Summer of Stein Big Brother 28 Week 1

[00:00:00] Meditieren, Yoga, Joggen, nichts entspannt mich. Echt? Mich entspannt meine Steuer total. Steuer? Wie Finanzamt? Die Steuererklärung? Ja, ich hab ganz locker über 1000 Euro Zugriff bekommen. Hast du geheime Connections oder Excel-Superkräfte? Nö, nur die Wieso-Steuer-App. Wow, und das ist einfach? Klar, die macht fast alles automatisch. Ich fühl mich plötzlich so. Entspannt! Hol dir dein Geld zurück. Abgabefrist 31. Juli. Was? Schaffst du ganz entspannt mit Wieso-Steuer? Ach, ach ja.

[00:00:33] All the time do you hear that sound? Watching the show for a lot of times. So when you are ready, Bobby, I take it away.

[00:01:07] Longer theme song than I remember. It's the Summer of Stein. We are so back here and so happy to be back here talking with our friend, America's player, the mastermind. It's Eric Stein. Eric, how are you? Rob, my man, what is good? What is good? Yes. Summer of Steve 2018. We're back. We're back. We're back. It's like we never left. Like we never left. And we're so excited to be talking about Big Brother 28.

[00:01:37] What a life we lead in the Big Brother world. And Eric, how are you? Nothing has changed since I last saw you in 2018. This is definitely not a court mandated making amends for terrorizing a group of strangers last summer as the mastermind. My PR team did not sign me up for this as goodwill. I am moving forward. That did not happen. And here we are clean slate.

[00:02:07] I'm ready to go. Okay. With the reality icon that so many of us have been waiting to hear from. And we're so excited you're back to weigh in on everything going on in the BB world. And we are one week into Big Brother 28. Eric, how are you feeling? A little bit clammy. As you may recall back from 2028, Clammy E, the spiritual friend of Swaggy C. I have not been feeling great this week. And I have been concerned.

[00:02:37] I know this is a Big Brother podcast. But I know you covered on News AF some of the berries and the greens that have been getting around. And I'm wondering if I may have the parasite possibly. Yes. Yes. Okay. The I can't remember what it's called. Yes. The explosive diarrhea parasite that has been plaguing our country.

[00:03:06] There are kids watching, Rob. Come on. But here's the thing. It got me thinking. I did hear it's made its way to California. There's only two bathrooms in the Big Brother house. I saw on the feeds the other day that Lyric was eating unwashed grapes in the storage room and said that her tummy was hurting a little bit. Could you imagine if the parasite hits the house guests? Yeah. And they share one bathroom.

[00:03:35] This could be a season ender. I'm very nervous. Right. You know, we had a COVID season. And that was a bubble. And it was fine. I mean, the season was not that great. It wasn't fine. It worked. It worked. But what if, like, the entire house got hit with—it's a miracle, actually, in 26 years that the entire house—because we've had, like, ravens cooking—that somebody could potentially just wipe out the whole cast.

[00:04:05] It's a concern. We do know they have the bidet now, which would help a little bit to keep things, you know, running. But let's hope it doesn't get to that. But I am feeling better, thankfully. Although I was feeling less good after seeing—so we made an announcement that Summer of Stein was returning. And I was kind of expecting, you know, some very positive response. And there was. But it was mostly objectifying you, Rob. Now—

[00:04:35] I really did not see that. That did not come across my timeline. I think you're being humble. Some of it was— No, I really didn't see it. Well, it was lewd, lascivious. Definitely not for my eyes. Maybe I have such good filters. You'd have to have blocked the whole internet. People are lusting after you. And now, I wanted to get your take on this.

[00:05:00] Because, so, you know, I famously was very happy that the mastermind garb was loose. Because I was not in my best body when I went back on Big Brother. They did not give me a lot of warning. And then people lightly sexually harassed me. And I thought, you know what? This is better than the alternative. I was expecting to be shamed by them. So I'll take it. And my wife felt on board with it. You know, she said, good for you. You know, you were worried. And this turned out well. But I do know Nicole a little bit.

[00:05:29] And I'm curious, how do you feel about it? And how do you think she may feel about how you're having this new life as a— I want to— Yeah. Well, luckily, my wife really does not spend a lot of time online. She doesn't read the comments of the Summer of Stein announcement. She's not in the comments of X.com. She is mostly on social media.

[00:05:59] She's watching reels of animals knocking babies over. That she is—she has a different algorithm than we might have in the reality TV world. I don't think my wife has ever looked at any sort of reality TV post on social media. That's—I wish I could say the same. Yeah. You know, my wife is much too busy keeping up with— What are the Savannah bananas doing?

[00:06:28] Could you be a guest banana? Are you hitting that level of status? Well, that would be—that I would really then— That would change the way that my wife is feeling about things. But listen, I'm just happy that people were so pumped up to see you returning to a regular podcast appearance. Or maybe not so regular podcast appearance. We'll see.

[00:06:50] Well, there was a prior rumor earlier this summer that I was going to be returning to the Big Brother television series. And that was not well-received at all. I had tricked myself into thinking that somewhere along the way— I was never really all that liked when I was on the show. But I had become beloved by the fandom. But as it so turns out, I actually was just on your podcast.

[00:07:17] And it just so happens that I'm one of the five people that Reddit does not terrorize. So in my mind, like, I had become, like, this really cherished figure. Yeah. And when I broke containment, I went into the general Big Brother population. Yes. And people were not that thrilled that I was going to be on the show. They were like, that annoying weasel. And I was like, oh, I see. I see.

[00:07:44] And that is why I quickly scurried back, like any good weasel would do, to my safe space. I hit up Rob in anticipation of the return of the podcast. And I said, am I going to get canceled? Are my takes still good? You know, I have—my comedy can be a little bit mean-spirited at times. And he said, Eric, unless someone likes you, they are not watching this. I said, all right, that's fair. And it's like 10 people like me.

[00:08:13] So I think we're safe. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think you're going to be fine. I think you'll be fine. It's not for the masses. You know, I like to say, oh, this is somewhere along the lines of stupid or so stupid it's genius. And you never know until it comes out of our mouths, you know? Yeah. And probably both at times. Hopefully both. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, all right. Should we start to talk about the week that was in Big Brother?

[00:08:43] I'm feeling really good about the season so far, which is good because I've hated many other seasons since we last spoke. But so far, I feel like we have a great cast, a lot of big type A personalities, your old school reality TV castings, people who just truly can't contain themselves. They're going to cry. They're going to look out for their own best interests. They're going to do crazy dances. I'm feeling like we're going to have a good battle on our hands this season.

[00:09:13] I cannot, for the life of me, remember all of their names yet. I think that's, you know, seven years later, I've lost a couple miles per hour off the fastball. You know, I'm a little older, a little larger, but actually there is no but to that. I'm just a little bit those things and a little bit more senile. No, I just can't remember their names. So, you know, we'll just have to refresh my memory. All right. Well, here's somebody that you must remember their name because the season kicked off.

[00:09:41] We found out about that there had been a new addition to the Big Brother house, a new table. It's a time traveling table and it is built by Meow Meow Industries. As we learned that Enzo has now been at the cutting edge of science and is going to send the Big Brother house guests back and forward through time.

[00:10:12] I happen to have the good fortune to be with the CEO of Meow Meow Industries at the time of the release of this video. And boy, was he feeling like a king. He was loving every second of it. I must say, I am an Enzo stan. I love him. I think he is a great big brother player and an even better businessman.

[00:10:40] I was proud of him for conquering the teleprompter. That was a tough script. It definitely took a few minutes to get through it. But I like this. I like that he has a fan in production. I like, if you had given me 10,000 guesses how we were going to start this season, this was not going to be one of them. Yeah. So, did you know that Enzo had an interest in science?

[00:11:11] I do feel like we heard back in the day about, didn't he work in a factory of some sort, right? The Bayo nipple factory? Yeah. That probably kicked off his interest and some time has elapsed since then. So, he's probably just, he's evolved. We've all evolved. It's been a long time, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So, I like that the nipple factory has diversified the things that they're working on and the time laser happens to be one of them.

