It’s official: Big Brother’s potentially wildest Head of Household to lead a first week in the house is out. Tennessee farmer Brandon “Frenchie” French was evicted Thursday night after week two of the game came to a close, and so ended his infamous alliance “The Slaughterhouse.”
Find out why Frenchie created the Slaughterhouse only to destroy it, what he believes was his biggest mistake in the game and who he thinks his allies need to watch out for next in AfterBuzz TV’s exclusive interview with Frenchie below!
AFTERBUZZ: How did your strategy going into the house change once you got in the house?
FRENCHIE: Oh my goodness, it was a roller coaster. I went in thinking that I was going to play an individual game and then it started with the teams, so that threw it off to begin with. I knew that you couldn’t have a strategy going into this game; you have to be able to adapt and overcome anything that’s thrown your way. And I just totally did not, as they say, expect the unexpected. I definitely didn’t do that.
AFTERBUZZ: What was your plan with creating Slaughterhouse?
FRENCHIE: To keep the people I didn’t trust close the whole time super close, and to make them feel comfortable and make them feel like I was with them 100 percent. The only people in Slaughterhouse that I trusted were Kyland and definitely Derek F–that was the one person in the house that I fully trusted. And those were the only two. I added those two, and the rest of them? I didn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. So that was the purpose. And the whole name Slaughterhouse? They were going to get picked off one by one.
AFTERBUZZ: That’s interesting. When you were saying that had you won the veto you would use it on Britini, was that because you truly felt bad for her position or was it strategic for you to do that?
FRENCHIE: No, it wasn’t strategic at all–well, I mean, it was a little of both. I definitely 100 percent would have used it on her. It would have been around her neck had I won it. I told myself I wanted to go out like a champ, not a chump. And knowing that strategy-wise, if I would have used it on her, I know she would have been 100 percent safe. Then Kyland would have had to put up a competitor, and if he would’ve put up a male competitor, which I think I could have got them to put up, then I would’ve been able to campaign and I would have been able to get the numbers. So it was two-fold for me really, but knowing that she was on that block because of me, it bothered me.
AFTERBUZZ: Who were you hoping, had you won the veto and taken Britini down, would have been on the block with you?
FRENCHIE: Oh Brent, 100 percent. I was hoping he would be right there with me and I would have had the numbers to stay over him.
AFTERBUZZ: Were you surprised that he voted to evict you given that you were kind of close in the beginning?
FRENCHIE: No, not at all. He’s very charismatic and he tells people what they want to hear. I knew that from the beginning. Even with our conversation when he was like, ‘You want to work together?’ I should have been more vocal on the fact that I was like, ‘Mhmm. Okay, we’ll work together.’ Like wink, you know, but I didn’t get that across to America and maybe I should have. But that was definitely my viewpoint on that was, you know, keep them close kind of thing. But yeah, he was definitely expendable in that game for me at least. I knew it was vice versa the whole time.
AFTERBUZZ: Derek F was the only person who voted to keep you in the house. Do you think that will put a target on his back? And if so, with who?
FRENCHIE: I hope not. I told him, I said ‘Vote against me. Make it unanimous.’ And he was like, ‘I can’t do that.’ And I said, ‘I wouldn’t be able to vote against you.’ I didn’t say that so he’d give me a vote. I said that because honestly, if the roles were reversed, I would have voted to keep him because he was my ride or die in this game, and because I actually care about that man a lot. I really hope it doesn’t affect his game at all. I hope he goes on and he wins. I’m rooting for him big time.
AFTERBUZZ: Who do you think that he needs to watch out for?
FRENCHIE: Oh, Hannah. Hannah is a game player. She is smart, intelligent. I have nothing but respect for her because she is such a good game player and it’s obvious; like the fact that she memorized all of our birthdays and we had only been there for 10 days at the time. She knew all of our birthdays. She knew multiple, multiple seasons of Big Brother–like you could mention something in Big Brother history and she’d be like, ‘Oh, that time when…’ and tell you the whole story. She’s smart and she’s charismatic, and if he doesn’t watch out for her, she’s gonna get him, and everybody in the house.
AFTERBUZZ: What did you think was the biggest mistake that led to your eviction?
