? You are listening to the reality Steve podcast with your host reality Steve, he’s got all the latest info and behind the scenes juice on Jen season of the bachelorette and interviewing some of your favorite reality stars. Now here’s reality Steve. What’s up,
everybody? Welcome to podcast number 406. I’m your host reality Steve. You. Thank you all for tuning in. A good Thursday episode for you. It’s going to be very big brother centric. As we are going to talk with big brother season 21, fifth place finisher, Tommy Bracco, who also appeared on the challenge in case you don’t remember that.
We’re going to talk to Tommy about what’s been going on and big brother. This season, we spent a lot of time talking about Tucker. Him and I are pretty much in the same camp of how we feel about Tucker, but he has a little bit of a different take on it. Having been in the house and what bothers him about Tucker versus what bothers me.
About Tucker, which, you know, and we will get to all that momentarily. Before we get started I do talk about on the daily roundup today. If you want to go check that out, a couple of things. Number one, the Justin and Susie breakup, it is now official. I think a lot of us knew that this announcement was coming because they had basically stopped posting about each other.
And in the last couple of weeks, each of them said in different interviews, we’re taking time to reevaluate our relationship and, you know, Two people that as public as them, when, once they stopped posting together and then say, we want to reevaluate things, we pretty much knew it was over. I will say that I do respect the fact that they didn’t go with the Instagram joint statement.
Those things have always felt very impersonal to me. They have felt very disingenuous to me. Now I do have a head scratcher in that when they sat down, clearly they had a plan of how they were going to announce their breakup officially. And they decided, Justin, why don’t you go on with Ben and Ashley?
And reveal it there. Susie has a podcast starting next week, so I’m sure she’s going to talk about it. A new podcast for her. I’m sure she’ll talk about it there, but I don’t know, kind of a weird choice to make. I have no problem with Instagram statements for a breakup. I just don’t need it to be joint where it’s just clearly only one person is writing it and that they’re both just reposting it on each other’s page.
I would rather in this particular case, Susie. Give her heartfelt thoughts on the breakup. Justin give his heartfelt thoughts on the breakup. Now, when Justin went on Ben and Ashley’s podcast, and we heard this yesterday, there were no reasons given as to why the breakup happened. We don’t know who broke up with who.
We don’t know the reason behind it. Us, just as viewers know, they were posting all the time together. Once they announced they were a couple. I mean, it tocks, reels, Instagram stories, which is fine. But when a, when you do that a lot, as much as they were doing it, and then it stops immediately for no reason.
And then Susie’s posting a bunch of Instagram stories, only hanging out with girlfriends. And then they’re saying, we’re taking time to reevaluate our relationship. Look, we know they’ve been broken up. It’s probably been a few weeks, if not a month, and they just decided, okay, now we’re going to come out and say it.
Breakups suck. I feel sorry for both of them. They’re not fun. Justin was clearly choked up talking about the breakup and Ben said, Hey, we’ll have you on when you want to talk about it more, which was basically when we can find out exactly why you guys broke up because there’s been no why yet. It’s just, we’ve done it.
We have now, we are no longer together. So hopefully they don’t owe it to us. If they don’t ever give it to us, don’t beg them for it. Don’t ask them for it. They don’t owe us anything. Curious people I’m sure do want to know who ended it. Why? Why? Things seem to be going well with you guys. You guys literally held out for, I don’t know, six months, eight months, continuing to tell people, even though you were spending so much time together, continuing to tell people, we’re just friends, we’re just friends, we’re just friends.
And then finally, they both kind of saw that there was something more there. And then they finally announced, yes, we are a couple. And then for them to break up, like they almost went about it the right way. Not that there’s a right or wrong way and it’s so black and white, but that’s kind of the way you want to start relationships.
You want to be friends with somebody first, starting with a hookup and then turning it into a relationship. Not saying it doesn’t work, but that’s more the exception than the norm. They established a very, very solid friendship first, then they decided, you know what, maybe there is something more there. So I really liked the way this relationship developed, but to see it.
And I don’t want to say so quickly, but they didn’t even last what? Six months. Wasn’t it new years when we first saw that one video of somebody else filming and we saw Justin and Susie in the background, basically about to kiss. I think that was new years, right? Or am I mixing her up with Caitlin’s soft launch on new year with Zach Clark?