[00:11:39] How was that big brother party that you went to? So, there was some people there that I haven't seen in quite some time. We spanned big brother two all the way to big brother 27. You were in your own time machine. Oh, you have no idea. I got to say, the people look great. It's like no time has elapsed. Enzo at this party was no different than Enzo 20 minutes after BB12.

[00:12:08] He's looking for movie roles. He's looking for the ladies. He's looking for drinks. He's primed and ready to go. We, you know, it's funny because I often joke that the fans, they don't understand the passage of time, right? They say, we want this legend back. And it's like, yo, 19 years have passed. Like, this is not the same 23-year-old that you saw on the show. They probably have lived a little life. They have some composure now. But the thing is, we really haven't changed.

[00:12:36] Like, the Enzo that you met on Big Brother 12 is still Enzo today. And that's why he's a reality TV icon. An icon, I say. Yeah. Do you feel like that maybe going on reality TV, there's like an arrested development that happens where in some way you are sort of like locked into a personality that you have at the time that you play on reality TV?

[00:13:03] I think that it's sort of the chicken or the egg, right? To get on reality TV, you are sort of an outlier personality in the first place. Then you establish that personality. Then every person you date for the next decade afterwards, you know, sees you embarrassing yourself on the internet. And people go now on Paramount Plus and see you embarrassing yourself on streaming. And then, you know, it just kind of sticks with you.

[00:13:33] Once a weasel, always a weasel. Yeah, but I do think that when you return to the reality TV environment, I think it's also a little bit forced where it's like, hey, do the thing. Say the thing. Be the person that we know. Like, why are you like this now? Well, you know, you were recently back on TV. So were you like prepping lines ahead of time? Did you did you think about your own character arc or change? I or were you going to go back, you know, to Amazon, Rob?

[00:14:00] So I feel like that I had a little bit of a different experience where I feel like that I have been able to both be in the public eye and then also still continue to have an evolution. As opposed to people who just show up for events and they don't get to necessarily live their life or potentially grow. We just see them once a year in an event.

[00:14:29] I think that that's fair. I mean, I think I think it's a little column A, a little column B. I think I've evolved as a person, but you're still it's still in you. You know, the person who did those things is still there. And I think the reason that we come back to some people over and over again is, you know, they're some of the strongest ones. Enzo is a is a character. You know, you you cannot be in a room with Enzo without feeling his presence.

[00:14:57] He is a larger than life, really affable guy. So I'm not surprised that he has become a titan of industry. And I was happy to see him back. Yeah. Where would you go if you had a time laser? It's probably back to 2007. And when I was in the sequester for Big Brother 8, I would decline being America's player and go home. Go back to my job. Call it a day.

[00:15:26] I would have never met you, which would have been sad. But, you know. Yeah, it would have been so sad. Yeah, I actually I was listening to the audio book of Taryn's incredible behind the mirror. And I learned the story I never knew of that. They tried to call you to be on Big Brother 2 and they left the message on your answering machine and you never got it. Yeah, I could.

[00:15:48] I could have been the king of will world in another universe or I could have been in jail with the restraining honor. Yeah, you could have been the guy who took a knife and been the first person to be removed from the Big Brother house. Could have been brought back to all stars per Will's demands that he won't play without me. I could have been left on the steps of all stars, you know, rejected. Who knows? You could have been the third wheel with Kent and Bunky.

[00:16:18] So it's a world of possibilities. Could you have imagined? All right, let's go back to the premiere. And of course, we got the time laser, which set off a chain reaction of events that ultimately resulted in us losing a Big Brother legend. When Rachel Riley got pushed into a volcano by a velociraptor.

[00:16:47] Eric, what was your reaction to all of this? Well, first of all, I texted Brendan right away. He's a friend of our podcast. And I was concerned. You know, I was complicit in ruining her life last summer. And now she's in a volcano. I was worried that we were back in a bad place again. From a TV standpoint, I am planting my flag.

[00:17:17] This was great. This was genius. This was not stupid. This was not, oh, I can't tell my friends I watched Big Brother this summer. If you haven't realized by now, this is Big Brother. This is forget what I don't know what this other version of Big Brother that we're like waxing poetic about is or like, you know, longing for it does not exist. This is the show. So if you don't want to tell your friends about it, then continue your secret shame. Watch it with us. Talk about it with us.

[00:17:45] But there is no other version that exists. But this was the fact that she was actually in the house and she was aligning with people and she was having conversations. They must have been petrified. And I have it on good inside authority that Angela in particular was shooketh. She was genuinely not happy because she thought I'm on the Angela show.

[00:18:14] And for, you know, a couple hours there, she was like, oh, no, I'm actually back on the Rachel show again. And she was not happy about it. I don't care that it's campy. I love that it's campy. That, you know, the Big Brother is a highly strategic game. And a few people in the history of Big Brother have been able to implement that strategy and find a very interesting social experiment and strategy game in there.

[00:18:44] But here's where we are today, right? So meet the show where it is or get off. This is to watch Big Brother and then turn around and say, like, well, I can't believe we're in prehistoric times. You can't. We had three people running around with a time laser. You had Frankie and Jesse as friends with each other. I mean, there is nothing believable about this show.

[00:19:11] You said when Rachel came into the house that they were scared. Who was scared? Production? The players? The players. You see, that's the part that really worked for me, that they thought that this was real. You know, there had been rumors. There had been illusions. But these people don't know. They barely know who any of them are. They don't even know who Dee is, you know? So it's all meaningless to them. But they know who Rachel is because if you're scrambling to get ready for the show, you're going to check out a couple of episodes of last season and you see her there again.

[00:19:41] And it's like all of your hopes and dreams of becoming a movie star like Enzo are out the window. Because. Yeah. Now, now, now a much bigger presence is here. Yeah. Much better response probably to Rachel this season than to last season when only a couple of people really knew who she was. I thought she was remarkable. I thought the acting was on point. I was like believing it. I love the why are you obsessed with me? I love I'm an icon.

[00:20:10] I thought that this hit the perfect sweet spot of what Big Brother is. It was a surprise, a twist, and it was a well-kept secret. And it played so well against the leaked secrets, you know? Yes. We were all expecting certain things. And so I know I saw like, you know, the voices saying, oh, you're going to be gagged. And it's, it's such a big surprise coming.

[00:20:31] But I saw it out of the corner of my eye and I said, whoa, I, you know, and, and then your head's like doing tricks on you're like, you know, three people was always kind of a weird number for returners. Like is she actually playing again? Because they, they did kind of screw her last year. You know, I said like this, this really feels believable to me. I've been waiting for what's her next big project. Right. And so then like I was in it and I was like, oh yeah. Okay. This is great. I, I, I did not ruin her life with the hamster wheel.

[00:21:00] This is, this is amazing. Um, and then, then she died, you know? And, and that was, that was hard. It was hard. I like also how like they made a whole big kerfuffle about like, I'm going to go reset it to like a different time and place for D. But then like, there was like barely any explanation of like what the time and place was. It was just like Fiji someday, a couple of years ago. We didn't even see that.

[00:21:23] We just got the day that D one survivor and we yada yada did it because I think that we had maybe two good setups for, okay, let's go to Angela in California in the eighties. Let's go to Fiji. It's like, we're not going to go to Fiji again. So let's just yada yada, get D in there. But I want to know if you were one of the reality TV icons, where would the time laser have taken the competitors? Uh, probably to, uh, 2018 to our podcast.

[00:21:53] Yes. Oh, you're in your apartment. That's right. I think any, any version of the time laser probably takes me to my couch. It's just how old I am on the couch. Most likely, you know, I, I, I, uh, I can't say I really understood that premise very much. Like why were we in a mall with Angela? Like what, what did any of this mean? Really? They gave Angela a note. Young Angela, she's got a note, but then she, she did rip it up and we didn't see anything where we borrow a lot from back to the future.

