{"id":627202,"date":"2026-09-17T05:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T05:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627202\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T05:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T05:46:09","slug":"bran-flakezz-on-winning-alex-coopers-unwell-summer-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/627202\/","title":{"rendered":"Bran Flakezz on Winning Alex Cooper’s ‘Unwell Summer Games’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBran Flakezz is anything but \u201cUnwell<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrandon Edelman, better known as Bran Flakezz online, just emerged as one of four winners of the \u201cUnwell Summer Games\u201d on YouTube, created through Alex Cooper\u2019s \u201cUnwell\u201d network. The four-episode series brought 16 content creators together at a luxury ranch in Canada to compete in a series of challenges for a chance to win a share of $250,000, with the prize money distributed throughout the four days of the competition.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s just so many exciting things happening that sometimes I do have to remind myself to take a step back,\u201d Edelman tells Variety as he gets ready to speak at a Forbes CMO summit in Aspen, Colo.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnlike a traditional competition series, \u201cUnwell Summer Games\u201d puts a group of established content creators \u2014 many of whom already knew each other \u2014 in the same house, ensuring there would be no shortage of drama. In the final episode, the contestants split into four teams for a final challenge. Edelman took home $25,000, alongside Jourdan Riane, Blake Gray and Carly Sutherland Lawrence, the last of whom had a less-than-perfect relationship with Bran on the show.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is a very funny moment where, after we scream at each other, we end up on the same team for the final challenge, and then we proceed to win the show together,\u201d Edelman says, laughing. \u201cHer and I have a very crazy storyline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEdelman got his start posting transparent videos on social media, detailing everything from his life in Philadelphia to the financial realities of being a content creator through his \u201cTikTok Transparency\u201d series. He\u2019s since amassed more than 1 million followers on TikTok and made Forbes\u2019 30 Under 30 list in Social Media.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter working as a fitting room employee at Forever 21, Edelman went on to compete on Barstool\u2019s \u201cProject Verified\u201d and is now part of Michelle Obama\u2019s Gen Z voter registration intitiative. And after winning the \u201cUnwell Summer Games,\u201d he says he\u2019s just getting started.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Edelman talks to Variety about his time on \u201cUnwell Summer Games,\u201d his future in reality TV and his take on the Alex Cooper and Alix Earle drama.<\/p>\n

\t\tWill we see you doing more reality TV after this?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tNever say never. I think it\u2019s always a case by case situation. As much as I love \u201cBig Brother,\u201d that\u2019s a three-month filming schedule. Three months without posting online for me would be super detrimental, so that would be difficult. I love \u201cSurvivor.\u201d No way in hell will you have me on an island like eating rice and sand. I think right now, anything that I want to do in a potential reality TV space is just make something that\u2019s meaningful and real. Something I\u2019ve always noticed when I watch reality TV is that a lot of things feel so overproduced, and that\u2019s not what I want to do. Something that I loved about this show is that none of this drama was manufactured. This truly was how everything played out, and these people\u2019s feelings are very real. That was really refreshing to me.<\/p>\n

\t\tThis isn\u2019t a normal competition show. It\u2019s a house full of content creators. Do you think that having that affected the dynamic and led to some drama?\t<\/p>\n

\n\t100%. A lot of us had either been friends, met before or, in some circumstances, were exes. These are all people that have a platform, and you\u2019ve probably seen their content. So your first impression of them is, \u201cOh, I\u2019ve been watching that guy\u2019s videos for three years. He seems like a D-bag online. I wonder how he\u2019s going to be in real life.\u201d I probably had met over half that cast before we walked in there.<\/p>\n

\t\tDo you still stay in touch with people from the show?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, it\u2019s great. We have a big group chat that\u2019s always popping off, especially right now, because the show is actually airing. We\u2019re all like, \u201cOh my gosh, you said this in your interview,\u201d or, \u201cOh my gosh, I can\u2019t believe they put this in that sequence, or they cut this part out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tAre you watching the drama and thinking, \u201cOh, I didn\u2019t know she said this\u201d?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDefinitely. My first reality show [Barstool\u2019s \u201cProject Verified\u201d], I feel like people were talking about me in their interviews, and they probably did talk about me on this show and it just didn\u2019t make the cut. And thank you to the editors for that, because I have a fragile ego. There were definitely some things where I was like, \u201cOh wow, that person said that about that person. I didn\u2019t realize that.\u201d And even sometimes I will see myself say something and go, \u201cThat was kind of mean, Brandon.\u201d But it\u2019s TV, and when you\u2019re in a situation like that, it is a pressure cooker.<\/p>\n

