Clay Honeycutt – Big Brother 17 Eviction Interview

Clay Honeycutt was evicted from Big Brother 17 this week after giving up his game and asking other Houseguests to send him home over his showmance partner Shelli.

Clay Honeycutt evicted from Big Brother 17
Clay Honeycutt evicted from Big Brother 17 – Source: CBS

Clay’s eviction marked the last player to not make it to the Jury stage of the competition which means while we will see him again at finale he won’t be deciding who takes home the $500K prize he walked away from.

Update: Clay shares a fan Q&A with Pop’s Big Brother After Dark:

I talked with Clay today about giving up his game for Shelli, or as he prefers to call it “sacrificing” his game to keep her in the house. Find out about the comments he made of Meg last night to Julie Chen and what was going on with the decision that lead to their downfall last week.

What made you decide to give up your game for Shelli?

Clay Honeycutt: I really don’t want to put it as giving up. One of us had to leave. Honestly, I was on the fence about it then we were talking about the messages we left for ourselves at [press junket] day. She told me how emotional she got doing hers because she was finally here and it meant so much to her to finally have this opportunity and has wanted this so bad for so long.

I didn’t want to be the person to take that away from her. It was very unfortunate for us to be on the Block together. You know, one of us had to go and I sure as hell can’t campaign against the girl.

So, you know, I made my decision and I sure as hell don’t think it was giving up. It was a sacrifice more than anything and you know what, I’m okay with that. I can sleep knowing that what I did was for her and an act of unselfishness.

No regrets on that waking up this morning?

Clay: Waking up of course I wanted to be in the game. I don’t know what would have been worse: me being in the game without her or me being out of the game.

Was there any time this week when you had second thoughts on not campaigning to stay?

Clay: It was kinda one of those thoughts you don’t want to think about. You knew it was coming up and a decision had to be made. You kept pushing it off and pushing it off. My decision was pretty much made the night before when I had this conversation with her about how much this has meant to her.

Not to say this hasn’t meant a lot to me because this has been an extremely awesome experience. I’ve been extremely blessed to have this.

I think that we were on the Block for unfortunate reasons and I didn’t think she should pay the price for that. She’s been an extremely loyal player and an extremely honest player and very trustworthy. That got her on the Block.

As for getting on the Block, 2 weeks ago Clay & Shelli were sitting pretty in the house right down the middle of it. Then the Jason renom happened and things went downhill from there. Why did they deny involvement in that plan?

Clay: It’s not that we denied it. We did initially, but we had every intention of telling them our role in this whole situation. We looked back and knew that was our only flaw of this plan was not having a story to say right after this took place. That did bite us in the butt.

We never wanted Jason to leave. We wanted Jason to stay for our own game and for personal reasons. We know now that we should have stuck with the plan and Backdoor’d Austin.

Tell us about the Vanessa blow-up on Thursday afternoon before you were evicted.

Clay: That was completely blown out of proportion. A lot of it was a miscommunication on everyone’s end. It all started when I went to Vanessa looking out for her making sure her and Johnny Mac weren’t targeting each other. He mentioned to me that he was worried about Vanessa and she would be his next target. I wanted to make sure that they would not target each other.

I guess me doing that and looking out for her bit me in the butt because she of course blew it out of proportion, turned on Johnny Mac, backed him in to a corner.

I just ended up saying I’ll take the blame for this and just say that I made it up. I didn’t want to throw away Johnny’s game. I tried to take as much blame for that as I could.

Why did you tell Julie Chen that Meg had “her fair share of showmances with pretty much everyone in the house” when Julie brought up the flirting?

Clay: It was a running joke in the house. She is a cool girl. Everyone loves her. She gets along with all the guys.

As far myself and Meg, there was never any type of showmance, romance, or connection there between us whatsoever. She’s a great girl. Fun to be around. However, I’m not sure how it was portrayed as far as me and her being in a showmance or having feelings, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

My comment about her being in a lot of showmances, that’s an open joke in the house. She is friends with all the guys in the house. She’s close with all the guys in the house. She’s a likable person.

