Big Brother fans are outraged over a controversial houseguest. Kamu Kirk (yes, that is his real last name) has been making headlines since entering the BB28 house, primarily for the wrong reasons.
His remarks – which some deemed homophobic – haven’t helped his reputation in the house, and a video that recently resurfaced from his Instagram won’t get him any more support from fans.
It’s been revealed that the MMA fighter had a video saved in his Instagram highlights referencing George Floyd’s death during an arrest. That has fans calling for Kamu’s removal from the game. Doing so would be in line with what some other reality shows have done.
Big Brother Canada and Love Island USA removed controversial contestants, unlike BB28
It’s not the first time Big Brother US has been at the center of controversy. A precedent had been set with other shows, but evidently Big Brother wasn’t paying attention. Just over a month before Big Brother premiered, Love Island USA made headlines. Vasana Montgomery was removed from the show after a video surfaced of her using the N-word.
Big Brother Canada fans will remember that production had previously acted against a contestant as well. Ahead of Season 9, Ethan Quance had been revealed as one of the houseguests. Then, he was accused of assault, racism, and homophobia. BBCAN producers decided to remove Ethan from the game.
We know from the past that fans and journalists dig deep into contestants, but clearly the BB28 team didn’t do enough of that. The fact that this video was on Kamu’s Instagram highlights and production didn’t see it as a potential red flag is a massive error in judgement. If audiences can find this kind of dirt, then surely some researcher on BB can as well. If they can’t, they need to hire someone capable of finding this out.
We’ve seen the show make some errors in judgement about past houseguests, such as Luke Valentine’s removal for racial slurs in the game and Aaryn Gries’ backlash in Season 15. The difference with Kamu is there’s this video which risked damaging the show’s reputation further while there wasn’t anything like that prior to Aaryn’s appearance on BB15.
As thorough as the vetting process is for reality TV, and believe me, it is extensive, there needs to be constant research and people looking as far back as possible. BBCAN and Love Island USA failed to spot the controversy. That should have been a warning sign to all reality shows that no matter what you know about a contestant, there’s always more. They also shouldn’t rely solely on a contestant’s answers to a questionnaire.
Now CBS casting and Big Brother could be paying a heavy price.
Big Brother airs on CBS on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET while it streams on Paramount+.
TELL US – SHOULD BIG BROTHER EXPEL KAMU FROM THE GAME?
