The perjury portion of Big Brother is officially over, and the last contestant to miss that mark is Joseph Rodriguez, who was evicted on Thursday’s (September 5) live episode.
Before this week, Joseph had managed to fly right under the radar for much of the season. However, when Quinn Martin won Head of Household, he protected his core allies — “The Visionaries,” aka Cam Sullivan-Brown and Chelsie Baham — and put Angela Murray, Kimo Apaka, and Rubina Bernabe on the block. When Leah Peters won Power of Veto, she decided to take Angela off the block, believing it’d be better for her game, and Quinn decided to put Joseph on the block in her place.
Once Rubina won safety in the AI Arena, it was down to just fellow Sixth Avenue allies Joseph and Kimo, and by split decision (with Chelsie, Rubina, Makensy Manbeck, and T’kor Clottey voting to remove him), Joseph was evicted.
So how shocked was he by his elimination? And who is he hoping will win the rest of the season? TV Insider caught up with Joseph Rodriguez to find out.
(Also, be sure to check out our previous exit interviews with Matt Hardeman, Lisa Weintraub, Kenney Kelley, Cedric Hodges, Brooklyn Rivera, and Tucker Des Lauriers.)
Now that you’ve had a few hours to process everything, how are you doing this morning?
Joseph Rodriguez: I’m doing all right. A little bitter, a little upset but also just happy I got to be on the show.
Fans have remarked that you genuinely seemed surprised by the vote. Were you?
I was, and I wasn’t, you know what I mean? I feel like I was thinking going into it that I was good, but that last two-minute shuffle of everything happening, the fact that they didn’t want me in that room and everything like that, I kind of knew what was up. I never trusted that Chelsie was with me fully like that. So I basically thought that if Cam was gonna vote one way that Makensy would also vote for him because they have a little cuddlemance going on. So I figured that if that was the case, Chelsie would just join with that just because that’s where the numbers were not ’cause she personally wanted me to stay. So, yeah, I was a little surprised but also it made sense.
You said at the outset of this game that you wanted to kind of sneak up on people and play coy. Do you think you might have waited too long to show some strength in the comps?
I mean, I would have been bad at them either way. Like there was only one I blatantly threw. I am not an athlete. I think that was clear throughout the season. So even if I would have turned the burners on, it’s not like it would have been that flaming. So, I don’t think that was my mistake. I think I made plenty more.
You said in your eviction pitch that you consider yourself a loyal player, but when I talked to Cedric, he said he felt betrayed by your vote. Do you stand by that, or was that just a game move to say that?
That was just a game move. Yeah, I was very unloyal. I’d be curious to talk to Cedric because I feel like he didn’t really have my back either that much, and I feel like I was coming to him with a lot of information, and he was hiding a lot of stuff from me. So I would be curious, And honestly, with that, it didn’t really matter what I did. He would have gone home even if I voted for him to stay.
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You had a pretty emotional conversation with Leah and Quinn, and you said you were scared to leave. They told you they got you. Did you believe in them in that moment? And do you think Leah really didn’t intend for you to be put on the block?
I don’t think she cared. I think that she thought that if I was on there that they would be able to get the votes to keep me to stay. And they were a little overconfident in that sense where she knew that if she kept Angela on the block that she would definitely go home. And honestly, I wasn’t sure throughout the week whether or not they were lying to me. But I figured I just need to at least make them think I believe them because if I just call them out on it, then they’re not gonna help me at all.
So what’s your theory on why Angela keeps surviving week to week when she’s been kind of a lightning rod since the beginning?
You know, everybody knows she’s an easy beat at the end, and she’s constantly up against people on the block who are bigger threats than her. You know what I mean? I think she’s that classic go type of player.
We heard your reaction to her video message. But what did you think of what Chelsie, Leah, and Quinn had to say?
I didn’t agree with Chelsea that I’m riding coattails. It’s funny that she says that, and yet she rode the coattails of The Collective, which is something I started. So I thought that that was a little bit quizzical, but she wanted her TV moment and she got it. …. I was a little mean in some of my goodbye messages. So it’s well-deserved.
After you left, they got rid of the BB AI Arena and now, it’s time for jury play. How does that feel that you missed it by one week?
To be honest, I don’t really care that much. I know a lot of people really wanna vote on the winner and have a say in it. But whatever, if I don’t win, then it’s not a big deal. I just wanted to get further in the game being on jury. I told people in the house like, “Oh, I just wanna make sure,” but like I didn’t really care that much. If anything, I was more upset that I never got to play real Big Brother. That was the thing that upset me is when they went back to two nominees and everything like that. That’s what annoyed me more than anything. It’s just like, if it was regular Big Brother, I would have never even been on the block this week. You know what I mean? So that was what’s done about that.
Did you buy into the Ainsley curse concept that people were talking about?
I was barely paying attention to that when she was explaining to me on stage. I was like, this is stupid. Like, why are we talking about this?
Now that you’re on the outside looking in, what are you expecting to see happen? And who are you gonna root for?
I guess I’ll root for Cam, Quinn, or Leah to win the whole thing. Seems like they’re all in trouble now, though, so not banking on it. I feel like the winner will probably be somebody random. Because I feel like it’s been a crazy season of twists and turns. So I would expect it to be something unexpected.
What do you say to people who maybe call you a floater in this game?
I guess I could kinda see that a little bit. Like I was kind of flip-flopping from side to side, but also I started a majority alliance. So does a floater do that in the game? Is a floater somebody who’s going after Matt the first week and being very clear about that to people? No. I don’t think that’s what a floater does. You know what I mean? So, I don’t know how the TV edit was of me, but I feel like I was one of the biggest movers and shakers in the house.
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