Big Brother Canada Season 12 is officially underway, and the first eviction of the season has taken place, with Janine Holmes sent out of the door in a unanimous vote. Reality Tea Managing Editor, Daniel Falconer, got the opportunity to catch up with Janine and talk all about her short but sweet time on BBCAN12, as well as why she didn’t campaign more to stay with the information Spicy Vee gave her. Here’s what she had to say…
Janine on her Big Brother Canada experience
Daniel Falconer: I’m so sorry to see you go. I was really rooting for you, but it’s such an achievement to even make it into that house in the first place, and I am sure your kids are proud. How are you feeling now that you’ve had a tiny bit of time to let the dust settle?
Janine: Thank you. I am so grateful for the entire experience. Being a super-fan, this is something that I’ve wanted to do ever since Big Brother Canada became a thing, so the fact that I got to experience it first-hand, live in the house, do the challenges, I really feel like I got a lot out of the game [despite] only being there for 13 days. Honestly, it’s a bucket list check and I am so excited and so grateful.
Daniel: You got 13 days like you say! Not many people who go first get that amount of time.
Janine: This is so true, so it was equally thrilling, I got to play in four challenges which my kids love watching, so I felt proud that my kids got to see Mommy kick butt. But it was also very long.
I found out on Day 4 out of 13 that I was not only going to be on the block, but I was the target. As soon as you’re pegged as the target in Week 1, it is very hard to turn your game around. Everyone who wants to play it safe, everyone’s happy the target isn’t pointed at them, so they just back off and say, ‘Cool, that’s gonna be the person we vote out.’
So I was in a difficult position from Day 4 onwards. I was just in defensive mode of trying to convince people these were lies, and people were turning at the end. People like Matt, Goose, and Todd were all like, ‘All these lies people are saying about you, hanging out with you, it’s not making sense.’ But on Day 4, they didn’t know me as well. And so they just believed what Anthony would say because he’s a returning player, and he’s so powerful and mesmerizing with what he says to people. So everyone believed him … at that point, my game was already tanked.
Meeting two All-Stars and realizing she was the target
Daniel: You go into the Big Brother Canada house with a bunch of new players, and then two All-Stars arrive! What’s going through your mind when that happens?
Janine: I was so excited. Obviously, being a super-fan! Actually, Anthony’s season was my favorite Big Brother Canada season. I loved the whole mystery and spy theme with it. I loved the game that the Pretty Boys played, I thought it was solid. And Spicy Vee, who doesn’t love Spicy Vee? She brings something that makes it exciting and thrilling to watch. So, I was so excited to see them. I knew right away that I wanted to be part of Spicy’s entourage. I love powerful women, I wanted to work with women, I wanna see a woman take the win for Big Brother Canada Season 12, so it just aligned with everything that I had in mind for my game.
Daniel: While campaigning, you had what you called a “lightbulb moment” about Vivek. How do you feel about that whole conversation you then had with Vivek now, looking back?
Janine: When I sat down with him in the Skip the Dishes room and asked him flat-out, originally I was gonna blow up the house! I’m gonna go in and throw steam at him and make the whole house realize what could have potentially happened to me. But I’m also very logical in my thinking. I like to sit back and take a moment.
So, I slept on it that night. I said, ‘How would I approach this as a parent to my kids? I wouldn’t explode on my kids.’ And I really like Vivek. He actually reminded me a lot of my husband. He calmed me down in the house, I called him my ray of sunshine … it came out too that he’s an engineer like my husband so I really got him.
When I sat down with him … I actually believed him, so I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t think he was the reason.’ He did wanna talk more game with me, there were some things he was like, ‘I wish I could tell you stuff.’ But he knew in order for his game to continue on once I was gone, he couldn’t tell me. I could read my own intuition and I was like, ‘He wasn’t the one that said anything to Anthony.’
Spicy Vee came clean to Janine about her lies
Daniel: Vee came clean to you about her alliance with Dougy and confirmed the girl’s alliance with him! And I know Arisa touched on this with you a little, but I think the number one question is: why didn’t you use this information to try and rally the votes?
Janine: I felt it was too late in my game to do any campaigning. And, it would go against everything that I went into the game to play because I wanted women to succeed. So, if I went against Spicy Vee, that would show that I wasn’t for the girls all along. I could have blown up so many people’s games and I chose not to, because I want a woman to win. I set out to do that. I’m obviously not gonna be the winner but, if a woman does win, I’ll feel like I played a little part and that was my role in this season.
Daniel: Your final pitch was a spicy one, saying you didn’t come to Big Brother Canada for a social media following or to be on TV. Was this directed at any of the Houseguests in particular?
Janine: I think because everyone is very thirsty on this season for attention and everyone was so concerned like, ‘Oh I’m gonna blow up after this and I can’t wait for all the brand deals!’ It’s like, come on! That’s not what it’s all about. It’s frustrating for me that I just wanted to play and I never even got a chance to play, I was robbed of that. I’m not on there for all that other stuff.
I was very particular that I said at the very end, ‘There’s many lies still in this game and watch out, because you’re probably going up next,’ because I wanted every single person to think that that was about them. I want them all to be quaking in their boots, also because the cast this season is very intelligent. Everyone is very smart [and] knows this game. I think they’re all super-fans but they’re playing it on the down-low. I caught a lot of them in their lies of being like, ‘Yeah I kind of know the game.’ Then I hear them talking about how they’ve rewatched many seasons. I didn’t even rewatch seasons and I’m a super-fan! So I’m like, ‘You guys are all trying to fly under the radar and you’re not doing a good job about it!’
I think that the way I was exited from the game based solely on lies paved the way for everybody else. The only way you’re gonna get out people is, whoever’s HOH at the moment, it’s gonna be whatever lie they believe the most. Which is such a frustrating game to play, because how do you come back from a lie? It’s your word against theirs, and you’re screwed. That’s what happened to me.
How would Janine have played if she stayed in BBCAN12?
Daniel: In an alternate universe where you did stay in the House and then won the next HOH, who do you go after?
Janine: I would go after Tola, because he’s just a player that is super cocky. He is very fast, and one of those people that is great at almost everything that he picks up. But I do have to say that the “Rabbit Down the Hole” puzzle was very humbling for him. He thought he had that in the bag. And then when he came out of the tunnel and saw that it was basically between Dinis and I, he had maybe five to seven tiles on his board. He was like, ‘Oh damn!’
Then, a little behind-the-scenes ego moment for him. He didn’t want Canada to see how bad he had done in the challenge. So, he grabbed tiles and just placed them in his board to make it look like he was further along in the puzzle. I love that moment because it was a little bit humbling for him. Every challenge isn’t gonna be about speed. It’s gonna be a hard season for him to navigate.
Daniel: If you had to make a prediction, who do you think is making the final three?
Janine: Dinis is another super-fan. Had I not become the target on Week 1, Dinis and I could have gone really far together. I think we got each other, we were the more mature people on the cast. We were just stunned by me being a target so I’d love to see him in the top three.
Donna, a force. She has so many great aspects. With the men, she has them wrapped around her finger, she’s sexy, fun, and I think she’s really intelligent. She really knows the game and I probably had some of my best gaming conversations with her.
The other one, I’d have to put a female up there again because I want a female to win. I’m gonna say Avery. She’s young, but again, she’s very intelligent.
Big Brother Canada Season 12 airs three nights a week. New episodes broadcast every Sunday at 9 p.m., Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT.
This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.
TELL US – WERE YOU SAD TO SEE JANINE EVICTED FIRST FROM BIG BROTHER CANADA SEASON 12? WHO DO YOU WANT TO SEE EVICTED NEXT?