[00:22:23] Doc, uh, taped the note back together that Marty gave him, but the young Angela just ripped it up and just walked away. I can't imagine young Angela taped it back together. Hearing you say young Angela so many times in a sentence makes me wonder what was this like a soft pilot for CBS? You know, the young Sheldon, you know, a couple of the other spinoffs in there. Like it is young Angela in the works potentially. Yeah.

[00:22:50] Maybe could we do a whole house of the young version? Although I guess as the legends age out of this thing, could we get a season of young legends? Uh, who do you think we we'd like to see in, in their younger form? I, I, I think, uh, huh. Young, young, young, young, young Kathy Hillis on the beat. Young Felicia.

[00:23:19] It could be, it could be onto something. Something. Yeah. Something. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we got to meet some of our new characters from the season. A woman who is in a bit of danger here tonight and not from a volcano. It's Ashley. And we found out this week, a fun fact about Ashley. You may not have known.

[00:23:47] Ashley has never had a burger. Sure. This is quite performative for, for sure. This is not, it, it, it's, it seems, um, like the fact that you would have on your online dating profile, you know, like to get the conversation started. It's one of her prompts. Yeah. It's definitely a half truth or, or like, this is like her go-to in two truths and a lie.

[00:24:14] Um, but it is completely without purpose. I mean, I, this is not a fresh take, but I mean, if you've had every component, I like bread. I like meat. I like cheese. Everyone in the world has told me those things taste good together, but you have not tried it. What, what are we doing here? You know, I, I, I famously did not watch Titanic for about the first 20 years it was on. Right.

[00:24:40] And that it, I, I feel Ashley on this point because it became core to my personality. It was something that came up frequently in conversation and it became a point of personal pride. Um, and, and, uh, when I met my wife, she said, uh, I'm going to make you watch Titanic. And, and this, this was a red flag for me. And, and my, my spikes went up. I started getting very defensive. Why would you do this to me? Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes.

[00:25:09] If you were, if you were really feeling me, you would not subject me to this. And then she said, it's just a movie. And I thought about it and I said, you know what? Who gives a crap? It's just a movie. It's not that big of a deal. And you know what? I hated the movie. Uh, I did not want to watch the movie and I'm glad that she seemed to enjoy a burger. The fact that she did seem to enjoy it makes it all the more stupid. Um, because she was just depriving herself of something that she may enjoy for the purpose of saying it.

[00:25:38] But I do appreciate that, you know, she stuck to the bit, you know, you gotta, you gotta stick to your guns for sure. Did she lose any plot armor by eating the burger in week one? Horrendous. I like talk about a lack of courage of conviction. You come in and this is like, this is like the core to how you got cast on the show. It's in your intro package and you can't even stick to your work for three days. Well, the problem was that she's like, no, I'm not a vegetarian.

[00:26:06] There's no reason why I can't have a burger. But isn't it also insulting to your own loved ones? Like there was no one important enough that you've ever met. Not a, not a partner, not a sibling, not a, a parent, a friend who could convince you, Hey Ashley, take a bite. But these complete moron strangers who you have just met minutes ago, they're important enough to you to be like, Oh, well, if they want me to. There was no like, will they, won't they? She should have been like a have not.

[00:26:36] She should have volunteered for being a have not of like, no, I see. I want to have a burger, but I can't. I'm a have not. This is so frustrating. Maybe like take donations or something. Negotiating some sort of game, you know, piece for later on. She could have gotten a lot more out of this. Also, she, if she was really here to make good TV, she should have milked this more. Not just like in the kitchen, just take a, take a bite, go to the diary room, you know,

[00:27:05] agonize over it. I do agree. This was a missed moment. She could have, she could have come out, had the Twitch stream going, you know, taking the first bite. People would be taking screen grabs. They'd be, you know, I saw the comments on your video. I'd be concerned about the comments on hers. She could have held out for Wendy's to jump in. Like this was just not well played. This could have been her Lays moment, right? Could have come out with a sponsorship. Yeah.

[00:27:32] Although, although, although if she does go home this week, she'll always have the burger. You know, now, now she, she did something, something on the show. She did something. It's more than Zay can say, more than several other people can say. Yeah. Zay has nothing. I think Zay was going to sell feet pics on Cameo. I think that that ended up being his thing. Not gonna. Did. We need an update. Where are they now? Okay.

[00:28:01] For the, for the gentleman in the back, let's get that slide cooking for next week. Thank you. All right. Let's talk about something else from last night's episode. Not for nothing. No, where are they now segment could be pretty good. Where are they now? I like it. They used to do that on the, on the Thursday show of like, oh, you remember, uh, you know, remember this person from last season? Like, let's see what they're doing now. Yeah.

[00:28:29] But we have to call in, you know, only very obscure people from the past. Yeah. Okay. So, Eric, last night we heard a story from Angela how she'll never turn down a dare. There was a party on the Big Brother cruise and Angela got it started. She whipped her bag around and then started to dance with Beefcake Howie on the Big Brother cruise.

[00:28:57] So, this made me really nervous at first because, uh, you know, I, I know Angela is a wild woman and I did not know what the second half of that sentence was going to be. When she said, I never turned down a dare. And they were like, for example. And she was like, well, I got, I got panicked. I did not know. Who dared her? Ready for what's going to come back. She just is like, this is just how she lives her life. Yeah. It didn't seem that wild to start dancing at a dance party, but, uh, you know, I'll take, I'll take her at her word.

[00:29:27] Um, the cruise reference was a surprise to me because, you know, as, as we have heard through the grapevine, it seemed to be there's some improprieties, uh, with the cruise. Do you know the backstory on the Big Brother cruise and were you asked to participate? Uh, I was not asked to participate. I believe that the guest list was created by my, my good friend and longtime colleague Janelle.

[00:29:54] Uh, so I don't think that she was going to place me on the guest list. She is, she's not a big fan of mine. Uh, so I, I saw that it was quite a mixed bag. Uh, it ranged, ranged from Angela was swinging. Yes. She swung a mixed bag from, from Howie and Ashleya, um, to, uh, Americory and Jag. It's really spanned. Yeah, I see this new Big Brother cruise, uh, that I've been seeing on Facebook. I've been seeing an AI flyer going around.

[00:30:23] You'll never guess who the mastermind is of the new Big Brother cruise. Uh, I, I can't wait to hear. I believe the new Big Brother cruise is being put together by none other than legend, uh, Big Brother 5's own Michael Cowboy Ellis. I believe is putting together a new Big Brother cruise. All right. I saw. Let me see. Let me see. Brandon, can you find the AI flyer for the new Big Brother cruise?

[00:30:52] I don't want to. Let me know if we have that. Yeah. I don't, I don't, um, I, I don't know the details. We're not going to get ourselves in trouble in the new summer of Stein. Yeah, I, I, I, I had a whole speech prepared. Like, you know, I'm not really big on ranking on people anymore. I'm sorry. What are we ranking on? We're just, we're, we're, we're advertising. You, you, you just just figured it out. You said your core to who you were. If you were this way in 2007, you are this way now. I can't stop. It's, it's within me.

[00:31:21] But, but I, I, I will see who's on this poster. Okay. But yeah, this is a fresh hell that I could never even imagine. And I'm sorry. It's both the house guests. It's the fans. It's the cruise that is serving the unwashed greens. It's every element of this, the dancing, this scares the ever loving shit out of me. I will never. And trust me, I could use a cruise.

[00:31:47] I would, I would, I would love someone to pay for me to go on a cruise with, with you. Okay. With, with my wife. But you heard it here first. Eric is dying to go on a cruise. Not. And so I got that. Very, very clear. No, very clear. Please. I know that in the past people have bought us gifts like cameos. Do not buy me a ticket to Cowboy Alice's cruise. I cannot make it. I am not available. I think I, hold on. Let me take this off the screen and let me see if I can bring this back. Okay.