\t\tYou became somewhat of a fan favorite while on \u201cUnwell Summer Games.\u201d People online are saying you were the perfect blend of loving drama but still being an empath.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThey did mention that I was the only person out of all 16 of us that was in a relationship, so my strategy going into it was that I\u2019m going to be a matchmaker. I\u2019m going to help the girls go after the guys that they want. I just wanted to be a safe space for everybody, and have fun.<\/p>\n

\t\tIt was interesting, because you were interested in the drama on the show, but you were never directly involved in any.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWe all flew out here and we\u2019re working for four days. I didn\u2019t want this to be us all sitting in a circle playing Kumbaya. I definitely wanted there to be realness and honesty. It\u2019s not like I was like, \u201cEveryone needs to fight.\u201d But I was like, \u201dYou want to hook up with that guy? Go for it. This is the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tI have to ask about the Blake, Zarah and Carly love triangle. What was it like seeing that unfold in real time?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was complicated, because I liked all three of them so much. You kind of see in my conversation with Zarah that I just wanted her to be very honest with me about her feelings with Blake, and then act on them. My motto in life is always say what you mean and mean what you say, and that\u2019s where I kind of guided her a little bit. And I was like, \u201cIf you said this whole time that you really care about Blake and you want to pursue something with him, or your feelings are still there, then it\u2019s one thing to confront Carly, but you have been telling everybody you don\u2019t want any part of this.\u201d I wanted to be a friend for her in that moment, and be like, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you take a step back and really reassess?\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn Zarah\u2019s defense, though, I do think Carly was a little bit scattered. I was really surprised with Carly, because she was also someone who said she wasn\u2019t going to kiss anybody, and then she goes for Blake. She was obsessed with Chad. Then she goes to Tim. I think it\u2019s complicated when you have someone like Blake who is younger and such a genuine guy. But I think he\u2019s there to have fun and doesn\u2019t necessarily want to be in drama either.<\/p>\n

\t\tIn the finale, there\u2019s a moment where you yell at Carly.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tEpisode 3 ends with me trying to shake Carly and say, \u201cI think a lot of your feelings are valid, but you control how you react to the situation. If you feel like Suede, Zarah and Hallie are excluding you, that\u2019s three out of 16 members of this cast. Maybe you should say, \u201cI\u2019m not vibing with those girls. I\u2019m going to hang out with Brandon, Cassie and Daniela.\u2019\u201d She is playing victim a little bit, and I just wanted her to make the best of this experience and just have fun. This is a silly little show. We leave tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne thing they didn\u2019t show me say to her was, \u201cYou\u2019re upset that you\u2019re not being picked for anyone\u2019s team, but have you even gone up to any of the captains and say, \u2018Hey, I would love to work with you?\u2019 And she\u2019s like, \u2018Well, no.\u2019\u201d I said, \u201cYou almost expect things to fall on your plate, and when they don\u2019t, you kind of throw your hands up in the air.\u201d It takes two people to communicate. She was just looking at the glass half empty. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat you\u2019ll see in the fourth episode is that pressure-cooker moment of me reaching my breaking point because of how she lashed out a little bit on Chad. When people are hurt, they tend to push away the people that they\u2019re closest to, and I think that day Carly was like, \u201cOh, Bran\u2019s mad at me.\u201d She was talking to everybody else but me, and I wasn\u2019t mad at her. I was just frustrated with her because I loved her so much. I blew a fuse for sure. And it\u2019s not something that I\u2019m proud of. I definitely never want to yell at anybody, let alone a woman.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow does it feel to win a reality show?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt feels incredible. One of my favorite \u201cSurvivor\u201d players of all time is Cirie Fields, and she did a very infamous speech where she was like, \u201cMy mother always said, \u2018You may not be able to beat them with these [points to his arms], but you can beat them with this [points to his brain]. And I tied that into my experience. I was like, \u201cI might not beat you in a race, but I will beat you in brain power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tI have to ask you this. You were just on Alex Cooper\u2019s show. We also saw you at Alix Earle\u2019s \u201cEarle Meets World\u201d premiere. Have you been keeping up with the drama?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI will say, I wish we had more fascination with men than we do with women. These are two very successful, powerful women, and everyone just wants to push this narrative of beef and controversy and picking teams. I personally feel like both of them are incredible and super amazing at what they do, and I think one of those elements that both of them have is they\u2019ll never take a business opportunity away from a mutual friend.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bran Flakezz is anything but \u201cUnwell.\u201d Brandon Edelman, better known as Bran Flakezz online, just emerged as one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282,111062,266361],"class_list":["post-627202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv","tag-unwell","tag-unwell-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}