(Courtesy of CBS)

Celebrity Big Brother has hit the scene! After every eviction, Parade’s Mike Bloom interviews the latest celebrity to leave the Big Brother house.

The Big Brother game is one of ups and downs. With power consistently shifting hands every week, it’s very easy to go from ruling the roost to bottom of the pecking order. The Celebrity Big Brother format condenses a typical season into only 26 days, making the changing of the guard that much quicker. And that format became even more compact with this season’s inclusion of a true Big Brother staple: the Double Eviction night. Singer and actor James Maslow went into Day 24 on cloud nine, declaring that the inevitable eviction of his rival Brandi Glanville would be the best day of his time in the house. But his best day quickly turned into the worst during the second half of the double eviction, when Head of Household Omarosa Manigault beat him for the title and put him up as a renomination, sending him out of the house with only the branded softball tee on his back.

When James entered the house, despite sharing the space with some fiery personalities, he was the one who stood out above the rest. He and Brandi did not make good first impressions on each other; he came off as cocky to her, while she came off as overly abrasive to him. In the first Head of Household competition, his statue hanging proved he was here to do more than just hang. He fell off in second place, starting a streak where he would go on to finish as the runner-up in every HoH competition. The person he lost to, Shannon Elizabeth saw how much of a threat he was already, and helped corral her new female alliance to target him. It was an easy thing to do, even when her role was recast to Keshia Knight Pulliam, considering Brandi’s growing dislike of him and Omarosa Manigault blocking any attempt at a deal he tried to make with Shannon during the competition. When Shannon won the Veto as well and chose not to use it, it seemed James would be singing a melancholy ballad come eviction night. But cracks had already started showing in the alliance. Omarosa and Keshia had come to Shannon before the Veto with the idea of taking nominee Chuck Liddell off, but still targeting James. Shannon, assuming that they were doing this because they had a deal with Chuck, in turn, went to James to make a last-minute final four deal with her, Ross Mathews, and Marissa Jaret Winokur. Looking for any port in a storm, he quickly agreed, and his bacon was saved when she convinced the rest of the house to make Chuck tap out of the Big Brother ring.

After such a close call of being the first celebrity evicted, James attempted to lay low, throwing the finals of the next HoH competition to Ross. With his new final four alliance in power, he felt confident that it would be the last time he would see the block. But he had no idea that Brandi and Ariadna Gutierrez were already in the ears of the ones in power, convincing him that they needed to take out Shannon had been growing too close to him, and they would run the table with competitions if they were not adequately dealt with. Though they had to take a mulligan due to Keshia’s emergency request to leave, when Ariadna sunk her shot and won HoH next, the time was right to make their move. Perhaps taking a lesson from the last time they tried a fancy backdoor plan, they elected to put Shannon and James up against each other. James had been entirely in the dark about the scheming against them, and perhaps that allowed him to quickly navigate the black box and win the Veto, saving himself from any possibility of eviction. Having to say goodbye to one of his closest allies, James was set on finally bringing home for the power for him and Mark McGrath. But his tune soon changed as the houseguests sat courtside, as Omarosa brokered a deal of safety with him after denying a chance of one only a couple of weeks ago. He decided to pass her the ball of power, and she attempted to turn that deal into her own endgame plan by forming her own final four with the two of them, Mark, and Metta World Peace. James tentatively accepted, though he was already eyeing greener pastures to change parties from the former White House employee and create another foursome with him, Mark, Ross, and Marissa. James crawled the red carpet in the next HoH competition (possibly giving him flashbacks to the baby punishment he received in the first Veto competition), but in his most blatant throwing yet, waited for Mark to make his way across so he could be freed to compete in the next round. As a result, the Sugar Ray frontman was in the spotlight, though others were quick to call out how James would be the one making the decisions, as well as the inspiring elliptical-based songs. Fearing the women would join back up, they chose to split up the pair of Ariadna and Brandi, and after the beauty queen proved herself the master of faces, James was gleeful as he cast his vote to evict his clear rival. But the night wasn’t over. In a tense HoH competition about houseguest-based auction items, it was Omarosa who outbid him in the tiebreaker. Initially, she chose to target Ross, taking her second strike at him in a week. But he once again evaded eviction, as his attention to detail painted his success in the Veto competition. With her primary target safe once more, Omarosa aimed for another competition threat who had spurned her: James. James faced the block for the third time in six evictions and, though Mark stayed in his corner and voted to save him, the others less fearful of Marissa in a talking competition than James in nearly any other type, and he ended up walking out the door right after Brandi.