[00:32:16] Uh, here we go. It's Cowboys Showdown Reality Cruise. Who the hell is that? Next to you. That Michael Cowboy Alice has partnered up with Johnny Fairplay. Is this, is this AI? That's what I don't. Yeah. Uh, the answer is yes. But I'm saying this is unrecognizable. I didn't even know what I was seeing. Hold on. Brandon, I, that the, the issue here is that in this screen share, the, the print is way

[00:32:45] too small for me to read on the podcast. Can you give us, uh, some of the lowdown here? What do you mean these guys aren't advertised? Well, they're definitely not your favorite reality stars for one.

[00:33:15] Okay. So they, they, they got an AI glow up. This is like the cast of deadliest catch or something. This is not. Yeah. Gentlemen, we're not on big brother or survivor. Now why does Cowboy get top billing and not, why is it not Johnny Fair? Cause it's a big brother cruise. This way it's Cowboys showdown reality cruise. Why is it a showdown? What's happening? Cowboy Mike.

[00:33:46] Okay. So Cowboy Mike is taking, is taking who out on the sea? No, I saw some other people. But that I'm there for. If we can just watch the two of them on a cruise, this could be like the, the, the new, uh, you know, uh, Paris and Nicole. What they need is they need to put live feeds on the cruise. You know, uh, Cameron from big brother 25 is on this for sure. Yeah.

[00:34:15] I believe he is. Yeah. I didn't even need to see the poster for that. Yes. Yes. Remember when Cowboy Mike was on catfish? Yes. Remember that? Yeah. So, uh, yeah, the people on the cruise, it looks like it's, it's Cameron from America's favorite player, Cameron. I mean, don't I get points for, I literally could have named any person who's ever been on the show. I got the first one right away. Mm-hmm. Yes. Uh, there's also Portia from big brother 13. That's a surprise.

[00:34:44] Richard hatch. Okay. Uh, Bunky. Wow. Michelle Costa and the great Keith Henderson. And, and we can officially say Eric Stein. Is there a few officially? Okay. I, I didn't think I'd have to retract a statement this early into the podcast, but if someone does want to get me a ticket for this, I can explore what would have happened on BB2 with me and Bunky.

[00:35:15] Um, I, I, I absolutely love Keith. I, uh, big fan of Keith's angels. You could be the new Keith's angels. And strangely enough, uh, this is not a story for me to tell, but, uh, one of the only times I met Keith, uh, he, he was very aggressively hitting on Michelle Costa. So. Oh. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Right. I mean, this does seem like it could be a bit of a love cruise.

[00:35:44] It does seem like some of the people there may have been brought in for each other potentially. Hey, get Jerry O'Connell back there and do the love boat. Yep. I I'm impressed that you can remember, remember the name. Yeah. Or pirate master. Or pirate master. All right. So all this to set up that Angela was telling stories from the, uh, the last big brother cruise, which went perfectly and there were no problems whatsoever.

[00:36:13] And we have a clip that got shared to blue sky of a fan who was on said cruise, not Ted cruise, uh, and has shared a moment of Angela from that, that amazing vacation. I'm glad you reset this. Cause I legitimately forgot what we were talking about. We were talking about. Yeah. On maybe the first and last episode of.

[00:36:42] Well, if the response is any indication, it's probably the last. All right, here we go. Here is a little bit of, uh, here's a clip of that was shared on blue sky last night. And let me make sure, let me see if I can give the name of the person who shared it. This is from, uh, Mary full on blue sky who shared the moment from the big brother cruise. Here we, here we go. Let me see.

[00:37:12] Let me, let me play this for you. And here it is. Here's Angela swinging the bag. This is a wild dare. And then, oh, and there's, there's, did you see him? There's Jedi Howie. There's at least five more people there. The best part about being on the dance floor is, is when, is when everybody has their phone out to film you dancing. Oh yeah.

[00:37:42] I said there's at least five to 10 more people than I was expecting. There he is. There's Howie. Oh, is it sandals going? Uh, I have been at, at many, uh, a BB event with Howie through the years. And he, he has a very fun hang. He is a, he is a, uh, a wild man in there. I was, I, I. Katy Perry firework is the song that Angela is rocking out to. Okay.

[00:38:11] I mean, that's what the people paid for, right? Yeah. Where, where, I mean, if you're a big brother fan, it's, it is sort of a fever dream, right? To see Angela Murray and she is coming across the dance floor to grab Jedi Howie, right? So I, I would, I, I, a clammy fever dream. Not necessarily the one that I want to personally have, but if you're a fan, I could see how that theoretically could be enjoyable.

[00:38:40] Now, Johnny Fairplay coming across the dance floor to Acosta, Cowboy Mike. I'm not so sure. Yeah. Acosta. Okay. All right. Michelle Acosta. All right. Ben. Eric, last night, the beefcake himself, Howie was back. I can't remember the last time that, uh, Howie was on big brother. I have to imagine it's been quite some time since we had a Howie sighting in the big brother house.

[00:39:07] I have not been this shocked to see someone on big brother since Eric Stein was on last summer. This was a genuine shocker. When, when I heard this leak and heard them talking about this, I thought that this was just some sort of like a joke. I didn't understand, but I, I was pumped about this. You see, this is, this is the thing I'm going to mark out for all of the old school vets that we're seeing all of the twists and turns. And I want every cameo. I want them to dig deep.

[00:39:37] I mean, Howie is definitely a big name in big brother history, but it's a, it's still a deep pull. You know, this is someone that we have not heard from in a while. I think it's pretty consistent theory that, that Howie, some of his past actions in the house probably wouldn't hold up as great today. So I kind of thought Howie might be someone who, who they left, uh, in the past. I was really excited to hear he got the call.

[00:40:04] I think Howie's someone who would, yeah, I really think Howie, uh, was probably really happy to, uh, hear from them. And I was happy to hear from him. I did have a couple thoughts that immediately popped in mind. Number one is why is he dressed like the masterminds? He's supposed to be coming from 300 years in the future. You don't think he's wearing your costume, do you? I feel like they just put like some, some scales or something on top of my costume. Yeah. Um, it does not look very futuristic to me. Yeah.

[00:40:34] It's almost like from the past, but sometimes that happens in like a dystopian world where that the, everything goes back to where it started. So maybe he's sort of wearing like some sort of like, uh, feudalistic, uh, like suit of armor. Yeah. I, I, uh, was, was very impressed by his, his hosting. It was, he followed the script. There was no Howie shtick. Um, he, he, he, he was able to get through the lines. This is, this is very impressive. I thought this was a win.

[00:41:04] The problem is this is great fan service. Um, but you know, it's so awkward that the people there have no idea who this is. And I guess they're showing the clip to tee it up. Right. I guess that's the idea. They, they, they already had one, one fail last year when two minutes left in the finale, I pulled my mask off and the entire jury said, who the, you know, and they're like literally just dead face disgusted. Like, you know, we could have heard more from Ashley speech, not this idiot.

[00:41:34] Um, but I, they've learned their lessons, but it does fall a little awkward. Um, when there's not the reaction live and I don't know how to circumvent that, but I do hope that this is going to be a season long thing. I think this is great fan service. It's good fun. It's, it's truly, I mean, this is very surprising. And for many years, big brother, they were not surprising. They, they did exactly what you would expect in the greatest eye roll of ways.

[00:42:01] And I love the fact that recently we are pulling out. Yeah. It's like someone new was on the staff who maybe, maybe like they hired a 22 year old who recently went through the library or something. And it's like, Oh, there's some good guys on all stars. You know? Yeah. I will say that big brother, I believe does, uh, at this point in time in 2026, uh, a far better job of servicing the fans and giving them what they want.

[00:42:25] Then survivor does a big brother is not bringing in Zach Brown and Jimmy Fallon for this season. It's like, yeah, show us the people that we want to see. Give us the old house guests. Yeah. It's like, it's been a role reversal, right? You, you get Zach Brown instead of Sean Rector and we get Howie and we used to get Sheryl Crow. So yeah. It's that, you know, it's funny. So Howie I've known for, uh, ever since I got off the show.

