen Austin throws the final round to John, I began to doubt my alliance with Austin for the first time. We had been going strong since day two when we made a final two deal, but now I was forced to wonder if Austin was really willing to work as a team or if we was just going to look out for himself.”

But Rousso also revealed Austin wasn’t the only player she relies upon. She admitted she has a “budding” alliance with Steve Moses called “SOS.”

Rousso has written previously about the detailed strategy she uses as a poker player. The amount of information provided in her CBS blog reveals she’s thinking deeply about how everyone fits in the house. This becomes more obvious when compared to the CBS blogs of previous HOHs, Shelli Poole and James Huling. Both were lighthearted and personal and contained little insight about the game.

Although Matelson upset Rousso, he may have shown himself to be a more savvy player than viewers anticipated. Outside the house, Matelson blew the whistle on a WWE trainer who eventually resigned. In his memo to WWE officals, Austin detailed what he called abusive training practices that resulted in his physical injury.

Austin said in early diary room sessions that he planned to emphasize his injuries in the house so other players would not see him as a physical threat. In truth, he has fully recovered.

Thursday night is the third live eviction on Big Brother 17 and James and Jeff are on the block. Both were targets of Vanessa and Austin’s, but spoilers reveal one is far more likely to go home than the other. After the eviction, two new HOHs will be crowned.

Big Brother 17 airs three nights a week — Sundays, Wednesday, and Thursdays — on CBS.

[Images: CBS]