Now out of the house, James talks with me about why he chose to play the most honest game he could, how his strategy of throwing competitions came about, and what the inspiration was behind his elliptical song.

I don’t know if you’ve heard about the wild success of your musical ode to Mark working out on the elliptical. Any intentions of making that a single now that you’re out of the house?

(Laughs.) You know, I haven’t seen it yet. I can’t wait to see how they edited it together. But you know what? Maybe that is the next single. Hard to say no, it appears to be a fan favorite so far.

Was that an idea you came up with on your own in the Diary Room to inspire Mark to go the distance?

It was a group effort. I was really channeling Tenacious D, very much a Jack Black approach to that song. He was my inspiration; he was my muse, unbeknownst to him of course at the time.

So looking back on how things shook out at the double eviction, if you knew that you were going, would you rather have gone out the way you did over the course of one night, or have the usual cycle of a few days to wait it out?

I guess if I was going to have to choose [between] if I would have rather gone out last night or right before the finale and not win it, of course [I’d pick] last night. I’m getting to speak to you from my own bed right now. (Laughs.) I’m not going to lie; it is so nice being home. As fun as the show was, and I’m so grateful for it and glad I did it, I love my life. I’ve worked very hard for my life, and I love what I do. So getting back to it, though I’ll miss the copious amount of free time that I probably will never have again, I love what I do. So if I had my druthers, last night was a great time to go. I didn’t expect it, but I simply can’t be mad. It was an absolute win for me. I went into the show saying, “I’m not going to let anybody or anything change who I am or how I act.” I have zero intention of becoming a “reality star,” and I think I went out with as much class and tact as I possibly could have. I’d rather be out last night getting to rest here today and look presentable for Sunday than right before the end.

At the beginning of the round that you went out, it came down to a tiebreaker between you and Omarosa. I know that you threw some competitions throughout this season, but was that one included?

No, that was one that I planned on winning. I knew absolutely everything except for some question about flowers. Nobody was sure what Julie said [in the tiebreaker]. Whether she was referring to the first competition, which was a squeezing thing, or the Veto competition, which was a sneezing thing. (Laughs.) Quite literally, Omarosa thought it was one, and I thought it was another and that was where we based our numbers on. It was a bit confusing at the moment, but that’s part of the game. You won’t always get a copious amount of information. There of course lies a lot of skill in memorization. If they asked me any question about what I saw on the board, I would have had the correct answer. That was a bit of a loop, but that’s how the show goes. She won that one fair and square.

Let’s talk about your throwing competitions. You came in second in every HoH you participated in, though a couple you threw to another person. Did this happen as a response to getting targeted as a threat right from the get-go?

I didn’t realize how much of a target was on my back from the moment I walked in that door until my initial conversations after the first HoH. It was kind of ridiculous how weighted and unfair the house was initially. Simply having more girls, who clearly wanted to have not only a girl alliance but no guys in the final four. On top of that, being younger and more athletic than arguably anyone else in the house. I realized very quickly if I was going to stay in the game, it would mean doing it in a much more calm, docile fashion that I would like to do. Everybody was so sensitive in that house, literally and figuratively. The way I survived so long was pretty much keeping my mouth shut and putting on a much quieter, less aggressive version of myself. It absolutely benefited me and from that, I realized winning competitions would in no way behoove me. Every HoH I would have potentially won would have precluded me from winning the next one. So it was my strategy to lose, whether it looked like I lost it or it didn’t look like I lost it. Every time, I’m taking a risk, [since] every time I’d have to win the Veto or convince people not to take me out. I was able to do that successfully until this last turn which took me a little by surprise.

