Miesha Tate reacts to facing that spicy Celebrity Big Brother jury
Miesha Tate left the Celebrity Big Brother house the same way she entered it: as a winner. The former UFC champ won the very first Head of Household competition at the start of the season, setting up a run of dominance — four HOH and two Veto wins — that culminated with her being named champion of season 3. Her victory was complete after the jury voted for her 7-1 over fellow finalist Todrick Hall.
What does Miesha make of her wire-to-wire victory? Was she surprised by the jury's harsh words towards Todrick? And was she surprised to win by such a lopsided margin? We chatted with the champ after the final bell, and here's what she had to say.
CBS Miesha Tate on 'Celebrity Big Brother'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So how does the joy of winning Celebrity Big Brother compare to winning the mixed martial arts bantamweight championship?
MIESHA TATE: Well, it definitely was more exciting to win the bantamweight because that was like 10 years in the making, and I got surprised with this opportunity just a couple of weeks before I entered the show. So I didn't put the amount of preparation into this. However, I am really proud of myself for making it through this, and I cannot believe it. Even though I envisioned winning this game, it was a really difficult task.
I thought I was gonna be fighting for my life through the entire show after I won the first HOH, just by the way everybody looked me up and down. When I walked into the house, [I was like] "Everyone thinks I'm a threat. This is gonna be really tough." But I only had to swerve hard once, and I still don't know why that is, but I'm excited to be here. I am elated to be the winner.
Which was harder: playing the game, or playing the game while trying to lose all that weight to go down a weight class?
Yeah. That. All of the above.
Why do you think the jury almost unanimously chose you over Todrick?
Well, that's very difficult to say because I've been sequestered away from the rest of the world. I haven't seen the show yet, so I don't know, but my guess would be that Todrick is very extra from what I've noticed, and he jokes a lot, and he's very vibrant with his jokes, and I think maybe he might have hurt some people's feelings.
I think our cast, it seemed like a lot of people didn't really know the game very well. And I think Todrick admitting to me later in the game that he was a super-fan was like, "Well, this is how you play the game. This is how it's played." I saw part of season 23 before I came in. Regular Big Brother is a lot different than the Celebrity Big Brother, where we all kind of have a brand and wanna walk a certain way and wanna be received because we're already figures.
But in regular Big Brother, they kind of go all out and they go to war and they lie and they just create all these scenarios. And I think if you were a super-fan of it, you might have assumed that this is the way the game is played. But everyone else didn't understand that. There were so many people in the house who were not knowledgable, like myself. I had no idea how it was played. So I'm like, "I guess I just gotta be myself and be very straightforward and try to win all the competitions." I think maybe if this had been a regular season, perhaps his strategy would've been more well received, but I also don't know how it went. I haven't seen it yet.
Were you surprised by the tone of some of the jury's comments while voting towards Todrick?
Yeah, absolutely. And it concerned me to the point where I could see the concern and the confusion on Todrick's face. I was confused and it took away some of the excitement of me winning. Because as a mother, when you care about someone, you cannot just celebrate when you think that someone else is in a bad position, you know? And so I am so happy for myself, but my heart's going out to Todrick because I just maybe hope, as he said, that people judge him for his heart and not his brain. Sometimes we do things, we make mistakes and we say things that we need to be accountable for and apologize for. And maybe that will be something he does. And maybe not. Again, I'm still kind of shooting in the dark here, but I think Todrick is a good person. And if he made a mistake on this, I think he will be very willing to own up to it.
CBS Miesha Tate, Todrick Hall, and Cynthia Bailey on 'Celebrity Big Brother'
Were you surprised by any of the votes you did get? I assume Todd [Bridges]'s vote was surprising.
Todd's vote didn't surprise me because I thought he would vote for me because we were very close from the beginning of the game. He was really a loyal, great alliance member until it was the time we had to go. And then we were honest — like, "We're going head-to-head now. May the best man or woman win." And so I thought maybe I would have his vote. However, the frustration he showed was very surprising to me. I did not anticipate he would have any kind of animosity towards either one of us. So that part was surprising.
I thought his vote might surprise you because he said right before he left the house that Todrick had played the best game.
