Yeah. I I get it. I mean, I, I don’t know how I would react in that situation.
If I was a jury member, it is, it is certainly interesting. I know that obviously you’ve been covering this all season long and even though he’s been gone for a while now, Tucker was the biggest lightning rod. This show has seen in a long time. Personally for me, I made my feelings known on him. I, I thought it was too much.
I thought he was extra. I thought he was playing a character. I thought he just, because I had seen the people were sending me videos of him before he went on big brother and being interviewed. I’m just like. This is the Tucker that I wanted to see on the show. Why does he have to sit there and pretend he’s Jim Carrey and speaking all these different voices and he, and it just was so over the top for me.
I just wish he would have been like the Tucker in these videos I saw before he went on the show. But I also understand that. America fucking love that guy. And he is, I know, not everybody, obviously nobody’s universally liked. There was obviously people that felt the same way as me. Where did you stand on?
I interviewed Tommy Bracco on the podcast and he, right before Tucker got eliminated, he’s like, I don’t get it. I don’t. And I’m like, good. Thank you. Somebody that agrees with me. Cause I was so sick of the Tucker love online. Where do you stand with him and gameplay versus social play versus who he was on the show?
I mean, Tucker was terrible at the game. I think we can all agree. The guy. Volunteered for the block like four weeks in a row before it finally stuck. And you know, that’s not, that’s not exactly conducive to winning the game. But he was certainly, I think, a fun character in the sense that he was polarizing, a lot of people love him.
A lot of people were sick of him. But I think that’s what makes a good character on the show. I think that like, you know, if you find yourself being like, or this guy frustrates me, I want him out. Then he’s kind of done his job. And if you find yourself being like, Oh, I love Tucker. He’s the next, you know, Dr.
Will, like, then, you know, you’ve also of course done something. Right. So, I think that you know, I, I think that for me, it was like him losing when he did was the best way that Tucker could have left. He burned bright, he burned short and then and then. Shockingly was evicted at the height of his power.
And I think that was such a cool little arc in the season. So, you know, I don’t have any like issues with, with Tucker. I think that he was fun, but yeah, not exactly the best gameplay.
The, the funny thing was, I was saying, as we were getting into like second and third week, I’m like, look, as long as they have the AI arena, if you really want to get Tucker out of this game, you can’t put them up for an arm.
Because he’s going to have two opportunities every week to take himself off with power, veto and arena. And then the time he goes out, he actually, because I was like, he’s never going over to, he’s clearly shown that he’s not going to lose both. And then the week he goes out, he actually did lose both, but because he didn’t pay attention to the, to the rules in a arena, but that was ironic because I was just like, would you stop putting him up as a nom?
If you want him gone. At least just give him only one opportunity and not two. And then he goes out when he has, when he has to the next one I wanted to bring up was Angela, another polarizing figure that I don’t really care so much about, Oh, she was on Dr. Phil. Oh, she was on Price is Right. Like, I don’t, I don’t think that plays a role in this at all.
This isn’t you can say that if someone goes on the bachelor and the bachelorette contestants, cause technically they’re supposed to be there for love. What you did before this show. I don’t. Think it matters. So that part doesn’t bother me. I was just really put off by the way she treated people in the house.
I did the mat stuff was so over the top and just rude. The, the imitating Lisa’s walk and calling her a twit or whatever. Was that what it was? Twit.
Yeah.
I was just like, this, this woman’s rude. She’s like coming across very much like a Karen. On this show and, and then the crying and it was just, again, it was just so much for me.
Maybe she just, well, I was going to say maybe she’s an emotional person, but she said on her exit interview, and I think I heard one of her post show is she’s like, I don’t cry. And I’m like, yeah, she said, I’m not a crier. I’m like, what? Maybe not normally. Maybe.
Yeah. I don’t know. She cried in her, in her intro, like package.
And I get it. And she just, and I’m freaking this and freaking that, and I’m going to freaking win this game. And Julie, they got me out. Cause I was a threat. I was going to win this. No, you weren’t. Big freaking brother. Do you think, okay, let’s just say she somehow survived last week. Again, this is somebody that I said, if she’s sitting in the finals against.
Mackenzie or Chelsea, like she seemed to have some sort of paranoid delusion that she could win this game. Did you see people voting for her at the end? Like I was, like I said, I was keeping up on Twitter of what people were saying. It just seemed like people in the house did not care for her. And yet, and the reason they kept putting her up was just like, we can get rid of her at any point we want, because.
