*NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick tried his best to flip Celebrity Big Brother on its head and, while I’d argue he succeeded, it came at the cost of his own game. The singer got evicted after former alliance member Miesha Tate decided to give her buddy the boot, following his attempt to flip alliances and drastically change the game. Now, he's opened up about that as well as his drama with Mirai Nagasu.
I spoke to Chris Kirkpatrick the morning following his eviction and that big Celebrity Big Brother move that he, quite frankly, didn’t have to make. Kirkpatrick had guaranteed safety as one of Miesha Tate’s closest allies up to a point. However, he decided to ask Shanna Moakler to use the veto anyway, which resulted in his nomination. During our conversation, Kirkpatrick referred to the move as a risk he ultimately knew had a better chance of failing than succeeding. The entertainer also revealed the iconic Big Brother houseguest he thought of while playing:
I think if I thought about it, it was one of those things that, if it worked, it’d be the riskiest gamble of Big Brother history. Saying, ‘I’m gonna go home, but if I don’t go home, we’re gonna win Big Brother.’ I don’t know if there was anybody specific I was channeling. There was always times that I’d joke with Shanna and say ‘WWDD,’ What Would Derrick [Levasseur Do? [I] tried to play an honest, straightforward game. I think [Derrick] could play his a little bit easier than I could play mine. He had normal people, I had celebrities. They’re a lot harder to navigate than normal people.
Celebrity Big Brother is definitely different from its parent series, in more ways than one. Chris Kirkpatrick alleged the game is different with celebrities involved, and as someone who lived it and is a celebrity himself, he (and perhaps Chris Kattan) might know better than most.
Of course, fans want to know about all the drama that occurred before the live feeds started and the tension between Chris Kirkpatrick and Olympian Mirai Nagasu. I asked Kirkpatrick about what occurred before the live feeds started that led to such a tense atmosphere, and he laid out the situation for me as he saw it:
There was a lot of tension with [Mirai] and a lot of people, and the house wasn’t a good place for her. I tried to help her out the whole time and make sure that she was OK. And, when she blew up on the people she was angry about, she kind of just threw me under the bus, even though I was one of the people there helping her. [I was] the only person, pretty much, besides Chris Kattan that she could trust. And when she threw me under the bus, I felt kind of backstabbed by that. I was like, ‘I had your back,’ and, in fact, when she started her little speech thing, Todd started jumping in on her because she was going after Todd. I’m like, ‘Todd, settle down, let her talk.’. . .then she started throwing me under the bus I was like, ‘Get her Todd.’ I didn’t know this was coming. . .She was doing everything to throw everybody under the bus and say, you know, kind of personal things and just kind of make her game a little less obvious. Even though she was really in a scary place, I was trying to help her out of it. [It] was just like at that point I had to target and get her out of the house for her own good.
Mirai Nagasu didn’t say a ton about what occurred during that time in interviews elsewhere, though she told Us Weekly that she and Chris Kirkpatrick didn’t vibe. Everyone involved seems intent on leaving the specifics of what occurred out of the mix, so what specifically went down may never be known publicly.
With that said, the music producer had empathy for the Olympian. He talked about what she experienced ahead of her eviction and, when I asked him if whatever occurred is all “water under the bridge” now that the game is over, he said the following:
For sure, it was stressful in that house. There was a point during the first eviction that she was the target, she was going home. I just saw how the house changed, and I kind of felt it a bit yesterday, too. It’s almost like you feel like the kicker on a football team right before a field goal. Nobody talks to you. You’re kind of like staying away because you don’t want people to see you talking to that person because you could be next. I saw that going on, and I was still trying to talk to her and trying to make sure she was OK. It’s not a fun place to be, but it’s Big Brother.
Chris Kirkpatrick’s plan to try and get Miesha Tate to nominate Lamar Odom (who made headlines talking about his ex Khloé Kardashian) or Todrick Hall flopped. This means he’ll be one of the houseguests on the outside ultimately voting for the winner of Celebrity Big Brother Season 3. At this stage, it looks like it’s anyone’s game, and that’s certainly thanks in part to his big move that led to his eviction.
Celebrity Big Brother continues on CBS all throughout February. Check local listings for the television schedule week to week, and for those looking to check out the live feeds, get in on all the drama by getting a Paramount+ subscription.