Name your prediction for who you think will win this season:

Clay: I know you’re going to think I’m biased, but I’m going to say Shelli. I think she has one of the better shots to win this game. She’s extremely intelligent player. She knows this game inside and out. She’s extremely competitive. She’s won two HoHs, could have won a third HoH. I think she has a good chance.

I think her working with Vanessa betters her chance because she’s very smart as well and she’s going to win comps. Those two aligning with the twins and Austin give them numbers. Those five right there are deadly. I think them sticking together, however if someone like a Johnny Mac went really far or even Steve if his competitions start coming up.

What’s next for Clay Honeycutt?

Clay: I’m going back to Texas and spend some time with my family. I’m really looking forward to that. Probably enroll back in school and finish up my masters at Texas A&M.

Fans can follow Clay on Twitter @c_honey25.

Watch our preseason interview with Clay to compare how his season turned out.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

Commenting Rules: Keep the conversation civil and on topic. If your comment does not add to the conversation, it will be removed. Debate intelligently. Insulting the author, Big Brother Network, or other commentators will result in comment removal and possible ban. Any comments with links or flagged words will go into moderation before approval. Anything we deem as spam will not be approved. Comments left in ALL-CAPS will be deleted regardless of content.

120 Comments

  1. I personally think the houseguests made the wrong choice, as evicting shelli, the girl who has won 2/7 HoHs, would have been smarter for every houseguest’s end game. plus vanessa would have no allies left except for steve. ( + austin, liz and julia are on their own)

    • I really think they made the wrong choice too. I will never understand the “leave the bigger targets in the house” logic. It just leaves me speechless.
      Last night my mom kept asking “Why? Why would they do this? What are they thinking?” and I just kept telling her “because they’re morons” (along with other even less nice variations on that thought). But that’s the only explanation I see. They had a fantastic chance and they threw it away.

      • Vanessa is playing her side of the house like a fiddle. Of course, all her crazy nonsense and lies punched her in the face yesterday. Believe it or not, I think Shelli flips to work with Becky, assuming Lieesaa gets shown the door before the DE. She’ll have no other real options

      • Liz isn’t being put up and the twins made a deal with Becky, so she isn’t a renom option at this point. I don’t see her going home in the first vote on Thursday.

    • I think most of us agree they made the wrong choice and for that very reason I now have gone from actively rooting against Shelli to rooting for her. They had their chance and now I hope she takes them all out for their stupidity.

  2. I really don’t want to put it as giving up. One of us had to leave. Honestly, I was on the fence about it then we were talking about the messages we left for ourselves at [press junket] day. She told me how emotional she got doing hers because she was finally here and it meant so much to her to finally have this opportunity and has wanted this so bad for so long.

    I didn’t want to be the person to take that away from her. It was
    very unfortunate for us to be on the Block together. You know, one of us had to go and I sure as hell can’t campaign against the girl.

    Another reason why recruits should be vetted to make sure they at least have commitment to fighting for the prize money.

    I don’t believe it’s about a meaningful 6 week love affair. I think he had zero interest in the game and was feeling crazy pressure/emotional burden from Shelli so he used the excuse of “not campaigning” to get the hell out of the house and away from the circus.

    • because if you know someone for 50 days, you love them with alllllllllll of your heart. lol no please stop clay.

      • They were a little too dramatic for my taste. I appreciate that they do seem to care about one another and it wasn’t just a fling, but they acted like he was being executed or something. He’s going home, not to the gallows. Chill.

      • they don’t realize that you have a life outside of the house, and YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE THESE PEOPLE ONCE THE GAME IS OVER. my oh my.

    • I don’t know if his interest in the game was quite that low, but I do agree they need to look for more people who won’t just cry in a corner when nominated and throw their games away when things don’t go according to plan.

      • He started with the “I’m going to have them vote me out” declaration to Shelli about a minute after the noms were made. That tells me he was looking for a way out of the game the second he knew it was a possibility. Before that he wasn’t looking to bail because he was in a power seat. But the second it became obvious one of them had to go, he volunteered. No personal investment in the title = no personal investment in the game.

