Celebrity Big Brother contestant Jonathan Bennett, best known for playing Aaron Samuels in Mean Girls, was the first houseguest sent home during Friday night’s live eviction.
The 37-year-old Cake Wars host lost a two-person Head of Household (HOH) competition to Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte. Bennett found himself on the chopping block with actor Tom Green and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
After Julie Chen-Moonves revealed there would be another twist, there was a surprise celebrity update on the TV. Kevin Frazier from Entertainment Tonight delivered the news that one celebrity is not a real houseguest and is really part of a big twist that is going to shake up the game.
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All of a sudden, Scaramucci appeared on the TV and announced that he is not the real houseguest, but he is a part of the big twist.
From that moment on, he was out of the house and said the Big Brother house is just like his experience in Washington, D.C. — you get judged quickly about who you are and you never get a second chance.
Scaramucci gave the current nominees a second chance at safety by announcing, for the first time ever, there were two Veto competitions before the eviction.
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Since Scaramucci was out of the house, Lochte had to nominate another houseguest for eviction. He nominated Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Kandi Burruss.
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The Veto competition involved headlines and the houseguests had to choose the real ones about Scaramucci and ignore the fake ones to win.
Kato Kaelin won the veto and used it to take comedian Green off the block, which forced Lochte to choose another nominee. He decided on actor Joey Lawrence as the replacement nominee.
Following an almost unanimous vote, Bennett was evicted from the house. Only Dina Lohan, Lindsay Lohan’s mother, voted for Burruss’ eviction.
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Global News spoke with Bennett the day after his eviction, and the former Mean Girls star told us his thoughts about his time in the Big Brother house, and who he thinks may take the whole thing.
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Jonathan Bennett: Hi Katie… I thought I was going to win the whole thing, too. Everyone [thought] that I was going to win the whole thing, but that twist at the beginning really screwed them, and by them I mean the show. Because without me they might all kill each other. I wouldn’t say that first twist of putting the HOH winner on the block screwed me as much as it did the entire show, because I fear for all of their lives now.
You find out you win the HOH challenge and it’s supposed to be a happy moment, but then you also find out you have to fight for your safety. How did you feel right when that happened? Because it went from celebrating and then all of a sudden you get hit with the twist.
It was not my plan at all to be on the block hour number six in the house. That was crazy.
Well we all believed in you. I thought you could have won that competition.
In what world?
The competition was throwing you body into blocks to knock them down from a zip-line. That seems like a little bit of luck too. And it looked like you were so close to almost winning but he knocked the blocks down faster.
Being picked by Ryan Lochte for the first HOH competition was where it all went wrong, because there was no way I was going to lose an HOH competition with Ryan Lochte on my team. He’s going to win; he has six gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze medals. There’s no way he’s not going to win in a physical challenge. That being said, that’s how I ended up on the block. It doesn’t really seem like the fans are into that twist.
No, we are not into that at all. We’re cheering everyone on to win but when the fans find out that the HOH could end up on the block it’s almost like no one wants anyone to come in first place now.
That’s why I’m nervous about the whole cast, because now that I’m out of the house, things are going to get pretty dark in there pretty quick. Like, you’ve seen it, it’s like, ‘Everyone just calm down. We are playing a game, this is not the Olympics.’ That’s the difference between Ryan Lochte and some of the other people in the house. He actually has gold medals and will always win. He will always win the competitions.
I hope he doesn’t win it all. I hope Dina [Lohan] wins it all. Even though he could win everything — as much as I love him — I hope he doesn’t and I hope he gets out of that house as soon as he possibly can because he is such a good guy and has such a big heart. He doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone in the world because he has 12 medals. Winning Big Brother is not going to change his life at all. He doesn’t need Big Brother. I want him to leave the house because he’s such a good guy. He came on to show the world who he is as a person and to clear the air from some mistakes he’s made.
Is it safe to say Ryan was your favourite houseguest?
Ryan was my favourite houseguest, however I hope Dina wins it because she has spent so much of her life shining the spotlight on her three extremely successful children who have amazing careers because of her. Wouldn’t it be nice for the world to shine the spotlight on Dina for once and let her have the spotlight? Don’t you think it’s time for that?
I stuck my neck out and protected Dina and I would not change that for the world. I protect her because it’s the right thing to do as a human. You have to look at two sides when playing Big Brother: there’s the gameplay and then there’s being human that has a moral compass. You just do the right things and that was the right thing for me to do. Sometimes the right thing is more important [than] the gameplay.
Did you see that? Wait, did you see me have to spell for him when he kept repeating ‘ath-e-let-ics’? I was like, ‘Did you just say ath-e-let-ics?’ It was so funny. It’s the funniest, cutest relationship me and Ryan have. I think it could be one of the Big Brother favourite relationships ever. The gay guy, the heartthrob of Mean Girls is best friends with Olympic gold medal straight guy.
How did you feel about Anthony’s exit? Did you ever suspect something was up or become suspicious that he wasn’t in the house for good ?
There was never a single second where I thought Anthony was a fake player. He was being so real from the moment he stepped into the house so it was one of the biggest shocking twists in Big Brother history. I don’t even understand what happened.
What was going through your mind when Lolo flipped off you and Ryan in the kitchen and yelled “final two”?
I was thinking, ‘Girl, calm down. We are 12 celebrities locked in a soundstage at CBS. Everyone calm down. Like, seriously girl, if you can’t control… just calm down.’ If this is how she acts day three, how are you going to act on day 20? I was just thinking, ‘Girl, get it together. You’re an Olympic athlete. Get it together.’ (laughing)
What was the hardest thing for you about being in the house and not being connected to the outside world?
It’s hard being trapped with 12 personalities that normally wouldn’t be in the room without. The hardest part for me was dealing with negative energy in the house. There’s a lot of that going around and I’m a very positive, grateful person so you can only avoid the negative energy so much before it starts to affect you. While I’m sad to be gone, I am happy to now be around people who are supportive and positive people.
What reality TV shows are you watching other than Big Brother?
Oh, well I’m not watching Big Brother. We’re going to take a step back from these characters. But I love all of the different singing competition shows. I love The Masked Singer; it’s really fun. I love The Amazing Race, I want to be on The Amazing Race with Marissa Jaret Winokur. I came straight from Big Brother to her house.
How was your experience working with Ariana Grande for the iconic Thank U, Next video? Was it everything?
It was amazing and so fun recreating the role of Aaron Samuels and getting to relive some of those amazing moments. It was just absolutely fantastic. And it’s also great because it gave me the best line to use when leaving the Big Brother house, which was, ‘Thank U, Next.’
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If you could sum up the 10 days you were in the Big Brother house in one word or a hashtag, what would that be?
It would be #ThankUNext.
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Celebrity Big Brother airs multiple times each week for three weeks, with the two-hour finale on Wednesday, Feb. 13 on Global TV.