[00:42:50] So 19 years at this point, I saw Howie about a year after my season and he was at an event. And, uh, you know, he, he was having a good time. And I remember thinking to myself way back then, you know, uh, this is a little sad. His season was two years ago. Why is this man still here? Why is he still talking about this show? And why is he at this event? Fast forward 19 years.

[00:43:18] I'm at a premiere party and I'm on a podcast talking about the show. So, uh, my internal monologue owes Howie a big apology for that. Now, if a single person cares where I am, uh, wants to give me a sip of their beer, you know, uh, uh, their beer, uh, you know, I'll take what I can do that. Yeah. No, that might not be safe, especially on the cruise. Yeah. Be careful. Be careful out there. That's international waters. There there's no laws.

[00:43:46] I, uh, for my, um, honeymoon, I went to Tahiti and, um, right before we went, I watched like one of these crime shows on ID and it was like something like dark waters, the, the lawless seas. And I was petrified the entire time I was out there. Yeah. I kept it frozen. Okay. So Eric, Howie came back because he needed to help the citizens of the future against

[00:44:12] this, uh, this, uh, horrible dystopia where Dr. Will stole the timetable when a thousand years into the future, uh, discovered the fountain of youth and then marketed it to this unsuspecting citizens of the future. And that he became the most powerful person in the world, uh, due to the commercial success of will talks.

[00:44:39] You're an incredible note taker because about five seconds into that speech last night, I was like, what is going on? Like I was getting snacks. I was totally gone. Uh, when I see this, it immediately makes me think of, um, Dr. Willie's Wonka, but that sounds obscene. Um, but he does look like he's in that sort of world, uh, potentially my, my first blush

[00:45:03] reaction to this was the same as when I saw him, um, on, on set on, uh, you know, as part of the masterminds thing last year, didn't he retire from reality TV? Didn't he famously make a big comeback and say, I'm doing one more for the kids. And this is the last one. And since then has been back on 15 times. What happened? But maybe was that a retirement from being a competitor on reality TV?

[00:45:31] Is he still open to, uh, paid appearances? It does, it does seem that way. Yes. And I cannot blame him. Uh, it, you know, it's, uh, it, fun days where I, I like, uh, I like this. This felt very true to Will. You know, again, again, I see a lot of the feedback, like, oh, I was cringing during this. How can anything that happens on the show make you cringe? That is the show. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:00] And Dr. Will in a, uh, four hour interview that we had done, uh, did seem to imply that maybe he might consider one day running for a political office, that this could be a glimpse into where we're going. Do you think that Will's appearance fee and my appearance fee are the same when they call us to do a skit? You can be honest. Uh, um, hmm. Hmm.

[00:46:29] You know, the same, you mean like, you mean like numerically? I mean, like when they send us the check, yeah, the numbers look the same. I think that maybe it probably has some of the same numbers. Now that I'm workshopping this, that could explain how I came to be one of the masterminds. Dr. Will, Jesse, Frankie, who do we have the budget left for? It's like, let's take off the first 50 that we normally call.

[00:46:59] Right. Like, Eric, uh, we got something for you, my friend. Yeah. Uh, I want to know that we did not see them ever on screen at the same time. Do you think that Dr. Will and Howie ever met up during the taping of this power of veto competition? So I would like to... Or was that in Dr. Will's contract that that would not happen? I would like to think yes.

[00:47:25] I feel like it would be very meaningful to Howie, but yes, it could be one of the many stipulations he was afforded that I was not. Uh, I do think I actually covered this with you last year, but, uh, real quick, when, when I went out there to film the masterminds, I asked them to tell me who I was filming with because I was going to be out in LA for two days. I was like, let's go to dinner. They, they would not tell me. So this may have been that situation may have just been like, you know, like two, two streams crossing in the night. Is that the expression? I'm not sure.

[00:47:54] But you know, I, they, they, they ships to reality cruises passing in the night. Yeah. First of all, that makes more sense. Cause that's the actual expression and also plays to what we were talking about much better. Yes. Okay. Let's talk about, we got some showmances going on in the house, some early showmances brewing, uh, Rome and Lyric got together real quick.

[00:48:23] Uh, this is definitely, uh, one of the fastest, right? I don't, I can't off the top of my head. I cannot think of any that took a hold faster. Um, I think that we have been missing out on the showmances a little bit these last few seasons. So I, I think, uh, the word on the street was that there was an eye towards people who might be ready and able. And, uh, yes. So that checks out to me. Um, I, I like it for them. I'm happy for them.

[00:48:52] Um, I, I did not at all like Julie's take that they should stop trying to play the game and instead just fall in love. Um, first of all, they are not mutually exclusive. And second of all, easy for you to say you're, you're a billionaire like this. Maybe, maybe they should take their one opportunity in their entire life at $750,000 a little bit more seriously and then fall in love. Well, wouldn't that be a better plan?

[00:49:20] Julie does famously love love. Oh yes. Yes. Love one another. Even. Yes. Um, yes. Uh, I, I don't know. What is your hope for these crazy kids? I don't mind that they have a showmance on the live feeds. Uh, I just watched love Island. I'm no, I, I, I'm, I'm not no issue whatsoever, but I don't like it when the relationships become

[00:49:47] too, uh, syrupy, sweet, schmoopy territory. I don't want to see that. Uh, yes. I do like a little bit more of a will they won't they, uh, tease to edit out as well, where you're rooting for those crazy kids? You know, they kind of just will. They, they, they did, you know, they, we kind of skipped over a couple of steps of that. I mean, I, I, in my mind, Rome is probably thinking pickleball could be huge in Hawaii.

[00:50:14] Like, you know, he's, he's, he's probably half moved already. I think it's a fair chance that at least one of them is not making it to jury, you know? So we're going to get that classic story of, um, you know, the love story on the feeds, uh, the, the old Gina Marie and Nick, you know, the, uh, I'm going to do it for you. Carry the, you know, keep the candle burning for you. Star-crossed lovers, a real Rome, Romeo and Lyric-io. Yes, I do.

[00:50:43] I, I love, I love the Lyme name. Uh, that, that is a, a great showman's name. Um, I mean this in no strange way at all, just completely factual. The cast this year looks so young to me and that is because they are young and I am so old. Um, but when I see some of these people, they really feel like they could be my children. And you know why that is?

[00:51:12] Because they could literally be my children. Now in my mind, I live in 2007 and I have not evolved from that. So I think I'm, I, you know, I'm one of those young, crazy kids. Um, but that also stuck out to me this season when I saw the cast. I was like, holy shit, these people are babies, babies, babies in love. But I'm happy for these crazy kids. Uh, but I believe both you and I would be, uh, the oldest guy in the house by far. Oldest guy in the house?

[00:51:40] We'd be, I think quite literally in the top five oldest guys to ever be on, probably people to ever be on the show. You're, you're practically a decade older than Summer of Steve. Wait, so this is funny. To prepare for the return of Summer of Sine, I was like, I don't really remember because I'm senile what this show is. So I put on a few minutes of the very first episode. Yeah, what is this show? I don't really remember either. I still don't know.

[00:52:07] And I, so I put on the very first few minutes of Summer of Sine. First of all, my opening words were almost exactly what I was intending to say at the beginning of this. So like the more things change, the more they stay the same. But I, I had a take in, in my, the first ever episode about how astonished I was that Summer of Steve was actually our contemporary. And that I had shared this with my wife, expecting her to be like, oh my God, that's crazy.

[00:52:36] Like he looks so much older than you, Eric. But apparently as this story went, which I had blocked from my memory, what she actually said was like, yeah, no kidding. Like you guys, if anything, like you might be looking a little bit older. And I, I remember being hurt by that at the time. And, and, and what's funny is as I've lost all these things from my memory, when I saw Steve, I had the same reaction again. Man alive. How old was this guy when he went on the show? And he wasn't old at all.