    • If he’d had a crew of “bros” there, he might have wanted to stay longer. Austin, James, them don’t seem to be the type of “bros” he prefers. Like in times past, when there have been a crew of guys whom you knew would be buds for life – that’s what I mean. That might have kept him interested longer, having fun.
      He should not have been recruited. He’s pretty but I tend to think I agree with you that his heart just wasn’t in it.

  3. all Clay and Shelli had to do was stick to the plan to evict Austin last week-James would have trusted them and gone after the twins this week instead of Clay/Shelli. They outplayed themselves.

  4. WOW this dude is STILL completely delusional!!! I hope being out of the house and maybe even watching some clips from feeds etc. He gets it….He has lied so much in the house that he has convinced himself of them!

    • And convinced himself that Shelli is “honest and trustworthy!” She isn’t even honest with herself. She’s way too self-absorbed. If I had to rank dishonest players, Van, Shelli & Audrey would be up in the top 3.

      • No kidding!! Did you see the georgia peach edit CBS gave her last week?? When she got HERSELF evicted over a lame shirt!?!….I think they are gearing up to try and bring her back. Or…Make Vanessa look like some brilliant mastermind who saved herself.

  5. I thought he was an idiot from the beginning, now after his interview, I was right! What a waste.

  6. I would like to see an interview with Clay after he has watched the entire season to see what his opinion of Vanessa is afterwards. I’m not a fan of him nor Shelli but they seem to have blinders on when it comes to Vanessa. Jason was there downfall but that came at the price of following Vanessas lead. She has used them from day one and as much as she says shes loyal and honest, shes really only loyal and honest to herself. She threw Shelli and Clay to the wolves then stood back and watched. She would step in to make it look like she was helping and was really just stirring the pot. There was no miscommunication when the fight ensued, she was targeting JMac and when she couldnt throw him under the bus she threw Clay. She was telling Shelli he was campaigning against her to get Shelli to turn on him. Shelli seems extremely fake so I won’t take much to get her going. As for Shelli making it to the end, she may need to switch sides cause Vanessa will drop her and the other side seems to have opened their eyes.

    • He needs to watch the clips on youtube, too. Or get the feeds and watch what really happened. Then again, if he keeps his blinders on while watching, it won’t help him at all.

  7. It took him a while, but he learned that Big Brother is not about volunteering your time to under privilege kids, but instead you’re locked in the house for 90 days with crazy people….he shouldn’t have been casted.

  8. Why not ask him why he and Shelli opted not to rat out Vanessa to save themselves? Why put Vanessa’s game ahead of their own?

    • That was all Shelli! Shelli picked Van over saving Clay the instant she decided to protect Van.

    • Clay was well trained by Shelli and at this point Shelli and Vanessa are closer because they are both manipulative and poor excuses of women, so they have that at least to bond on.

  9. He is still a loser, the way he was bullying James and talking down to him wasn’t necessary and I think he was just trying to show off for Meg, house is better off without him. now neither him or Shelli will have the chance to be together in jury, that is a plus for those that can’t think for themselves, which happens to be most of the house this season.

    • Do you mean show off for Shelli? Clay had a hot head several times this season. His mom had to click her fingers and admonish him each time.

      • I saw Meg talking to him in the feeds, when James walked in and was making a point, then Clay decided to pull his tough act and jump out of bed, James wasn’t even intimidated just stood there and walked past him, yeah it was stupid as it sounds.

      • I know that Meg was there. I watched the clip, but don’t remember when Shelli walked in. I don’t think that he was doing anything for Meg, though. Maybe it was his bruised ego.

    • I would have to agree, James certainly has more self control than I would of in that situation, walking up on him like that. guys like Clay act all tough when a girl is around but act like anti social puppies, when around mature individuals who aren’t intimidated by their bullshit, I for one will be watching more now that Clay is gone.

  10. Does anyone know what subject clay is pursuing for his Masters?
    Besides football of course…

    • According to a website he was a health major graduating in 3.5 years and is pursuing a Masters in Sports Management.