We don’t feel that she can beat any of us in the end. That that’s the impression I got. Is that what was going on? Like the reason they just kept, kept her there and kept putting her up was because, Hey, we can get rid of her whenever we want. We, it doesn’t matter because she’s not beating any of us.
Nobody’s going to vote for her. They don’t like her. Is that the impression?
Yeah, that’s open to
people. They didn’t let people didn’t like her, right?
That’s pretty accurate. Yeah. I mean, you know, and. There were definitely, I would say, a good portion of the house, at varying times, talked about not liking Angela or being frustrated with Angela.
It doesn’t mean she didn’t have you know, her, her people, a couple of people that, that did enjoy her. But you know, for most of the game, she was seen as somebody that just flat out couldn’t win in the end. If she’s on the block next to you, you’re going home. She’s going to be dragged to the final two for an easy win.
I will say that that perception did start to shift toward the end. She started winning more and more competitions. And all of a sudden she was like for a brief period of time, the player in the house who had won more competitions than anyone else and at least regular competitions like vetoes so, and on top of that, she was one of the only people in the house that was, you know, That saw through what Chelsea was doing and was willing to target Chelsea.
And so it did look like for a second there, like, Hey, does Angela actually have a chance at this? And there was still a long way to go. Like, it’s not like, Oh, all of a sudden Angela is definitely beating somebody in the final two. But you could start to see the world where it wasn’t impossible. But then she got evicted.
I, again, I was seeing this stuff online about iconic legendary bring her back for reindeer games. She’s an all star she’s going to be on a future CBS show. And I’m sitting here going like, do we have to like, I’m fine if she’s never on another CBS show ever again. But I have no idea. I mean, maybe, you know, I mean, AFP, it’s something like.
I almost feel like our AFP is going to be between people that literally didn’t even make top six. I feel like Tucker is going to be in final three. I feel Angela is going to be final three, just based on what I’m reading online, and then, you know, maybe one of these final five is the third person up for AFP, but I don’t know.
Do you think Tucker or Angela wins AFP?
I think Angela probably has a tough time. I think that I think that like the hardcore fans appreciate her as a character, but I think the more casual audience more put off by her in general. So I think she’s going to have a hard time winning the majority vote.
Tucker is an interesting case because nobody’s ever won from the pre jury. So the fact that he was such a huge favorite. And that no other contender has really popped up since then. You know, Quinn had a brief moment in the show where he started to look like he might become a hero for the edit, but then he got evicted.
Then Leah had her brief moment and then she got evicted and then Angela got evicted and it’s like, they just kind of back to back to back. I feel like Leah has some strong support. You know, the, the Leah Angela duo, they call themselves the Lorraines. That was a, the popular kind of underdog uprising, fan favorite kind of, movement because they, they won HOH and Vito during Janky World.
Unfortunately for them, they kind of, Leah in particular, she kind of flopped that week. She did not go after Chelsea in the way that she needed to and came to regret it afterward. But but that movement and she still managed to get out T Core, which is certainly. Better than nothing. But as she saw it, you know, Chelsea would have been a much better option.
But that was, I think that week in particular was like, look at them. Like they can do this. And then, you know, things fall, fell flat after that. But MJ going after Leah in the way that she did, I think also drummed up some support, like, Oh my God, can you believe her best friend in the house is doing this on Chelsea’s behalf?
So I wouldn’t be surprised to see Leah in the top three. And, and then, yeah I’m just curious to see if Tucker can pull it out from, from pre jury.
Do you, were you a fan of. AI arena and three noms for six weeks.
I actually was I am a a pretty big anti twist guy. That’s what I’m known for, for a lot of things.
But, but the thing is I’m not against twists on principle. I’m just against bad twists. And unfortunately, from my perspective, pretty much every twist that big brother comes up with is a bad twist. I just feel like they don’t often take into account. Game mechanics and balance. So they do things like battle of the block, which just breaks the game.
And then various forms of that kind of competition, just a bunch of different kinds of twists that allow for big majority alliances to press their advantage on the people on the outside. And the AI Reno was something a little different. It felt like intentionally or not, it had some interesting ramifications to gameplay.