[00:53:06] So yes, they are young. We are old. Have you seen Steve recently? Was he at the Big Brother event that you went to? You know, I don't think that he likes me because, because of his podcast. Did you watch the clip? Because he'd be probably out of the house pretty soon there. So when I started researching him, he like, he's a professor at like the community college where I, like I grew up like 20 minutes down the road from me. Like, I feel like I could have gotten a drink with him at some point.

[00:53:36] Or at least a half, a half a dress sip of someone's drink, if you will. Maybe reconnect on a cruise at some point. He might, you know, if, if they're looking for icons, he might be next. Yeah. Okay. All right. Rome wasn't built in a day. Maybe this relationship was, but it's not the only showmance going on. How about this? Have you seen this? This hasn't, we haven't seen this in the episode yet. Maybe tonight. Barrett and Dee have a flirtmance, Eric. What do you think about this? All right.

[00:54:06] Well, I know you were deep in the feeds. Give me the latest and greatest on this. And I want to feel your meter on this. Like, are we feeling like, is this real? Or is this, is this, is this a D and Austin? Or is this a nothing burger? Is this, we're just passing the time. This is an Ashley burger. Yeah. So I would say that I think that they're both probably like pretty like touchy people.

[00:54:30] But like, I was watching on the feeds yesterday and like Barrett was like having a conversation with Haley and Haley's like legs were draped over him. And I was just trying to think of like, I know I'm married, but I wouldn't probably never be like, I would never want to be this close to another person ever. And, but, but that's what they do. They just lay on top of each other a lot. Yeah, it's a very big brother thing. Yeah. So it is a big brother thing.

[00:54:59] And so they are holding hands. I think that to Dee, I think that she likes him. I think it's literally nothing for her. And he's like, hey, if, if he, he could take this however he wants, it's nothing to me. I think that for Barrett, it's like, this is pretty cool.

[00:55:21] I don't think that he is a romantic feelings for Dee, but I think if she wanted it to, for him to catch those feelings, I think that she could put on a full court press. Yeah. So in other words, this man is going to blow his entire game for her. Yeah. I think it will end, I think it will end worse for him than it will for her. Yeah. I think it'll end worse for him than it did for Austin. I think it will end worse for him. Because Austin's doing great. Yeah. Right.

[00:55:50] I, I, um, it's nice to have people that you feel comfortable with inside the big brother house. Um, if I had to rank the long-term potential, I mean, who am I to, you know, rain on their parade? I, I, if they want to let them live happily ever after. I do not think that they want to most likely in this particular instance. As of the latest, they were getting too close.

[00:56:17] And then that was, um, message back to them that people are starting to talk. And Dee said, we should probably do this less. I, oh, that, that hurts. Uh, sorry, Barry. That's rough. I, you know, I do love when you see someone in casting, you have a first blush reaction to who or what they might be. And then they, you know, you're sharp. Um, you know, but they, they surprise you.

[00:56:44] Uh, you know, so I say, good for you, Barry, wherever your life takes you from here. However, this game goes, you held hands with Dee on the live feeds. You're, this is a, this is a super fan. This is, this is his dream TV show today. His dreams are coming true before our very eyes. So good for him. Yes. Because, uh, this is a story. The big brother producers love to tell. Yes. Uh, yes. I, it does feel like a bit of a one-sided story. Whereas the, the lime squad, I think they're, they're ready. They're in it together. Okay. All right.

[00:57:13] Let's talk about, okay. Jason versus Angela. We saw that Jason is playing a very duplicitous game, Eric, that he is trying to get in Angela's good graces. He said, she's his mom in the house. He recently lost his mom. And then he told the cameras, psych, I would never want Angela to be my mom. So this is one of the more interesting scenes in recent.

[00:57:42] Let me just add to that. And people got big mad. They did not like it. Big mad. One of the more interesting scenes to me in recent big brother memory. And I would love to chat with you about like the history of villainry in reality TV. We come from an era where the aforementioned Johnny Fairplay, he was a reality TV villain.

[00:58:08] If you knew him in real life, sometimes he could be a real life villain. The lines were not really that blurry there. You know, like this was a guy who came on and that's who he was. Then you had, say, a Matt Hoffman. Came on, did something that is objectively pretty villainous. Didn't really act villainy outside of that. And then in real life, very happy man. Very nice man. Not very manipulative man.

[00:58:36] And people clamor for the old school villains of reality TV. We hear about this all the time. Or the shit stirrers. Or the, you know, the drama queens. You know, when are we getting our Jen Johnsons back? But then the thing is, someone comes into the house and they start trying to be manipulative. Or they call someone crazy eyes. And everyone whines about it. So, A, are these people villains?

[00:59:06] And if they are villains, is it okay to have villains? And, you know, that's what I want to, you know, discuss with you. Yeah. It's a great point. It's something that I think we've certainly talked about this discourse with Survivor quite a bit. Where Jeff Probst is like, hey, we're not cast. We don't want villains anymore. People are like, you monster. Of course we want the villains.

[00:59:32] And then people can't handle people on Survivor doing anything that is, you know, a little bit scummy to one another. So, yeah, let Jason live. Let him do what he wants to do to Angela. It's fine. You know, there have been some seasons recently that were very kumbaya with everyone on the same page doing what the house wants. And people who just like, you know, let death take them. It is so boring.

[01:00:01] If you're coming with one opportunity, do something. Now, is it good gameplay to come in and immediately manipulate as over the top as humanly possible in a very nasty way and then tell people that you're doing it? No. That is not good gameplay. However, if he wants to, you know, read people like he does on Drag Race, if he wants to get a little dirty, if he wants to lie and cheat and steal like Eddie Guerrero back in the day, you know, then go for it.

[01:00:29] That's what you're here for. And the thing is, this is very mixed messaging from both the public and the producers and such, right? They bring back the mess. This is going to get Jason back on the show. If he has a messy four-week run, he will be on another CBS property. If he played a calculated, nice game, nobody cares. They're looking for the people that have big, undeniable, memorable personalities.

[01:00:57] I think the fans have lost this script a little bit. The worst thing you could be is down the middle on reality TV. You need people who are polarizing. You need people that you either love or love to hate or there's both. Some people love them. Some people love to hate them. You kind of have mixed feelings about them. I mean, we need to go no further back than Angela herself. Yeah. Half the fan base is saying, oh, Angela, she's the worst. She's yelling at this poor kid.

[01:01:25] Then we get off the season and the poor kid is the singular most annoying person that has ever lived. And, you know, it turns out. You're saying Angela ate when she went after that. Yeah, she was on the right side of history, of course. And we probably should have all been able to see that at the time. So that was heroic. That was not villainous. That she was yelling at an idiot who was acting like an idiot. And even if it was villainous, well, here she is again two summers later, right? We all speculate about who's going to be there. She's the only one.

[01:01:55] So I... Gameplay, horrible. Villainous, probably. But I'm here for the villains. Toughen up, fans. Come on. This is ridiculous. Well, it's not just the fans. A lot of the alumni were calling out Jason last night. Here's the thing. They're very nice. But that is a horrible take. That is a horrible take. And some of them were not that great at the game.

[01:02:21] You know, this is why I had to stop podcasting. Because it was hurting my friendships outside. But the fact of the matter is, if you're sitting there and why are you doing this? Don't you want the reality TV you're watching to elicit some emotion? Isn't that what the summer house is? And the housewives, they're built on, right? It's that... Don't you want to feel something? This guy is an absolute scumbag. I can't believe they cheated. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[01:02:49] So the fact that someone is here and trying something, anything, I'm here for it. I also thought to myself, this is not the best. But I'm glad he did it. You know? We like that he took the swing. Yeah.

[01:03:12] Again, maybe I could have waited three weeks or maybe chosen a better target that America doesn't like. It was not thought through. But that's what's fun about it, right? We think through our actions. You want reality stars who just go in there and do without thinking. And I feel like this year we have, you know, Angela's one of them. They're probably pretty similar. Type A personalities that cannot be contained.