  11. Matt, wish you had asked him what his real mama thought of his 6 week mom (Shelli.) I bet she game him an earful today!

    • I bet his mom and dad both are pissed… I’m sure they are paying a fortune on that A&M college and that little punk throws 500k away. No way he should have been casted. I’m sure his looks helped him land on the show, but his actions just cost him future ones. CORRECTION: maybe one of the real housewifes.

  12. I’d also like to know what he thinks of how America sees them. They are not America’s sweethearts like they think. Shelli wanted to be the new Jeff and Jordan. One huge problem there – Jordan is a nice, truely caring, honest person that you just couldn’t help but like. Shelli is just a straight up evil, fake to all ends mean girl. You can see how fake she is and shes not a good actress. It really came to light in the Audry evection. She left her fake goodbye message and Audrys face gave it all away. If looks could kill. She seemed touched by everyone elses message or even thouggt they were funny but Shellis made her look like she had nothing but hatred for her.

    • What I couldn’t stand was that Shelli whines and sobs, until she gets what she wants. Then she flashes that evil grin of hers. If ANY of her tears had been real, I might be inclined to feel sorry for her.

    • Anyone that bought into that facade of a relationship is in serious need of a wake up call, Shelli was campaigning against Clay before he was even out the door, she is a divorcee for a reason. Clay dropped his game for nothing, one of the worst BB players. just sucks that Jason had to go home before he did.

    • I agree 100%. I think bb producers also pushed it but what they don’t realize is that jeff and jordan were so likeable individually and their conversations were hillarious, viewers were waiting throughout the season for them to finally get together. Clelli jumped in both feet first week and their interactions were more creepy than anything else.

    • Ok I believe every girl wants to have a Jeff/Jordan type chemistry. It is so rare to actually see something that is real on reality TV. In all honesty, it border lines life as in the probability of finding love at first sight and to actually capturing it is once in a life time.
      There is a reason why Jeff/Jordan garnered so much support. It was very gradual affection and never once did it come off as being creepy. This could be due to a little help in editing but Jeff and Jordan personality made it much easier for providing material.

    • Jeff and Jordan were more fun to watch, they just got closer through circumstance and develop as the season go but they never profess their love and all that like shelli and clay were doing, like one said they’re too dramatic for her taste, plus who likes to watch an older divorced woman cuddling with a 10yrs younger guy, maybe on another show but definitely not on big brother. If it would have been clay and one of the twins or Meg, there might be a chance that people think the showmance is cute. But clellie Boo….

  13. Clay QUITTERS are LOSERS and to do it for an older women with a flighty past is seriously ‘your family needs to have a talk with you’

    What there is no Texas beauties any more?

    Take Meg up on the invite to N.Y., the models their will blow you away, younger, prettier, good earners, many are from the Mid-west, you could have you pick, plus their is always Meg too.

  14. Not interested in exit interview. Only want to say ~ Clay is an arrogant self-centered womanizer. Meg and Shelli weren’t enough for him inside the house. He needed to get out to ‘stretch’ his legs~

    • I don’t understand why he wasn’t penalized for that, since he did touch James when pointing at him, I swear James is the zen master for not doing anything, just makes him smart. Clay isn’t worth tossing the game for, even though Clay himself tossed it for someone worse than he is, at least Clay has the excuse of being slow and stupid, Shelli is just manipulative and delusional.

      • James was a Prison Guard for three years so he probably has some training in avoiding physical combat. Plus he seems pretty level-headed.

      • Not only was he a prison guard, but also was in the military. He is diciplined and knows how to control himself unlike Clay.

  15. He ain’t listening right now. Maybe when he’s 30, and working – even a great job – he’ll think back to himself: “I could have had a half a mil! I can’t believe I gave up a shot at that!” :) Half a mil = Half a mil. If you still want to date her after the show, sweep her off her feet and take her to a nice vacation in Europe or Mexico/whatever.
    It’s a shame because at that point in the game, I really think Clay being “less a target” than Shelli, with his social game, he could have rebuilt relationships in the house and gone further. I think he actually had the best shot to go further.

