Zach Cornell may be out of the Big Brother house, but he’s not backing down from the move that sealed his fate. “I still stand by my decision because with Vince [Panaro] and Morgan [Pope] on the block, we would’ve been in the same position,” the marketing manager, 27, exclusively tells Men’s Journal the morning following his eviction. “Those were my final two, and I could not afford to use that power and still be in the same position with those three. I was hoping one of us would’ve won the Blockbuster… and then we would’ve used that power in the upcoming week.”
For him, it seems the choice came down to trust — or lack thereof. He says he never approached Head of Household Ava Pearl to leverage his secret Veto power because “she had blindsided me fully,” and revealing the power might have led to the whole house finding out. “The perception of the house when Kat [Woodman] was closing the box is that I was good… and clearly that’s not the case because perception changes every 20 minutes in the Big Brother house.”
The votes didn’t go his way, even among those closest to him. Morgan, one of his “No. 1 ones,” and Lauren Domingue, who he admits he wants to date, both chose to keep Vince. “Clearly I was too selfless in that moment because she ended up voting to keep Vince in,” he says of Lauren. “But I don’t hold it against either of them… it clearly came down to what was best for the game.”
Speaking of Lauren, Zach tells MJ, “I do want to date her, one hundred percent. She’s exactly my type. My jaw dropped like a cartoon character when she walked into the house… I told her once she leaves the house, I’m going to reach out to her and fly to New Orleans.”
As for Morgan, who seemingly had a crush on Zach this season, she found a bracelet he left behind and wondered if he had left it there on purpose. “I just left the bracelet there… it was getting stretched out and kind of old and I just had made it before coming into the house,” he laughs, confirming it wasn’t intentional. “But clearly Morgan did [want it].”
Looking back, Zach admits he might approach the game differently if given another shot, saying, “I’d probably be a little bit less selfless… I will be more cutthroat in terms of my conversations with people because it would be the type of thing where I need to lay out exactly, this is the reason why you need to keep me.”
When asked who he’d like to see follow him out the door, he didn’t hesitate: “Keanu, just because I don’t think his social game warrants him still being in the game… but I can respect how much of a beast he really is.”
For now, he’ll be watching from home. “As a fan, I’m geeking out… America is going to love it for the drama,” he says. “It’s going to be cinema this week.”
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.
