Christian Birkenberger is the fifth houseguest to be evicted from the Big Brother house this season. We had the opportunity to speak to Christian about carrying on his relationship with Alyssa outside of the game, if he thought about putting up Derek X last week, and his thoughts on the Cookout alliance.
That was quite the kiss you gave Alyssa!
Yeah, everyone wants to talk about that, huh!
It was a great TV moment. Did you and Alyssa plan that or did you surprise her?
It was a hinted surprise. I did mention something because there’s a joke going around that Whitney and Xavier possibly had a moment where they were going to kiss. People like to make fun of that moment, so I was like “You know what? Let me follow through with it.”
It was a little hinted surprise. I think she had an idea that it was coming.
Well, it does give her something to look forward to when she gets out of that house.
Oh yeah, I mean that was a loaded kiss. It meant a lot. It meant that “I’m going to miss you.” It meant “See you in two months!” It meant “Good luck on the show!” I hope she got that from that.
The viewers certainly did.
Good!
Did you ever think that you’d get backdoored by Derek X? You kept him safe last week. Did you ever contemplate putting him up?
Yes! I did and I went against my better judgement. I know now more than ever to follow my gut. I should not have gone against what I really needed to do that week. Everyone was telling me this was the best for my game and I do believe it was best for my game to keep him [that week] and I do believe he thinks it was best for his game to take me out, but I really hope he goes home next so that I could tell him, “I told you so!”—because I know he feels that he made the best decision, but I really think that both his game and my game would have been significantly better if we stayed together.
Derek X lost his shield and he’s going to be going home very soon.
Who should he have gotten out then?
Sarah Beth was the perfect person to get out this week. She absolutely is as threatening as I made her sound, although I now know that she was not playing for America. I think that she’s extremely strategic. For my game, it would have been good if she left because she’s not someone that I think I could have trusted or even considered working with.
You said that Sarah Beth was in Derek X’s ear.
Yes! I don’t know how true that is anymore, but I do believe she was scared sitting next to Britini and once Britini won the power of veto, she [Sarah Beth] didn’t want to sit next to Big D [Derek F]. Why would you take out Big D? He has not done anything in the game to this point.
She did not feel safe and I think she convinced Derek X to put me up and I think that it was easy for her to do because Derek X had the perfect opportunity to take the shot and not regret it.
That’s really the only argument that I think she did make during her one on ones and that’s the only argument she needed during her one on ones.
The 97 million arguments that I had when I campaigned to everybody, no matter how beneficial everyone thought that my arguments were, it did not matter. I was the biggest threat in the house, and I could have been sitting next to anybody – I would still be going home.
Is that why you didn’t think the campaigning worked? Because you think that you are the bigger threat?
Yeah, absolutely. I tried to prove for days and days that I was not a competition beast like people like to say.
Listen, maybe that competition could have gone either way. Maybe this or that could have happened, but the reality of the situation is that I had a 57% winning percentage and the fact that alone, the odds were in my favour vs. the entire rest of the house in any competition. That’s definitely scary!
Five competitions is a lot though.
Five competitions in five weeks. I’m extremely proud of myself for it. I know people have been asking, but I would not have played it any other way. I would play the game again, I would play differently, but if I had a reverse button, I’d still play those comps, but I would just elevate my social game to a position where it matched my competitions.
Let’s say that you do get to play the game again, with the same cast, would you align yourself with someone else this time for a different outcome?
If I were to play again with this season and this cast, I would align myself with the exact same people. I would play a very, very, close game [to the one I just played]. The only difference that I would have made was that I wouldn’t have isolated myself with the most beautiful girl in the house after week one.
That [Isolating myself with Alyssa] really screwed me over in the end and it wasn’t because I was aligned with her, it mattered that I spent every second with her. If I didn’t spend every second with her, I think that I would still be in the house. It’s just that you don’t know until you play the game!
From a fan’s standpoint, I definitely didn’t understand this until I played the game. I didn’t understand how much downtime there is. There’s a lot of downtime and if you have your person, all you want to do is spend time with your person. And so, Alyssa was my person. Hopefully, she’s my person outside of the house as well. All I wanted to do was spend time with her, and that did hurt me.
You even painted your nails the same colour during that time. Xavier did as well.
Yes, we did! It was a good luck charm, which maybe wasn’t that much of a good luck charm. It was an effort.
While you were painting nails with them did you happen to give them any advice or strategy should you be the one who was evicted?
We really were prepared for me to go all week. The advice I gave to Alyssa was to work with Xavier and Britni because she was my other final two offer. Really, there was no advice I could give Xavier because we all know he’s an extremely smart man. Maybe smarter than I thought in that moment… As a lawyer, he’s an extremely smart man and there’s no advice that I could have given him that he had already thought or did. The only other advice that I gave Alyssa was “Hey, work with these people that I trust,” however she’s just as smart as Xavier but in different ways. I think they are both going to be really successful in this game.
On record, who were those few people that you trusted?
I did trust Tiffany. I know she went to bat for me. However, I did not know there was this big alliance that she was part of that I was not invited to. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little insulted. [Laughs] But, I do understand that history is being made right now and I am extremely happy to be part of a season where history is being made, even though I’m part of the outgoing side of it.
Tiffany is someone I trusted. Britni is someone I also trusted. And without a doubt, with my life, I trust Alyssa and Xavier – fully. That does not mean just in that house, but this means outside of the house. These are friends that I will go to for everything and that I will trust with my life, forever and ever.
This “big alliance” that you speak of, how did you find out about it? Did someone reveal it to you in their goodbye message? [Editor’s Note: We did not confirm with Christian that it’s called the Cookout or provide any additional information about the alliance.]
It was through a podcast that I was part of immediately after the show. I was put on to the fact that maybe there was a bigger alliance. It does blow my mind because I have never seen that group of people [Kyland, Drek F, Azah, Hannah, Tiffany and Xavier] in a room together in my life. And you know what? Good for them! Because that is going to be an extremely successful group of people! They are extremely diverse in the fact that they have the [power to succeed in the] mental comps, physical ability, and the social game to back up every single decision they’ve made.
Not only do I think they’ve been behind every single decision that has been made, but I think they are going to continue to be part of every single decision that will get made. That does break my heart to say because I know Alyssa isn’t a part of it. So, I think she may be going out sooner than I want her to.
Big Brother airs Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Global and CBS.