Todd Bridges’ time on Celebrity Big Brother resembled something he sees regularly: A blood pressure chart. He initially lay low while simultaneously getting in with some of the power players. He then became one when he started to win competitions late in the game, which suddenly put him on the radar of his allies. After declaring war on the other side of the house, he ended up on the losing side after mounting an impressive but ultimately short resistance campaign. As the oldest houseguest of the season, Todd hoped to play up the “grumpy old man” archetype during the first half of the season. He was regarded less for his strategy and more for his various relationships in the house. He made an early bond with Lamar Odom over their shared history with sobriety, becoming a tight pair. On the other side, he grew resentment towards Cynthia Bailey for voting to evict him when the “Mon Won” twist surprisingly put him on the block, culminating in a fierce argument. But under the surface, Todd was getting in tight with Miesha Tate and her athletes’ alliance, making him safe as they continued to hold power. But after metaphorically and literally sleeping through the first 21 days, it was time for Todd to wake up. His palate came in clutch when he became Head of Household. He instantly went after Carson Kressley as the biggest threat, trying to also curry favor with Cynthia by leaving her off the block. And while Todd had been swimming with Miesha and Todrick Hall up to this point, he soon began to have different strokes. Realizing how powerful they were, he targeted them to their faces, and they, in turn, put him in their crosshairs as their biggest competition threat. Todd was on thin ice, but used it to slide into a key veto win. But when it came to the final four, he ran out of track. After losing both the HoH and veto, Todrick evicted him, and he went out declaring that the YouTuber should win the season (though he has since changed his mind). Now out of the house, Todd talks with Parade.com about why his attitude on Todrick changed so swiftly, looking back on his HoH reign, and his value in his new friendship with Lamar. So I woke up this morning and saw your tweet that you would never vote for Todrick to win. That’s a huge departure from last night, when you told Todrick to his face he was playing the best game, and told Julie he had your vote. What changed in the 12 hours that have passed? After watching the things that Todrick was saying about me, and Miesha agreeing with it, that totally changed my opinion about both of them. I don’t wish to be friends with either one of them. I know Todrick accused you and Lamar of being condescending, rude, and homophobic to him. I’m sure you weren’t aware that he felt that way about you. Those were some pretty nasty things. It doesn’t have to be that way. We all get caught up in the moment. I got caught up with Shanna, where I commented on the clothes she was wearing. And I apologized to her about it. I shouldn’t say that. That was wrong with me. I apologized on Twitter, and I’ll apologize when I see her on Wednesday. But the nasty things they were saying, it’s just bad, man. I can’t believe that. People will stoop that low to say horrible things like that. It’s just sad. So how does knowing that change the way you view Miesha and Todrick, considering how much you complimented their games? It totally colors my opinions on both of them in different ways. I thought they were there to play the game in a good fashion, because that’s what they’re always talking about playing. That’s why they said they got rid of Shanna, because she “wasn’t playing the game in the right way.” That’s not what it was. It was that Shanna was onto Todrick’s crap. And I wish she would have told me at the moment so I would have changed. Because if I had won HoH and I knew that, I would have put them up. I wouldn’t have cared what was being said; I wouldn’t have believed them. I remember when I was putting up Carson, they were like, “You have to put Carson up. He’s going to take us all down.” But actually, they were worried about taking them down. It was a game to me and a game to Carson. But to them, it was vicious. I’m glad I didn’t play that kind of game. Because with the content I’m seeing on Twitter, everyone’s happy that I played a very straightforward, fun, not evil game. I saw that, on the day of Carson’s eviction, you and he had a conversation about how Miesha and Todrick had to go and that you were most likely next on their hit list. At what point during your HoH did you change your target to them? After I nominated Carson, I knew I had made a mistake. And there was nothing I could do about it. We had the numbers, but Carson was going to go. At that moment, I was just trying to follow along and be safe, so I could hopefully slide in there. It all could have changed last night. If I had won the HoH, it would have changed. I would have gotten my wish and got rid of at least one of them. But I wish I would have had Carson in there. It frightened them that I was always right on their necks, and I won something and took something from them. Who knew that I had great taste buds like that? Oh, my gosh, who knew that? I tasted everything