The first night, Derek was drafted as a member of the Jokers team. And though the rest of the house went awry under the chaos of Brandon “Frenchie” French’s HoH reign, the Jokers were emboldened to stick together, even rallying behind Frenchie as he was targeted the very next week. Most pertinently, he became extremely tight with teammates Azah Awasum and Britini D’Angelo, forming a package deal in the game. At the same time, he and Azah became part of the Cookout, which focused on getting to the final six to guarantee a Black winner. And within the alliance, he had his heart set on the guys, making deals to go to the end with Xavier and Kyland Young, despite their biggest status as threats. Those first couple of weeks set the pace for the rest of Derek’s game. With no plus one spoken for as part of the “master plan,” he simply operated in service to the Cookout, even serving as a pawn for two weeks in a row. As the days (or day beds) ticked by, he began to grow more resentful and argumentative with the women of the Cookout. He and Tiffany Mitchell often butted heads, putting their alliance in jeopardy. And he was growing unhappy with Azah, even telling her to her face that he had “carried” her for the duration of the game. It got to a point where her own closest ally had decided to cut him at the end, as he talked down to her one time too many. Despite all this, Derek entered finale night thinking he had a decent shot at the money with a game he claimed was built on executing every plan he created. Unfortunately, the jury laughed at his responses, and to add insult to insult, they shut him out of the final vote. Now out of the house, Derek talks with Parade.com about what went wrong for him in the final vote, why he chose to align himself with the men of the house primarily, and his rationale behind “carrying” Azah through the game. So it’s been over 12 hours since you left the house as runner-up. How are you looking back on everything that just happened? I’m doing good. Of course, we’re dealing with everything that people see. But I’m doing good. I woke up saying, “Hey, let’s tackle these interviews.” Let’s clear up whatever people have questions about so they can understand. I’m like, “Hey, this is a reality show; we’re gonna entertain.” I think people missed a lot of the jokes and whatnot. But let’s clear the air. The goal this season was to entertain, have fun. But also, we were here for a bigger purpose. And I don’t want that bigger purpose to be clouded by little things. Let’s start with the way things ended. Were you surprised by how the jury reacted to your answers to their questions, or how the votes ultimately shook out? Here’s my thing. In the jury questions, I was being me. I said what I needed to say. I think I lost because I didn’t say things in my goodbye messages. Also, I didn’t go to the jury. I had members of the Cookout talking for me as they went to the jury. Because I didn’t explain what I had done, it was hard for the jury to see why I was there. But here’s the thing. I made a final two with Xavier, and my goal was to make it as far as I could. I knew Xavier did a better game; if I had a key, I would have turned it for him! But I was there to get as much as I could. I wanted to be one of those top spots, and I was okay with getting second. I feel like I did moves that deserved second place, at least. And maybe I should have been more vocal about them. Maybe I should have said, “Here’s what I did this week, this week, etc.” But I didn’t know I had to do that. I did things and lied to manipulate and entertain. I started things like the Slaughterhouse and the Butcher Squad, making sure they were slaughtering each other. I was making sure so many things were being executed that maybe I should have taken the time to say those things. I didn’t really voice them as much because I was having too much fun doing other things. Let’s talk about these “fun things” you were doing. I have heard it said that Big D has one the best social games in Big Brother history. Why do you feel that way? A lot of people come to the game with different types of games. I understand people have cooked and cleaned in the past, where people didn’t really bother them. But I cooked and cleaned, I entertained, I came up with games, I socialized. I distracted people from thinking about the game so much. I’m like, “Let’s play Mafia. Let’s improv.” Also, I’m babysitting, sitting on conversations, making sure people are not having a certain conversation, and making sure people don’t come on to the alliance. My goal is to distract but also to make people laugh. I was there to have a good time and come up with ways to keep people distracted. So I felt like my social game was one of the best social games in history. That’s how I felt, but people might feel different. If you think about it, if you’re sitting there going, “How the hell did he get here?” I mean, I just made it clear. All I did was make a deal. I was a partner in starting the alliance; I talked to each