(Courtesy of CBS)

Celebrity Big Brother has hit the scene! After every eviction, Parade’s Mike Bloom interviews the latest celebrity to leave the Big Brother house.

Despite the negative connotations that some Big Brother players can give the activity, floating is tough. In a game where people have nothing else to do but talk with another, how is one able to keep everyone convinced simultaneously that they are with them? It’s the question that popped into Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath’s head every morning as he woke up in the house. The oldest houseguest (but only by about a year) proved that with age comes wisdom, along with flannel shirts, as his under-the-radar style of play got him to within one competition of possibly winning the entire show.

Mark came into the house a recent convert to Big Brother becoming obsessed after season 19. He decided going in to emulate his favorite houseguest from that season, sharp-dressing and smooth-talking Kevin Schlehuber. But he found his game in danger of going six feet under from the get-go. When the women’s side of the house won the first Head of Household via Shanon Elizabeth, then Keshia Knight Pulliam, he put himself in danger when he let it slip to Keshia that, if he won the first Veto, he would use it to save James Maslow from getting big-timed. Though Mark lost the literal responsibilities of possibly saving his friend from outside the house, Keshia and her new alliance partner Omarosa pitched Veto winner Shannon to use her new prize to save Chuck Liddell and put Mark up in his place to “teach him a lesson.” Their methods of Big Brother education did not play well with Shannon; in addition to keeping Mark off the block by not using the Veto, she now believed that Chuck had a side deal with the two of them, and helped turn the rest of her alliance against them. After unintentionally appearing as a target in the first round, Mark took this as a warning sign to slip into the shadows. He began to throw competitions, wanting to come off as unassuming as Shannon’s first shot triggered a war between the women. All the while, he became closer to James, and the duo’s common interest changed from a love of music (particularly elliptical-inspired power ballads) to an image of sharing the open seats in the final two.

Though Mark still had James as his “ride or die,” he ponied up with many other alliances, depending on who was in power. He served as a good source of emotional comfort and began to build a solid social foundation for everyone in the house. Additionally, though the house saw him and James as a pair, James was considered by far the more abrasive and threatening of the two, to the point where Mark served as his replacement nominee when he won the Veto sitting on the block with Shannon. Soon, the two outside guys found themselves invited into multiple homes, simultaneously operating in a foursome with Omarosa and Metta World Peace, as well as the “Roomie Squad” with Ross Mathews and Marissa Jaret Winokur. On Day 21, the houseguests faced quite a carpet ride, and Mark hoped the Head of Household competition would be magical and a Steppenwolf in the right direction. Though he was able to cross the unsteady bolt of fabric in less than a minute and a half in the first heat, he struggled more in the finals. James technically passed him, but he elected to wait out the buzzer and throw it to Mark to do the family man a favor while simultaneously freeing himself up to win the next HoH. Now the house’s frontman of power, the rock star aiming to break up the pair that targeted him and James only the week before: Brandi Glanville and Ariadna Gutierrez. He was successful in sending Brandi out, white jumpsuit and all, but the double eviction boomerang came back around to claim its second victim in James, ending their prospective endgame duet. Despite betraying the Roomie Squad, Ross tried to appeal to Mark in the next HoH competition, assuring he’ll be safe and none of them would stand a chance against any of the women. Seeing no other option, he decided to make his position in the game less rocky by dropping out of “Rocky Mountain Fly,” giving Ross the victory. Ross stuck to his word and pursued the common target of Omarosa. At the final four, though Ross was courting many final two suitors, he only had eyes for Mark, who he felt was easiest to beat due to his underplayed game. But the Big Brother gods did not allow that situation to play out, as Marissa claimed the title of most powerful HoH in the show’s history in a nail-biting tiebreaker. With the power to simultaneously eliminate two competitors and choose her finals partner, she leaned on her close relationship with Ross to take him to the end, leading Mark and Ariadna to internally sing a melancholy “When It’s Over” as they made up the final two jurors.

Now out of the game, Mark talks with me about the reasoning behind his jury vote for Ross, what new synonym he gives to floating, and why Big Brother had such a profound effect on him.

Let’s start with the end of the season. You ended up voting for Ross. What was the reason behind that?