And I think that we saw that throughout the season. One was that there was a lot more incentive to split a vote. You know, you didn’t know what the final nominations would be. So there was a lot of scrambling at the last minute to figure out exactly what the vote would be. And for a long time this season, we didn’t get any unanimous votes.
We got a lot more veto plays as we already talked about. We had a lot more blindsides because why would you tell somebody that you plan to vote them out if they have the ability to save themselves at the last minute, then you, then they know you were going to vote them out. So. If you, if they don’t win the the AI arena, they’re getting blindsided because you’re not going to tell them in the two seconds or, you know, 30 seconds as Julie’s like, talk to talk to people strategize.
So more blindsides, more split votes, more veto plays. And in addition to that, it makes it harder to like, hold on to power. You have to nominate three to four people as the HOH. You can’t lock things down as much. You can’t lock in like plans for next week because you don’t know who’s going to be there.
And so there are a lot of interesting changes to gameplay. And you could argue that one of the reasons why this cast has been. So abysmal strategically is because they were really put on their toes by this twist. So I thought it was a really cool experiment and I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing it run again, because I think it, I think it worked.
Yeah. And like you said, these people go into the game thinking, Oh, two noms every week, you know, we get somebody out. I liked the fact that we didn’t have a unanimous vote until gosh. I can’t remember. It was I think the first
one was last week.
Yeah. So, and you’re, and normally, and like I said, the five seasons that I’ve watched, or this is number six, I’m not counting celebrity.
It just seems like those first four votes. It’s. It’s house votes and you’re just like going with the house and it’s just like, it’s so obvious for those first four or five, maybe even six eliminations you’re getting 11, nothing, 10, nothing, nine, one, because somebody is a buddy and doesn’t want to write their name down or say their name.
But we didn’t get that this year. We actually had some, okay. And it probably was because they all go into the house thinking one thing, and they’re throwing this twist that they didn’t think about. And it’s like, oh, okay. Now it is a little bit different. What, one of the things that I wanted to to end with was something that you’re probably more aware of than I am, because again, I’m more of a newer fan.
And obviously social media has taken off and there’s podcasts and Instagram lives and stuff like that. But either I wasn’t paying attention in the past. Can you remember so many pre jury. Eviction contestants hanging out, doing lives together, doing tech talks together, going on a four person tech talk to discuss the episode.
It seems like this, this cast, Matt is the most clout chasing cast host show that I can ever remember. Maybe there has been others. That’s what I’m saying. You would know about this stuff more than I do and follow it, but it just seems like everything on my for you page is. Lisa or Cedric or Matt just doing something to bring attention to themselves.
And, you know, Matt, I. I don’t even know if this has happened. I thought Matt from this season and Matt, the runner up from last season, where I thought they were all set to start a podcast together. I thought that’s what they were talking about. And they had made, maybe not merch, but they had literally put something out there, like coming soon.
And like, we don’t need this guys, trust me. Like
it’s the culture. It’s but is it,
has this been prevalent with other seasons as much as it’s been with this one?
I’d say this one is, is pretty prominent. It’s definitely something that’s been happening. It’s been a trend forward in this direction. Especially like big brother Canada has it’s been happening air.
It had been happening there a lot as well. You know, just people are more online than ever. And they’re more in social media than ever. And It, it has become a viable path to make a little bit of money after being on these shows. You know, the, the, the adage used to be that, like, if you thought you were coming off of a big brother to, to, you know, have success in the entertainment world or anything like that, you were out of your mind.
But nowadays, you can make a quick buck on Instagram and TikTok and you know, it won’t last forever. You know, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s not like CBS is paying them that much anywhere. So,
yeah, I mean, I have no problem trying to make a brand for yourself, but when you’re number 16 at a 16, it just seems delusional.
That’s the thing with me. I don’t think Matt can capitalize just because he wasn’t on the show long enough. I can understand top six, top eight, and I guarantee Contestants from the season will start a podcast. If not start one together as a twosome or something like that. I have, I have no problem with that.
It’s just the placement of these people, these pre jurors, Tucker makes sense because he was a polarizing figure. Matt seems to want to think he was a polarizing figure, but I think I went out first, dude.
Yeah. I think the key to it is that. You if you want to have success making content online and you want to use a show like this as a catapult, then yeah, one of two things needs to be true.
Either you made it far or had a big impact on the show and you can just use that and you can put anything out and people will flock to it.
