Matt Hardeman, the 25-year-old tech sales rep from Roswell, Ga., was the first houseguest to be evicted on Big Brother 26.
The TV Watercooler had the opportunity to speak with Matt following his eviction to chat about his issues with Angela, Makensy not using her upgrade Power of Veto to save him and who else he would have targeted if he had stayed in the game.
How are you doing after all that?
I’m doing good. You gotta walk away and I’m choosing to look at this with just overwhelming gratitude, man.
I’m a normal guy. I come from a normal life. Before this, I wasn’t like a model, influencer, or content creator. I work a normal job and live a normal lifestyle. This was the first time I’d even been to L.A.; it was for Big Brother. So, I mean, all of this is just blessings on blessings. I’m just so grateful. I had so much fun.
Looking back, could you see how Angela could have felt threatened by what was said during your one-on-one with her?
Absolutely. I do see how.
I think that the way she reacted still does not merit how [she reacted].
My goal in the game was to essentially that if anybody feels that I’m coming for them, talk to me and I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you straight up, “Yeah man, I’m coming for you. Let’s play.”
So, bad strategy apparently, because I’m here [evicted].
I thought that me saying to Angela, “If you were to put me up, I feel like I would have to put you up. Let’s not put anybody in that scenario.” Also, the sky is blue, and the grass is green. I thought that was a pretty understood comment, so the fact that she feels threatened by that, I do see that on the backend but I do see why she reacted the way she reacted was merited.
If you look at past recent seasons, an athletic-type guy comes into the house and then teases a showmance, he’s going to make it to the very end. What changed this time around?
Yeah, I mean, I cannot wait to ask Matt Klotz from last season, “Dude, How?” I came in and I genuinely felt like I didn’t even get an opportunity. I came in and I was told “You’re going to end up in a showmance,” and I was like “Why?”
I even thought that in some of the conversations that I had with Angela, which was a big part of my experience on the show, I felt like she would make decisions based off of me winning things like the Power of Veto. For example, the first time I stepped back into her room, she said, “Matt, use the veto on Kenney.” And that was under the assumption that would even get to play in the Power of Veto competition. And I didn’t! And even if I did, she had an assumption that I would win.
I’ve never looked at myself like I was Superman. Maybe some six-year-old kids do when I’m playing football. I did not understand why she thought I had this superpower to do whatever I wanted to do in the game. When she communicated that to me, it threw me off because I didn’t even know if I’d get to play, much less win. I felt like she was making some decisions based on where I could stand.
Hopefully, I’ll get to talk to Matt from BB25, hit a workout, and be like, “Dude, how did you do it?” Because it did not work out for me at all.
Did Makensy speak to you about not using her Power of Veto upgrade to save you?
Yeah, I felt like she let me drive what I could have wanted, which was very kind of her. I never would have asked her to use it. I started to feel guilty and that perhaps the biggest threat to Makensy’s game was me. I felt guilty that just by being associated with me in the beginning, even involuntarily, could have been a bad experience for her in there. I wanted her to keep [the veto]. At the end of the day, Makensy’s game is her own game. Just like Matt’s game was Matt’s game.
She did mention that if we genuinely felt like we didn’t have the votes, she would use it. We genuinely [thought] we did… So, kudos to everybody that got me! I’ll tip my hat to that play. It was a great play because things would be so different if we had sniffed it out and then used it. We could have changed up a lot of stuff.
I never would have asked her to use it on me. I’m glad she’s still in the game. I’m cheering her on and hopefully, I’ll see her make it to the end.
Speaking of which, you had your alliances, but the votes did not come through in your favour. How surprised were you? Were you given a heads-up on how the eviction was going to land beforehand?
No heads up! I was very surprised. It was a phenomenal move in terms of gameplay. I knew, and that’s why I looked at my last couple of days in the house with gratitude. I took the last day to look around and be like, “I’m in the Big Brother house! I got to do this,” which is rare.
I also wanted to spend time with Makensy because we may not get the opportunity to do this again. But, who knows? She didn’t want me to talk like that, but I felt like it was naïve for me not to.
I definitely thought I had the votes [to stay]. I wanted to set it up where if I were to go, every single person would have had to look at me and lie. And they did.
Angela also had a heated confrontation with Lisa. Can she shed some light on what happened?
For the most part, I thought Lisa had been working with Angela. This was based on what people were telling me. I was told that the first thing Lisa did when she woke up was run to Angela’s room. I don’t even remember by who, because everybody said it and I thought that was the case. So, I started to connect with Lisa and we had a great real-life conversations – some that had nothing to do with the game – which was a difficult challenge for someone playing the game. Then it flipped back to gameplay and I told her that I thought she was working with Angela. She’s like “What?” What do you mean?” And I told her that everybody thinks that.
Lisa then starts panicking and everybody’s on eggshells. Angela told her to take her glitter with her and called her Tinkerbell! I’m like, “Yo, what?” Like, why are her disses so creative? I would have never thought of that! Why does it have to get personal? Everything Angela did, she could have done without the use of personal attacks.
I guess one could argue that it’s made for good TV.
I’d rather it make for good character, you know. That’s the reality of the game. I knew there were going to be times when I had to separate both, but I was not willing to do that week one. And so, later down the road, would you have seen me act in ways that are against who I am? Yeah, I think we would have, but not in week one where you’ve just learned where the toilet is.
Had you stayed past this week, who would you have targeted besides Angela?
Joseph. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I hope everybody sees Joseph’s attitude. I did feel like he was starting to gain some people back because he’s funny, but the dude moves crazy. He would just awkwardly come and then sit and stand wherever he wants. He uses the bathroom like 40 times a day while you’re just sitting there. He [keeps] moving, which is great for gameplay, but at some point, I’m like “Yo dude, quit being weird.”
I like Joseph and I enjoyed my time getting to know him. There was no heat at the end of the day, but at the time, I told him that anybody who is associated with what Angela said by bringing up my mom, I’ll show my cards to everybody. Family means everything to me. Me being on Big Brother wasn’t really about telling my story, it was about telling my mom’s story.
I was like “Y’all can see all of my cards. This is what I’m doing.” I would have gone for Angela. I would have gone for Joseph. I would have been very upfront with everybody and told the [rest] of them of take the week off!
Big Brother airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET, Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET, and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Global and CBS. Canadians can also stream episodes at GlobalTV.com and the Global TV app.
