BIG Brother star Zae Frederich has revealed the ‘insane’ behind-the-scenes rules for the cast before filming even begins in an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun.
Before the contestants even set foot inside the Big Brother house and are sequestered from the outside world, they are forced to spend a grueling two weeks completely alone inside a tiny hotel room.
Zae Frederich reveals the ‘insane’ behind-the-scenes rules for the cast before filming even begins[/caption]
Season 27 contestant Isaiah ‘Zae’ Frederich spilled all on the behind-the-scenes of what each Big Brother contestant must do and sacrifice before joining the show.
“The one thing that surprised me was the sequester was different from what I expected. It’s long.
“It’s almost two weeks [before we enter the house]. And you don’t have any contact with anybody. You’re just sitting in a hotel room.
“You can’t really work out. You can work out inside the hotel room, but you’re just looking forward to the next time they bring you up food, basically,” he said, as the individuals are not allowed to exit the room at all – even with an escort.
The fitness buff, who is launching his own online personal training business, Zae Lifts, added that since they were not even allowed to exit the room to be escorted down to the gym, he kept up his in-room routine with dumbbells and a resistance band.
“You’re watching a little DVD player and you watch movies on it. I watch probably like, 16 hours a day of movies. That’s all I did.
“It was just movie, movie, movie, movie. I would call in other movies, and then I would eat.
“And then I would maybe work out for 30 minutes a day. That was my life for two weeks. It was interesting.”
Isaiah ‘Zae’ Frederich of the CBS series Big Brother, plays the Blockbuster Challenge[/caption]
Although he was so far removed from reality and had certain struggles with it, Zae, 23, admitted that it was “nice” to not have outside noise to be concerned about.
“It was nice because you’re so separated from the world and you literally have nothing to worry about, which is nice.
“But at the same time, it was like, ‘Man, I want to talk to people. I want to see people.’
“Also, you’re about to do this crazy thing, go on this show and you don’t know anyone.”
The Provo, Utah, college student explained that another odd factor in the pre-show schedule is the fact that the cast list gets released to the general public after they become sequestered, giving the contestants zero idea of how they are perceived by others.
“At one point, you know that the cast list is released, but you haven’t even gone on the show. You don’t know the other cast members, but everyone else does.
“It’s a weird place to be in. You cannot leave the room at all. And so I’d work out, I’d figure out workouts to do with those.
“And then the phone, when you picked it up, would automatically call the downstairs people.
“So you could request snacks or movies and stuff like that. And then, yeah, it was just chilling, just sitting there doing nothing.”
Big Brother’s Steamiest Showmances
Contestants are no strangers to hooking up during their months of being sequestered in the Big Brother house. Here are some of the most buzzed-about relationships that have blossomed on screen:
Season 2 (2001): Mike “Boogie” Malin & Krista Stegall (Broke up in 2001)
Season 11 (2009): Jordan Lloyd & Jeff Schroeder (Engaged while filming show. Still married)
Season 12 (2010): Rachel Reilly & Brendon Villegas (Still married and share two kids together)
Season 13 (2011): Daniele Donato & Dominic Briones (Still married after tying-the-knot in 2013)
Season 15 (2013): Amanda Zuckerman & McCrae Olsen (Split in 2014 in a messy social media breakup)
Season 16 (2014): Hayden Voss & Nicole Franzel (Relationship ended after 18 months of dating)
Season 18 (2016): Nicole Franzel & Corey Brooks (Split shortly after the show)
Season 18 (2016): Nicole Franzel & Victor Arroyo (Got together after her split from Corey. Got married in 2021 and share a son together)
Season 19 (2017): Jessica Graf & Cody Nickson (Got married in 2018 and went on to win The Amazing Race together)
Season 20 (2018): Bayleigh Dayton & Swaggy C (Still married)
Season 20 (2018): Angela Rummans & Tyler Crispen (Got engaged but broke up in 2022)
Season 24 (2022): Taylor Hale & Joseph Abdin (No longer dating but became a fan-favorite showmance)
Season 25 (2023): Jared Fields & Blue Kim (Split post show)
Season 27 (2025): Rylie Jeffries & Katherine Woodman (Trying to make things work post-show and following fan backlash)
Doing “nothing” took such a toll on Zae, he admitted that he ended up using his meals as a “mental checkpoint” to “stay sane.”
“And it got to the point where I was just like, ‘Alright, I got how many more hours until this meal?’ And then I would eat my meal, I’d be like, ‘alright, how many hours till the next one?’
“That was my checkpoint, almost, my mental checkpoint of just staying sane.
“I would say that was something that was a little unexpected for me, a little behind-the-scenes thing that was cool,” he said with a smile.
While Zae had high hopes for himself on season 27 of Big Brother, his time was unfortunately cut short when he was blindsided by ally Rylie Jeffries to become the first evictee of the season.
Zae will return to reunite with his fellow season 27 contestants on the live Big Brother finale, which airs on September 28th at 8 pm EST on CBS.
Julie Chen Moonves[/caption]