I can’t remember. Either way, I definitely know that video came and I think it was new years with Susie and Justin. Regardless, here we are less than eight months later and they’ve already broken up. So look, I know nothing about their relationship. I’ve never spoken to Justin in my life. Susie exchanged a few emails with her on Instagram DM or not emails, but messages on Instagram DM probably two or three years ago, and it was a while she was still with Clayton.
I don’t think I’ve, I don’t think I’ve messaged her since Clayton, maybe once or twice. But it was not anything related, although I should say, no, I’ve asked her to come on my podcast, but this was two years ago and she wasn’t the greatest at getting back to me about it because she did say when I initially asked her, she would, once everything was kind of out of, when she was out of contract or whatever, but now that she’s launching a podcast next week.
I don’t know. Maybe at some point I’ll reach out to her. I’d love to have her on, but it’s not like she’s going to tell me first the reasoning behind her and Justin’s breakup. It sucks if they don’t give us anything, then obviously as fans and if you liked them and you follow Susie, you follow Justin, you follow both of them.
If they don’t want to tell us anytime soon, then they don’t want to tell us and there’s no reason to bug them about it. The other thing that I talk about on the daily roundup today is claim to fame, two hour season finale. If you don’t know what happened and you don’t want to know, then just skip this part for the next minute or so.
It’s just funny to think that the guy who seemed the most clueless all season long, Adam, is the guy who ends up winning and nailing who Mackenzie’s relative was and who Hud’s relative was in the finale. Hud’s we’ve known since the very beginning. Mackenzie, You know, the guy I directed you to, remember after episode one, I said, there’s a guy on Tik Tok that’s already revealed everybody’s relative and you know, time will tell if he’s right about it all.
And he was. Mackenzie was Trace Adkins daughter. Shane was Marlon Brando’s grandson. Adam was Michael Bolton’s nephew and HUD was John Mellencamp’s son, Teddy Mellencamp’s nephew. So. Along with everybody else that he nailed throughout the course of the season. The guy was really good. He’s the reality, Steve of claim to fame.
How about that? And he had this stuff from the very beginning, but as we watched the episodes play out over the season, Adam just seemed like he knew nothing about anything, just didn’t just like he seemed so clueless and then he gets to the end and he gets to be the final guesser and he nails HUD and he nails McKenzie.
So good for him. Congratulations to Adam, but we do that’s discussed a little bit on the daily roundup. Anyway, let’s get going. Podcast number four Oh six. All right, let’s bring him in. You know him from season 21 of big brother. He also now hosts the real talk podcast fifth place finisher on season 21, a big brother.
It is Tommy Bracco. Tommy, what’s up, man?
What’s up, Steve? You’re the best. Thank you so much. Thanks for a while.
Since we spoke I know a lot has happened in your life. We’re going to talk about all that stuff, but I wanted to immediately jump into this season of big brother, which is so, I have so many thoughts and you’re really the first person I’ve been able to dissect at least, you know, five weeks into the season here, exactly what’s been going on.
And before we get to the actual contestants of this season, I want to talk about kind of the theme. And what you like or don’t like. So first off, I got to ask, do you like three noms in the BBAI arena or no? Love it. You do.
Love it. But I think it’s overstated. It’s welcome. I think. You know, who is HOH first?
Like Angela being in the position, having to nominate three people first week versus T CORE having to do it in week five, putting up three noms. That’s like a century. She actually had to nominate four people. That’s a third of the house left more than a third of the house left. So that’s just, it’s too much.
It like, I think that it’s, it’s setting the age, the HOH, you’re supposed to be taking that week to set yourself up because you can’t play the following week. And I think this makes it way more difficult for the HOH to do that. I just don’t think it’s fair to the HOH to go on this long into the game because nominating three people now means something very different than it did the first four weeks.
Totally agree. Sam? But I think it should have cut off at four weeks.
Yeah, that’s what I’m at the beginning of the season. When we found out this was it, I said, I bet you it’s gone after four weeks. Well, now we’re in week five. It’s still not gone. My guess is. My guess is it’s going to be gone in the next couple of weeks because you can’t do this down to five.
You can have three moms when there’s five people left.
It’s too much. It’s it’s, it’s too much. It’s not right to the HOH. It’s, it’s not fair.
Do you like the fact that one of the three has a chance to save themselves every week with the AI arena?
Love that. Love it. Love it. Love it.
Now you’re more of a, you probably follow it and obviously you talk about it more than I do, but, and so you probably have a better memory of things, all the AI arenas that have happened thus far this season, have they all been.
