JokersUpdates.com: BB Alumni - Dearborn's Dan Gheesling says 'Big Brother' changed his life

Adam Graham / The Detroit News

In a game where lying, cheating and stealing are not only celebrated but pretty much required for success, you'd think a Catholic school teacher would be out of his league.

Last summer, however, Dearborn's Dan Gheesling proved the opposite when he emerged victorious on season 10 of the CBS reality series "Big Brother," which returns for its 11th season on Thursday.

Gheesling, 25, not only won the show's big prize -- walking away with a cool $500,000 for his efforts -- but he became one of the best to ever play the game in the process, earning the show's first-ever unanimous victory for the championship.

Looking back now, he says, the whole experience is a blur. "It's weird. I feel like, 'Did that really happen?' " says Gheesling, on campus at Orchard Lake St. Mary's, where he teaches biology and physical education to freshmen and is an assistant football coach.

But one look at his bank account will tell you yes, that really did happen.

For the record, Gheesling says he still has most of his prize money, and only splurged on a few trips to Los Angeles and Las Vegas with friends. The rest he's holding on to and hopes to invest in real estate in the near future. "I'm probably the most unexciting reality television winner there's been," he says.

Gheesling had been a fan of "Big Brother" since it launched in summer 2000, and tried to get on the show for four years before landing in the "Big Brother 10" cast. The show puts a group of strangers together in a house on the CBS backlot and films their lives 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Houseguests -- who are deprived of phones, television, the Internet and any connection with the outside world -- vie in a series of competitions for food rights and superiority in the house. Every week, one guest is eliminated by a vote of their peers.

At its best, it's a show about strategy, manipulation and skill, an engrossing game of human chess. At its worst, it's as boring as watching paint dry, as the show still suffers from its dull-as-dirt first season, when it was heavily hyped as the next "Survivor," which it premiered alongside its first summer.

Because of the show's massive time commitment -- it airs three nights a week, as well as around the clock in live feeds on the Internet and in unedited four-hour blocks every night on Showtime -- "Big Brother" divides the audience into two segments: Those who don't watch it, and those who are obsessed with it.

The isolation of the house is enough to drive some people batty. But as strange as life was inside the house, life outside the house proved to be even weirder, Gheesling says. "I think the one thing 'Big Brother' doesn't do well is prepare you for life after the show," he says. The offers, the incestuous fraternity of reality TV alumni, the sudden rush of people recognizing you on the street: It was a lot to handle, Gheesling says.

Fellow "Big Brother" winner Mike "Boogie" Malin, who won "Big Brother All-Stars" in 2007, offered Gheesling some advice. "He said, 'If you like what you do back home, go back home and do that.' "

The teacher returned to St. Mary's and says the everyday routine helped keep him grounded. There was one major casualty of his reality TV fame, however. He had planned on using his prize money, in part, on an engagement ring for his longtime girlfriend, but their relationship fizzled a few months after "Big Brother" ended.

"The whole experience of having your life change is a lot for one person to go through, and to have someone else go through it with you -- who maybe saw how I changed, or saw how different people react to me -- is very tough," he says.

As the new season of "Big Brother" ramps up, Gheesling is excited to watch it as a fan. He's open to going back for a cameo -- past contestants have been known to show up to host challenges -- but isn't interested in the world of reality TV pseudo-celebrity.

"I don't have to go chase a job for money, because I really love what I do," he says. "This was a way to set myself up for the future."

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