Evicted Big Brother season 26 houseguest Joseph Rodriguez revealed the producers prompted him to say which past players he was modeling his game after, which is why he compared himself to legend and season 2 winner Dr. Will Kirby. Joseph was evicted from the Big Brother season 26 house after his ally, Quinn Martin, named him as a replacement nominee when Leah Peters saved Quinn's original target, Angela Murray, with the Power of Veto. This greatly angered Joseph, who vowed to come after Quinn next week. However, Joseph was evicted by a vote of 4 to 3 over Kimo Apaka.
"They prompted me that in the Diary Room."
In an interview with Parade, Joseph revealed that the producers were the reason that he compared his game to that of Dr. Will. When asked about his overconfidence and making the comparison, Joseph replied, "They prompted me that in the Diary Room. They asked me for comparisons and of who I was modeling my game after. And I said, Dr. Will and Dan [Gheesling]. That was not me being like, 'Oh, I'm as good as them,' or anything like that." Joseph had said that, like Dr. Will, he wanted to win the game without winning a single competition.
Joseph Rodriguez Calls Out "Obvious Liar" Quinn Martin For Bad Decisions
Joseph Was Puzzled By What He Thought Were Quinn's Bad Game Decisions
Although Joseph and Quinn were closely aligned, his fellow superfan nominated him for eviction. Joseph said that he wanted to be careful with his wording, but "Quinn really got on my nerves a lot of the time." He said that their personalities clashed, even though "he's a nice kid." Joseph admitted that he found some of Quinn's game decisions "very puzzling, very bad," such as nominating him and, earlier, Cedric Hodges. Joseph went on to say that Quinn "was such an obvious liar in the game, and somebody who was exposed early on by people as being a liar."
It's interesting that Joseph said his comparison to Dr. Will was prompted by the producers because he also used it in a conversation with Chelsie Baham (see the clip shared via the Big Brother YouTube page below). While they might've helped Joseph come up with the idea, he ran with it. However, his comparison seems to have come more from a place of admiration rather than arrogance. Joseph's mistake was that Big Brother 26 is a very different game from Big Brother 2, so Dr. Will's strategy of not winning competitions couldn't work anymore, especially with the BB A.I. Arena.
It's also strange that Joseph called Quinn a liar because Joseph was the one who was instrumental in flipping the vote on Cedric after T'kor Clottey and Kimo Apaka came up with the idea. He blindsided the Pentagon alliance, who was also in the Collective alliance with him. Joseph also had some puzzling game moves throughout the season, but his worst mistake was throwing the week 7 Power of Veto competition, which could've saved him. Joseph is a good guy, but his game decisions on Big Brother 26 got him evicted.
Big Brother season 26 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT and Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS.