The Zach Nichols Podcast - Tiffany Mitchell & Xavier Prather Interview - Big Brother & The Challenge | ZNP EP. 23

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

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Hey, I'm X. And I'm Tiff. And we're on. Zach Nichols Podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure you keep tuning in. And make sure you like, subscribe, and comment. Welcome back to the Zach Nichols podcast.

I'm here with my co-host, Mr. Zach Nichols. And more importantly, we have two very special guests to help get through the last week of the year, which people say is the most depressive week of the year. Can be. You know that. Yes. And it is. Because you broke after that. And Tiffany.

What some people would say is the better part of the cookout. Oh, is that what they would say? That's what I've been seeing. That's your opinion. That's what the hashtags were saying. Well, I am very new. I mean, that's what CBS says. Yeah, straight up.

We know who got called back and who didn't. Whoa, anyways. Let's get started with the rest of the show. Just so y'all know, I'm not the biggest, I'm not the biggest reality TV historian. I'm just getting into the Big Brother universe. So I'm really excited to go back and watch your guys the season, especially to watch you, Tiff, because I've seen you in a full season of the channel.

So I want to see you in that environment. But welcome, welcome to the show. We got one Detroit and one other Michigan. A round of applause for Michigan, please. Yeah. Y'all had the applause. Okay, I like that. I like that.

I think Michigan creates more reality television personalities than any other state. I think it creates more reality television, like, winners than any other state. True. Laurel. I've won. She was AFP. Laurel's from Michigan, too? Laurel's from Birmingham. For real?

Right here. She went to Seahom. I did not know that. No, I didn't know Laurel was from Michigan too. Yeah. I know she, I think she went to one, she went to Birmingham. She's from Birmingham. Laurel. Wow. You got a new sister baby. Oh no. Michigan's from Southfield. Yeah, I know. Leroy's from Michigan. I'm from Southfield. Yeah, I told you that. Leroy. You did, but I didn't know until you told me. Yeah. Well, he's because when he turned 18, he left. We went to Dallas,

in Dallas to Vegas. He comes back right now and then the holidays. Okay. And then we have Nicole Franzel up in Italy. No. Michigan's loaded. Taylor.

Taylor, yeah. We got Dan Eastling. Yep. And let's just run asleep on Michigan as a whole. We've got delicious from flavor of love. We got. That's right.

That's right. We've got Tondy from Ready to Love. Detroit. She's going way back in Michigan as a whole. I really am. I'm giving respect. Yeah. Three character.

Michigan people. who have come from here and have made it successfully on reality TV. A lot of people sleep on Michigan. And I asked, you know, so I'll tell you, I asked some of the producers, like the casting directors, like, why do you not do casting in Michigan? And they actually tried to tell me that they came here one time and they just only saw at maximum like a seven. A seven.

I got casted out of Michigan. So thanks a lot. I guess I'm a seven. I said, well, us sevens be making it, baby. Just sleep on the sevens. Yeah, no. So let's get into that a little bit. Asterisk by those sevens.

Yeah, I mean, if you're a seven, then you know what I'm saying? I'm at least a seven, five, eight. But we have some winners, though, so they were sleeping. But we come in, kicking the door down. We just look like that off rip. But really, the energy we give, all-star quality. Well, I love that. You talk about winning.

Talk about, like, you guys growing up, what made you guys competitive? what made you guys want to win at life? Because I know y'all both winners. Go ahead, Tiff. I'll let you show. Oh, me? Oh, my. Wow.

No, he's the number one winner. Well, you did just spend time with Santa. This is true. This is true. That's not anybody's business. You both did. Yeah. I'm the favorite.

I would have to say, though, that that's a huge honor. It is. It's definitely not. They could have invited a lot of people to do that, and they chose you. So when I got the call and they go, I'm like, oh, my God. Gosh, a season of legends, and they were like, yes, but not to play. Hey. I said, thank you very much.

I like the least amount of competition. It's a privilege for me to step from player to host. That is definitely a lateral move. So I was not disappointed at all. I mean, I think sometimes I think there's more longevity in hosting. Oh, for sure. They messed up. I fell in love with it.

Like, who wouldn't want to? be TJ. I know people are crazy about Jeff. Who wouldn't want to be Julie? You know, that's a great. I said some people. I know you're not as not your boy. But survivor people die for him and they should with their guy. I really think

you have a future in that in either one of those three or whatever. You know why? Y'all keep Tiffany's number, guys. This is so, I'm going to be honest. So when I watched your big brother seasons, because I didn't watch anyone, I didn't watch any season besides the last one in real time. I went back once. I was over being on, I was done with reality

TV and I was like, you know what, I should have done this before, but I went back and watched a lot of the seasons. Okay. Not a lot of single seasons. I think I did like two and one, and I was like, this is so boring. No, two and one, you can't do two. Dr. Will is awesome. Dr. Will's. So then I watched seven, and then I watched

like 12 or 13 on. And you came out and you were like, I've been cool since I was born. And I'm like, okay, here's the thing. The only people who say that are one, people who are douchebags. But no, no, no, but two, people who actually are fucking cool-ass people. So I'm like, you know.

They can go either way. So then I was like, I didn't know because I didn't meet you. And I'm like, okay, I'm watching. And I'm like, well, you know, you did come off as really cool. And I'm like, that could also, you know how editing can go. And then I saw you were like, like, you were roll dogs with Johnny Bananas. And I was like, okay, she's cool. Because if you can, if you can, what's the word of looking for?

mentally or you can keep up with his wit, you're fucking cool. Right. Yes. And like same thing with like Tanisha watching House of Villains. I'm like, I know she's cool as shit now. Because that's the thing about Johnny. As much as someone may hate him, he's a cool dude. And people love to hang out with him.

You just have to get him. Yeah. I messaged him and I go like, I love seeing that you have Tanisha. I said she reminds me of me and you. Yes. He said, no one can be me and you. I thought you better know it. And that was the cool answer.

So it was smooth, yeah. And so then with X, I'm like, okay, like, you pulled the whole, your whole season, like, I'm not winning on purpose. And I'm like, okay, only two people say that. People who are really only not trying to win or people who are, like, embarrassed that they're not winning, so they want to make it seem like, well, I've really could have won that. And so I'm wondering, I'm like, well, maybe. And then USA won, you kind of came out. But you had everyone against you, and partner elimination rounds are tricky. But then on a reindeer games, you were literally back against the wall the whole time.

And some of the things you did, I was really impressed with. Like that first one against Cameron, I'd never seen a puzzle make someone sweat before. Doug, I was going to work. That, no, I'm like, I'm like, dude, like, he's in great shape. I'm like, this puzzles, he's working. Yeah. And that was really, that was an impressive win. And then just got unlucky with that one against Nicole.

And, hey, you do a thing. Yeah. That's how it is sometimes. Like, if you go into any given challenge or competition and you don't have like a locked-in strategy or someone's strategy is better than yours, they're going to beat you when she did. Exactly. And all those games. on ranger games while they were like you know their competitions anyone can win 100% and so

that's the thing where I know I'd be terrible at big brother because I'm not I'm good at like the physical stuff I'm those things that are like I'm like a 45% are in the puzzles like I'm either gonna there's 45% are they're and get it right away or I'm gonna be there until they're like hey man you time out times out it's like oh okay cool I'm either gonna get it or I'm not yeah like you know there's no like figuring out for me so that was really impressive and that was a I mean think about it all those legends there mm-hmm You know, it's tough. Yeah.

Talk about that first puzzle. Like, what was the time different? Like, do you think you, like, blew him out or, like, how'd it go? So he finished before him. Yeah. So first, so on my previous season of Big Brother, like, traditional Big Brother, we did, like, what was it, like an eight piece or nine piece puzzle? That was Kate. So here they come in, they're like, okay, 57 pieces.

I was like, 57? 57 pieces. It was like a week project. Oh, yeah. I was like, okay, that's a big piece. more and then they're like oh but it's not just like a one surface puzzle like there's levels to it you got to stack it yes so like certain pieces are stacked on top and you have to put them all and so i was like okay so y'all took like the original puzzle said like fuck that child's play let's

get serious and make it like even more difficult so as i as we got started like first you had to take all the pieces out of the bag and i was like okay this bag is taking fucking forever but all right and then we get the pieces out and i'm like okay i go over to the map i was like all right I'm going to just memorize it and I'm going to come back over here. And I'm looking at the pieces and all the different shapes and ways that they were cut. I was like, oh, I'm not going to remember shit. I'm going to have to keep going back and forth. So then at first, because like I had surgery on my foot and I was like, I'm not really trying to press it like that.

But then it got to the point where I was like, okay, I can't, I can't think about that anymore. Like, I'm not have to. He's a good player. Oh, yeah. Cam was a good competitor. So I was like, if I'm sitting here worried about my foot, like I'm going to go home. So at some point, I just got to turn. turn up and like fuck the sweater, fuck the pants, like get after it, go back and forth and

keep going. And that's when you see me like high stepping my way through the puzzle, getting all these pieces. And it is a hundred bands. So like, 750, it's crazy because like, you know, like, it's like somebody saying like, oh, yeah, he's got a million, but what's a difference in a million a billion? Not like, it's a, it's a lot of money. So. Oh, yeah. Once you get a winning check too, it's, you're like, dude, it doesn't matter. It changes. It changed. And like the fact, when you look at like kind of the time value of money, I guess, like, the amount of time that it took for you to get that amount of money beats, like, any kind of at war check.