[01:03:41] And that's what I want to see in there. Okay. All right. We then have, we were graced by the host of Big Brother, Julie Chen Mundes, who was on a media tour yesterday talking about her thoughts on the new season and all of the players. And she told a couple of different outlets, Mike Bloom, Dalton Ross. She was not that excited to see survivor players.

[01:04:11] She didn't say that to my face. But she was not that excited to hear about survivor players who were going to be on Big Brother this season. And especially she was very down on the game of Rick Devins so far, Eric. This was an absolutely insane take from Julie that she chose to go around the media saying this over and over again all day. First of all. Can we play the clip? Yeah, let's do it. Okay, here we go.

[01:04:40] Here is that Dalton Ross ended up sharing this, that he said that shots were fired by Julie Chen Mundes about his friend and mine, Rick Devins. Let's see what Julie had to say as I switch things around and give you this.

[01:05:12] Oh, yeah. That's your name. Right.

[01:05:30] I don't know about these voices. I was going to say, I didn't know that there was a cultural misappropriation and accents in this clip. I don't know. I don't know if I'm. Yeah, I'm not putting my name on this. I'm going to leave it alone, but I don't know. I don't know. Not to mention.

[01:05:59] I probably, you know, I try to, you know, I do impressions, but I try, you know. Obviously, she's basing this off of a singular clip from the episode. And I don't know if that's more information than I would expect her to have or less. But she's really not like that. A horrendous, bizarre take. You spend your money as a show bringing in these three people that you're building the entire season around and then have your host go around and shit on it.

[01:06:28] Well, she, in fairness, Julie liked Rick Devins at first. But that when he told Angela and Drew about the alliance, that was I think she's seen enough. Not Survivor, maybe. Yeah. You don't want to be on Julie's bad side. That's a bad place to be on Big Brother. You start. The edit starts to turn against you.

[01:06:58] We might not be seeing happy-go-lucky Ricky D anymore. That could be it. Ricky D could be in trouble. So we'll see if it works out or not for Julie. And then, Eric, everybody's excited. The live feeds are back. And we found out this week that some of Big Brother's most recent alumni are just learning about how the live feeds actually work.

[01:07:24] This was a tweet from our current Big Brother winner who was a little surprised to see how the live feeds come together every single day in the house. Ashley tweeted, I truly cannot believe we can watch these people 24-7. Like, I had no idea it worked like this. And I'm so flabbergasted. Like, I really thought it's only on in big groups and during mainly game talk.

[01:07:54] Okay, so. This is a surprise. For the five new people that we may have gained alongside of the thousands we may have lost since 2018, I'm going to bring back a little something that we used to do on the Summer of Stein back in the day. And I will set it up for you. It's called the Oof-O-Meter. Oof-O-Meter. Yes. Back in the day, I used to apparently say oof too much. So someone in the comments kept saying, stop saying oof.

[01:08:21] So like I, you know, typical response for me, I started saying oof a lot more often. And I worked it into the show and we created the Oof-O-Meter for how oofy something was. It's one through five oofs. This is a five oofer right here. And I had the pleasure of meeting Ashley last week. And Ashley is lovely. She was, had a very interesting take on her season, her game. She was super nice.

[01:08:49] But this is another really wild take. I don't, I don't understand what this means. Maybe you did not know that ahead of time, although it is explained to you in great detail. And also you would have researched it before going on the show. But since she's been off and she saw clips of toilet paper hanging out of her own pants and conversation, where did she think they were coming from? Things that were not game talk. Things that were not in the episodes, not in large groups.

[01:09:19] It's her holding hands with someone or her, you know, having a fun hangout moment or a stretch. Where were those coming from? Yeah. Do you think that maybe she did know and this is her, I've never had a burger before of, is this engagement farming? Oh, you see, I'm just not smart enough for this. Too old. Or, or, yeah, maybe, maybe right. This is just bait. And I took the bait, like hook lines in. She's like, that old idiot.

[01:09:49] I didn't like him at all last Thursday. Yeah. He's outfoxing another big brother player again. He got me again. Yep. That is a very interesting take because it seems insane as an actual thought. But, and then it also makes me wonder, like, or is it like, I'm going to say this to excuse anything I may have done, right? I'm sticking to the party line. Didn't know about the feeds. I'm so sorry that I came out and I said that you didn't know how things unfolded.

[01:10:17] You know, that's every big brother, you know, player's favorite is like, well, you didn't see how it actually went. Yes. We did. That's the thing. But I don't think that's it because nobody's mad at anything that she said on live feeds. So, and now she's just going to, she's just like these people. It's like you, you are these people. Yeah. Yeah. This is quite a revelation.

[01:10:42] I feel like this probably like changed her, her whole worldview, right? Yeah. And I guess they don't tell you before you go on that, that people can see this on the internet. They just don't, they don't mention that. It's like, if you know, you know, but they don't really ever tell you that before you go on. I don't think that's true. No, I think this is a well-known, I think this is a well-known fact. I mean, also what, what do you think? Let's just workshop this here, right? Let's, let's go with your theory.

[01:11:11] The 24 seven live feeds mean. Yeah. It's not the part-time occasional large group live feed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I mean, I, um, I was blown away by this blown away. Yeah. This. Well, I'm always blown away by your incredible knowledge of big brother. Is there anything else that's on your mind?

[01:11:35] Well, I did want to say something directly to the 12s of fans that are still here with us at the end of this. Literally dozens. And I had, I had to write it down because I wanted to make sure that I, I got my words right. And, and it was this, it was, um, let's see here. Um, you are one of the most loyal supporters since day one, bro. And don't think I don't notice.

[01:12:04] I remember all my rider dies from the beginning. I see who flip flops. I see who comes back. I see who's there when the times are good and who leaves when the times are bad. And you viewers are the real ones stay being awesome. My dudes at boss unlimited. That's incredible. It's beautiful. Uh, I wish I had that on a pillow, Eric. Uh, you know, I, there was one, one other thing I wanted to ask you about that we're voting. We're voting for the BP time capsule.

[01:12:33] Somebody's going to get a power, uh, maybe as soon as tonight or tomorrow. Oh yeah. Have you voted? Oh no, definitely not. Uh, I, I feel like the BB time capsule is, uh, soon to be known as the BB. Big rig similar to, uh, you know, another big vehicle like the cruise out there. This is going to be the worst. The big rig, the BB big rig. Uh, yeah.

[01:13:01] Like this is going to be, is there going to be a speech tonight about, about this? This was rigged. Yeah. There may be a recounts possibly. This is going to be a mess that this is for sure going to. In, in BB, I want to say 21, which we watched once upon a time. I feel like they introduced like this imaginary punishment out of nowhere where they sent some

[01:13:29] of the people that were awful, like on a school bus or something like that. And they punished them with something. I wasn't, it was like a one week twist. It was just like, like Jackson, you're going to ride the bus and bad things are going to happen to you. It was like, we let people vote or who are like the least favorite people. And they did something, like some sort of punishment. So Angela is coming away with this, with a coup d'etat and D and Devin's are, are, you

[01:13:57] know, it's going to be like, Devin's is going to be one week America's player for sure. Um, there's, this is, you know, the rewards I don't think are going to be like a margarita maker. They're going to be game breaking rewards that people will say like, I hate this reward. Except if my favorite gets it. And then I love this, you know, reward. I think that's the level of reward.

[01:14:23] And then I think that there will slip a few stinkers in, um, you know, but I, I hope that this is a fun way where we could see a few more people. I'm, I'm really hoping for the Jen Johnson unitard to be a punishment with Jen gifting it. Maybe big, she can come in as well. Uh, give it to, to the next person. And the thing is these punishments, these rewards, they can become things that you're known by. This could be your big brother legacy. I think it's fun. I hope it's nostalgic.

[01:14:52] I am certain it is going to be absolutely foul in terms of the integrity of the game. So Eric, it sounds like it was going to be like on survivor when you do a journey of that. You have to complete a challenge. And if you win the challenge, you get the thing. But if you lose the challenge, you get the punishment. Well, once upon a time we covered a challenge that they had to get back in the big brother house, right?