Yeah.
Or. You just have to be really good at making content. Like you have to actually have a lot of creative juices in you. You know what I mean? I think of so last, last season, of course, Corey Wurtenberger was on the show.
His brother, Zach was a very early boot on survivor but has done some really fun, engaging content online. And and you know, maybe not like the most successful online content creator in the world. But like, he’s actually a really creative guy that can come up with some really funny stuff. And I think that if you want to find success after the show having not made a huge impact, I think that you really have to like dig into those creative instincts.
And
yeah,
it’s got to, it’s got
to come down to your content that you put out. Like exactly. It’s gotta be, you can’t just
slap a podcast slap your name on a podcast and be like, Hey, it’s. It’s the, it’s the Matt podcast, you know, from my brother.
Yeah. And it would make sense. Like he was like this whole talk about him possibly teaming up with Matt Klotz.
It’s like, well, yeah, Matt Klotz is way more relevant than you are. So you kind of need him. If Matt Hardiman, I think is his name. If Matt Hardiman starts his own podcast, I, it’s like, okay, you’ll probably have some of the cast members from this season on, but after that, what do you got? You know, I just, I don’t know.
I know he’s doing content. I saw something come across my for you page where he’s doing some dance with Cedric. And it’s just like, okay. I just, I don’t know. Just doesn’t seem like he’s trying. I get it. He’s a for effort, dude. Like, okay. I
think we just might be too old for it.
Yeah. Maybe it’s maybe it’s maybe I’m just like, you know, I’m old guy screaming to get off my lawn.
But. Anyway Karen, thank you so much for coming on. We’ll, we’ll definitely see what happens tonight. Rest of the season. We just, you know, we don’t know who’s winning HOH is going forward. And if we did, we probably could figure out a better route of how to get where we’re going. But in terms of these people and who’s going to win and who’s going to finish second and third, but seemingly chemo is going to be gone tonight, unless something changes in the changed in the last 24 hours.
But. It looks like we got a final four of Rubina, Cam, Chelsea, and McKenzie. And Chelsea, McKenzie, and Cam have said, at least said to each other, we didn’t come this far to not be the final three. So assuming Rubina doesn’t win HOH and doesn’t win power of veto, she’s gone.
Watch out for Cam cutting McKenzie or definite possibility.
Yeah. And then there’s, then there’s that, which certainly could happen. Because I don’t think, God, but if Cam is up there, I mean, if, if we have a cam Chelsea final, like
I can’t, that’s gotta be seven, nothing camera being a Chelsea final three is actually a little interesting because you know, Rubina might take cam probably we’ll take
it and she should, and just like that
out back to back.
That’d be wild.
And then the fan base would be like, this is the worst final we’ve ever seen. They would, there’s no, they, I think this will be voted one of the worst seasons if we don’t have McKenzie or Chelsea at least in the final, because then it’s just cams there. Okay. Maybe he made a move late in the game and cut Chelsea, even though, you know, he had been claiming, you know, supposedly riding her coattails all season.
Well, okay. He made a big move and cut her, but man. I think we need Chelsea or McKenzie there. And I, I think you and I are both in agreement of the people left. I think Chelsea has played the most solid game all season. I guess one final thing here, if Chelsea does end up winning this season, no matter who it’s against and no matter what the final vote is.
Where would you rank her in winners of all time? Is she a, is she a top five winner, top 10, or is she middle of the pack?
I just, I definitely say she’s up there. Obviously the, the discussion is a lot of the discussion has been around like, well, it’s a weak cast, but I think that’s, that’s, it’s tough to judge, you know, is it a weak cast because they’re bad or because they were made to look bad by a really good player?
And so, you know, I, she’s certainly not without flaws as a, as a player, but I think the thing that most people don’t remember, because we tend to remember fondly is that a lot of the really good players who remember also are pretty flawed. So, you know, where does she place exactly? I think that’s a discussion that we would have to like really dig into and, and and figure out especially the way that she wins.
How does it come about? But I would say she’s definitely a contender to be a, you know, up there as a top winner.
Yeah, no, I, I definitely see it. And obviously we got to see how it plays out and how she wins and who she cuts, what game moves does she have left in her? But yeah, this is I think she’s been a really good player, but then I see the stuff online that’s like worst final five ever and worst cast.