Have any of them been any sort of trivia or memory game, or has it all been do something in the quickest amount of time? Hasn’t it, there haven’t been any memory or trivia in AI arena. Has there, I don’t think I could be wrong.
No, you, I think you’re right. I’m going through them in my, in my head right now.
And I think you’re right. I think they’re all time based. It, and they have to be because it’s got to happen quickly. We’re on live TV. It’s a live competition.
Yeah.
So I think that’s why, but I do agree that the AI arena competitions are a little stale for me. I feel like they could use a little bit more versatility for sure.
Well, the other thing, and we’ll get to it. When we talk about Tucker is just the fact that, well, before we get to Tucker, because he’s the, he is the most talked about contestant, I think in a while on this show, you and I share pretty much the same opinion of him and I, and I want you to repeat it once we start talking about it, but
it’s just the unpopular opinion too, people are obsessed with him.
I love him. I mean, I mean, the fact that he got voted AI instigator, which I want to talk about next, just goes to show, like, I understand that Quinn. Won the first vote, but that was more of a vote for, that was a negative thing that Quinn won, right? It wasn’t a popularity thing. It was kind of a negative thing.
This one was, Hey, who do you want to basically cause chaos in the house? Well, if they didn’t like it, they didn’t vote for him. So do you like the AI instigator twist?
Yeah, it’s so fun. It’s great. It’s like, America’s player that we’ve seen in the past. It’s awesome. It’s great. But to me, I don’t watch for twists like the AI instigator.
I more watch for, I feel like that’s just like a fun, casual viewer twist thrown in there. That’s just like, it’s just, it adds to the fun of the summer show. But I don’t think it really matters in terms of the game too much. However, I find Tucker’s a actions with the as the AI instigator, very interesting.
And I think it supports how I feel about him, how, how I have felt about him and I’m taking it, how you feel about him too. He is way more strategic than he’s letting on. He is way more calculated. You know, the, I thought it was very interesting that Quinn, the holograph of Quinn. The first AI instigator, persona, whatever, says mentally Tucker would be nothing without Robina.
You should have voted her out. So in that moment, not only is Tucker trying to put more target on Robina, But he’s also trying to downplay his own threat level. That’s on purpose. That is extremely calculated and smart. That is smart, but then don’t go in the DR and say that you only wanted to do that so you can hold hands on and out in public, like he’s not owning it in the DR.
But I’m like, there’s no way that you were only saying that because you wanted to hold hands with Rubina out in public, that was way more calculated. And I want to see that if that’s the truth, I want to see that in the DR. I just don’t feel the authenticity with his game all the time. And it’s bothering me.
Yeah, and I think the other thing is, and this is what I have brought up, is, you know, since this show started, I’ve been, you know, been told about things in Tucker’s past and shown videos, I just, you know, when I watch Big Brother, I want to see people be real, genuine, authentic, and I understand that when you get in front of the camera, and you get in the DR, you know, you’ll play things up, and you’ll, you’ll maybe be.
You know, who was the guy from your season that yelled a lot? Sam knows his name. He was very, very loud, but like, I
was guilty of it too. Like it does happen. Like, and, and it’s not fake. I know what you’re saying. And it’s not fake necessarily when you’re in that position, but your adrenaline is pumping through your brains that you are just up, you are the up version of yourself.
So I do think that. To, you know, play devil’s advocate a little bit. I think that we see that time and time again from the house guests, myself included, but I, I give them a little bit more leniency with that because I lived that and I am an example of that.
Yeah, you played the game. But see, when I see you, Tommy, in the DR, you’re just a very animated person in general.
You talk with your hands, like you did that on the show. And I didn’t think that that was anything different when Tucker goes in there. And tries to act like Jim Carrey and has all these different voices that he does. And I just, it’s, it’s just, it’s just a little extra for me. Like I just don’t think because I have seen him on the live feeds where he just acts and talks like a normal person.
And I just wish we could get that. In the DR, I don’t think you were any different in the DR. Not that you can’t be excitable in the DR. So that’s what I think for you. You’re just an excitable guy. You’re a very upbeat guy and it just comes across in everything that you do. Like I said, you talk with your hands a lot and that’s, but you did that on the show.
He, on the other hand, like I said, is doing different voices. And it’s just that kind of stuff is driving me absolutely nuts. Now, as for his gameplay. Yeah, that’s what I
really want to talk about. Cause that’s where my, I have these strong opinions.
Yeah, I, I’m just confused on, so this way. Okay. So as we know, you’re, we’re recording this Wednesday afternoon.