Going back to the first week, you’ve talked a lot about how you engineered your safety by turning the house against Chuck. Can you elaborate on that?

I’m not sure what they showed. I have not gone back to watch the show; I highly doubt that I will for a long time. I’ll learn what I need to learn for Sunday, but watching everyone in the house and seeing how they acted in the game, I think I have a good idea of who I would vote for, to begin with. I was almost definitely going to be the first person out. I’m just not a quitter; even though I didn’t the show nearly as well as some people in there, I learned it very quickly. I knew if I wanted to make a move to flip the house, it would have to happen the evening before the vote and not a minute sooner. I’m sure what they showed, and what the majority was thinking, it that I’m just supposed to hang back, not play much game, and hope things happen well for me. But that’s not my character, that’s not who I am. (Laughs.) So that evening, I started conversations with everybody from Ross to Shannon to convince them that it would benefit them to have me in the house over Chuck. [There was also] a rumor, which I didn’t start, but I let grow, that Keshia and Chuck had an alliance or at the very least a conversation. I believe it was Brandi who started that; [that’s] one thing I can thank her for in the house. But that’s a huge part of the reason why I was able to flip the house. Things had fallen into place, but boy did I take advantage of them. And I did it last minute, so there wasn’t enough time for people to really change their minds, and it worked.

Moving onto thoughts about your fellow houseguests, when you were up against Marissa at the eviction last night, you said that nobody would be able to beat her in the final two. Did you believe that, or were you just saying that to try to convince people to keep you?

The reality is any guy sitting next to a girl is just going to be at a disadvantage in general based on the fact that there are more girls than guys on the jury. They’ve made it clear since day one in the house, almost every one of them, that they’d prefer a girl to win. On that, Marissa is one of the nicest, sweetest people, not only in the house but probably [out of] anyone I’ve ever met. Her social game is impeccable. Nobody expected her to last as long as she did, especially because she dropped so quickly in the first competition. Her stamina in most competitions wasn’t close to me, for example, and a lot of other people in the house. So if she would have made it as far as sitting in the final two, it’s just an amazing story and would be tough to beat her. But also, in the same moment, I adore Marissa and will be her friend after the show. What was more important to me than winning the game was doing it with class, being true to who I am. Despite the fact [that] the game allows for backstabbing and deceit, I did as little of that as possible. In fact, just about none of it. I maybe could have done things in a different fashion to win the game; I was never going to win if it meant jeopardizing who I am. My image as an artist, actor, and a human being outside of the show quite frankly is far more valuable than that prize money. I’m happy that I said what I said. I probably could have had a more convincing case and definitely could have made a deal with Omarosa. But those are all things that I probably would have regretted had I done them, so I’m content with what happened.

So then when you have people like Omarosa and Ross who do not seem to have that mentality and are find with deceiving people a little more, does that lose your respect for them? For example, when Ross chose to vote against the guys and evict you, did you feel hurt by it?

In the moment, my first reaction was that was a bit of a dick move. You can’t be happy about it. But you let that roll off of you really quickly and realize that it is a game. It’s frankly not a game that, in any other situation, I would play. I’m far too upfront and have no fear of confrontation. If I have some issue in my life, whether it’s something I know or don’t do, I tend to speak up and squash it right there. So that’s something that was against my nature to continue with. But on the other side, this pertains more to Omarosa than Ross. Because Ross is hosting and all that, so being dramatic and gossipy isn’t going against his image. People say, “Hey, good game” and don’t hold it against him. Whereas Omarosa is a bit tricky. Though she showed such a wonderful side to her, especially to me in the house, where I saw an educated and kind woman with an interesting background, she also was the villain in the house. [She] went so far as to lie and perpetuate this made-up chaos with everybody constantly. It was poor planning since she pissed off the house. I think she’s lucky to still be in the house, and I don’t think it was very thoroughly thought that. And going back into real life, she could have just shown the side that a lot of people and I saw which is wonderful, nice, and not conniving. But since she showed both and even more of the other one to the audience, I’m curious if that may undermine her word about everything she’s done in real life and the political world. I’m not putting that out there; I’m not projecting, I hope it doesn’t [since she’s] become a friend of mine. But it’s hard to imagine that, for those of us who had a public image before this, especially her, [they] won’t take a little bit of that with them. So I don’t think that everybody played a very smart game considering what’s going to stick with them outside of the house.