I’m like, are they the worst cast? I didn’t, I didn’t think they’d been the worst,
but I think this has been a very fun season, even if it ends a little slowly or a little poorly. I think that like, you know, at least from the perspective of a hardcore fan who is. Deep in the trenches. This has been a breath of fresh air all season long with the, the, the way that it’s been so dynamic all season long.
We’re very used to, like, One big Alliance steamrolling the game and no big power shifts and unanimous votes and nobody uses the veto. And so this season I think will be remembered fondly by the fan base, regardless of the outcome.
I agree. I really, I’ve, I’ve enjoyed this season and janky world has kind of taken over my life for that week.
I mean, the amount of times that it just ran through my head all day long, I’d be driving and singing J a N K I E. I, it was just, it was like, At first it annoyed me. I’m like, I got to get this out of my head. And then I just embraced it. I embraced janky and
passing.
Well, I talked about it on my podcast. I was like.
Did we really need to see him murdered on television? Like the way they did? I go, that was a little extreme. Like it was like, Whoa, wait a second here. So it’s a robot. Let’s take it easy. Can’t you just, I was like, could they just have Ainsley come in and say, all right, I’m back. Took a break, went on vacation for a week.
I want to thank Janky for taking over. But like, yeah. Literally disintegrating the guy on our television and eyeballs popping out and then just exploding. I’m like, holy shit. Come on, let Jakey go out better than that. But yeah, I think it’s hilarious. I know, obviously you got to talk to the contestants and hopefully someday I’ll be able to talk to these contestants and I just want to tell them, look, I understand me being a viewer.
Didn’t have to deal with it as much as, as you did with that. Constantly getting up and singing, constantly getting up and dancing, but just know janky was, I think, well liked by the public. At least it was by me and people who didn’t watch lives, I guess. So, Taren, thank you so much for coming on, man.
Really appreciate it. Love having you on every year. And we’ll talk to you next summer, I guess, unless you want to talk, you’re doing survivor, right? You’re covering. I certainly
watch it. We have we have a fellow podcaster on the season this season. Yeah. So, very excited to watch this season for sure.
Yeah, no, I’m I’m looking forward to it. Good start so far, but yeah, we will have you on before next summer again. So, Taren, thanks again, man. Appreciate it.
Thanks again for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
Thank you so much to Taren for coming on. Really appreciate it. Love having him on once a season.
I think he’s excellent. And he brings up things every year to me that I’m like, Oh, okay. He obviously has a much more knowledgeable history of this show. Can kind of see how things form before they actually do, you know, going into that interview with Taryn, I was like, I just don’t see anybody getting a vote if they’re sitting against Chelsea in the final two or McKenzie.
And then I was like, well, God, chemo. Has got T Core, Rubina, and Angela in his back pocket. If that guy gets to the finals, somehow doesn’t get eliminated tonight, and gets to the finals, he’s pretty much got three votes. And so basically all you need would be one more. And as Terran said, it could be Quinn.
And I was just thinking, just looking at it big picture, I was like, there’s no way Kimo’s winning this thing. What is his argument? And I guess it’s his social game. It’s just I just didn’t put enough thought into it. So stuff like that. Love hearing Taren’s insight into this show. I think he’s excellent.
So we’re obviously going to have him on every year going forward. Anyway, thank you all for listening. I really appreciate it. Follow me on Apple podcasts also rate and review, but you got to hit play. It’s the only way it counts as a download. Remember this is going up on YouTube. You can watch me talk to Taryn.
And the reason why you’re going to want to watch me is because I’m wearing my janky world t shirt that I got the day before I recorded with Taryn. So we’ve got that. That’s going to be on my YouTube channel, 9 15 AM Eastern time. It’ll be in your podcast feed, whether it’s Spotify or Apple podcasts, it’ll be in there right around that time as well, but it immediately posts.
It’s set to post nine 15, every Thursday Eastern time. So go check it out on my YouTube channel. Like it subscribe, leave a comment. That certainly helps the YouTube channel. Again, for Taren Armstrong, I’m Reality Steve. Thank you all for tuning in and I will talk to you tomorrow. See ya!
Send all links and emails to: steve@realitysteve.com. To follow me on Twitter, it’s: www.twitter.com/RealitySteve. Instagram name is RealitySteve, or join my Reality Steve Facebook Fan Page. Talk to you tomorrow.
