Kyland Young Discusses Friendship, Proximity, and Stress During ‘Big Brother’!

‘Big Brother’ is one of those shows where your every move is monitored and a slight hiccup could lead to elimination. While with the ‘Heal Squad’ crew, Kyland Young got down to the nitty gritty as he spoke about his time on the CBS program. 

Fan Reactions and Cancel Culture

Young says that Big Brother’s audience, which he calls a little bit more “nerdy” and “Middle America” compared to The Challenge’s viewers, still wasn’t shy to judge contestants on the show. Young mainly refers to moments not shown on screen, instead focusing more so on online-based points of criticism.

“You’re on Twitter and you’re on social media and people are like, ‘Oh, well, you couldn’t be friends with this person because what about when you said this,’” Young said. “That’s part of it, you are contradicting. You’re telling one person something and someone else something else, that’s the nature of the game.”

Fans sometimes fail to understand the nuanced part of the game, which Young refers to as “chess mixed with poker.” Moreover, Young is passionate about understanding the concepts of cancel culture in a deep, profound way and wants the audience to realize why some contestants might say things not meant for TV. Since Big Brother entails constant pressure and high emotions, Young tends to be a bit more forgiving in instances of verbal mistakes.

“If you look at a lot of basic psychology research, if you put people in high-stress, difficult situations, you get the opposite of their normal responses,” Young said. “You get the adrenaline hype, the stress hype, the sleep-deprived hype; that’s not how people operate.”

Casting Choices

As for the contestants themselves, Young says there are definitely some archetypes, like on his other show, The Challenge. The archetypes weren’t overly obvious, though, and, if they were, Young admits he wouldn’t know how to classify himself.

“There’s probably 30 archetypes, and any season might have kind of the more country person, the girl next door vibe, and then the scientist vibe,” Young said. “And they’re not black and white, like super strict archetypes.”

Young’s season on Big Brother was also the first where the cast was required to be 50% diverse, which he says brought a lot of positives to the game including the first Sikh player who also won, and the first Black woman to win.

Long-lasting Friendships

In addition to the added diversity during Young’s time on the show, he also says that all of his fellow contestants still stay in touch and talk semi-regularly on a text thread, a first compared to other Big Brother seasons. Young attributes this bond to the tight-knit nature of “The Cookout,” an alliance on Big Brother 23.

“I feel like it added a level of perspective that there are bigger things than this,” Young said. “Any sort of bad blood or backstabbing that we had, we can look past.”

“The Cookout” only grew stronger, Young claims, because of the isolation and almost forced nature of having to make friends so quickly. Humorously, Young says Big Brother has “more lasting marriages” than the entire Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises.

Living Life in the Pressure Cooker

According to Young, the nature of Big Brother, which involves being constantly on camera and “under the microscope,” as it were, leads to tense situations that may arise because of a lack of context. Quick, off-the-cuff interactions between contestants sometimes strain relations and cause irrational decisions.

“You’re not going to please everyone,” Young said. “Very few people have been in that situation of having all of their words observed.”

And with there being the constant threat of eyes watching you on Big Brother, Young says there’s a new mentality, specifically for adults, that comes about due to the heavy supervision. Young says life at the infamous Big Brother house is extremely isolated. There are no windows, you’re not going outside too often, and you only get sunlight for two days a week, according to Young.

“That’s a very unique experience, mentally,” Young said. “As an adult, that probably messes with you a little bit, as far as someone else being in control of your life for such an extended period of time.”

Check out the full interview below!