Dr. Will Kirby used the media buzz around his guest appearance on The Traitors to criticize his fellow Big Brother alumni’s performance — and now those alumni are firing back.
The Big Brother 2 winner popped into the most recent episode of The Traitors to host a competition and was later asked about who has and has not impressed him so far in the game. Never one to shy away from controversy, Dr. Will, 51, told Entertainment Weekly that he thought the previous Big Brother players who appeared on the show “never had it.”
“I think some Big Brother players went on The Traitors to show that they ‘still got it’ — only to realize that they actually ‘never had it,’” he said in an interview published on Friday, February 16. “It takes an extremely unique skill set to do well on these types of shows, and anyone can get lucky once, but it’s really hard to repeat that success, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t openly wonder if the Big Brother contestants who appeared have really hurt their reality television legacies because of their poor gameplay in this series.”
Big Brother 13 winner Rachel Reilly and Janelle Pierzina, who appeared on four seasons of Big Brother, did not take kindly to the criticism. Both also lost on The Traitors, along with Big Brother 10 winner Dan Gheesling and Big Brother 22 winner Cody Calafiore.
Janelle took to X on Friday, posting: “Says someone who is terrified of participating in another show because they know they’ll be the first out. 🤣At least me Cody, Dan and Rachel put ourselves out there for the fans. All you’ve done is showed up on set in a bathrobe and acted like a creep.”
The bathrobe comment refers to a brief cameo Dr. Will made during Big Brother 22, the show’s second All-Star season, in which he “moved in next door” and spoke to houseguests in his bathrobe from over a balcony.
Rachel posted a similar response on X, writing: “No I’ll call it like it is -will doesn’t have the ___ to go on this or any show and throws shade at us who do – he knows he’s 1st out-tell me you don’t have time off, your the owner of your practice- overrated-The Traitors guest star Will Kirby.”
Longtime Big Brother fans might scoff at Rachel calling Dr. Will — widely regarded as one of the greatest players ever — overrated but would probably agree that it’d be great to see him play a social strategy game one more time, rather than making occasional guest appearances.
While Dr. Will has yet to respond to those comments specifically, perhaps something he said later in the interview would suffice: “I was born with a bad personality and raised with a crappy attitude — I blame my parents — so I’m not for everyone.”
The Traitors airs on Peacock Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
