Big Brother Season 23 is cruising right along with Xavier Prather's reign as Head of Household, but audiences won't soon forget the chaotic start the game got thanks to Brandon "Frenchie" French. Frenchie's Week 1 HOH is currently being regarded as one of the most chaotic collapses of a player in recent memory, but before fans judge him, perhaps they should hear what he has to say about playing the game versus watching it.
I had a chance to speak to Brandon French the morning following his eviction, and we got on the topic of his super fandom of Big Brother. As someone who frequently spends the season talking about what I would do in the house, I had to ask Frenchie about the difference between watching the game and playing it.
Everything. Everything! Sitting on the couch and watching the feeds you're able to go to different rooms, you're able to connect the dots, way easier than what we are [doing] in the house. We only know what's in front of us there. We don't see the smirks at the cameras or the DR [diary room] sessions things like that. Being in the house you only see what you can see and you're constantly on edge. You don't know what's around the corner. That tv could pop up and Julie can say 'Hey guess what? We're gonna to do this,' or a twist – you're constantly on edge. Being on the couch is one thing, and you know, I'm guilty of this! I used to sit on the couch and be 'Eh, this is easy,' you know, 'This is gonna be a cake walk.' Then I walk in the door and I'm like 'Holy cow,' like, this is totally different. So yeah, HUGE difference.
Frenchie knew to "expect the unexpected" as a longtime Big Brother fan, but the problem with that while playing the game is that the unexpected could happen at any moment. That only adds to the paranoia, which was no doubt high following the premiere when the Houseguests were unexpectedly put into teams and given "high risk, high reward" decisions to make.
My question to Brandon French was similar to the same thing I asked the first eviction Travis Long, who said paranoia was high and led him to constant evaluation of literally every interaction in the house. Frenchie confirmed he felt the exact same way when he was in the house, and that was part of why he decided to shake things up in Week 1 the way he did.
Being a fan of the show you know that those first four weeks are 'kumbaya.' And that's why I created the chaos I did. I wanted to see how these people actually were and the Slaughterhouse was formed with people I didn't trust in this game, and I knew I wanted to see how their mind worked and what kind of person they really were. So I cranked that heat up to 250 degrees, and it showed. I was able to learn a lot from that. People were like 'Chaos, chaos, chaos,' but I actually learned a whole lot from that chaos.
Obviously, for all he learned, Frenchie wasn't able to save himself from being evicted, though he tried just about everything he could on his way out of Big Brother to prevent that. In the end, he wasn't able to secure his safety in the Wildcard Competition or the veto, which made it rather easy for the house to unify and remove him and alleviate some of the "chaos." Of course, there's no guarantee his eviction will eliminate the chaos, but we can only wait and see.
Big Brother Season 23 airs on CBS Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Stay with CinemaBlend for more of our thoughts on the game, as well as more interviews with those who've been evicted.
