Warning! The following contains spoilers pertaining to the Week 4 eviction in Big Brother Season 24. Read at your own risk!
Big Brother Season 24 has already been a very buzzworthy season for the popular franchise, and a lot of that is tied to Taylor Hale. The former Miss Michigan faced a number of microaggressions from other Houseguests from the moment she entered the game, which angered many fans who weren’t happy with how she was treated. The season's most recent evictions have been learning about that backlash for the first time upon reentering the normal world, and according to former Houseguest Ameerah Jones, it’s been a struggle to deal with.
I had the privilege of speaking to Ameerah a week after her eviction from Big Brother, which was at a point where she could better experience and understand the backlash from fans (and even former Houseguests) regarding things that have played out so far in Season 24. Ameerah touched on the situation when I asked if she’d had a chance to speak to the previous evictee, Joe “Pooch” Pucciarelli, and/or Paloma Aguilar, whose removal for personal reasons ultimately helped turn Taylor’s game around. Here's how the now-former contestant answered:
I have talked to both of them. Pooch is not mad at me at all, surprisingly. [Laughs] And I think that we’re all just, you know–all sixteen of us went through this exact experience together. And so, we all kind of need each other right now to like work on our mental health and decompress and see where we went wrong and see what things that we’ve said. Kind of lean on each other for some type of group therapy. We’ve all said some ugly things in the house. We’re also kind of leaning on each other for help with that.
Ameerah admitted that there were some ugly things said in the Big Brother house, and spoke about the unique experience they all shared in the game. Part of that included live feeds being watched by potentially millions of Paramount+ subscribers, who posted about and shared clips of the many negative or unflattering things that have been said about other Houseguests.
At the time of her eviction, Ameerah wasn’t aware of what the outside world was saying about her or her allies in the game. Ameerah spoke about how it felt to leave the house disappointed, only to then have to learn about negative feedback from fans. She thinks the shock she felt is something other evicted players will experience as well, saying:
It was absolutely a shock and I know it’s going to be a shock for the guests that are coming out tonight, next week, etc. In the house, you’re in a completely different mindset. I’m thinking straight strategy, straight game. I’m thinking only of myself. Who I am in the house is not who I am on the outside, and so everything that I’m doing in the house I don’t even care about what’s going on. I only care about what’s helping me. Yeah, when I left the house and I was seeing all of these negative clips of me and all these tweets and everything else it caught me off guard, was definitely shocked. I was hurt obviously, but it was a shock because you’re just living in a completely, completely, different world in there.
Ameerah Jones expressed later in our interview that she would love to talk to Taylor Hale for the finale's one-on-one, and that she had no ill feelings towards her or anyone else in the Big Brother house. Ameerah also stated that she hasn’t been able to watch the game or live feeds yet because she doesn’t feel in the right headspace to watch. She has seen many clips that have been sent to her, however, and mentioned she does feel up to date from having viewed those.
Ameerah isn’t the last Houseguest who will see some backlash from Big Brother fans online, as Nicole Layog and Daniel Durston will also likely face critics for their behavior. With Nicole likely to leave the game soon, Ameerah shared some advice for her former ally on life outside the game in the immediate future:
I would tell her to avoid social media for the first week or two outside the house. I feel like I should still be avoiding it. I’m trying my best but it’s hard. Avoid social media, but then when she is able to get on social media, to actually look at the clips of her where she is having her bad moments in the house and acknowledging that. Understanding why people are hurt by that, and then taking the necessary course to try and fix, you know, fix what she said that probably shouldn’t have been said.
That’s certainly good advice for any Houseguest who fans turn on, especially for comments they made that were controversial or inflammatory in any way. Not all Big Brother Houseguests perceived as “villains” end up finding redemption with fans, but accountability is often a good way to help lessen the online hate. Not acknowledging it can lead to more problems, as Celebrity Big Brother Houseguest Todrick Hall can possibly attest to after he and other CBB Houseguests endured a tense and awkward finale after his fellow contestants saw clips of what he said during filming. We’ll see if Nicole and others follow Ameerah’s advice.
Big Brother airs on CBS on Sundays and Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET and on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. Keep up with the live feeds by checking out Paramount+, especially since the elongated periods without interruption are one of the many changes we love about Season 24.