    • I disagree. Clay social game wasn’t that great especially when around Shelli. Clay is young and is prone to blow ups and is not very good at keeping his mouth shut, losing his temper, or “mending fences.” He uses his size as a way of getting respect from those who disagree with him.
      Who is to say if it is stupid or not for him to give his game up for Shelli. What happened if we knew for a fact that Shelli and him would end up staying together forever. She has a better chance of actually winning more diverse competitions than he does, has a better social game, and her size doesn’t exactly draw a lot of attention. There is a reason that more often than not, that people who look physically intimidating RARELY, if ever, win this game.

  16. i am so confused about this whole Vanessa/Clay/James/John fight…. can somebody please explain???

      • Basically Clay & JMac were talking. Clay told JMac to stick with Shelli & Van. Van saw them. Clay then tried to convince Van to keep JMac safe. She took it as Clay was throwing her UTB and had convinced JMac to keep Clay. She first tried to blame it on James, which didn’t work. James and Clay blew up at each other.

        Next, she tried the, “why me?”/crying routine while trying to intimidate Clay and JMac into saying they had lied. Clay tried to take the blame to take a target off of JMac. JMac deflected her by just shutting up.

        James jumped in with the whole clearing his name about the bullying and a few other lies being spread about him. Which led Shelli to realize that Van had tried to play her, too.

        Whole thing was based on something stupid that Van blew WAY out of proportion.

        (Several versions of it are on youtube.)

  17. Clay speaking of going back to finish his masters….if I were his parents, he’d definitely be paying for that education with student loans and working while he was in school to pay for extras. Not saying they are, but why should they foot his bills after doing something as ignorant as what he did? I think it was ignorant anyway. The money he could have made just in jury could have helped with his expenses tremendously. Maybe he is use to things getting handed to him on a silver platter.

    • He did mention in the interviews before entering the house that if he won, he would use the money to pay off his students loan debts. And he’s also a model, so I am not sure why everyone keeps saying he’s used to getting things handed to him on a silver platter. Just because he looks good? That’s hours and years spent in gym to shape that body, it ain’t happened overnight.
      I, for once, would LOVE to get things handed to me on a silver platter, by WINNING a competition right this, instead of working my asses off 24/7. (Nahhh … I am too lazy to go 24/7, perhaps a few hours during weekdays, that’s the limit!)

  18. After reading his exit interview and comparing it to his exit from the house with Julie, he did in some way admit to knowing about the Jason eviction (we all know he had a hand in it). He still hasn’t admitted he hand a hand in it. He claims they denied it at first and they did. He claims they came clean about knowing and somewhat they did but he never, I repeat NEVER has admitted to having a hand in it. I wonder if I made that clear yet.

    Also, he said it was a running joke in the house about Meg, yet I didn’t hear anything about this so called joke till just now. ANYONE ELSE HEARD ABOUT BEFORE? If this was just a joke (not saying it is or isn’t), then why would he tell Meg not to say anything about it when they just hugged if no one took her serious. Maybe he wanted more than what Shelli was willing to offer after all.

    • I think he just didn’t want Shelli to find out. Liz was the easy one in the house. She went from Jace to Jeff to Austin. I didn’t see any of that from Meg at all. She was buddies with the guys, but not flirty. My jaw dropped open when Clay threw Meg UTB to Julie in front of the audience. Shame on him!

      • He is totally covering his ass and throwing Meg under the bus in the process. She should be pissed when she gets out and sees his exit interview, because he totally slut shamed her. What an asshole.

      • That’s really taking the context to the extreme, right?
        Showmance equals slut shaming, hmm.

      • Not knowing what “context to the extreme” means (I suspect you want another word other than “context”), but yes. He said that Meg was “showmancing” with all the guys in the house. Then he back pedaled in his interview with BBN by saying she is friends with all the guys. The implication in his interview with Julie was fairly clear … he absolved himself of any responsibility, put it all on Meg, and then said she does that with all the guys. So yes, I would call that slut shaming.

      • You need a new definition for the word “slut” then.
        Clay actually didn’t call Meg any of that, you kinda did hehehe.

