‘House of Villains’: Johnny Middlebrooks on Why the Worm Challenge Was Even Worse Than It Looked & More

After Ashley started feeling unwell, she was medically discharged from the game, leaving Kate to replace him with Tyson Apostol, whom she thought was disloyal for not standing up for his ride-or-die Tom Sandoval — a man who later wore a nurse’s uniform, jumped in the pool fully clothed, and even went so far as to lie in a vat of slithering worms for him in the redemption challenge.

Ultimately, it was Tyson who handled business, though, winning out against both Johnny and Paul in a contest for safety by eating one more mealworm (of dozens!) than Johnny in a tiebreaker.

Ahead of the banishment ceremony, Johnny worked to secure the house’s votes to keep him, but Tom unexpectedly blew up at him, still peeved about the time when Johnny considered putting Tom up as a pawn but, after Tom’s vocal objections, did not do so.

Though even Tiffany “New York” Pollard, who has been critical of Johnny all season, seemed primed to keep Johnny up until that blowup, everything changed, and only Drita D’Avanzo voted for him to stay in the mansion.

So where did it all go so wrong? How does Johnny feel about the argument with Tom now? And how gross was that worm-eating challenge, really? TV Insider caught up with Johnny Middlebrooks to find out!

About that hookup, what’s the status of you and Ashley now?

Johnny Middlebrooks: It’s great to know that she’s doing well. But outside of that, we’re just cool, follow each other on social media. The hookup status was — it did not happen, OK. The covers come over us, and everyone’s like, “Oh, they definitely had sex.” No, we just, we kissed, and we had a wild night. A lot of alcohol was involved. And we just, one thing led to another, but it didn’t lead to that.

How did you feel about her kind of parading around the house naked all the time? It seemed like she always had her clothes off?

Yeah. I mean, being in the room with her, she would just be talking — one of the first days we were there, I’m having a normal conversation with her. She’s like, “Oh yeah.” [Imitates stripping down.] I’m like, “You realize that’s crazy, right?” But I just got used to it. So it wasn’t really so wild when she jumped in the pool naked and jumped on my back, and, yeah, she was just on one that night, and didn’t make me uncomfortable. It was just kind of like, OK. I mean, I can be mad at seeing a naked girl all the time.

Moving on to a non-romantic issue. You and Tiffany “New York” Pollard had a lot of friction right away. What was it like to be on her bad side? The idea of that just scares me.

Yeah, I don’t know. I think New York just immediately started picking fights with me for no reason. I didn’t give her any reason to come for me. But it was strange with New York because it would just turn on and off so quickly. We’d have a normal, casual conversation, and then we’re in a group setting, she would lash out at me, and I’m like, “That’s coming out of left field.” But it never really seemed like New York at the time, while I was there, had any real influence. So it didn’t really scare me too much. It just kind of caught me off guard.

Seemed like maybe you had changed her mind towards the very end, though.

Yes. It seemed like she was kind of just trying to ease my mind. It’s just you can never really take anything that she said too seriously because she’s done this two times before, and she clearly has an agenda… She’s lashing out for a reason. I mean, she’s doing it for a reason.

Kate came after you, obviously. Do you think that if you hadn’t been a supervillain and gotten the backlash that they cited, do you think they would have still gone after you anyway, because you were in the alliance you were in?

I think the supervillain role definitely puts a target on your back, I mean, because I did have to put up Kate and New York, and that immediately puts a target on your back for those people coming back in the house. So maybe it would have been a little bit different. But me, Paul, and Ashley, I felt like were the obvious pick, just because we just weren’t working with the other side of the house. So it can only be expected.

With Tom and Tyson, were you surprised at their decision to kind of walk away from you guys?

Not super surprised, just because I always kind of had a weird feeling about Tom ever since I was supervillain. I told him, “Hey, bro, I might need to put you up as like a pawn.” He just had this disdain towards me, which is why I came to him before the banishment ceremony, just to kind of make amends, and it blew up my face. He kind of took a whole ‘nother approach. He never let my potential decision go, and it just kind of blew up my face. And I think that Tyson and Tom were just working so closely with each other that once me and Tom kind of blew the lid off of it, Tyson kind of just had to go in that direction and appease Tom.