[01:15:19] Which was a, what, a five piece puzzle of oneself. I think if they want someone, you know, once, once they see who won a vote, they will, um, not foolproof, give them a challenge that they think is conducive to their success. They can always extend the timer a little bit.

[01:15:45] They can always, you know, everyone likes to always talk about the, you know, but the sanctity and the game show rules. I promise you if Angela is available to get either the coup d'etat or a week in a canoe as a costume, she is going to get the coup d'etat. Okay. All right. We'll see what happens. And how are you feeling after this? Do you think you'll come back for next week for week two?

[01:16:14] Well, you know, I, I am famously all over the map, right? And depending on the moment you catch me, I could be all in or all out. So I think it's too soon to say. I enjoyed our conversation. I do too. I, I am looking forward to seeing you more sexually harassed as the season goes. I mean, I'm not, I don't personally condone. Right. Harassing people, but I like it for you because it is still better than the alternative.

[01:16:41] As I said, you know, I, I'd rather that than, than being mean to you. So I'm glad that they're thirsting for you. And I, I look forward to seeing that in the comments moving forward. So, uh, I'm not ready to say I'll be here all summer, but I feel, oh, I, I heard you and Taryn talking through some percentages. Uh, you know, I think it's a, a slightly above average percentage. I'll be here next Thursday. So, yeah, we're in, we're trending in the right direction.

[01:17:09] Listen, keep on feeding the positive. Let us know in the comments, uh, the positive things you want us to, or the positive feedback that you might have for Eric. No, not for me. I just want to see it for you. For the show, for the show. You don't have to, you, you, you may or may not comment on Eric's appearance who, if it's any consolation, I feel like that you don't age. So then why is it that you told me that I should get a ring light before we started recording?

[01:17:37] Because you are, look, you are very, you're in a dark room. A little, a little pale. Oh yeah. Yeah. I think this is like, uh, listen, it doesn't matter like the, what the subject is. You can't film in like a room with zero light. Do you have a natural light? Do you have a window in that room? The window is open. This is the best I could do. I think we can improve the aesthetics. I mean, I think that we could get you closer to the router. I think there's things that we, there's room for improvement. All right.

[01:18:06] Well, how about, how about this? Um, if you say that I don't age, what, what is the, what is all this, this, this loose skin? What is this? Well, see, that's the beauty of being in the dark room. Cause it's not loose skin. It's not reading on the, now you answer your own question, right? As to why I'm in a dark room. Right. Right. So maybe my wife was like, do you want this beautifully well lit set up? And I was like, I'll be going to the dark room. The dark room. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, uh, be on the lookout for that.

[01:18:35] Let's give an email a, or a link where people can submit things for Eric to talk about. Uh, Rob has a website.com slash Stein. How about that? I did ask people on blue sky today. What should Eric talk about? You want to do some rapid fire? I would love to, but I got to forewarn you. Nothing really has happened to me. I have no new stories or takes like in the last seven years. So I'm most likely to just respond with something you've already heard from me. Yes. Okay.

[01:19:02] Um, how about, uh, who from big brother history would you recruit to be the next mastermind? Is this like the dread pirate Roberts? Do you pass on the mastermind? I, I would have loved, loved, loved to see Jody there. I would have, uh, you know, Shima's a no brainer. Um, there, there, there was, you know, Annie, there could have been some good ones.

[01:19:26] I do think since, you know, it was kind of giving, you know, this semi scripted anyway, if they really wanted to tie up the wrong story, it does feel like Rachel would be a good choice as the next mastermind. You know, I kind of think her coming out and joining us at the end of the skit may have been a nice finish to the season. Uh, so I think that there's plenty of good candidates. And the great thing about big brother is someone will get screwed every single season by a twist.

[01:19:53] So there's always an endless supply of new masterminds in the making. Yeah. Who do you think you'd get along with the most and the least? Oh, on this cast? Yes. Uh, I think, I think I would probably get along really well with Devin's. I mean, I saw him do that dance. It felt like it was coming right out of my own body. Right. You know, like that, that felt like, um, I, you know, I feel like he's, he's, he's doing me in there or, or, or at least what I aspire to be.

[01:20:23] I, I, I had actually, you know, shared online that, um, I really am glad that he was rewarded with this opportunity because I bet you that some people on Survivor 50 feel disappointed that they didn't leave it all on the field. You know, there are people that were absolute icons and you barely remember that they were there. Um, when you look back on Survivor 50, you're going to look back and think about Rick and

[01:20:50] his shenanigans and $2 million would be great, but one out of 24 people win $2 million. Right. And, and if you're not Aubrey, then you want to be Siri or Rick. And I, I loved the positivity and I loved that he took his natural character. And I think some people come back like me on this podcast and they do the greatest hits. Right. And it's just like, I've, I've seen there. It kind of, and it's kind of sours a little bit.

[01:21:18] And you say like, come on, Rick, like we, we did this five years ago, but Rick came back and he took his shtick, but he kind of evolved it. It was, it was, it was the, the, the bigger, more modern. Um, I thought it was a lot of fun and I think I'd enjoy him in the house. He seems like he has a lot of stories. Um, I've actually never encountered, never spoken one sentence to the man in my life.

[01:21:43] So I, but he, he feels like, you know, I'm in there, uh, as far as who I would dislike. I mean, probably all of them, um, after a while, you know, but there is nobody who has presently jumped out as, as I'm saying, it's only been a week. Yes. Okay. And then Sarah cupcakes asked, uh, which player is giving Scotty doesn't know this season. Hmm. I don't know. It doesn't seem like anyone's like, uh, maybe, maybe Taylor seems a little in the dark at the moment.

[01:22:11] Uh, she, she doesn't totally feel like you in the podcast room. Oh, that's right. So it's all comes back together again. Uh, also I will say this goes without saying, but, uh, I am a drag race fan. So of course I, I would, I, and, and my wife is, is a big fan. So I, I would, you know, just, just like Barrett and Dee, I, I, I'd be in there holding his hand to make sure we could be friends afterwards. Would you have recognized Selena as titties?

[01:22:39] You know, I would like to say I would with certainty and then I, but, but like my brain really is mush. So I, I feel like, um, I would, I, it would feel familiar to me kind of like Angela said, where it's like, I, I really know this person, but I think I'd have trouble placing it, but I do think I would have extracted the information out. Cause I think I would have, I would have known something, uh, what was not aligning.

[01:23:07] I mean, this is something that I really look forward to the reveal that is sure to come. You know, this is gonna, gonna hit just like when Frankie revealed, uh, his big secret. And when Bronte revealed that she was a mathematician and so many secrets through the years, you know, I, I, I look forward to, because it's going to happen. This man is going to go down swinging. So he is, he is going to share this at some point. I mean, I'm not sure if it's going to just make him a liar or a hot commodity, but the information will come out.

[01:23:37] Um, so I definitely would be there trying to befriend Jason for sure. All right. Well, Eric, this was so fun. Uh, anything that you want to plug? It's this a bit. We have been through this so many times in the last 15 years. There's nothing to plug. There's no nothing. Not appearing anywhere. I'm not doing anything. What about cameo? Did you ever do get on cameo? I think that ship has sailed, right? I think so. Who wants a cameo from me?

[01:24:06] In reference to what? Somebody. Somebody. All right. Listen, if, if some, if there is somebody watching this who, who wants a video from me, just let me know. I'll just, I'll just send it their way. Okay. All right. You're going to be inundated. Yeah. I'll send it their way along with my appearance fee. Yes. Okay. All right. But which is less than Dr. Wills? A lot less. Yes. All right. Thank you so much for joining us here for the Summer of Stein.

[01:24:31] We'll have everything from our Big Brother coverage with the live recap of Eviction Night plus over on the patron feed, the slop every single week and everything else that we have for you here on RHAP. Thank you for joining us. Take care, everybody. Have a good one. Bye. Stay crushing it. Bye.