The Cookout achieved their goal of becoming the final six houseguests on Season 23 of “Big Brother,” but as soon as they were able to turn on each other Tiffany Mitchell became the first target. The 40-year old phlebotomist from Detroit was evicted by a vote of 3-0 over Hannah Chaddha under the Head of Household reign of Kyland Young. Tiffany was the first player ousted on Thursday’s live double eviction episode and joins Alyssa Lopez, Claire Rehfuss, Sarah Beth Steagall, Derek Xiao and Britini D’Angelo in the jury house.
Tiffany was voted out by Azah Awasum, Derek Frazier and Xavier Prather, knowing she had nobody to blame but herself. “Kyland and I had a final two deal since week two,” she said in her exit interview with host Julie Chen Moonves. “I waivered back and forth with my trust that I had in him. I doubted him, but I still continued to include him in my final plan to the end, but I developed a great friendship with Chaddha and I just really wanted to see her and I get to the end as well.”
SEE Why is ‘Big Brother’ called ‘Big Brother’? Name meaning explained
Tiffany’s refusal to throw her most recent HOH win to Kyland is what likely sealed her fate. “That is definitely the reason why I am sitting here,” she admitted. “A lot of people were upset about that moment. I don’t think it is necessarily that I won, I think it is how I won. I think that had I expressed to the Cookout prior to the competition that I also had a desire to win HOH twice in a row if I could, that they would have understood my desire to win that competition.”
So why didn’t she just tell them that? “I would rather ask for forgiveness than ask for permission,” she revealed with a smile. “I don’t have any regrets. I was ready to play this game the moment I walked in the door. You asked me out here on day one, who is a risk taker? Me! I am definitely a risk taker. I went in, I wanted to play ‘Big Brother,’ but when I got in I had to tone it down a little bit because we had a mission. But I’ve always been ready to play.”
SEE ‘Big Brother’ winners list: All 22 seasons, plus spin-offs
Julie gave Tiffany credit for being the mastermind behind the Cookout before asking if she was upset to be the first member evicted. “It hurts,” Tiffany admitted. “I’m a little upset about it but I understand. I think they probably view the threat of me as being able to strategize and they can’t control me. The fact that they can’t control me makes me a liability to everyone in the house. I understand that! I am not easily controlled. They had to get me out.”
Tiffany did explain the constant conflict within herself to play an individual game rather than the Cookout’s game. “It was always desired in my heart for us to move forward and do this, however, I did not know if we could always trust everyone’s moves,” she revealed. “I became a person that they questioned, however, I did exactly what I said I would do if I needed to do it, which was, I had to put my own person, Claire, on the block and send her home. So it was very tough because I kept thinking, how are we even going to get to the six? We don’t have a plan to get to the six. What if I’m just getting rid of people that I want to work with or I’m lying to people that I want to work with and the six ends up not even making it? I could have kept my people that were working with me. I struggled, do I give up on the six or do I try to figure out how we can make up? I got up the next day, ‘Money can’t buy you love’ was in my head, I knew I had to figure something out. I sat down with the chess board and I put those pieces together and it came to me in five minutes and I was like, this is it.”
Tiffany’s Day 72 eviction was preceded by Alyssa Lopez on Day 65, Claire Rehfuss on Day 65, Sarah Beth Steagall on Day 58, Derek Xiao on Day 51, Britini D’Angelo on Day 44, Christian Birkenberger on Day 37, Whitney Williams on Day 30, Brent Champagne on Day 23, Brandon “Frenchie” French on Day 16 and Travis Long on Day 9. She was followed out the door by Hannah less than an hour later. A new HOH will rise to power and nominate two more houseguests for eviction on Friday, September 17.
SEE exclusive predictions: Who will win ‘Big Brother’?
Be sure to make your “Big Brother” predictions to influence our reality TV racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the eviction episode airs live on CBS. You’ll compete to win a $100 Amazon gift card and a spot on our “BB23” leaderboard. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our reality TV forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
