Bayleigh Pelham won Big Brother Canada Season 12 in the blockbuster finale on Wednesday, May 8. Anthony Douglas won the final HOH and decided to evict Lexus Jackson. The jury of former houseguests then awarded Bayleigh the grand prize.
The TV Watercooler’s Jeevan Brar and Alexis McLaren were at the Toronto studio to watch the exciting 90-minute finale and then speak with Bayleigh, Lexus, and Anthony in the backyard to discuss whose votes surprised them the most, why Anthony thought Bayleigh was more “beatable” in the Final 2, and who was the hardest houseguest to trust.
Congratulations to all three of you! Lexus, how blindsided were you when Anthony chose to take Bayleigh to the Final 2?
Lexus: I was shocked! This whole time, Anthony had been telling me that he would take me to the Final 2. So, I’m surprised… But [also] not surprised at the same time!
Bayleigh, how surprised were you?
Bayleigh: I was hoping that he was going to make it because he was also promising me Final 2! But I was shocked to hear him say that he wanted to bring someone that was more “beatable” and then he kept me. I was surprised by that!
Anthony, what made Bayleigh “more beatable”?
Anthony: When I was approached with the Hot Chocolate alliance, it was very difficult for me to believe that four black women were not going to try to pick me off throughout the game.
Moving through the game, I started to see them implode a bit. They started taking sides against each other, so I took full advantage [of it].
It was a very difficult and heartbreaking decision that I had to make with three black women in the jury, who would have 100% voted for Lexus.
With Tola in the jury, he is basically just listening to whatever information comes to him. I didn’t think that Todd really had his own thoughts, so it seemed like for sure thing that he’d vote for Lexus.
They [Hot Chocolate] didn’t really keep Bayleigh in the loop with a lot of information. I felt as if they had her at the bottom of the totem pole.
So, for me, as difficult as it was, I didn’t want to sit waiting for somebody else to win, and I had to make a difficult decision on what my best option was to sit in the final two with.
Bayleigh, did you feel excluded by the rest of the Big Sisters alliance as they went on and formed Hot Chocolate without you?
Bayleigh: I mean, this is Big Brother Canada, so I’m not super shocked or surprised. I’m proud of the game that I played. The game that I played was honest and loyal and that’s what got me as far as it did. They can go do whatever they need to do, but I’m the person that stayed and deserved to be here.
Whose finale votes surprised you all the most?
Bayleigh: Tola’s! [Laughs]
Lexus: Yeah, I would say Tola’s!
Anthony: Honestly, I’m surprised… I knew Goose [Elijah] was a game player and that there were going to be some people who didn’t appreciate the Big Brother game that I played but the majority of the houseguests in the jury house were not big game players. They were very emotional, and they were upset from being evicted and betrayed – which, I totally understand. It’s part of the game. Jury management is part of the game, but I was surprised that Spicy Vee [Victoria] had gotten to the jury and soiled my game.
So, you think that Spicy is the reason why the rest of the jury didn’t vote for you to win?
Anthony: 100%.
So, not Bayleigh’s gameplay?
Anthony: No, Bayleigh played a great game. She’s a well-deserved winner. But I do think that the way that Spicy left, she definitely went into the jury house with her delusions. She had been lying this entire game to every single person. So, she was the last person who basically went into the jury house and said what she thought was happening in the game and it turned a lot of people against me. It’s part of the game. I believe that that’s why I lost.
Bayleigh, you had auditioned for all 12 seasons…
Bayleigh: Pretty much! Yup.
Did you have a feeling that this would be your year?
Bayleigh: Yes! I was hoping so because it’s been a lot of not getting on the show to the point that I had boycotted even watching the show! But I did have a good feeling about this year and it kind of made me feel even more that “everything does happen for a reason.” I had a good feeling that I was going to win!
It took six years for another woman to win! What advice would you have for the women watching and potentially trying out to play?
Bayleigh: I would say to them, “Stay true to who you are and that you do not have to step on other women to get to where you need to be,” and then “uplift, empower, and support each other – and we can all win.”
Anthony, you had a lot going on before going into sequester. Can you share a bit about deciding to go through with this season and how you found the strength to do it?
Anthony: My brother and I had a lot of plans. We had a lot of goals and we decided that we were going to do everything to our full potential. I was really on the fence about doing the show again, but I just kept hearing him tell me that this is what I have to do for us. So, win, lose, or draw, whatever the outcome was to be on the show.
I wanted to scream his name. I wanted to remind everybody of the importance of friendship. The importance of being there for your people, and the importance of your mind. I’m so proud of myself for doing this. I’m proud of the game that I played. I’m not a perfect person. I don’t always make the best decisions, but I really gave this my best.
My name is Alexis, and my question is for Lexus! Thank you for restoring the name of Alexis/Lexus on reality TV. It’s been so long. Lexus’ and Alexis’ have been the worst, but you’ve been the best! So, thank you so much!
