Faysal Shafaat wrestles with veto decision

Winning felt more like losing for former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football player Faysal Shafaat on the CBS reality show “Big Brother.”

Shafaat earned his second Power of Veto of the season Wednesday by getting every question right in a memory sequence competition. He was left with a difficult decision on what to do with the veto, which has the power to take one of the houseguests nominated for eviction off the block.

“Big Brother” follows a group of people living in a house under constant surveillance with someone being voted out each week.

Haleigh Broucher and Kaitlyn Herman, who Shafaat said are “the two people I’m closest to in the house,” were nominated for eviction earlier in the week by Head of Household Sam Bledsoe. Bledsoe said her reasoning for putting them up was because of “how they treat the young men in this house,” referencing their flirting, including with Shafaat.

Shafaat didn’t do himself any favors going into the veto competition. He told both Broucher and Herman to pick him if they drew the “houseguest’s choice” chip when determining players for the competition, and he also promised both on multiple occasions he would

– FAYSAL SHAFAAT, “BIG BROTHER” CONTESTANT

save them from eviction if he won. Broucher did draw the houseguest’s choice chip and picked Shafaat.

After Shafaat won, he was torn on what to do, but decided to use the veto on Broucher, who has been more loyal to him than Herman in previous weeks and who he admittedly has romantic feelings for. Shafaat also accidentally called Herman by the wrong name, saying “Haleigh” as he was breaking the news to her that he might not uphold his promise.

“It’s a lose-lose situation either way, I just had to go with my gut feeling and live with it,” Shafaat said.

Herman said at the close of Wednesday’s show “Fessie [Shafaat] will go home” if she stays in the house.

Fortunately for Shafaat, Herman was evicted by a 9-1 vote over Angie “Rockstar” Lantry on Thursday. Herman could not take advantage of a twist that would have given her the opportunity to return to the game had she been able to complete a puzzle in an allotted amount of time.

“It’s a lose-lose situation either way, I just had to go with my gut feeling and live with it.”