Yeah, I thought it was then like 50-50, I guess. You know, he might vote for you. And so it wasn't a shock. It wasn't like I was expecting him to vote one way or the other. But when he delivered that, I was very taken back by it. Carson [Kressley] was the most surprising vote to me because he had a prior relationship with Todrick — they worked together before, and I felt like their closeness was like with Cynthia. And everybody just seemed to have this affinity for Todrick, so I thought Carson would've voted for Todrick.
Let's talk about the move of the game, which was convincing Carson and Cynthia to take out their own ally in the house, Shanna [Moakler], instead of you. If that doesn't happen, you go out much earlier. Did you think that had any chance of working when you all started in on that?
I didn't even know it was gonna happen. Honestly, Todrick kind of took the ball into his own court and went to Cynthia and started pleading this case. Again, I gotta go back and watch it, but I was very grateful for it, and I still don't know how much of it was shown on TV, but it wasn't a lie. We did have a final four with Shanna at one point that she had agreed on, and she was definitely playing both sides, which is okay.
Look, we are playing a game here. We're trying to win. And there are no rules. People might wanna judge, but it's a social experiment and there are different ways to try to navigate and win. And maybe you're not the strongest comp player, so you've gotta try to play into the social game a little bit more.
So anyways, it was before the live feed started, but there was absolutely a moment in time when Shanna was in my HOH room asking Todrick to speak to me and join our side. And she agreed on a final four with myself, Chris Kirkpatrick, Todrick, and her. So she was playing both sides of the fence, and I don't know if that was accurately portrayed.
So when they say turn their back against their own member, it's like, well, whose member was she really? Because when she saved Carson from the block, the first thing she did was turn and apologize to me. If she wasn't swearing some loyalty and allegiance to me, why would she have done that and felt like she had to explain, like," I'm sorry, Miesha. I'm sorry, you guys, I just need some help competition-wise"? So we called it like it is. We did not create that story out of anywhere. It absolutely happened.
CBS 'Celebrity Big Brother'
So much of Big Brother is deciding how far you will go to win, and we saw Chris Kirkpatrick struggling with that when you asked him for a concrete answer at one point and he sort of danced around it because he didn't want to outright lie to you. Is there anything you did or said in the game that you regret or had a particularly tough time with?
Putting Chris on the block was very difficult for me. But the thing I regret the most would be the situation with Teddi [Mellencamp] — just making a promise too soon in the game. I did tell her I would not put her on the block, and I didn't put her on the block. However, it ended up being a backdoor situation, which I think was very frustrating to her. And that was hard for me. I really had to think, "God, you know, I told her I wouldn't do this, but now so much has unfolded."
People didn't see this, but I was HOH for 10 days. Most people after that are only HOH for three or four. And I knew nothing about this game. So I was just trying to figure it out. And I made a mistake in telling someone they were safe for that week. And then the whole house had flipped itself on its head like 12 billion times. By the time we actually got to the other point in the game, a lot unfolded, and I had a lot to learn, and I do regret making that promise to her because that was my big goal you saw in the first HOH competition. When Todrick looked at me and was like, "Will you keep me safe?" I'm like, "Yes." And she looked at me — and I didn't know anything about these people — and she's like, "Will you keep me safe?" I'm like, "Can't promise that." Right? I thought I tried to be upfront and honest with everybody.
Are you surprised you got her vote?
I thought it was gonna come down to Teddi as the tiebreaker, to be honest. So, no, I wasn't surprised. But again, it was kind of like, "Oh, I don't know how she's gonna leave feeling." She was pretty mad at me when she left. Like, if looks could kill, I feel like I would've been slayed right there. So yeah, I thought she might have given Todrick her vote.
You were dominant in challenges, winning four Head of Household competitions and two Veto comps. I know how competitive you are as an athlete, so how satisfying was it to win so many competitions?
Well, I was hoping that I set a record for the Celebrity Big Brother wins, and I think I did that. So I am proud of myself. But my biggest takeaway is I've described myself in two ways: I'm a competitor and I'm a mother. I competed well. I like to pride myself on competing well, but my biggest accomplishment was showing my children that you can do anything you set your mind to. And this has seemed improbable and impossible to me from the moment I signed up to do this. I was like, "I'm probably not gonna make it, but I'm just gonna try my best." And I hope that is what the big takeaway here is: that you've always gotta put your best foot forward.
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