in that, and it was pretty bad tasting! (Laughs.) You’ve spoken about playing under the radar in the very beginning. But you ended up getting nominated in the first eviction and, in your speech, said you were fine if you left. Were you continuing to play up the “grumpy old man” role? Oh yeah. That was pre-planned. I was there as a pawn. I knew I wasn’t going anywhere. I knew it was a setup. I knew I wasn’t going to go. So I wasn’t worried about that. I trusted them at that point. I was still lying very low. I was listening more than they realized. And I think they caught on to me 80% into the game. They realized I was really paying attention to everything, and I was in there to win it. And that’s what happens when you play the game, but you can’t win that last one you need to win. That’s what happens. Let’s talk about some of your relationships in the house. Lamar is someone who became your tightest ally and friend. How did that bond develop? It was really great connecting with Lamar. I’ve always said, “I want to meet Lamar Odom so that I can talk to him and maybe help him with his situation.” We connected really fast. We became a team, a little duo in there. And I think some people were a little jealous of our relationship because we’re so good. I can say most anything to Lamar, and he would hear me. He may be bad for a minute, but he would hear me, come back, and everything was fine. We’re going to stay friends for quite a long time. I have some stuff I really want to help them with. And I think that we can be really good friends in the long run. On the other side of that, you got in an argument with Cynthia in the first couple of weeks over her voting to evict you. Can you talk more about how that happened, and how it got to the point where you were working together at the end of the game? So she voted to evict me. And when I asked her about it, she said, “Well, I gave my word.” But at the point of that argument, I told her I had given my word to someone else. And she got mad at me! I don’t understand how you can get mad at me when you gave your word, but now you’re mad at me for giving you my word. I couldn’t believe that was taking place. But when I finally told her what was going on, and I was voting for her to stay, she’s like, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” But I couldn’t say that because other people were around. They were watching; I didn’t want everybody to know what I was doing. You said early on you wanted to ally yourself with the “strong people” in Miesha, Todrick, and Lamar. Was that your strategy from the get-go, or did it change when you saw how the house was shaping up? No, I knew right away. When I first came into the house, I aligned with Misha. What I didn’t know was she was going to turn on me the way she did. She really connected with Todrick; that’s like her best buddy. They stay up talking all night. And believe me, Todrick can talk! I thought I could talk, but Todrick really can talk. And most of the time, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. So I just listened. Because if you said something that he didn’t like, he’d tell Miesha, and she’d go after you. So I started seeing this trend, and by the time I put Carson up, I knew that I was in trouble. There’s no way I’m going to be able to split them up. I’m going to end up having to fight them off myself. And in that game, you need somebody else to fight off people, a person who can actually win games. At one point, Todrick asked Carson not to put him up on the block, and Carson didn’t. And then he voted Carson off. That’s just mean, man! Even if he’s going to get voted off, at least vote in his favor, at least once. Give him that opportunity. But just to cut his throat like that was terrible, really bad. To that point, you had a confessional about how you were aiming specifically not to make the jury bitter. What did that involve for you? Being upfront. I was trying to make sure that people understood that they could be a threat to me, so I may have to get rid of them. But that’s the game; they understand that part. Carson knew I was putting him up. I let him know in certain ways that he’s going to go up. And Carson didn’t like it. But I thought it was better to talk with him about it than just go out there, be his friend, and then say, “Gotcha!” (Laughs.) I don’t think I would want to play the game that way. And I’m happy I didn’t play the game that way. And I can see that the people online are also happy about that. To finish things off, let’s get your rapid-fire thoughts on the remaining houseguests. Starting with Cynthia. Very kind, understanding. She has to win HoH, or she’s going to be in trouble.Miesha. A fighter, tough, but being deceived by Todrick.And finally, Todrick. Deceiving, mean-spirited. Saying things that are not nice about people after they’re gone. Playing all the sides. And it’s okay to play all sides, if you’re doing it in a good way that’s not as mean. But not the way he played it. It’s unfortunate that he did that. And I think he’s going to lose a lot of fan base because of that. Next, check out interview with Lamar Odom, who was also evicted from Celebrity Big Brother 3 on Day 27 during the double eviction.
