Kato Kaelin on what went wrong in the Celebrity Big Brother house

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Kato Kaelin was little more than an oddball curiosity when he was part of the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial. But America’s most famous houseguest became a houseguest of a different sort when he showed up to play Celebrity Big Brother 24 years later.

And while Kaelin was evicted in a unanimous vote by his peers Monday night, we did learn a little bit more about the man through his time in the house. It turns out Kaelin is actually kinda smart! And good in physical competitions! And super emphatic while shooting television promotion videos! (As seen below.)

Alas, none of those things were enough to save Kato Kaelin from eviction. Where did it all go wrong? Does he blame Tom Green for getting too paranoid? Why did he pick a fight with Lolo Jones and Natalie Eva Marie? And how did the experience compare to his time on Celebrity Boot Camp? We asked Kaelin all that and more when he called into EW Morning Live (EW Radio, SiriusXM, channel 105) and here are highlights from that chat.

EW RADIO: You and Tom Green were winning competitions and voting people out and making alliances. So what happened?

KATO KAELIN: It was going so great and we had that window of opportunity twice. If Tom kicks that once extra field goal we have the backdoor, and if I hit that buzzer. And I have to tell you the quick story about the buzzer. The entire time I had to guess those pictures on the wall what was photoshopped — I said [to myself], They haven’t had the letter A yet. Just press A! Just press A! I didn’t do it. Oh my God! Trust your gut! Trust your gut.

It appeared that the big thing that caused Lolo Jones and Natalie Eva Marie to flip against you was when Tom went up to them and said he wanted to get Ricky Williams — who at that point was in your alliance — out. Was Tom just being too paranoid in there and was that your undoing?

Yeah, not so much paranoid. At first Ricky didn’t want to be in the Fun Five. We kept going, “Fun Five? Fun Five?” He said, “No, I don’t want to be a part of that.” Then I won the HOH, and the next thing you know, he goes, “Fun Five!” And we said, oh boy, this is going to be trouble. But they were roommates and I said to Tom, “Tom, they’re roommates. This is not a good sign and they’re going to team up against us.” And sure enough, that happened. But our window was there to get rid of them and here I am talking to you at home. Oooh, it was so close!

But can I say what happened today? [SPOILER] won the HOH earlier this morning. It is breaking news. Oh, wait a minute. You cannot say that! Are we live?

Yes, we’re live.

Well, I guess it’s on. Or no. [Confused pause] Oh yes, it’s online!

This is amazing.

Well, people will see it online.

Instead of playing coy when you knew the women were lying to you, you confronted Natalie and Lolo, which lead to a big screaming-fest in the kitchen. What happened there? Did you just snap and couldn’t hold it in any longer?

No, I was brushing my teeth and we were going to unload on them at some point and Tom goes, “You want to do it now?” So that was my blow-up. First time, because I was always the goofy, joking gu,y so I said, time for serious side and to see a break. And they went CRAZY! They went crazy, crazy, crazy. Tom called it with the girls, and I said, “I think there’s a chance.” And so yeah, they were plotting ever since Tom said “Let’s get rid of [Ricky].” And so when Natalie made that choice on the veto, we were done. We knew it was over. We tried to play sort of stupid to them. But it’s the gameplay. Ugh, I just get sick of that not pressing A. Did I tell you about the A thing yet?

Yes.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, we’re solid on that. What was the first thing you wanted to know when you got out of the house?

We knew it was between Ricky and Tamar on who had that power. And it didn’t really come into effect. We kind of said, “It’s Tamar. It’s Tamar.” And it didn’t matter. But Tom was going, “It’s going to be Joey. This is going to be great. Joey is going to get up and say this!” And then we looked at each other when the vote was 6-0 against Joey and we said, “We’re screwed, That’s it. It’s not Joey.” Because we kept looking for that one window to backdoor Ricky and their alliance would have been done. Done, done, done.

Speaking of unanimous votes, why do you think you were voted out unanimously and not Tom?

Tom kept saying, “I’m going to be a unanimous vote. I’m going to go. Ricky hates me. The girls hate me.” I said, “Tom, there is absolutely no way you’re going to go. It’s going to be me.” I could just feel they were going to be get rid of me by the way they kept saying “Kato could win this thing.” So I knew. I was a little shocked it was 5-0, but what can you do?

You were out of that house pretty fast. Were there some people you had no interest in saying goodbye to?

Yeah, I think so. Everybody but Tom. It was 5-0! Maybe Dina a little bit. She was always nice. I always went to Dina because she was like that girl in school you could always make laugh no matter what. So I could say anything to Dina and know she’s start laughing.

But you really booked out of there and seemed like you wanted no part of the fake hugs.

Oh, yeah. I don’t do the fake stuff, baby! The K-Train does not do the fake hugs. Nope, not going to happen. I am so real. It’s boom! I gave Tom a hug and said, “Win this, brother!” That was it.

How did this experience stack up to your stint on Celebrity Boot Camp?

Celebrity Boot Camp wasn’t as long. Celebrity Boot Camp, they didn’t really let you sleep. This one is extremely tough. The lights only go off when everybody’s in the room. Tom would talk so much. I love him to death, but he had 58 different plans every night and I’d be like, “Tom, seriously, can I just have 10 minutes for a nap?” But he would just keep talking.

For people that only knew you from the O.J. trial, what do you think they learned about Kato Kaelin from watching this show?

I love life. I love people. I give everybody the benefit of the doubt. I have no hate. I’m telling you, I really love people. That’s it.

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