Good news, everyone: Christmas has been saved! And it’s all thanks to Nicole Franzel.
Already a Big Brother title holder thanks to her season 18 victory, Nicole became the winner of the very first Big Brother Reindeer Games when she overcame a time disadvantage to defeat Xavier Prather in the semi-finals, and then came from behind to beat Taylor Hale in the finals and claim the $100,000 prize.
Everyone was focused on players like Frankie Grande and Xavier for being competition beasts, but it was Nicole who pulled off an impressive string of victories to claim the Reindeer Games crown. She also had to overcome some awkwardness from being stuck in a house with folks like Britney Haynes and Cody Calafiore, both of whom which she had some past personal drama. But in the end, Nicole conquered all.
We chatted with the newly minted champion about her latest Big Brother crown.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First off, how does it feel to save Christmas?
NICOLE FRANZEL: Amazing. I am so happy that I was able to save Christmas, especially for all the little toddlers and babies out there because I have one of my own. So that was really cool.
Are you officially now a comp beast?
It kind of seems that way, but honestly, you know what it is, is I’ve always been good at competitions, but my stress level and my nerves would always get in my way. I think becoming a mom, I’ve realized what stress really is. If your kid’s sick or you grow up and you’re like, “Okay, it’s a little silly competition, let’s try to stay calm and keep it cool.”
I do have anxiety and I get nervous and all of that, but I think for the most part it helps propel me in competitions, like in high school, college, that type of thing. But being on national television is a different level, and I think I just would stress myself out so much that I couldn’t perform to the best of my ability. If you notice, in the last day in Reindeer Games, I was so much more chill than all the other days. I was finally starting to warm up and be myself.
Well, you weren’t chill when you won. You were super excited. How does a Reindeer Games victory stack up to winning the real Big Brother? You’ve been the only person that has experience with both things.
I feel like the Reindeer Games was so special because I had to do it completely myself. There was no one. I had to win competitions. It wasn’t a vote. It wasn’t down to who’s friends with who. There wasn’t any really lying or backstabbing. It was just making genuine friendships and trying to win competitions when you needed to.
So, for me, it was way harder than an actual Big Brother. I played three times and the Reindeer Games was so fast and so much that it took a lot more on emotionally — especially because I loved everyone in there too, so it was really hard not having an enemy. That was difficult.
Were you surprised Xavier did not pick you to go against Frankie in the semi-final round, because it seemed like everyone considered Frankie the biggest comp threat and that was the one chance to and put him at a 30 second delay?
No, I thought that would be such a silly decision. I literally went to Xavier and I said, “Hey, obviously pick me. There’s no other choice for you. Anything else is a stupid game move.” I was just being completely frank and honest with him, because what we’ve seen throughout playing the Reindeer Games is those disadvantages aren’t huge. They’re disadvantages for sure, but Taylor putting the ornaments on the tree — it was like 20 seconds. I didn’t think it was big enough to hold Frankie back.
And also, you want to get to the finale, so you want to be final two. What’s the best way to get final two would probably have been to try to go through me because I am anxious and I haven’t worked out in three years and I haven’t won a lot of competitions. It just makes sense. So I totally respected his decision. I got it. And I would’ve picked me too, for sure.
I know these were long days of filming. How did it compare in terms of exhaustion to the regular game?
So much more exhausted, so much more emotional, and I’m not really sure why. First off, you’re scared because someone leaves every single day. That’s so different. You usually have a week and you have safety, you can chill, you can be yourself. Reindeer Games every day is like you’re fighting for your life. And even if you win the first competition, you can still go home at the end of the day. So there’s no relaxing at all.
I think it was Big Brother and Amazing Race together with a ton of extra even more on top. So until someone plays it, I don’t think you can know how stressful it is because when I’m watching it back, I’m like, “This looks so funny and silly. Why are we so upset? Why are we crying? Why are we emotional in there?” It literally felt like life or death.
From this group of nine, if you could not have won, whom did you want to win?
That’s a good question. From the whole group of nine, I don’t know if I have one person, because I felt like every single person there could have won. Now that I’m so close to all of them, I don’t feel like I can choose just one.
So, you and Britney became allies in the game, but had some personal weirdness you all had to work through first. Had you all really not hashed that out at all before you showed up in the house?
No. I’m a person where I don’t hash stuff out. If you’re just not in my life and I don’t see you and I don’t have to worry about it — out of sight, out of mind. Usually when someone burns me once, I’m just done with ’em. It’s a really bad quality. But my friends know, it’s like, don’t betray me. I just expect such high quality friendship because I feel like that’s what I give. I’m so loyal in the real world, not in the Big Brother world. So I just feel like, why would I?
She said she was sorry before, but it kind of felt like forced more, so you know what? We’ll just go our separate ways. It is what it is. But when I saw her, I hadn’t seen her since — it was just like she felt like home again. We bonded so well on Amazing Race and something about her makes me feel safe and I trust her. Right when I saw her, I was like, “Yeah, I’m going to go all in with her for sure.”
What about Cody? The last time you and I spoke, you were in tears. It was the day after Cody had cut you loose on Big Brother: All-Stars and you were still super emotional about it. So what was it like then kind of working with him again?
I wouldn’t say I worked with him because … Okay, so I did once Frankie won the first competition. I was like, “Okay, I’m going to pretend.” When I first saw him, I was like, “Oh, it’s on.” And once Frankie won, I’m like, “I’m doomed. They’re going to know it was me who told Britney.” But then it looked like a lot of people told Britney the same thing.
And so then I’m like, okay, I need to play some cards here. So I just straight up said, “Are you going to do it? Are you going to put me in?” I kind of expected it, and they’re like, “No.” So I did play with him. Once he picked me to be on his team, I was like, okay, I think I can trust him. Because I went in there and I I never begged to be on his team. I didn’t even know if I wanted to be on his team because I didn’t know what it was. And I was just like, I’m going to let the cards fall where they fall.
And so then when he did leave, I will say I felt a little sad because again, he was someone that protected me on All-Stars for as long as he did, and so it felt familiar. But I think him leaving made me be able to open up and play my game. Instead of counting on him to win comps and play weaker and smaller, I was able to be like, “Alright, I can do this on my own.” So I think it was really good for my game, but I thought at the time: He’s not going to betray me. He feels guilty and I’ll take it.
Judging by Santa’s voice, were you at all tempted to ask him at any point to say “Big Brotherrrrrrrrrrr.”
Yeah, for sure. It was really cool to find out that’s who it was. It was awesome.
Well, congratulations. I guess you’re the first two time Big Brother winner, right? I don’t know if we need to put an asterisk since it’s Reindeer Games, but you’re the first one.
I am. And I kind of knew that was going to happen. I just didn’t know how it was going to happen. For years, I’ve had almost visions of it, and I was like, “I’m never playing again, so I don’t know why I’m getting visions of that.” But I guess what they were trying to tell me was it’s this little Reindeer Games version and I’m taking it. I’m the first two-time winner for sure. No asterisk.