Big Brother: Over the Top: Cornbread talks exit

Big Brother: Over the Top kicked off on Sept. 28 — and with the help of America, the houseguests made it through their first eviction… but not all of them, obviously.

Cornbread, a 41-year-old heavy equipment operator from Georgia, was the first houseguest to leave this fall. Although he was not a Head of Household nominee, thanks to one of many unexpected twists, America put him up on the block as a third option. When Jason Roy won Power of Veto and pulled himself off the block, things started to change in the house and Cornbread left on a 9-1 vote.

Here, he walks EW through what went wrong, what he wishes he could have redone, and who he thinks the house should target next.

So let’s get right to it — what went wrong?

You know, it started off good, but when America put me up there, it changed everything. A lot of the people who were in my alliance voted out of fear. I don’t hold anything against them though. The vote for me was pretty much strategical, and I know why I was put up there: I had no clue that Jason was America’s vote. I thought he went through the casting process just like all of us. You know, you win some, you lose some. I made a bold move in the beginning, and I paid for it. And people that I made the bold move for didn’t back me up on that.

Looking back, what would you do differently in the house?

I would probably have gotten the bug a little earlier in the game and laid low. And maybe given it to a weaker player, but I was going along with the strategy of our group. They wanted to try to take Jason out first, and I didn’t realize how powerful he was. We didn’t even know America was going to be involved. Had the game been a normal game and had America not been involved, I’d still be there.

Why do you think America targeted you as their first nominee?

Little small reasons, but I think mostly because I put the bug on their boy Jason. I didn’t know how powerful he was, and I didn’t do it for any other reason than that’s who my alliance wanted to take out first. I was trying to help the alliance out.

If you had stayed in the game, what would have been your next move?

Is it harder than you thought it would be?

I think the hardest part of the whole thing was sitting in there with a microphone and cameras on you 24/7 trying not to say the wrong thing. Nobody does and says the right thing that keeps everybody happy. Someone is going to get offended, someone is going to get bent out of shape. With that on your conscience, worried about it, worried about if you’re going to embarrass a family member, going to say something to embarrass myself — that’s always kind of playing in the back of your mind. But at the same time, that’s all you got to do in there: talk.

You were really upset when you exited the house — are you still hurt by that?

Yeah. It was a shock. I mentally prepared myself for the possibility that would happen, but I didn’t really think it was going to happen. But then it happened and I saw how many voted against me. If there had just been a little bit less people who had voted against me, and been a little closer, it would have been different. But the whole house voted and that shows that they all worked against me.

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And some of them were people you trusted!

I trusted fully with everything and they turned around and stabbed me in the back.

Who were you the most hurt by?

Now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’d probably say Scott.

So who are you rooting for now?

I’m still rooting for Monte. And I’m still rooting for Alex.

Who do you think the houseguests should be targeting next?

They’re gonna target Monte because he got Head of Household the first week. That just tarnishes your image.

Do you think that’s who they should be targeting?

Mmmm, no. I’m gonna go home and watch the game [back] and see what happened, but I feel like maybe Shane’s playing both sides of the fence. I think he’s one that probably won’t ever get put up, and I’d like for him to get put up there. Just so he can feel what it feels like.

Anything else you wanted to say about your time in the house?

I enjoyed it, and it was a part of my bucket list. There’s no way to prepare to be in there. You just go in there and you play your game and you kick yourself in the ass afterward. The moral to the story is I got to do something that 90 percent of the population would kill to do. So thank you to CBS for all they did for me and believing in me; I wish I could have done better for them…. I’ll just go home and have a great story to tell.

For more Big Brother: Over the Top, be sure to read our week 1 recap and our interview with Julie Chen, where she explains why she thinks America targeted Cornbread.