You’re hearing this on Thursday. So we haven’t seen last night’s episode, but we know what happens. And one, the cam beat him in power of veto takes himself down and T CORE puts up Angela. So for the first time in a while. I think it’s the first time since Angela’s HOH, Tucker did not win a power veto that he was involved in.
Now after this happened on Monday night, I don’t know if people have seen this, but Tucker was just furious that Angela got put up. It’s one of his top allies. He’s been saying he’s going to go to the end with her. And it turned into, I’m not going to try in the AI arena. I want to go home. I want to see my dog.
I. I don’t want to be here anymore. And the second I started hearing that on Monday night, I’m like, this guy is way too self absorbed, he cares way too much about his status on this show. There is no way he’s going out as a quitter after just dominating comps for five weeks and in the last 24 to 48 hours, apparently that has changed and he’s absolutely going to try against MJ and Angela in AI arena, but.
Just that he just is very, very impulsive. And I don’t know if that is great gameplay and strategically. Like you said, I’m just, he’s all over the map. I don’t understand what he’s trying to do. One of the biggest things in his mind right now is he wants to break the curse. I guess he was the first one to walk into the house and that was just such a big deal to him.
I’m like. He’s focusing on micro stuff in terms of macro, the overall thing. And I just, I don’t understand it. So what’s, what’s your deal here with him?
All right. So I just feel like, honestly, so I, I did an interview with Brooklyn when she got evicted. And that was pretty eyeopening for me because I’ve gone back and forth.
I don’t know what his motive. Is in this game, is it to win the game or is it just to give us flashy TV? Because sometimes I feel like he’s not really playing to win. Sometimes I feel like he’s just trying to cause chaos because he does, the game doesn’t matter to him. And he says that, like you said, he’s threatening to leave.
He’s been doing this for weeks. And that was originally what rubbed me the wrong way with him is that we see him say, No amount of money is worth this. I’m going to leave. I’m not going to jury. If I go to jury, I’m walking out. Like, I’m like, you made him a commitment. Thousands of people would literally do anything to be in your position.
You sound like a spoiled brat, like a sore loser. Like I don’t have patience for that. I don’t respect people like that. It seems disrespectful to the game that I grew up loving. So I get mad when I hear people talk like that. I love that he has caused this chaos and that he is People say he reminds them of Old School Big Brother, and I completely agree with that.
He’s playing fearlessly, which I love. I love that he’s not afraid to make a bold move. But I just want to know that at the end of the day, what’s most important to him is winning this game, and that he’s gonna That he respects the game. And I don’t always feel that from him. Sometimes his actions seem a little reckless for me.
Yeah. And it, you know, like not taking yourself off for veto fine, but it’s like the constant house meetings, calling people out. There’s no. I don’t think there’s any strategy behind it. And then when you see him lose a competition, he kicks and screams and threatens to leave. It’s, it’s annoying me. It’s, I don’t have respect for that because to me it comes off as disrespectful.
So those are my thoughts on Tucker and it’s polarizing because like, like I said, I love so many things that he’s bringing to the season. We, the seat, the show has been stale for a bit. I get that. Yeah. And it’s, it’s exciting again. I love that part of it, but I just don’t trust his motive. I don’t trust that we are being told the truth in the DR by him.
I don’t get authentic from him all the time. And I’m just not always buying it. And I, I would almost respect the truth, even if it was, you know, as long as it’s the truth. But I feel like I’m being lied to by him sometimes. And. It just makes, it just puts a bad taste in my mouth. So I asked Brooklyn what her thoughts were on it because they didn’t get along.
And she, and I brought it up. I said, I feel like this, I feel like this. She said, I think it’s a little bit of both. I think that he is motivated by these challenges. He likes to challenge himself. And that’s why the challenges are the priority for him. But she basically thinks that he also likes to make flashy TV.
So, you know, it’s, he’s just a very per complex character and, and I’m loving watching him, but also hating watching him out. I want him out. He’s steamrolling the season. They need to get rid of him the first chance they can. We’ve gotten a sneak peek at tonight’s episode and Angela is apparently trying to take him out.
We’ve seen it on the feeds also. I hope that this house wakes up and realizes that now is the time to take him out because if they don’t, what happened in my season with Jackson, I made that mistake. I thought I can get him out later. I’ll hide behind him a little longer. It becomes too late. Then they start steamrolling.