Like, it would have been, we were there for 10 days if you include, like, being sequestered in the hotel. So, like, 10 days, 100K, I don't know what job is paying that. No. You know, so it's like. Yeah, no, like, maybe like a one-way contract with the Yankees. Right. Right. Like, there's no, like, I mean.

Brock Purdy's making 430 for a year, you know what I mean? I thought he's making 870. Poor, poor. He's making 870. I think he's making $8. the rookie minimum. I'm not sure, but either way, he's getting paid. Yeah, yeah, exactly. For, you know, 20-some weeks. Yeah. Yeah, no, that was really impressive. So you guys didn't sleep in the Big Brother house in that experience. That's probably way nice. Yeah. It was cool to be

able to like, so we would get up at probably like, they would wake us up anywhere between like 5 and like 630. Yeah. We'd be in our hotel. They would, we would get, we would all get in the shuttle. So whoever was still in the game would be in the shuttle, they would take us to the set. We'd eat breakfast real quick. And then about 30 minutes after breakfast, we were in the house. in the house the rest of the time. And then, like, once we were done in the house, we would film our confessionals, and then they would take us back to the hotel.

But it made, it was cool to, like, not be in, but at the same time from a social aspect, you kind of... Yeah, you lost that, all those hours and stuff. Yeah, so, like, it made it to where, like, socially, it was like, do people view you as a threat or not. Yeah. Like, if they don't, you can kind of work something

of a social angle. If they do, you don't have an uphill battle. Right. But, like, so, like, there was pros and cons with it. I personally liked kind of being able to go home, because, like, when you went back to the hotel, you didn't really have to think about it as much. You were able to clock out, sleep and stuff.

And a big brother, you don't really get to do that. Yeah, that was like doing champs for stars when I was like, wait, we get to keep our phone. They're like, yeah. And I'm like, you get to stay in a hotel room. Yeah. And there's no cameras in there. Like when I got to the room, I was looking around. I'm looking for wall camera.

Right. Making sure. And I'm like, there's no cameras in here. So yeah, no, that was fun. It changes the dynamic a little bit. It becomes more about competition than the social aspect because you can only socialize so much in the game. Which brings me on my next question is what kind of law do you practice?

So are you practicing anymore? Yeah, I'm still practicing. I've been practicing since I came off Big Brother. Got you. Like, if reality TV became like my career, it would be like cool, but I never went into like Big Brother with that as the expectation. Yeah. So like I went back to law as soon as I got like after I went off the show and I'm practicing. So my specialty, my firm is a business law firm.

I specialize in data privacy and cybersecurity and that's gotcha. That's like my primary practice there. It's in employee benefits. Yeah, you're probably one of the most intimidating guys on reality TV. Because not only were you able to keep that a secret from people, that means you kind of have to dumb down your personality, but also like the athletic side. So you, college athlete and a lawyer, like, so you can think under pressure because the bar exam's not easy. I mean, I've heard from some of the law people that I work with that it's no joke. No.

Especially in Michigan, I heard it's even. So I didn't have to take the Michigan bar. So in Wisconsin, you have what's called the diploma privilege, which means you graduate from a Wisconsin law. school you don't have to take the bar exam at all you're admitted straight into practice so like i graduated on and like i believe on like may 20th that next week i was already working part-time for my law firm yeah so it was nice but like so i was prepared to take the michigan bar i'd already had my milwaukee now yeah i live in milwaukee night i live in milwaukee night i was prepared to take the michigan and then like my law firm which is a bigger law firm in the region offered me a job and i was like

well looks like i'm gonna be chilling in wisconsin yeah leave it leave it to the lawyer to find the loophole Right. Was your boss a Big Brother fan? No, not at all. So like, that conversation was probably fun. Yeah. So I had been working at the firm for about a year. Yeah.

And then I'm going through the process on Big Brother, which is like, it was very similar to like the process for getting admitted to the bar. Like, justice strenuous, got to get all the addresses, all like, know everybody that you've known since kindergarten, like all that shit. And I go up to my boss and I'm like, my boss and the CEO of the firm, I'm like, hey, I might be gone for up to 100 days and I can't. tell you why. And they were like, Witness protection program. Right? They're like, are you, are you okay? Are you safe? I was like, no, I'm good. I'm good. I just, like, I just can't tell y'all why I'm going. And you'll find out eventually because like it'll come out. And they're like, okay, well, they made me sign a contract with pretty much like, hey, don't make an ass of yourself on TV. And if you don't do that, you'll have a job when you come back. I was like, great. So it's amazing. Oh, my firm was actually. That's amazing. They know it was. for a TV then they knew it was for TV but they didn't know like what show and I couldn't like

get into details and eventually it all came out because like and they were the only ones who knew like I only told the higher ups because you can't tell anybody Big Verra is very like hush-hush about that right and so like eventually the show gets started and like people realize I'm on the cast and so like because everyone else I just like disappeared without a reason so they're like um is ex dead the don't make a ass of yourself clause was the reason why you didn't put those paws on Kylan. Well, we're going to have there right now. So the cookout.

