In 2004, 2 Cincinnati students were 'Big Brother' stars. How one remembers the wild season

Twenty years ago, Diane McFarland, née Henry, sat in a computer lab at Northern Kentucky University when she received an email from a TV show producer who had seen her photo on a modeling website.

"He said, 'I'm casting for a game show, any chance you'd be interested? Can't tell you what it is yet,'" McFarland, who was raised in Hillsboro, Ohio, recalled to The Enquirer. "I didn't really believe it at first."

Little did McFarland know, the show would go on to become one of the most successful reality shows in network television history: "Big Brother."

The rest happened quickly. Producers ultimately added her to the season 5 cast, and McFarland went into sequester in the days leading up to the show airing. While cut off from the world, she watched the previous seasons to prepare as best she could.

"I can't say that I went in there with a whole lot of strategy, other than just to hopefully be friends with most of the people," she said.

Connecting with someone from home

Making friends helped McFarland immediately.

"Big Brother" is a game that's always changing. Players have to stay fluid in the house, and they need to be able to adapt when needed. That is, if they want to be successful.

"Tough to adjust, especially when you just can't go anywhere," she said. "You can't get away from these people arguing and stuff like that. When you're face to face with people, oh my gosh, you just have to do it right then and there. That was tough, but like I said, the more friendships you had in the house, the easier it was to adjust to the whole thing."

"I hate to say that I (attribute) some of that adjustment to Drew (Daniel), but I do."

McFarland formed what may have been her strongest connection to Drew Daniel, another player with Greater Cincinnati ties. Daniel is from Urbana but attended Miami University. She says they were "inseparable" from the jump, after learning they both had twin siblings and were from Ohio.

But they became a little more than just alliance members in the house.

"Having a little showmance really passed the time real well," McFarland said.

Staying close to each other was for survival. They had to navigate through a cast filled with big personalities, and a season with arguably the most outrageous twist ever.

Remembering the Project DNA twist

"Big Brother 5" notoriously had its Project DNA twist, which involved two sets of siblings.

Similar to McFarland and Daniel, houseguest Adria Klein also had a twin. But she and her sister, Natalie Carroll, were allowed to swap into the game without their fellow cast members knowing. With no one catching them, Carroll eventually entered the game as herself, playing alongside her sister.

"While going through the casting process, I now look back and know for a fact that that's what they were casting Drew and I for probably as well because our twins had come out at the same time to run through some of the process," McFarland said.

"You don't think about that kind of stuff. I would've never went into the house and been like, 'Hm, I wonder if there is a twin in here.' And then when the other one showed up, I was just flabbergasted."

But that wasn't the biggest headline to come out of Project DNA.

"Big Brother" also had a brother-sister pair who didn't know they were siblings. Michael "Cowboy" Ellis and Nakomis Dedmon met each other and learned they were related while inside the house.

"I think I was too young at the time to really process that," McFarland said. "As fast as they told everybody, it's almost like, that was it. The two of them didn't really even care that much."

Two Ohioans in the final three

Through all the challenges, Daniel and McFarland persevered, making it to the final three.

Yet she still has a major regret.

"Getting my head stuck in the love gutter," she said. "I don't even think I was playing to my full potential. I was just so enamored with him."

Daniel won the final Head of Household competition of season 5, beating out McFarland and Ellis. As winner, he had to evict one of the two, to which he chose to send McFarland out of the house and go to the final two with Ellis.

Daniel ultimately won the season, beating Ellis 4-3 in the jury vote.

The Enquirer attempted to reach out to Daniel but could not find his best form of contact.

Returning for 'Big Brother All-Stars'

McFarland's "Big Brother" journey didn't end there. She returned two seasons later for "Big Brother All-Stars," when she went against some of the best players from the first six seasons, including Dedmon and Jase Wirey from her season.

"That was kind of terrible," she said. "I was very, very excited about it. At the time, we assumed that that probably would've been one of the last seasons. That was the rumor. ... But me personally, I just wasn't in a good spot for it."

According to McFarland, pregaming led to her demise. Despite being advised not to, she says most of her fellow all-stars connected with each other prior to the show so they could map their journeys to the end.

"Every single person in that house called every other person in that house," she said. "Everybody pregamed. And believe it or not, season 5 was the only ones who really didn't pregame."

Three of the first four houseguests evicted were from season 5. McFarland was the fourth evicted and finished 11th overall.

"We were sitting ducks basically because everybody in there had alliances except for us," she said.

Mike "Boogie" Malin from season 2 later beat out Erika Landin from season 4 by a jury vote of 6-1 in the finale, winning the "All-Stars" crown.

Where Diane from 'Big Brother 5' is today

After 20 years (and 18 since "Big Brother All-Stars"), how does McFarland feel about her time on the CBS show?

"It's a little easier for me now to watch it and not be as embarrassed," she said. "It's so embarrassing. It's a very strange experience to get to see yourself on TV when you go back and watch it. But I was glad that I did. The biggest thing I took away from 'Big Brother' was self reflection. You got to see all the aspects of yourself that maybe you didn't like, and you got to change them and grow and become a better person."

McFarland, who still watches the show and was admittedly a big fan of Taylor Hale from season 24, says she keeps in touch with many of her fellow castmates. She talks to Marvin Latimer and Mike Lubinski. Even Scott Long, whom she helped evict during her season 5 Head of Household reign, is a close friend, she says.

"Nakomis and I were so close for so long, but she went to Texas and I went back to Ohio (from California) and that was kind of the end of that," McFarland said. "(From) 'All Stars,' Marcellas (Reynolds), Dr. Will (Kirby), Boogie will send me a random text from time to time. ... All of us kind of still mingle on Facebook and stuff when and if we can."

McFarland lived in California after the show, and she says she last spoke to Daniel when they briefly met up there around 2008.

"I have never talked to the kid since, in fact I don't know anybody who has," she says.

According to LinkedIn, Daniel now practices law in Columbus. He also appears to have a blog in which he shares brief thoughts on "Big Brother" from time to time.

McFarland moved back to Ohio in 2010. She now lives in West Union with her husband, Shawn, and two kids, Rose and Chase. The latter even rose to internet fame of sorts in recent years, dressing up as Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow for Halloween.

Chase is autistic, and McFarland found he enjoyed staying in "regular clothes" for the holiday. So in 2022, she created a version of the floral suit Burrow wore prior to a game against the Miami Dolphins, so that Chase could sport it as his costume. And in 2023, her son wore a multi-colored sweatshirt similar to what the quarterback wore before a game against the Arizona Cardinals last season.

"Everybody is kind of to the point to where we know what autism is about, but if you go up and ask anybody on the street, 'Tell me about autism, what do you know about it?' A lot of people, they don't even know where to start," she said of creating more awareness.

A 2022 video of Chase that McFarland's sister-in-law posted racked up over 30,000 views on TikTok. Last year, his costume had nearly 500 likes on Instagram.

"I just wish Joe Burrow would wear better outfits earlier in the season because he always will bust out the best one a week or two before Halloween, and I am like sewing for days," McFarland joked.

"Big Brother" returns for a 26th season 9 p.m. Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Diane from 'Big Brother 5' opens up about her season 20 years later