They’re like, The winning that, those competitions is a skill that you cannot under, like, you can’t overlook that. So I hope that the house guests take the shot as soon as they can, as soon as he loses. And for that reason, we got to see this AI arena go out the window. So they have a better chance at get ready, right.
Getting rid of him.
Okay. So this, this has been, my thing is if you do want to get rid of him, as long as there’s two chances every week, our Vito. And AI arena, if you want to get rid of them, you can’t nominate him. You have to only give him one chance, which is AI arena. And you have to get them on a backdoor where you got it.
You, you basically, you don’t nominate him. You hope somebody that wins power of veto takes themselves off and you can replace them with Tucker. So he has one chance, but continuing to put him up and giving him two chances. He’s not going over to, we shown that he’s so much better. It’s not like. He’s barely getting by Tommy.
He’s blowing everybody out in these comps. Nobody’s coming close to him. You remember the one where they had to put the ball in the machine with the wind blowing? He had 20 balls before someone had five. It was a joke, you know, like that’s what I mean. I don’t understand if they do want to get them out.
You can’t nominate him. You just have to,
I hear you, but I think that there’s. It’s so much more difficult for the HOH with the AI arena because a backdoor situation allows you to not, it’s, it’s way less, less risky in a season without the AI arena, but should he win, he’s coming back with a vengeance. If you put him up and there’s no opportunity for him, for him to come off, it’s just by a vote, then he doesn’t have a, you know, you, he skates by.
I think that this is a testament to T Core, how good of a player she is, that she is in an extremely difficult position, like I, like we said before. Holds a lot more weight to nominate three people five weeks into the season than it did week one. So she had to nominate four people and none of them were looking at the end of this week.
None of them don’t like her. All of them love her. The fact that she has four people that she put on the block that all love her. She’s walking away from an, from an HOH like that. That is such a skill. She put Tucker up. Like, I think, here’s what I think. I think that T Core really wants Tucker out and she maybe is going back and forth, but I think that all along she had in the back of her head, if he winds up going this week, it’s not a bad thing, but she can essentially.
He, he volunteered, but he didn’t really want to volunteer and she just took that and ran with it. I think she’s playing amazing. And so I just want to give her her flowers because I think that she really after this week. And she’s somebody who nominated him from the get go. He lost the veto. We’ll see what happens with the AI arena.
If he doesn’t win the AI arena and they don’t vote him out, they are all stupid, stupid, stupid. They’re going to be making the same mistake that I made. And I hope that doesn’t happen. I really do.
Now the problem is We don’t know what the AI arena competition is going to be tonight, but that’s why I asked, you know, has everyone been a time thing?
And, and we do think it is. I just, I can’t see him losing to Angela or MJ. I really can’t. I don’t know what it is going to be tonight, because when you have a trivia or you have some sort of memory thing that seems to even out the playing field, because that’s just, he can lose at that hell he’s only one.
What one HOH. So it’s not like he’s dominating. This isn’t. You know, he’s won six comps already this year. But I think most of them have been where you have to just finish something quicker than everybody else. I think those are the ones that he has won. He hasn’t won memory ones as far as I know. And he hasn’t won.
Trivia ones. So I just have a feeling if we get another, hey, you got to do this in a certain amount of time, he’s going to destroy Angela and MJ and he’s going to be safe again. And if Angela and MJ are the two up tonight, I haven’t looked in the last 24 hours, but I’m sure they’ve talked about it on the feeds.
If Tucker wins AI Arena tonight, who are they thinking, who do they want to get rid of? Mackenzie. It’s Mackenzie.
That’s what they’re saying. And honestly, I get it because the truth is like right now, the strongest, like core in the house would be chemo T core Rubina and Tucker to Tucker’s in there. Also for their game, it’s better to get rid of Mackenzie.
And they’ve somehow convinced all the outsiders to just go along with that plan. I think that everybody else should fight to be keeping Mackenzie. I mean, Angela’s on the block, so she’s fighting to stay in that case. But yeah, I just think like, of course they want to get rid of Mackenzie. She’s the one that’s more of a threat to their game.
And she, I will say like, I’m holding out hope that if Mackenzie, you know, that Mackenzie could win this AI arena as well. She’s one. Once or twice, I forget offhand, but she’s up there in these competitions. She’s proved to be a competitor. So I, I wouldn’t, Oh, she won twice. She won twice. So I just feel like yeah, I just feel like I’m hoping that she wins and that it’s Tucker and Angela on the block.
And then I’m hoping they take the shot at Tucker. That’s what I hope for.