I want to talk about your relationship with Mark. Where did that come from, and what do you think kept you guys so tight throughout your duration in the house?

I had known him before the show. Even though I’ve known Chuck longer and I’m closer to him, we decided to keep that under wraps. That didn’t turn out great for us anyway since he was out first. So there was a familiar face with Mark; he was always a good guy. As much as I [expletive] adore Metta–he’s just one of my favorite people on the planet–he wasn’t there to play the game. He was a wildcard, and there was no way to rely on him. Once Chuck went out, and Ross was very much a part of the girls’ group, in the beginning, Mark was the one I spent the most amount of time with. Beyond that, he really did have my back after Day 1 or 2 through the rest of the game. So it was a combination of a game thing–it was nice to have somebody who had my back–and somebody to hang out with in the house that wasn’t constantly doing makeup and crying about things. It’s no secret there was a copious amount of both of that. (Laughs.) I just didn’t want to be around it most of the time! It’s fine, but when you walk in a room, and you see six people at one time crying about something. And who knows if it was sincere since it wasn’t at the time, or if somebody just thought they’d brought their yellow t-shirt that it wasn’t in the bag. It was nice to have Mark as my buddy to go to the gym, talk outside, or bring [some] levity to the situation about how silly the entire this was. It was fun, but so many people let this reality game show get to them on such a personal level. None of us do this, except for a couple of reality people on the show. We’re here to play; we’re not going to let this change who we are. Mark and I really became close because we had each other when there really wasn’t anyone else around.

Talking about some of the bigger moments of conflict in the house, it’s clear that you and Brandi were not friendly whatsoever, and she lashed out at you several times in the house. I know you said before that you’re usually someone who wants to squash contention at the moment, but how were you able to stay patient and quiet among those moments happening?

It was something I was hoping I wouldn’t have to endure in the house. I’m lucky that there weren’t too many Brandis in the house, quite frankly. I just never respected people who go out of their way to bully somebody for a reaction. It’s such a personal thing for me, because I was bullied as a kid, and I think a lot of people can relate to that. Some people make chalk it up to “oh no, that’s just TV,” that’s not television that I watch. It’s not television that I plan on watching, and it’s sure as [expletive] not television I never want to be a part of. So I was thrown into a situation where I hoped to have none of that and expected to have a little of it. I was surprised at how immature she was consistently throughout the show. I’m not throwing shade and being mean when I say this; everybody saw it. She instigated and perpetuated this childish attack on me from Day 1 for absolutely no reason. Unwarranted or not, whether sober or especially drunk, [she] would be rude…I’m not going to say any more words because then I’m going to start feeling mean.

The best way to combat that is not to let a bully win. A good quote that a friend of mine told me long ago that stuck in my head and, in a way, empowered me every single day, is, “You never fight with a fool because the audience can’t tell the difference.” Had I engaged with her in any capacity, I would have looked just as bad as her. But I chose not to, and I hope that after this, maybe she can put this behind us. She’s twice my age and was by far more than twice the child. Maybe she’ll change her ways and think about what she says, how she says them and being more polite to people. She wanted to be coddled throughout the entire time, which I think is something Mark called her out on at one point, saying, “If you lead with punches, people are going to punch back.” She just can’t take it. Let’s just go back to basic lessons our parents taught us. If you want to be treated with respect, treat others with respect. She simply doesn’t understand that. I had to deal with it for three weeks. I was conscious not to offend anybody in the house. She’s nice, but I don’t have to worry about that anymore. I never want to be in a position with people like her again, simple as that.