The first day I walked into the house, Ross and I made a pact to never vote against each other, even though it ultimately worked against me. Ross and Marissa had a sort of “ride or die” situation where they were going to take each other to the final two. Ross was so good to me during the entire game, especially during the start. He joined the girls’ alliance; they had the numbers, and they were against us the guys. He would give me information just enough to save myself, so it was an integral part of me making it to the finale. Ross was not choosing me in the end and me voting for him to win was just a way for me to return the favor. I wasn’t the strongest guy in the game, wasn’t the most strategic, and obviously wasn’t the smartest guy in that house. But I did pretty well on my social game, and Ross was a big part of that. I love Marissa as well, and I’m so glad she won. She deserved to. She floated a little bit, and I’m sensitive to that because I did the same thing. But she won competitions at the end when it mattered. It was just an incredible experience to be a part of something. I’ll be figuring out how to articulate it the more distance I get from the show.

Were you surprised by the way the votes turned out? I know there was a lot of whispering going on among the jurors, so I wasn’t sure if things were being turned last minute.

You’re totally right. I was blown away by how personal people took the game. I certainly wanted to want, and I was certainly competitive. The closer I got to the finale, I surprised myself. You get caught up in the game. But I’m surprised how personal some people took it. There was no way they were going to vote for Ross because Ross was very strategic. He played a great game and was responsible for people getting out of that house, thus having blood on his hands. I think us being a little more established in our careers would make us not take it so personally; I overestimated people’s reactions to the game, and I guess the love for the game. They weren’t able to separate their personal experience with Ross’s gamesmanship. James even admitted during their final speeches [that] he was swayed to vote for Marissa. He was going to vote for Ross the whole time. James was probably my closest guy in the house, and I knew what he was thinking at all times. So I was surprised people could change their votes during the last speech, and I was surprised people couldn’t see the game objectively. But that is Big Brother, and it brings out all of these energies and reactions. All you have to do is think all day in that house, and it really manifests your [strategic] behavior and your attitudes. I think Ross should have won, ultimately, but I think there’s a little bit of bitterness there in the jury and they gave it to Marissa.

Not to make you dwell on it, but had you won that final HoH, who were you planning on taking?

Great question. Here’s my problem: With regards to the final four, I’m not sure I could have beaten any of the three. Ari was universally loved by everybody in that house, and I think people really felt for her after having a Miss Universe crown taken off her head. She would have been the kiss of death in the finale; there’s nobody who could have competed against her, including Marissa and Ross. And obviously, Ross knew that. So Ariadna is completely out because she’s one of the loveliest human beings I’ve ever met on the inside and the out; it’s going to be fun to watch her star rise. [With] Marissa, it’s the same thing. Everybody loved her; she was the house mascot and the best at keeping everybody’s spirits alive. She’s so funny, she wouldn’t hurt a fly, and she really didn’t get any blood on her hands. She was part of a group instead of making decisions so that it wouldn’t have been Marissa. So I definitely would have taken Ross. Now, it’s my understanding that the jury was still so pissed off at Ross that they all had said that if [I] go to the final two with Ross, they were going to vote for me. So I would have won if I was in the final two with Ross. But of course, this is Big Brother and anything could have changed. I would have taken Ross, and I guess the scuttlebutt is that I would have won. I would have taken Ross because, at that point, he was my closest person in the house and like I mentioned earlier, we made a deal that we wouldn’t vote for each other. Ross kept that promise as long as he possibly could.

So what would your final two speech have looked like, considering how under-the-radar strategies can sometimes not come off well in front of a jury?