member of the six. Xavier came up with the name, and then Tiffany executed the plan of how we were going to match up with each person. That whole entire time, I had my lines. My goal was to distract, entertain, and do things. Do you think somebody wants to cook and clean and wake up and entertain everybody every damn day? No! But that was my goal. I also had conversations where I felt like I could use to paint targets for the next week or the week after. I also played a part in alliances like the Slaughterhouse and the Butcher Squad that went after each other. I felt like I could only rely on my social game. I’m not a physical competitor, but I gave it my all, and I wanted people to see that. A few weeks into the game, you kept being insistent that a woman should go. You had speculated that a woman’s alliance was forming (which it wasn’t) and decided to join the Cookout men in Xavier and Kyland. Why were you so gung-ho on working with the men and not the women? There was a time when Tiffany was having a conversation about how she would come after Kyland. And I knew at this moment at the beginning of the game, if you remember who was winning a lot of the comps, it was the guys in the Cookout. So I wanted to make sure that I aligned myself with them to further my game. Because I’m also thinking about what are we going to do when we get down to the six. I have to have people I’m working with, or am I going to be in trouble and then end up going out first. So I made sure to align with them. Because I knew the girls were going to play the game of making the guys go after each other so that they could take each other out. That’s what they were planning to do. So I was like, “Let me make sure I get these guys together. Work together. And let’s let it get down to us at the end.” I have to ask about your relationship with Azah. You two played the game from the beginning in the Jokers. But in the past couple of weeks, you constantly told her that you carried her through the game. It got to the point where she actually decided to take Xavier to the end if she won the final HoH because she had felt so angry and demoralized by you constantly talking down her game. What are your feelings on that? It was very difficult. The Cookout never met up and said, “Hey, this is what I did. This is what you did.” We had those conversations because of the fact that we couldn’t get together. If you get together, guess what happens? People want to know, “Oh, why do y’all get together? Something’s suspicious.” So we never got a chance to sit down and say, “Hey, let’s come up with the different things that we have done at the beginning of the game.” Being a part of the Slaughterhouse and the Butcher Squad those first four weeks, I was doing a lot of manipulating and lying. And I did not cross-reference that with Azah. She wasn’t a part of the lot of strategies that I was doing. So when I come in and be like, “Hey, this is what I did.” I wasn’t getting the same thing back. So I felt like, “Okay, I’m doing stuff, but you don’t have to worry about it. I got this; I’m going to protect this.” So when we start getting down to the end, there’s a potential chance I could sit next to her. And I would talk about a lot of the lying and manipulating, and she could just say, “I played an honest game.” And everyone’s going to go with the person who played an honest game automatically. I needed to open the doors to say, “Hey, stop saying you’re going to target Kyland. Kyland is somebody who can win, and you can work with him. Let me have a conversation. I’m going to see what I could do to open that door for you.” Open that door. She made that deal. Then she asked me about my final two. I said, honestly, “Yeah, I do have a final two.” She goes, “Okay, do you think you guys want to work with me to do a final three?” And I’m like, “Alright, let me go say something. Xavier, let me open that door. And then you can go have that.” Is that what made you decide to tell her openly that you never planned on taking her to the final two? I felt like I was doing things to help her further, again, without making deals. Maybe the word choice was not pretty. But at the moment, we were emotional, and a lot is going on, and you’re coming down to the wire. It was just one of those things where she’s always said, “Be honest with me, be honest. Tell me how you feel.” But it was just my opinion. It was not how everyone else’s was. But other people felt that way too and never voiced it. And, of course, you’re on a platform. There are a lot of cameras. And you know how people are. If their favorite doesn’t win, you end up being the villain and stuff like that. We had a great friendship throughout the whole entire game. It’s the last week; it’s high stress. I felt like there was a lot that she didn’t know that I did. I guess it wasn’t even shown to you! But there was a lot that happened, and the only people that knew that were Xavier and Kyland. Next, check out our interview with Big Brother 23 winner Xavier Prather.
