‘Big Brother’ Winner Chelsie Baham Reveals Exactly Why She Won
Q&A
Chelsie Baham might’ve started out this season of Big Brother at the bottom, wearing a giant chip mascot costume as punishment, but the strength of her alliances and influence bore out during Sunday (October 13) night’s live finale when she handily won the jury vote against Makensy Manbeck.
Was it a strategic error on Makensy’s part that Chelsie made it into the final two, or was it an inevitability? And what did the final vote come down to?
TV Insider caught up with Chelsie Baham to talk about her big win and to find out where the self-proclaimed “Big Brother super fan” thinks she fits in the winners’ hall of fame.
(Also, be sure to check out our previous exit interviews with Matt Hardeman, Lisa Weintraub, Kenney Kelley, Cedric Hodges, Brooklyn Rivera, Tucker Des Lauriers, Joseph Rodriguez, Quinn Martin, T’kor Clottey, Leah Peters, Angela Murray, Kimo Apaka, and Rubina Bernabe.)
How confident were you coming into tonight?
Chelsie Baham: I was very confident. There was an ounce of me that said Makensy could change her mind, but her and I have really grown to love each other throughout the past couple of weeks. So I felt pretty confident no matter if I won this last HoH that I was gonna sit in those last two chairs.
If you had won the HoH, would you have taken her or Cam?
I would have taken her. It would have been smart to take Cam because that would have been an easy win in my mind. However, you’ve seen the game, and we’ve all seen the game that Makensy has played this season, and it was a great game. I believe I deserve number one. But if I wanted somebody to be number two, it was gonna be my friend. So I was gonna take her to the end with me.
Were there any votes that surprised you?
All of them? What in the world? I didn’t know that I was about to get a unanimous vote. I think the primary ones that surprised me were Angela and Leah. I thought because of their relationship with Makensy in this house that they will respect her wins and personally vote for her. So when I saw both of them pull their names out and pull the keys out and it was my name, I was shocked. Very, very shocked.
What are you looking forward to like being able to watch the show back?
Oh my gosh, to see who was scheming, to see who found out my game and try to come after me because I didn’t really get a good sense of that. I think I beat everybody to the punch who was trying to get me out. So I’m curious to see if anybody found out my game in this season.
In the finale, Julie kind of dropped a news bomb on you guys about things you had missed being in the house with the election. What was that like for you to find out such monumental news?
Oh my goodness, Makensy and I looked at each other like what in the world has been happening outside of this house? You’re in such a bubble. So you forget there’s a world outside and there’s so many things happening. It snapped us back into feeling like we were actual humans.
Looking back on the season, what was your favorite and your least favorite challenge?
Least favorite challenge was having to recalibrate and reposition myself after I was in the block with my two closest allies, Brooklyn and Cam. My whole game was publicly blown up. And I hated that my win was at the expense of one of my best friends going home. That was the worst. And I think one of the best moments or best few moments have been getting Tucker out and winning my HoHs. I won almost every single HoH that they were asking me some questions. And so that was pretty monumental to come in as a micro chip and to prove to this house that I wasn’t as bad as a player that I showed I was day one. So those are some fun moments for me here in the house.
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Since you’ve been a superfan of the show for all these years, where do you think you’re gonna fall in the hall of winners?
Oh my goodness. I mean, hearing back and saying that there’s some statistics that I’ve unintentionally reached. And the Hale, Season 24 [winner], my icon coming up to me saying that she would put me in the top three category of best Big Brother brother players is insane. I would have given myself top 15. But somebody like her telling me that I think I played a better game than I even tried to. And I’m grateful the whole way to go down as one of the greatest and an inspiration to other people.
Ultimately, what do you think the vote came down to between you and Makensy?
I think the vote came down to social management. It was an emotional cast, an emotional jury. You would see time and time again votes flip because somebody just liked somebody more than somebody else. Makensy had almost double the amount of wins with me. But I put triple the amount of work to building my relationships, genuine relationships. We all truly liked each other. So I think it came down to, they both won. They both won a lot, but Chelsie did a little bit more and played a more well-rounded game. That’s why I think I won.
What’s the first thing you’re going to do with your winnings?
That’s a great question. I think I’m gonna buy me a nice pair of kicks. I’m gonna buy me a nice purse. Get me some ice cream, sit next to my dog, and enjoy being a normal girl from Rancho Cucamonga, California.
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