I had my speech already in my mind. Like I said earlier, all you have to do is think about things in that house. My pitch was very simple. “Not one of you in that jury house right now is out of the house because of anything I did. There’s no blood on my hands.” Now I’m not necessarily going to raise that flag and say, “Look out great that way.” But nobody was sitting there because of me. There’s often a misused saying in the Big Brother house where people say, “There’s no blood on my hands.” We know there’s actually at least a little bit of blood on people’s hands. [But] there was none on my hands. In retrospect and hearing from the jury, it would have been a pretty strong pitch in light of what they were already thinking anyway. They didn’t want to vote for Ross because the majority were out of the house because of Ross. So I was going to make a simple pitch: “There’s no blood on my hands. It’s the most overused term in the history of Big Brother, but it really applies to me, and I can use that phrase with impunity, and I hope you can see it in your hearts that way.” I wasn’t going to pit myself against Ross and say, “I’m like Ross, who took out half of you guys and were schemed out of the house because of him.” I think it would have been effective, but at that point, people were against Ross for some reason. Ross is the greatest guy in the world. World-class comedian. He, along with Marissa, kept that house light, bearable, and funny. So I’m surprised at the reaction towards Ross for getting them out. I think that if you’re a real student of the game, you would appreciate his gameplay. So he played a sort of classic floater game, but he still had control. So his was kind of a floater game on steroids.

Let’s talk about your version of that classic floater game. Was that something you came into the game planning to do, or did that come up organically as you began to figure out the house?

It happened organically. My thought going into the house, as a fan of Big Brother is that we were entering the house with what I originally thought was ten people. It turned out to be eleven. I didn’t even know until we walked out onto stage; they do a hell of a job of sequestering you. I thought, “Immediately, you’re part of the jury regarding a traditional cast. So there’s going to be nowhere to hide.” The truncated, expedited version of beginning, there’s no one to hide with ten people. Guess what I found out? You can pretty much hide for five, six evictions with eleven people. I kind of proved it. As soon as I walked in there, the numbers were skewed towards the girls 6-5. Then Ross immediately aligned with the girls. Then we were skewed 7-4, and we all know Metta World Peace, as much as we love him, he didn’t even know he was playing Big Brother. So the numbers were really 7-3. Now, realizing that, I tried to get the guys together and get them to coalesce. James and Chuck both said, “You know what? Relax. We’ll worry about that after the first nominations.” And I told everybody, “I think the train’s left the station, fellas. These girls are really bonding quickly, and I think they’re plotting to pick us off one by one.” So when I didn’t get the initial support from the fellas, I saw the numbers and said, “You know what? I better start making little side deals for myself, or I’ll start watching the season by this weekend.” I developed a strategy to float a little, just see how long I could do it. It ended up being a pretty good amount of time.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m not the most strategic, I’m not the most athletic, and I’m not the strongest guy in the room. I knew that going in. But I think knowing your weaknesses can be a strength, so I kind of used that to my advantage. I said, “You know what? I can play nice in the sand with others, and I will clean that house. I’ll do whatever it takes to do the little things.” When you watch Big Brother, there is this show, and there are the competitions, which are important. Then there’s the reality of that house. Even if you watch it all the time, [you] don’t see 80% of what happened that really affects what goes on in that house. That part of the game, the social game, is really a huge part of it. And in that context, I did pretty well. I didn’t piss anybody off. I knew I was going to go there and not cause drama; I knew that for sure. So a combination of everything just said helped. People call it floating; I call it non-committal. I’m trying to change the terminology. “Floater” just sounds a little one-hit wonder-ish, and I went through that in my career and overcame though. So I’m going to tag that as non-committal. But it was a strategy that works for me, and that’s what’s so great about that. You can be 6’2″ and 240 [lbs.] and look like The Rock and it doesn’t matter. My grandmother can go in there and beat him because the game just evens everybody’s strengths out. It’s phenomenal, and me being in the final four is proof of that theory.

That being said, how do you avoid getting caught in that game style? When it gets down to fewer and fewer people, how do you not have people compare notes and realize you’re playing all sides?

