First ‘Big Brother Canada’ evictee Kat Yee says she planted seed before going

TORONTO – Toronto bartender Kat Yee says her fate as the first evictee on “Big Brother Canada” was inevitable, so she planted fake gossip to shake things up before being booted on Thursday night’s live episode.

“It was an amazing experience but I’m kind of happy I’m not in there anymore because I dropped some information before I left that’s going to stir the pot,” Yee, 27, said with a grin in an interview Friday morning.

“I’m dying to know what the fallout from that is.”

Yee said she knew she would be sent packing long before her fellow contestants cast their votes, so she and fellow contestant Aneal Ramkissoon spread a lie about their friendship to advance his position in the game and bust alliances.

Yee said she’d been genuine for the majority of her time on the show but resorted to such duplicity in the end because she wanted to help the contestants she cares for.

“I knew that I was going to go down,” said the sporty Yee, whose penchant for fashionable baseball caps earned her the nickname Kat in the Hat.

“And if there’s anything that I can do to help boost their game or stir the pot and create chaos, (and) maybe they can just sort of navigate their way through the storm, then I would do that for them.”

Such is the unpredictable and deceptive nature of Slice’s spinoff of the hit international franchise, in which contestants live together in a camera-rigged house and compete in physical and mental challenges for a grand prize of $100,000. The winner also gets a $25,000 gift card for The Brick and a Chevrolet Trax.

In Wednesday night’s debut, 15 hopefuls mostly in their 20s moved into the sprawling Toronto-area home and immediately began scheming and forming alliances that continuously change and are essential to making it far in the show.

Vancouver’s Suzette Amaya, who was deemed “Head of Household,” had to nominate two houseguests for eviction. She chose competitors who pose physical threats: Nova Scotia’s Emmett Blois and Tom Plant of Edmonton.

But when Plant won the “Power of Veto” competition, Amaya had to choose a replacement eviction nominee and picked the diminutive Yee.

Yee said she was surprised Amaya put her on the chopping block, since the two had bonded earlier in the week.

“Her and I had a lot of really deep, intense conversations about where we had come from in our lives and the things that we’d overcome and gone through,” she said.

“A lot of it had to do with being picked on and bullied and segregated … and also a lot of the stuff that we felt being in the house.”

Yee also felt there were other contestants — including Vancouver social psychology doctoral student Alec Beall — who posed a bigger threat and should have been nominated.

Alas, once Amaya put the target on Yee and the houseguests began considering her as the first evictee, it triggered a snowball effect and it was “hard for anybody to look any other way,” she added.

“Nobody … wanted to stand out and be the odd man out,” said Yee, who was voted out by a tally of 11-1.

“I would’ve rather been evicted the way that I was than be evicted for something stupid.”

Yee, who auditioned for the show because she thought it would be a good challenge, said she also considers it a compliment to be voted out because it means people found her a threat.

“I met so many incredible people and I had so many amazing, fun moments with them that I never felt once that it was because they didn’t like me,” she said.

“Who knows, maybe I’m totally (wrong), but I really felt as though the friendships I developed while I was there were very sincere.”

And while Yee had an “amazing” time on the show, she’s also happy to be away from the stress and manipulation of the house.

“I feel good coming out because it’s like best-case scenario and … I’d rather be the first person out than the second, third or fourth, because I hold the title of being the first person ever evicted.”

“Big Brother Canada” airs every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday on Slice.

Die-hard fans can also spy on the house 24 hours a day through the Slice website.

Wednesday’s debut episode on Global and Slice netted 3.3 million viewers combined across both channels, according to BBM Canada PPM Data provided by Slice.

“We have a really good group of houseguests and I think that’s what the show comes down to, it’s how exciting are the personalities,” host Arisa Cox said in a telephone interview Friday.

“And we’ve just begun. As soon as we start getting to know these people more and we see a lot more of the intrigue that kind of makes ‘Big Brother’ exciting, I think it’s going to be even bigger than it was when it first launched.”