By now, you'd have to be living under a rock to not be aware of the results of the U.S. presidential election. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump scored a stunning upset to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton and become the president of the United States for the next four years. That is, unless you were living in the Big Brother: Over The Top House, currently airing on the CBS All Access streaming service. Contestants of the show are sequestered in a house with absolutely no outside contact, all communication with friends and family is prohibited, and no news or information regarding what is going on in the world is made available to the houseguests.
The six remaining contestants in the house have been living there since the end of September. Although they obviously knew there was a presidential election approaching between candidates Trump and Clinton, they were not aware of any of the events leading up to the Nov. 8 election, even its results when it had passed.
That is until host Julie Chen announced that Trump had defeated Clinton, in what was a departure from the usual protocol for the show. Contestants were not even informed of the events of 9/11 when they occurred during that season's Big Brother, except for one housemate who had a family member sadly gone missing (and ultimately perish) in the New York attacks. The show, which usually airs each summer on the CBS broadcast network, is in its first streaming-only season, and the fall schedule meant that it was the first time an election was held during filming. Producers then decided to let contestants know who their next president will be.
"It's pretty safe to say you are the only six people in the country, maybe in the entire world, who do not know who won," said host Julie Chen on Thursday night.
When she told the contestants it was Trump who had emerged victorious, all six appeared shocked. They even wondered whether they were being pranked before realizing the new reality they would be eventually exiting the house. Jason Roy, the only gay housemate, wondered out loud "Gay people where were you? Minorities where were you."
As the news sank in, the stunned and dejected contestants decided the best solution would be for them to remain in the Big Brother house for the next four years. You can watch their live reactions in the clip posted to the Big Brother OTT Twitter account or see the embdded video below.
The #BBOTT Houseguests react to the results of the 2016 presidential election. pic.twitter.com/wWd6ZS9HSx — BBOverTheTop (@BBOverTheTop) November 11, 2016
