While Felicia Cannon was the Big Brother 25 houseguests’ primary target all week long, it was her fellow nominee, Mecole “Meme” Hayes, who was sent packing on Thursday, October 5.
“I knew that the house was flipping ahead of the eviction and I’d heard that Mama Fee had been privy to some information in which she would possibly have the votes to stay,” Mecole, 30, exclusively told Us Weekly on Friday, October 6. “It’s just an energy change that you feel in the house when people go from telling you, definitively, that they will be voting to keep you no matter what to saying, ‘Hey, well people are starting to reconsider. I want you to know that these conversations are happening.’”
Mecole stressed that hearing those “conversations” seemed to suggest that she needed to “talk to more people and kind of see where” their heads were. (Mecole claimed to Us that Head of Household Cameron Hardin initially put her up on the block as a pawn, and so, was not surprised when noms were kept the same after the veto competition.)
“While I didn’t know for certain, I had a feeling that the votes were flipping and I was not surprised by it, unfortunately,” she told Us.
After host Julie Chen Moonves revealed on Thursday that Mecole had been eliminated by a unanimous vote, Mecole couldn’t resist throwing a few of the remaining houseguests under the bus. After discernibly avoiding goodbye hugs from Cory Wurtenberger and America Lopez, Mecole quipped that Cory, 21, and America, 27, were working with Bowie Jane Ball and planning to target everyone else left in the game.
“I did plan on saying that ahead of time, but I didn’t want to say it in my final pitch right before votes happened because I didn’t want the conversation or the last thing that I said to the houseguests to be about anyone else besides me in my game,” the political consultant explained. “But I knew that before I walked out of the door that I wanted to call some people out and maybe start a little bit of drama. So let’s see how it works.”
Mecole revealed to Us that she was attempting to warn Jag Bains, Blue Kim and Matt Klotz about potentially becoming targets.
“Earlier in the week, I had a conversation with America, where she was just reassuring me that her, myself and Cory would be a good working group together. She was asking me who else I trusted in the house and I was saying, ‘Really no one,’” Mecole added. “And she was like, ‘Oh, well, Cory really trusts Bowie Jane. She looks to him as an advisor. She’s really smart. She’s someone that you should get to know,’ and alluding that we could be a good group to work well together. While she didn’t necessarily say that we would be in an alliance … clearly that four [on the] outside [of the group is] Jag, Blue, Matt [and] Cirie [Fields]. So I just decided to throw it out there and let’s see what sticks.”
Mecole was the final houseguest to be evicted from the Big Brother season 25 house pre-jury.
“Oh, it’s terrible not being able to make it to jury! Obviously, that wasn’t the goal for me [because] I was there to win $750,000 and clearly I fell short of that goal,” she told Us. “But I am really excited to see my husband [Damien Snyder]. I left him just a month after our wedding, so the highlight for me will be able to see my man!”
Big Brother airs on CBS Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
With reporting by Sarah Jones