      • Read carefully, my friend. I never said he called her a slut. I said Clay implied it in the way in which he portrayed Meg when talking to Julie Chen. It’s called nuance, and in our current cultural climate, slut shaming women has become so accepted that people like you do not recognize it when you see it. It’s is entirely possible that you are not yet a very critical thinker. If you would like me to recommend some excellent sources for you to read, I am happy do so.

      • Not interested with any critical thinking stuff that associate showmance with slut shaming. If that makes me a dork or whatever you think of me, then I am proud to be whatever that you think of me.

      • Sigh. This is exactly what I mean. I am not associating showmances with slut shaming. In fact, I am doing just the opposite.

      • I’d love to be called a punk, tho … sigh.
        And whoredog? Perhaps? Hahaha, so will that make me as badass as Clay? I will be honored!

      • Everyone had there opinion… I’m he would be honored that you feel this way about him.

        I’m sure he is very nice guy. I just really hate to see him waste a great opportunity and be seen as a quiter.

      • Calling a girl “easy” when he was the one that grabbed her first is throwing her UTB and uncalled for, IMO!

      • Who called her “easy”?
        If anything she made herself look bad by saying “can’t wait to get you drunk in NYC, baby”. If Clay or any guy said that to a girl all hell would break loose. She actually was flirty with the guys in the live feeds but just not as blatant as Liz was. And it was so obvious she had a crush on Clay the whole time and was mad he went with Shelli instead of her. Her drunken rant proved all that.

      • Sweetheart you must not watch feeds much…..Or the show for that matter….I mean dont you think if your perception was right that the entire audience and 90% of the fans would have seen it that way too?? I cant stand women who always find a way to blame the girl! You should get some good head phones and flash back to that whole incident. Because obviously you havnt even seen it. Or you miss most of the conversation….

      • He just needed a hug, was that bad? Besides, Meg followed him to the bathroom after she saw Shelli was called to the DR. Anyway, Vannessa is about to be renom, let’s cheer about that

      • I almost fell over too when made his comments to Julie about Meg. As I said before if that camera was not there I have a very strong feeling that would have gone much further.

    • I do believe Meg has a massive crush on Clay. He has that all American look to him as well as being tall and fit.
      I do think Meg is a bit boy crazy and very flirtatious. I have heard many comments that she has said and you can see how she hangs out from one guy to the next. She was in bed with Jeff (not doing anything from what I can see but still under the covers). She said something flirtatious about having james take her to outback and hinted how he may get lucky. (Again I don’t think she actually meant he would get lucky.) So when Clay mentioned it is a running joke, I bet he meant in in a playful way and not as an insult. It is highly likely it is taken out of context considering we are not able to hear what goes on in the house 24/7.

      • I totally agree with you. And also to all the other people jumping to Meg’s defense SHE is the one that said “can’t wait to get you drunk in NYC, baby”. She is the one that made herself look bad to begin with. Clay was more than likely telling the truth but probably should have said it in a different way. I guarantee if any guy or Clay said what she said there would be a huge uproar about it but since “sweet innocent” Meg says it then it’s harmless. Double standard. Never cared for Meg and after that happened I really didn’t like her.

      • But if you have the feeds, you can hear more than what you see on the shows or on here. Not once did anyone ever say Meg had showmance with all the guys and yes it was probably to deflect his action so Shelli wouldn’t call him on that.

  19. Of course they made the wrong choice.. these HG are idiots.. they think ‘hiding behind a power player’ as a shield is going to get them further in the game. All this was, was Vanessa bullying her alliance in to voting the way SHE wanted–to better her own game. No worries, Karma is a feeders best friend in the BB house–Vanessa is getting hers this week.. Shelli will be right behind her at double eviction!

  20. He left because he doesn’t know how to play the game! Shelli was the brains behind this team. He couldn’t win competitions and could not problem solve to move further in the game. I love his “hero stance” to save face. I also love how he throws Meg under the bus to save face for himself. A real man! Shelli and Clay were both liars and deceitful – that is the name of the game. Now to act like they played such an “honest, truthful game” is a joke.

Comments are closed.