Yeah. Who's the mastermind? You were Big D. Do you really think Big D is the mastermind? Well, I never met. And I love Big D. He's one of my best friends, but we've never. That is my baby.

That's my husband. But he's not. He literally posted the other day. Literally tweeted the other day I was the mastermind of the cookout. Yeah, he's trolling. What I find with Big D, I think he wants. credit for getting everyone together. And I think...

But I don't think it's ever been a question of who kind of put the plan together for our group. Or at least I feel like that's been resolved. Like, everyone knows that's too. I think he wants credit for putting everyone together, which I'm going to let him battle that. He's trying to take a... He's here. He said, I'm the reason why X and Tiff and Zach are here right now. I contacted them and I got them here.

Gotcha. Yeah. I just take credit for the name. He definitely came up with the next. Look, and I'm slow. He comes past me in the kitchen. He's like, the cookout. I was like, what's that?

Yeah, she was like, who? I was white. I was like, what? What is the cookout? I was like, girl, come on wake the fuck up. He's like, that's us. I was like, I'm Tiff. Oh, okay, okay.

Okay, okay. My bad, my, my, bad, blah, bad. That's our name. Yeah. Look, I'm like this. Why did you come up with that? Yeah. I was like, okay.

So we got to go back to Detroit is when I'm here. and we got to go back. So, and here's the other crazy part. Thus far, every single member of the cookout has come back to the television. We've got to watch them except for Big D, right? Because Aza was on USA. Hannah. Oh, no, Hannah hasn't.

But she's a student at Georgetown. Yeah, yeah. She's in Mexico. So, like, she's focusing on our time. Right. So I'm sure she got a report. She's gotten to call. She's gotten caught.

She's got in court. Yeah. Big D's you only one. And it appears that he's very thirsty to get back on TV. Am I wrong, though? He wants back on. which is too honest. I don't know.

I'm going to be right now. He definitely wants another shot to be able to get on TV and show what he can do. But outside of a Big Brother type game or like maybe Amazing Race, like I don't know if he's castable on the challenge and I don't know if he's castable

on Survivor. Yeah. So I just, I don't, and I wonder why he was good TV. I think that the shows that he is more interested in being cast for such as the Survivor, Amazing Race, the challenge are just not his willhouse.

and he's not realizing that there are plenty other shows that he could benefit from being cast for. And, you know, our contract really just expired where our exclusivity is up. So he can. And we've all tried to encourage him to try out for things and reach out to people and create reels for himself, such as like traitors or...

Yeah, that would be a good one for him. Or House of Villains. I was just going to say house a villain. Yeah, but he wasn't a villain. I mean, bad girls club, east. Oh, that grew. Where? Yeah.

There's a lot of options. There's a lot of options. No, no, I'm not saying he shouldn't be on TV. I'm just wondering if maybe that's wise because it's not, I don't even think he would enjoy being on the challenge to be feeling honest opinion. I don't think that he would benefit from being on the challenge. And I think that he feels like he brings the same type of energy. Like, I'm going to create some drama. I'm going to knock someone out.

in a hall braw but you just never know if that's where you're going to end Zach, fix your face. I'm uncomfortable. He's going to knock him on the hallbell. It was Zach's face. You know what I'm saying though? Like, I mean, listen, I'd love to see him back on TV. My microphone turned off.

I had to try to mess with it a little bit. Yeah, no. Best of luck if you get into a hall brawl. But like, hey, you said, I don't, like I said, I'm still getting familiar with the cookout myself. But from what I've seen, you seem to get a lot of credit for that. So we'll just leave it at that.

Talk to us about, talk to us about... I do want to say we all should receive credit in our respective positions. Like, X had a position. We all had a role to play and it was unspoken. And all six of us knew what we needed to do. Me and Big D needed to create friction to kind of throw everyone off. X was kind of the one that kept us. Like when we all had something going on, we'd come to X and he'd solve it.

Hannah was the baby and we knew if you don't do it for anybody, you do it for the baby. You know what I'm like? And then also, she's the smartest member of the group. She is the smartest person in the house. She had the highest IQ of any of us. Hannah is a prodigy. That's recorded because they take those.

Well, one thing that I thought was like interesting is like, you're right. Like on a championship team, everyone plays their role. That's right. But Big Brother's an individual game. That's why people are like, what are y'all doing sometimes? From what I, like I said, from what I've heard? It's like, what are y'all doing?

you're playing a team game in an individual sport but talk to me why it worked for y'all that concludes the free preview of the zach nichols podcast so go to patreon and subscribe to see the rest of the shit that we talk go do it now