FRENCHIE: Throwing a wrecking ball this way knowing it was going to come back and be detrimental to my game. The fan in me did not want to see a boring first week, and I played to that instead of for me, so I knew that that was my demise. When I started playing for what I wanted to see as a fan instead of the situation in the house, that was definitely my downfall. I came in like a Ferrari going 400 miles an hour with no brakes, and I knew that it was going to come back and bite me and it definitely did. And if I ever did it again–I don’t think I would–but if I ever did it again, I would play for me and not what I wanted to see as a super fan.
AFTERBUZZ: Yeah. I was going to ask you if you could redo anything, what would it be specifically? What move would you redo?
FRENCHIE: I would have just put up both Brent and Travis together, but part of me was like, okay, if I did that and one of them took themselves off, Brent being in the Slaughterhouse, that would have ruined that if he would have pulled himself off. And then that would have caused huge chaos in not only the Slaughterhouse, but I would have had an immediate target on my back for that. So I had to kind of be strategic in my HOH as far as like–I literally went after I nominated, I went to the bathroom and I cried and I came out because I didn’t want to nominate those people. But I trusted Kyland and I knew that had he won the veto, he was going to use it. And that’s exactly what I wanted because Travis is an absolute stud and given the chance he was going to pull himself off. I was in a catch 22 the first week; I don’t regret it. I don’t regret being HOH because I really wanted to see my kids. But I would’ve shut my mouth. That’s probably the answer to your question, I would have shut my mouth. And I would have been more vocal in the diary room and to the cameras to kind of let people know exactly where my mind was instead of just thinking it and assuming that people were following what I was thinking. That, I think, was the big mistake, leaving people wondering.
AFTERBUZZ: When you left the house you left on a positive note, but before that, you did reveal Slaughterhouse to essentially everyone in the house. So why at the end did you choose to leave on a positive note as opposed to blowing up someone else’s game?
FRENCHIE: I did that for the simple fact that Brent needs to go home. He’s very slick and if people don’t watch him, there’s a good chance that he’s going to be there for a long time–Christian too. I’m very anti-showmance in this game and they’re forming, and I saw it from the very start, and I called it out and everybody was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no.’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, yes, yes, it’s happening.’ It’s hard to explain. Like I just, I don’t know to be honest with you. There’s a lot of emotions right there, you know? That’s what I’ll say on that.
AFTERBUZZ: Did you plant any seeds with anyone in the house privately before you left about who to watch for and things like that?
FRENCHIE: Absolutely. I went to the people that I cared about in this game and I was like, ‘Look, this is who you need to watch out for.’ Specifically the future showmance that will happen–I’m not going to say if, I’m going to say will–Christian and Alyssa. Because once they duo, they will be hard to stop. Brent will be hard to stop and Whitney will be hard to stop. I love Whitney as a person, but she’s very charismatic. She’s super friendly with–uh, yeah, I’ll just stop on that one. But I know that those four are going to be a power duo and if they’re not stopped the rest of everybody else don’t have a chance. And as a super fan, I don’t want to see jocks go to the end like they always do, so I made it a point to stop that if I possibly could because that was my ultimate goal, changing the way these seasons turn out. And, you know, if I had to look stupid or dumb doing that, I was willing to do that. But leaving the game, when we walk through those doors, we’re people. And even though I played a fast game, I still respect each and every one of those people as individuals and I didn’t want to go out of the house with them knowing that I held any animosity. Because when we walk out of those doors, I don’t think about game. I think about real life and individually, I respect each and every one of those people. So I just wanted to make it a point that they knew that.
AFTERBUZZ: Having mentioned a few times that you didn’t want the traditional younger jock to win as often happens on the show, are there any past players that you hoped to model your game after?
FRENCHIE: No, I didn’t really go in with a strategy. I didn’t go in with modeling after anybody. It actually got brought to my attention they were talking about [Dan Gheesling’s] funeral and I was like, ‘Don’t you ever say that again.’ Like, don’t because I respect that player so much and I’m not even compared or close to that player. And it kind of annoyed me when that was brought up because Dan is Big Brother and he always will be. I’m not Dan, I’m not even close to Dan. And I don’t model myself after any of them. I wanted to do what I wanted to do. And I made the mistake of playing what the fan in me wanted instead of for me. So if I could change anything, that’s what I’d change.
To watch Frenchie’s castmates battle it out in the Big Brother house, you can tune in Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