You know what I did? You have to throw a few competitions to do that. You want to stay under the radar, which is a strategy that [wasn’t what I wanted to do going in], but I adopted it. If you keep winning competitions, you have a giant target on your back. It doesn’t help you, especially if you started floating early. So my deal was to keep it low. There were people I could trust on both sides who gave me information and gave me just enough to keep myself safe. Then I would have to do a little dance. It’s the weirdest thing where mediocrity is rewarded in Big Brother. You just need to do enough and help people enough not to be a threat. I always said, “I’m the old guy. I suck at everything.” I was self-effacing, which is kind of my style in life as well. It really suited me well on Big Brother. I stayed out of the drama, and never really won anything early. And that worked for me! I got to a point later where I could throw a competition to Ross. He wanted that HoH very badly with, in retrospect, might not have been my greatest gameplay. But he made a plea to me that he wanted to see the letter from his mom and she was sick. My mom is no longer with us, so I can understand how important it is, when you get older in life, to have that relationship. There are so many layers involved to get to a point where you’re playing both sides, and not everybody can. Once you pick a strategy, you’re sort of stuck with it. Shannon came out of the gate super hot. She won HoH; then she won a Power of Veto with a record-setting letter thing, something like sixteen letters. She blew up her game right away. She’s so competitive, one of the best players in the history of Big Brother, that she couldn’t help herself, thus becoming a giant target. You would say, “There’s no way we’re beating her. We have to get her out.” You cannot dance between strategies. But if you pick a floating strategy, you can dance between groups. I know floating is kind of frowned upon, especially among Big Brother traditionalists, but it’s not a bad one to pick if you do it right. But it can be dangerous as well.

I want to ask about your closest relationship in the house with James. How important is having a partner when you utilize that floating strategy, especially when that makes you more of a target?

That’s another great question. Within your floating game, there needs to be some threat that you’re aligned with. Whether it’s a James or a Shannon. I had met James before Big Brother. We did an Indy Car race down in Long Beach, so I spent a couple of weekends with James and was really happy to see him in the house. We probably had the most in common of anybody, so we gravitated towards each other. As I mentioned earlier, the guys were outnumbered, and I never coalesced with Metta or Chuck. James was my “ride or die,” as the kids say. He was very strong. He and Shannon were the dominant physical competitors–and probably strategic competitors–in the house. James, ironically enough, only won a Power of Veto, but he’s very strong and very competitive. Hooking myself to his belt, if you will, really protected me from others. His strength kind of put me in the scope of other people, but he was always the target. This is why aligning with someone strong works. There weren’t a lot of people in the competition. So they would say, “Well Mark, he’s not the strongest. Let’s get James.” James was a target since the day he walked in there. I was never the target, even though I was aligned with James. He’d eventually get backdoored a couple of evictions from the end, so I was able to ride that for a while and be protected under James’s strength without really having a target on my back. You can’t just be floating by yourself. You’ve got to have some team in place that protects you.

It’s funny, you’re asking me these questions and I literally just got out of the house probably eight hours ago. But I’m still sort of processing what happened in the whole thing. It’s the brilliance of Big Brother. I’ve been living in there for the last three and a half weeks, and then I’m out talking to Julie Chen three seconds later. You’re trying to reacclimate in that world of ours and figure out where things stand on top of thinking and processing the strategy. It just all happens so quickly.

I can imagine especially for you, who not only just came out of the house, but also seemed to have a lot of emotional connection with the game. I remember your final words to the live feeds seemed very heartfelt for only three and a half weeks in there!

That warms my heart. I got a couple of similar sentiments last night from the crew of Big Brother. When you’re in the house, you don’t know if anybody sees this. You’re just sort of making random please to the camera, and you don’t even know if the cameras are even on. I wanted to let people know what a profound experience it truly was to me. It brought up all sorts of emotions because you’re starved in there for emotions. Ironically, I’ve never been a big crier. But since my kids have been born, I’ll cry at that Sarah Mclachlan dog commercial; I’ll just start bawling out loud. I saw pictures of my family or started thinking about my family. Then I started thinking about my family in the house, the people I just met. So I started getting emotional. I was like, “I’m about to cry right now! I can’t believe I’m saying goodbye to a robot and I’m about to cry in front of his face.” That is what Big Brother brings out. There’s a family relationship you have with the rest of the cast, there’s a relationship you have with production that you don’t even see or even know, and then there’s a relationship you have with the audience. There are so many things working on so many levels, and I’m so profoundly grateful for the experience. It taught me a lot about myself, and it sounds a little cheesy to say. But when you’re sitting in that house for hours at a time, all you [can] do is take a deep, giant swim in Lake You. You really start prioritizing what’s important and what’s not; the game almost comes secondary. In a way, it’s a metaphor for life. I don’t want to wrap it up with a big cliched cheesy button, but that house will bring out that in you for sure.