Former housemates claim they would have won their season if they had ‘Reindeer Games’ challenges
The competitions on Big Brother aren’t usually fair. Lately, it has been easier for people who are stronger, faster, and taller. So, athletic young men tend to do well unless the house strategizes against them. Jag Bains won Big Brother 25, mostly because of his athletic ability. The housemates evicted him, but he was saved by Matt Klotz’s power. America Lopez and Cory Wurtenberger, aka AmeriCory, were part of the majority of jurors who voted for him to win.
The couple, who are still together, have been watching Big Brother: Reindeer Games and felt that they would have a better chance of winning the reality spinoff competition series because it’s not as physical and more fun. The six-episode special is focused on Christmas-themed competitions. The Big Brother legends don’t live together in the house and don’t have as much time to strategize together or against each other. But the challenges have already proven to be more even-handed than the main show. America and Cory react to the difference between their season and this.
America Lopez Is Annoyed by Reindeer Games Challenges
The first two episodes showed the houseguests being tested on their knowledge of Christmas songs. Episode 2 showed Cody Calafiore winning an advantage by picking his team, and then giving someone a disadvantage. He chose Frankie Grande, Xavier Prather, and Nicole Franzel. The other houseguests, Danielle Reyes, Taylor Hale, Britney Haynes, and Josh Martinez noticed he was focused on working with the men. But that didn’t matter in the challenge where they needed to balance the weight of tree ornaments on moving branches. His physical team lost.
America, Cory, and his brother, Zach Wurtenberger appeared on Rob Has a Podcast to recap the episode. “Well, it’s so annoying watching this,” America said. “We’re, you know, just left a month ago, and I’m like, ‘Wait […] they had these competitions? They thought of these? They can make these?’ Like I thought we were just doing cockadoodle zoom competitions all season long. It’s so annoying.” She said the tree ornament competition would’ve been fun. “I could’ve won that maybe,” she said. “Anybody could’ve won that and it’s so stupid. It’s so annoying.”
Alliances Are Already Forming on Reindeer Games
Cory noted that not everyone would be good at naming Christmas songs because he’s Jewish. Zach teased them and said Jag would’ve still won the challenge. But Cory noted Felicia Cannon would do well in the Christmas song challenges. Jag broke the record for most Power of Veto competition wins with seven in season 25, beating Michael Bruner’s record. It is important to note he had more opportunities to win in a 100-day season.
Jag isn’t the only one who performed well in season 25. Cameron Hardin was another competition threat who successfully won to stay in the house against everyone’s wishes. He was chosen to be in the Big Brother: Reindeer Games cast, but he didn’t get as lucky. The rest of the cast targeted him, and he went up against Xavier in Santa’s Showdown where they had to complete an ugly Christmas sweater puzzle. Xavier was the one to complete it first.
This means the special started with the “typical” competition threats going home first with Cameron, then Cody. Frankie, Xavier, and Josh are left. We’ll have to wait and see if this trend continues or changes. Xavier is in a tough spot because his alliance didn’t save him from Santa’s Showdown. Taylor previously talked about wanting to use Xavier as “her weapon.” So leaving him to go up against Frankie and Cody to take one of them out is in line with that. For all the Big Brother alums who are watching it all play out, they might just be a little bit jealous of missing out on all the festive fun.
Big Brother: Reindeer Games is scheduled to air on CBS on Thursday, Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. EST. Monday, Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, the season finale at 7 p.m. Big Brother Reindeer Games is available to stream on Paramount+.