HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Fresh out of the Big Brother house, season 28 houseguest Lyric Medeiros, 25, dished on the “cutthroat” nature of the reality competition show.
Medeiros, a practicing attorney in Hawaii, told Billy V she was recruited by a casting producer, and chose to participate to honor her late grandmother from Kauai, who passed away in December and was a massive fan of the series.
“When I got recruited, I was like, I have to do this for her. This was one of her favorite shows,” she said.
Sequester and house paranoia
Before entering the “Big Brother” house, Medeiros said contestants must undergo a strict 12-day sequester in a hotel room with no telephone, television, or outside communication.
“It literally is crazy. It makes you nuts,” she said.
Once inside the house competing for the $750,000 grand prize, Medeiros said the environment quickly became intensely stressful.
“The first couple of weeks are super exciting because everyone’s getting to know each other. But at the end of the day, you’re there for a game,” she said. “While you’re friends with the people next to you, you know that you’re secretly wanting to get them out, especially if they’re competition beasts, if they’re going to have power in the house.”
She said she could not sleep during her final three nights in the house due to paranoia, constant whispering in rooms, and feeling like she was in “survival mode.”
“My heart was pounding out of my chest,” she said. “Every room you walk into, you hear whispers or… you see the way people look at you and you’re like, oh my gosh, I’m going home.”
About that surprise showmance
Although Medeiros was evicted after houseguests flipped their votes last minute, she said the experience resulted in a new relationship with fellow contestant Rome Seymour.
She said Seymour supported her during a breakdown in her first week when she was homesick.
“He held me and said, ‘I’m not leaving you until you feel better.’ And that was when I kind of knew like, this is the person that I want to trust in his house and protect, and he did the same for me,” Medeiros said.
“The crazy thing is a lot of people when they watch the show, I’ve heard that they just saw us making out from the get-go and I was like, oh my gosh, my parents are watching this,” she added. “But there were so many conversations we had… before we kissed for the first time. And we just don’t see that on the camera, right? That’s reality TV.”
According to Medeiros, Seymour is planning to visit Hawaii soon, and the couple has discussed potentially competing together on “The Amazing Race” in the future so “people should stay tuned for the content,” she teased.
Did she have a ‘black widow’ strategy?
Addressing viewer comments that she used flirting as a game strategy, Medeiros said her natural warmth made her a perceived threat.
“A lot of people think that my strategy was flirting with all the guys in the house. And I genuinely think I’m just a very friendly, bubbly person,” she said. “Obviously there was one person in there that I really liked and that was Rome, and so that was real. But everything else, I guess you could call black widow strategy is what they’re saying. So I don’t know.”
She said houseguests told her she was safe as a pawn because she was well-liked, only to flip the vote because she had won a previous competition. Despite the blindside, Medeiros said she is happy that fellow contestant LaTrice “Lala” Verrett won the subsequent Head of Household infamous Wall competition.
What’s next for Medeiros
Currently, Medeiros is focusing on posting on social media to build her online community, and she has not yet watched back her season’s episodes yet.
“I’m scared,” she said. “I feel like I need some time to decompress first because if I see my best friends talk bad about me, I’m probably going to get emotional like how I was in the Big Brother house constantly crying all the time.”
While she said she remains open to future reality television opportunities like “The Amazing Race” rather than physically demanding shows like “Survivor,” she plans to eventually return to her career as a practicing attorney.
“If any opportunities presented itself, 100% music, acting, singing. I love all of it. It’s my passion. However, I am still an attorney and that is a big part of my life,” she said.
“For right now, I’m just enjoying these couple of weeks and winding down, transitioning back to daily life because it is crazy going from being in a house full of 16 people coming after you and watching every single move and judging everything that you do to reality where you have people who care about you and they’re not lying to you all the time,” Medeiros said.
‘Mele After Hours’
Also on this episode, radio personality and musician Mele Apana also stops by the studio to talk about her show “Mele After Hours” taking place Friday at Bishop Museum.
The evening celebrates Hawaii’s musical heritage with an outstanding lineup featuring Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award-winning musicians and local celebrities.
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