The 25th season of Big Brother is just around the corner and two legends of the game are sharing their thoughts — and more importantly, their advice — with the new crop of houseguests.
Taylor Hale, the winner of season 24, and Janelle Pierzina, who competed in four seasons of Big Brother, spoke with Us Weekly ahead of the August 2 season premiere. “Don’t let people gaslight you into believing that you’re a bad person,” Hale advised future cast members.
“It’s really easy — if you’re coming from a good place and you just want to play the game, which is where I was — it’s very easy to just wanna hear people if they’re telling you that you hurt them and say, ‘OK, well how can we reach a resolution?’” she explained. “If people are not giving the puzzle pieces to get to a resolution, they’re gaslighting you.”
She also advised the houseguests to keep playing the game even if things aren’t going their way and their backs are up against the wall. Hale pointed out that so many people dream of playing Big Brother that it’s “disrespectful” for those who are cast to give up just because they’re in a bad position and encouraged everyone to “fight until the very end.”
Hale and Pierzina both said they were hoping to see a return to a more old-school way of playing Big Brother, with houseguests directly addressing viewers through the 24/7 live feeds. “I don’t think anyone’s done that recently because everyone’s so fearful,” Pierzina told the publication. Hale agreed that she’d love to see houseguests embrace a more shady way of playing but then use the cameras to inform viewers of their plans.
“I think we have lost the idea that… you can still say bad things and manipulate people,” she shared. “But I think if you just went to the camera and said, ‘I know what I’m doing. I’m doing this intentionally and I’m owning this bad behavior. This is not who I actually am.’ It might not be fun to watch, but I think it would at least be respected. I just think we need to get away from tiptoeing.”
Excitement for the 25th season of Big Brother is ramping up as the premiere approaches. On July 27, host Julie Chen Moonves gave fans their first look at the season’s house as she posted a photo of herself sitting at a red and yellow table about to dig into a cartoon-style cake. Her post came a few days after the key art for the season dropped on social media, which set off a flurry of speculation about the theme.
Big Brother season 25 will premiere on CBS on Wednesday, August 2 at 8pm ET/PT.