Carson Kressley says Todrick Hall was 'shaken' by Celebrity Big Brother jury reaction
The Celebrity Big Brother jury is not like a regular Big Brother jury. For one thing, as winner Miesha Tate pointed out to EW, the celebrities expect a different type of gameplay. For another, they see all the footage before casting their votes. And when it came to Todrick Hall, the jury did not like what they saw.
Upset by what they viewed as a duplicitous and insensitive strategy, they had strong words for Todrick when they awarded a 7-1 victory to Miesha, with Todrick's sole vote coming courtesy of Cynthia Bailey, who was eliminated moments before making her choice (and told EW her head was still spinning from all the new information).
Now, one of those jurors, Carson Kressley, reports on how Todrick (who canceled all press interviews after the finale) was doing after hearing the harsh comments and facing the jury in person. Carson also reacts to being named America's Favorite Houseguest (collecting $25,000 in the process), explains how he apologized to Shanna after learning the truth about her game, and gives us some insight as to what would have happened in a Cynthia-versus-Miesha final two.
CBS Carson Kressley on 'Celebrity Big Brother'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First off, congratulations on winning America's Favorite Houseguest.
CARSON KRESSLEY: Thank you. They like me. They really like me.
Okay, Sally Field.
I know. I'll take it.
What did you think your chances were going in for that?
Honestly, I wasn't that aware of it because you forget. Certainly when you're doing the show, the last thing you're thinking about is, "I should be America's Favorite. What should I do?" I just was my authentic self on the show, and it seems like people liked it. I just didn't think about it.
And then when I got out, I was like, "Oh, that's a thing. I can tell people they can vote for me." But honestly, I thought like Lamar [Odom] or somebody cute and charming would probably win that. And he has so many fans all over the world. I just put it out of my mind and thought, "Whatever. If I do, it's great. And I can give some to my charity and it'll be wonderful." But I wasn't focused on it at all. So I was truly surprised.
I want to talk about your vote for the winner. But before you tell me why you voted the way you did, riddle me this: When you walked out of the house after you were evicted, if I asked you right then before you saw anything or heard anything, "Who should win, Miesha or Todrick?," what would you have said?
I would've done exactly what Cynthia did and voted for Todrick, because at that point, I didn't know. I didn't have any information and he was so charming and so engaging in the house. And we had a relationship. We weren't great friends, but we had worked together often. I knew him quite well. So I just trusted every word. And that shows that I was a gullible newbie to the world of Big Brother.
So you get it out of the house you and learn you've been duped by Todrick and Miesha about Shanna. What's your instant reaction? What's going through your head as you pieced that together?
Oh, I was literally sick and full of regret because Shanna was the person who had saved me the week before. And then I bought the bill of goods that she was actually just doing that temporarily and she's working with them and she was double-timing us the entire time. And then you see all the footage and you're like, "Oh, my God, I'm so stupid, so full of regret. How can I make this right?"
It's very strange when you get out of the house and you've been sequestered for almost a month and you haven't seen sunlight and your phone has 2000 messages, and all you want to do is sleep in your own bed. But for some reason you can't sleep. It's so much. More than I ever expected. But once I got my thoughts together, I just wanted to do a nice apology to Shanna.
And what was her reaction when you reached out?
She was really nice about it. I had sent her a private message saying, "Listen, if you never want to talk to me again, I get it." But I wanted to put it out there that I'm very sorry that things played out the way they did. Then I was able to post it and I felt better for my own self and for her. And then being able to address it on the live show where everybody can hear, it's a great, valuable lesson. Judge people by their actions, not by somebody else's words.
CBS Carson Kressley on 'Celebrity Big Brother'
Did you even have time to catch Cynthia up to speed on the whole Shanna situation?
No. I told her after and she's just coming out of the house, which again, if you haven't lived it, you don't know what it's like. But everything hits you so fast. You've just done a live show. Ten other people are telling you, "Oh, girl, there's some drama. Wait till you hear." So she was like a deer in headlights, just like, "What? I can't believe it." I was just like, "Yes, we were played." And she's probably just now feeling same icky feelings that I felt when I figured out that we made a bad decision based on some very wrong information.
If the final two were Miesha versus Cynthia, who would have won?
Cynthia, by a landslide. I was really hoping for that, but to their credit, Todrick and Miesha, they may have not played the most graceful game, but they played a tough game and they were very good at it. And Miesha had that unstoppable inertia, and she's really good at the competitions. Whether it was a movie competition or an athletic competition, she slayed it. The only thing she didn't have was good tastebuds. And she's not good at organizing a calendar with a terrible assistant, which I might have had some experience with that, or I might have been the terrible assistant.
How did Todrick seem to be doing after getting a lot of harsh comments once he came out and realized the situation with the jury?
I think he was trying to process it all, and I think he was maybe a bit shaken by it. And I understand that when you're in that house, you have no point of reference. You have no sounding board. So you keep doing what you're doing, which seems to be working. And it seems like a great idea, and then you get some other feedback when you get out. And it's hard to process that. And I wish him all the best and it's going to be a learning experience. But I know how icky it is when people online say bad things. I got so many messages, like, "You're the stupidest player in the history of the game." And I'm just like, "I didn't know!"
Well, America loved you, Carson. You know that.
And I'm very happy that America loved me. I was just being my authentic self and doing my thing, and I didn't need or want to win at all costs. So I'm very happy with the way it turned out.
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