“I’m very much a belcher.”
In the end, Kimo Apaka did not quite have nine lives. The 35-year-old mattress sales rep from Hawaii went on the nomination block eight different times during his Big Brother season 26 run, and managed to survive it the first seven times he went up. However, his unlikely run finally came to an end during Thursday’s two-hour live eviction episode when Kimo was voted out by Chelsie Baham and Cam Sullivan-Brown.
Kimo’s chances in the game dimmed considerably after ally T’Kor Clottey was voted out, and once he was up for eviction next to other alliance member Rubina Bernabe, there was nowhere left to hide. We caught up with Kimo on his way to the jury house to ask all about his 80-day stay in the Big Brother house, and who he thinks he could have beaten had he made it all the way to the end.
Why do you think the eighth time on the block was not the charm and you were finally evicted?
KIMO APAKA: Aloha, Entertainment Weekly! I think that eighth time wasn’t the charm because I mean, we’re at the stage in this game where there’s only a handful of us — only one person can win. We’ve all grown to be really attached to each other and to care a lot about each other, so every single decision that anyone makes, I know, is a tough decision, and I feel like this cat just kind of was on my last life in the house.
And you know what? I have to look on the positive side of things, the glass half-full side of things, that I was able to stay in this house that many times being on the block — whether it was me taking myself off the block, me ingratiating people where they felt like, “Let me take you off the block,” or me just being a non-threat to people in certain times, which was exactly what I wanted to do. So I did the best I could. I wasn’t able to survive this time around, but I’m very, very grateful for how long I was able to stay in this house and the fact that I made final five.
Whom do you think you could have beaten among the final four houseguests had you made it to the end?
Of the remaining houseguests, if I were to have stayed in this game, I think I had a really good shot at winning next to Cam. I think Cam’s done a wonderful job at just keeping his cards close to his chest, not saying too much, absorbing a lot of information. But I do feel like when it comes to people like Chelsie and Makensy, who visibly and on paper are incredible competitors, I think next to those two, I don’t see as many things in this game from Cam as I would think someone should have on their résumé going into the final two.
So I do feel like I had a great shot at winning next to Cam, but this summer has been so unexpected, so who knows? My read on things could have been completely off, but that’s what I think.
What were you going to say in your big finale speech had you made it to the final 2?
If I made it to the final two, my goodness. I mean, there’s so many things that I feel like I probably would say in the moment. I love to write myself a little script. I don’t quite have that script right now, but I would probably bullet-point some of the things that I feel like I did in this game that show that I was playing this game.
Certainly, I’d bring up week four in protecting Rubina and keeping her in the house, and making a big move with T’Kor and flipping the vote. I would mention the fact that week one, I was the first winner of AI Arena. And then recently during the double eviction— which is one of the most critical events in Big Brother — that I was able to pull myself off the block even, if I knew I was going to be safe, by winning a Veto.
And two, the fact that I think my social game helped to push me so far in this game, I would definitely shed a lot of light on that. And then I’d probably say all of my thank yous and shout outs to the people that got me to this place, and just hope that me getting to the end meant that whomever ended up in jury would see that I got there for these reasons. Something like that. We’ll never know.
What is the one thing you did this season in the Big Brother house that you are most scared to watch back on TV?
Oh my goodness. I’m probably most scared to watch myself burping so often in this house. Goodness gracious, people!. I’m very much a belcher. Probably just the things that you do in daily life that you don’t consider because you’re not being recorded for the whole day every single second of the day. But a lot of what I’ve done in this house is very close to who I am in the real world, and it’s so easy to forget about all the cameras once you get into the house, surprisingly. But probably a lot of what people might perceive as like, “Don’t burp so loud, don’t be so gassy.” Maybe that. Oh my goodness!
If you could go back and change one thing about your game, what would it be?
I mean, it’s so tough to consider different moves that I would’ve made because in the moment. Every single decision I made up until the point I was walking out of the house, I made out of adapting to the game at the moment. So I think I did as best as I could. I told myself coming into this house, I didn’t want to leave with regrets. I was going to maximize this game as much as I could given the circumstances and who was in the house.
So I do feel like I played the game as best I could. Now, of course, in hindsight, I’m like, “Well, that and that and that and that,” but I can’t really do that to myself because I said I wouldn’t regret anything. I would love to play this game again and definitely change things then, but final five is not too shabby. And the fact that I got here purely off of just I feel like being very social with people and getting people to fall in love with me, I think that’s an amazing feat. So I’m very proud of what I’ve done.