Tyler Crispen wasn’t expecting to be part of Big Brother 27 — let alone witness one of the most controversial eliminations in the show’s history. The fan-favorite, who competed on Seasons 20 and 22, was called in rather last-minute to host a Head of Household competition twist that ultimately sent veteran Rachel Reilly out of the house.
“I had no idea I was going to be a part of anything this season,” Tyler told me on my podcast, The Exclusive With Sharon Tharp. “They called me last Monday and I was there by Thursday. It was that quick. They kind of gave me a little breakdown — like, it’s going to be the biggest twist of the summer. I’m like, okay, cool. And then once I got there and I was on set and in the green room and everything, they started giving me the host reads and stuff, and I’m like, this is insane. This is absolutely insanity.”
Tyler admitted he didn’t realize until the last second just how serious the night would become. “When they told me that I was going to be the one there when somebody got eliminated, my heart kind of sank a little bit,” he said. “I thought maybe it would be a big group competition and one person would lose and go down. I really didn’t realize it was just going to be me. I was like Julie Chen-ing, saying ‘You just got eliminated’ to Rachel. I couldn’t have even predicted that it was going to go like that.”
When the former winner failed to complete the maze challenge, Tyler was the first – and seemingly only person around – to comfort her as he witnessed her emotional reaction up close. “Once Rachel came out and the moment happened, it was huge. It felt like one of the biggest… probably top three most memorable moments that I’ve ever been a part of,” he recalled. “She was really distraught, and in that moment I was like, I know I’m a host right now, I gotta be professional, but I was just reminding her that she’s a legend in this game. It takes a lot of guts for her to even come back. I just wanted to be there for her. I could tell just how much it meant to her. It was really tough.”
The moment itself, Tyler revealed, looked very different in person compared to the edited broadcast. “It was so quiet back there too. They edited it together with all the music and stuff, but it was so quiet and just surreal to just be living in that moment,” he explained. “It was just such an intimate moment with just Rachel. She was in her feelings and everything just kind of hit her all at once. I was happy I was there to be able to comfort her.”
Tyler also shut down speculation that Rachel’s poor performance in the competition was just for show. “Some people were literally tweeting that she was acting, that she got eliminated on purpose,” he said. “To those people, I’m just like, the raw emotion that came out of Rachel when she came out was… it made me actually understand her even more, how much she loves Big Brother. She truly gave it 120 percent of her effort. If she wasn’t a legend before, in some people’s eyes, she needs to be solidified as a legend now.”
As for the controversial twist itself, Tyler sees both sides. “To be honest with you, it sucks the way she went out. But it is Big Brother, you got to expect the unexpected,” he said. “The rules are in their hands and they can switch things up at any point. In one way I understand it, but in another way, if I was [her husband] Brendon [Villegas], if I was Rachel, I would be livid. This really was not true Big Brother fashion. It was just a twist, which you hate to see good players go out on.”
Looking back, Tyler is convinced this moment will be remembered as one of the show’s biggest shockers, telling me, “They’ll remember this one for a long time, for sure.”
Big Brother airs Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET. You can also catch the 24/7 live feeds on on Paramount+ and Pluto TV.