Lexus: Thank you!
I also wanted to say, that as a black woman watching this show, seeing Hot Chocolate form was such a huge deal. To see, not only women working together, but black women working together on reality television and thriving on reality television, was amazing. How does it feel as a black woman to be part of that? How do you think that’s going to inspire other black women to be on this show?
Lexus: It felt extremely empowering. It was an experience like no other because this is something that we were putting out for so many people to see – black individuals, and young girls – it was just such a mixture of our culture and who we are as people.
I think that we had so much potential because all of us girls really fought so, so, hard. We were great competitors, but the [lack of] loyalty dismantled us a little bit. But I’m happy that I was loyal to them, even in the times where they did want to backdoor me and backstab me, and vote people out who meant a lot to me. I still stay true to that because it wasn’t just an alliance, there was something deeper behind it, and that meant more to me than winning this game.
We want to commend all three of you for having impeccable social games. We respect social gave above all else and we don’t think that people truly understand how hard it is to pull off a flawless or nearly flawless social game. All three of you had completely different social games. Why don’t you think some people don’t respect the social game or hold it in a higher regard in comparison to winning competitions?
Anthony: I think there are different types of fans. There are fans who enjoy gameplay. There are fans who enjoy people’s stories. There are fans who enjoy people simply for the way they look. When it comes to being social, you have to incorporate all of your abilities as a person and navigate personal relationships through the game. Being a person of colour, and being a female is also extremely difficult – I think more difficult than it is for myself. Having the resources to form an alliance like that and to follow through with it, like Lexus said, was very empowering.
But there are also different aspects of having a social game that are very empowering, like Bayleigh’s. I think that Bayleigh did a phenomenal job navigating personal relationships on a case-by-case basis. She did a great job with her jury management, which is all social.
There have been some players who haven’t won as many competitions who have pulled off wins, but then there have also been players who just ransacked the season with confidence but had no social game.
Not to speak on just myself, but to see both Bayleigh and Lexus play very near-flawless games, was great to watch, and to be a part of as well.
Lexus: Thanks!
Bayleigh: Yeah!
“A King doesn’t move much, but a Queen…” Bayleigh, we couldn’t hear your complete speech in the audience because of how excited the audience got, how did you pull off that line?
Bayleigh: Honestly, I came up with that on the spot because what I wanted was “Two Queens sitting on the throne,” but what I got was “sitting next to a King.” So, I wanted to incorporate that into my speech and that just came to me.
Who was the hardest person to trust?
Lexus: I think the hardest person for me to trust was Spicy. Honestly, it’s like I had seen the potential in her, and I wanted to trust and believe in that, but the reality was that her actions and words weren’t aligning. “You’re making me promises but your actions are showing me completely different [things]. I’m trying to see the potential in you, but I have a really tough time navigating that.”
Bayleigh: Mine might be Anthony! I struggled a lot in this game to fully, 100%, trust him. It took the entire season for us to get to where we got to. Every single day was a work in progress. I wanted to [trust Anthony], and I was hoping that it would happen, but it was extremely difficult for me.
Anthony: It’s definitely Victoria for me. Like Lexus said, her words did not match her actions at all. For the three of us to have had the relationships that we had with the other players, it was easy for us to follow her and see how she was moving. And that’s ultimately why we all decided to evict her.
Who was the easiest person to trust?
Bayleigh: Todd. He was just who he was from the very beginning. And I never had to question him or get reassurance from him. He’s such a straight shooter and a genuine soul. We just recognized that in one another. That was very easy for me.
Lexus: I would say Matt for all of those same reasons. He’s just a very stand-up individual and very true to who he is. He has a lot of morals and integrity. I’d also say Anthony as well. I thought that he was very trustworthy and reminded me of my best friend, so, I felt safe with him.
Anthony: For me, it was definitely Lexus. We played the entire game together. We plotted these schemes. We executed. And at no point in time did I question her. In my mind, I was extremely worried that she would completely wipe the floor with me in Final 2 because of how incredible she played. She definitely reminded me of home. Like I said several times already tonight, I’m not the perfect player. I don’t practice Big Brother in my free time. I had to make a difficult and heartbreaking decision that I thought would be the best case for me to win, and I had to, unfortunately, betray one of my best friends.
Was filming “Movie Night Massacre” as memorable for you as it was for those of us watching at home?
Bayleigh: Yes! I wouldn’t say “fun” is the right word, but it was insane. It felt like we were truly in a horror movie.
Lexus: Yeah!
Bayleigh: It was terrifying.
Lexus: Feeling those buys on my neck is something that will never, ever, ever, leave me.
Bayleigh: We’re still not over it!
Anthony: I’ve never been bit on my neck hundreds of times by worms! Also, the fear of not knowing what was to come was very disturbing! But we all made it!
Click here to check out all the interviews with this year’s Big Brother Canada houseguests.
