Big Brother Season 24 just began Week 5, and as Nicole Layog’s eviction continues to further shape the house, it’s amazing to think how drastically this game changed from Week 1. (You can revisit all past events with our special Big Brother spoilers recap guide here). Paloma Aguilar’s unexpected exit for personal reasons forced the game to do a soft reset and abandon its twist for a new one, and it also impacted the Houseguests. Viewers watched as Houseguests cried and joined hands in prayer following her exit, and Ameerah Jones recently shared a bit of perspective for why she also wept.
The moment was emotional, but there were a quite a few reactions online that questioned the intense emotional response. Big Brother 24 had only started the prior week, and yet Houseguests were in tears for a person they only knew that long. Ameerah spoke to CinemaBlend about that big moment, and shared why she cried too:
Yeah, and let me tell you I am not an emotional person. I went into the Big Brother house saying, ‘I am not going to cry like all these people I see on TV.’ First of all, it’s not just you enter the house. You go through this sequester period where you’re broken down, basically. This process took us months and months and there’s only certain people who understand what you went through. For me, it was like a placed myself in her shoes and I know how hard it was to get to this point. And we also, we watched Paloma, we watched her break down essentially. It wasn’t pretty. It was very sad and upsetting and I have family with mental illness and so I felt her there.
As Ameerah mentioned, Big Brother Houseguests are subjected to a period of isolation a couple of weeks before the actual game to prevent spoilers and outside interference (like wall yellers who frequently impact the game). By the time fans and Paramount+ subscribers watching the live feeds see the start of the game, some of these people haven’t had a ton of interaction with others for a while. They also have to go through an apparently strenuous application process to actually make it that far, so Ameerah felt Paloma endured all that for an unexpected exit.
Ameerah noted that another part of the sadness was seeing the change in Paloma from the beginning of Big Brother to her exit. Ameerah talked about that, and how quickly bonds are formed in the game with other Houseguests:
A lot of us, we watched her come into the house as this starlight, and very excited about this experience. And to just watch her fall, it was heartbreaking. You spend twenty four seven with these people. Even in the six days we get to know so much about them in so little time. I think that’s why it affected us all so much to watch her fall like that.
Paloma Aguilar spoke to fans on social media following her exit, and briefly touched on the event that ultimately gave Taylor Hale new life in the game. Paloma described her incident as a “mental break” in comments on TikTok, and anyone who followed the live feeds knew that something was going on. Given Ameerah’s comments, it’s easier to see why the Houseguests cried, and felt so bad for someone that they’d only known for a short time.
Big Brother airs on CBS (opens in new tab) on Sundays and Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET and on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. Tune in for more drama. For more on our conversation with Ameerah, read up on what she had to say about the season’s controversy and backlash she experienced after her eviction.
