When Cedric Hodges first joined Big Brother, he touted his adaptability as the strength that would get him to the win for Season 26. Unfortunately, though, he wasn’t able to adapt his way out of the bottom three against Makensy Manbeck and Rubina Bernabe on Thursday night’s (August 16) live episode.
After Makensy saved herself by winning the AI Arena, it was down to Cedric and Rubina. Rubina already had the season’s wildcard Tucker Des Lauriers, her snuggle buddy, on her side. Plus, Quinn Martin, Kimo Apaka, and T’kor Clottey decided to turn on the Collective alliance and form a new one with Brooklyn Rivera and Angela Murray. Kimo then became the architect of Cedric’s ouster, and he was evicted with an 8-3 vote (with just Brooklyn joining his The Core allies Chelsie Baham, and Cam Sullivan-Brown in voting against Rubina).
Following his dramatic exit, TV Insider caught up with Cedric Hodges to talk about his eviction from the house and to find out who he’s rooting for now. Plus, he reveals some insider scoop on who was inches from being removed from the Pentagon alliance. (Also be sure to check out our previous exit interviews with Matt Hardeman, Lisa Weintraub, and Kenney Kelley.)
You’ve had a couple of hours to process now. How are you feeling?
Cedric Hodges: I’m feeling blessed. Unfortunately, I’m sad I’m evicted, but at the end of the day, God has things in store.
You seemed to be holding in your emotions when saying your goodbyes, so what were you thinking at that moment?
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It was like, “Don’t break down. You’re not gonna cry. You do this. You’re not gonna cry.” And then you all saw what happened when I got outside the house.
I know this is probably a question you’re gonna get a lot, but do you regret volunteering at this point?
I only regret it because I got evicted. I still think I would do it. … Cam was like, “Why did you volunteer to be a pawn?” My whole point was to test T’kor and Kimo’s loyalty to The Collective because I felt like they needed to be vetted to see if we bring in Leah [Peters] or if we rock with T’kor. We had the votes for me to stay up until we found out Quinn lost his ability to vote with the Deep Fake HoH, so that kind of did me in.
I don’t regret being a pawn. Ultimately, I had two chances to take myself off the block. Didn’t perform well enough, and that led me here. I will say, if I do make it back in a future season, I will not be pawning again. Pawning is out no more.
Speaking of T’kor and Kimo, what did you think about them working to flip the house? And were you more upset by that or by Joseph’s vote?
I was more upset by Joseph’s vote. I can understand T’kor and Kimo working to flip the house, just because they love Rubina so much. But Joseph told me, “Even if it’s eight to one, bro, you know I got you, you know I’m voting for you,” which was frustrating because if Joseph would have told that to Leah, I could have convinced her, or tried to convince her, to be my swing vote at five to stay in the house, Joseph would have remained loyal, and I could swing Leah. I’d still be in the house at five and know T’Kor and Kimo’s loyalty was with Rubina, forcing them to choose the other side.
What does it mean to you that Brooklyn, Chelsie, and Cam stayed loyal to you?
Oh, it means the world. You know, good picks, good picks. I’m very happy, and I’m a good people person, so I’m glad that, barring that I stayed this week, we would’ve went really far in the game.
When I talked to Matt, Lisa, and Kenney before you, they all said that they felt that they were targeted for elimination because they were strong players. Is that how you feel about your exit as well?
Oh, yeah, yeah, 100 percent. I think that that’s just the most rational reason. I take a shot at Tucker in hopes of settling that beef. And when it got down to it, I was the stronger competitor out of Rubina and myself, so I had to go.
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Who is more of a wild card to play with, Tucker or Angela [Murray]?
I think Angela is calming down and Tucker’s ramping up. So I am interested to see where it goes.
Do you think her emotional displays are real, or is she kind of putting it on?
I think that she’s fronting for other people in the house … I don’t really know. I get the vibe from Angela that she’s promising everybody everything to try to stay in the house for as long as possible.
Looking forward, who do you predict is going to be targeted next?
It all depends on who wins HoH this week, I think that the votes being anonymous are the biggest help to the Pentagon members that voted to keep me. So I’m interested to see how everybody spins it and where it all ends up. Whoever wins HoH will be a very interesting nominee to watch.
Now that you’re an audience member, who are you rooting for?
I’m rooting for anybody in the Pentagon, except for Quinn. Interesting tea, the Pentagon was going to cut Quinn at the first double elimination and make the Pentagon a rectangle. So I really want to see Brooklyn, Chelsie, or Cam pull this one out.
What else are you looking to see happen? How do you think things are going to go now that the alliance has been taken down one?
Yeah. I’m interested to see who everyone chooses to align with, if they’ve been exposed and still choose to work together and just compete, or if they mend relationships that they might have broken. I still very much feel like Tucker’s not long for the game and that he’s going to get backdoored as soon as it’s possible—not because of what he said, but because he has a bunch of comp points already. He’s volunteered to be on the block twice. So if it was time to vote today, Tucker would win the game.
Looking back throughout the season, what were some of your favorite competitions that you did?
My favorite competition, which is a sore one for me, has to be, “Binary Bridge.” It was really fun to play. It was an amazing veto. I just wish that some of the guesswork of the competition was taken out so it became more of a memory challenge than a guessing challenge. But at the same time, I understand. “Ainsley’s Land” was really fun, too. I might be biased a little bit, but those are my favorites.
Overall, what does being a part of Big Brother mean to you? And like you said, you want to come back?
It means a lot to me. And the reason why I want to come back is because everybody’s amazing. There’s a bunch of people you don’t see that are amazing, and just overall, the experience is crazy. You get cut from the outside world and immediately thrown into this new world where the only thing you know is these 15 other people that you have to live with. So you build really strong relationships, and I could say I made some of my closest friends in the world, not only through the military but through the Big Brother house.
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