Were you surprised by what Kate revealed about Tyson and how he was kind of going around on Tom’s back?

I’m not gonna say I was surprised, just because Tyson is a veteran in this, and I think that his social game is so smooth. He can easily just make everyone feel like he’s got their back, and it works for him. Because me and Tyson were really cool, but he didn’t owe me sh*t. He didn’t have to tell me everything that he had going on. Everything that I was doing, the people in my alliance, I’m going to be very transparent. And maybe that kind of came back to bite me in the ass, because it was laid out perfectly for everyone to see once the covers were pulled back.

How did you know Drita would ride for you so hard in the redemption?

Drita and I were just really cool. I mean, we had a lot of personal conversations about her daughter, her home life. I would hear all her stories about just her really, really interesting life. And then she always watched me on my shows beforehand. So we just had a really good relationship. I consider her a friend, so I just knew that she was going to look out for me. I would have done the same thing for her.

She was the one who voted to keep you. Was there anyone else’s vote that surprised you?

I felt pretty good going into the banishment until the argument with Tom. I felt like going into it, I had Tyson’s vote, I had maybe Christine [Quinn]’s vote. I felt like I could have had it. Could have gone either way, but the argument with Tom kind of just solidified it for me. It kind of sealed my faith, to be honest.

Do you blame him, then, for your banishment?

I don’t necessarily blame him… Indirectly, yes, because the conversation and the argument was so unnecessary. I was really coming to make amends with him, and he was just like talking down, disrespectful, because he was safe. And it was just a really weird interaction, and just — excuse my language — but kind of p***y in a way, because it’s like, “Bro, you’re butthurt because I thought about [it]? How dare I think about putting you up and tell you about it?” I was transparent about what I was doing, and just his feelings were so hurt by it. It was so weird, I don’t know. But yeah, I think it indirectly did affect my position in the house.

So you think he was sincere, and that wasn’t just him making an excuse for what he was going to do? That he was sincerely hurt. 

I mean, if he was sincerely hurt by that, that’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. Maybe he was, but I think it was just he blew it out of the portion to make a scene, yeah, but I think we actually were hurt by it. It’s weird.

I want to talk about the redemption. That was gross, but you seemed oddly more freaked out about lying in the worms than eating them. So I just wonder what that was about.

Yeah. I mean, it’s just like having those little mealworms just biting on you. It’s just a really uncomfortable feeling. I mean, they’re crawling on my shorts. They’re in my armpits, on my neck. It was just, it was weird. And also, they told us beforehand, “If you’re allergic to shellfish, you cannot do this.” I’m allergic to shellfish. But I was like, “I’m not potentially risking getting thrown out of the house because I just opt out of a challenge.” So that’s another reason why I kind of look a little like, “I hope I don’t have an allergic reaction to this,” but I did it anyway. The worms, eating the worms. That was disgusting, though. But it was just like, “This is do or die. I gotta go against Tyson. I gotta come to play.”

And you were one away, right?

Yeah, it was. The problem was I gagged, and he kept eating. So one time. It’s like, you bite it, and the worm explodes into the back of your throat… They didn’t taste that bad, but I was going against the worst person possible, a Survivor champion.

Doing that, you can do anything… The Challenge, and obviously, Fear Factor was just revived. Is that something you’re thinking about? Now that you’ve conquered the worst part of reality competitions, which is eating?

I’m open. If they come knocking, I’m gonna open the door and see what’s up. I’ve done, I think now, six shows, if I’m including Netflix’s Pop the Balloon. So I don’t think my career is over, that’s for sure. But I don’t necessarily have my sights set on anything, but we’ll see.

Who in the house are you still close with after the fact?

Me and Paul are really cool. Tyson, I would consider a friend. Everyone I feel like, is friendly. I mean, we’re all cool with each other. Drita, I love her. She’s commented on my posts and everything. We’re cool…. No one’s like in a group chat with each other every day.

You haven’t seen New York, have you? I mean, I wonder how you guys are when you’re not competing in the house.

No, I haven’t seen New York, but we’re super cool off camera: “Oh, hey, Johnny!” She flirts with me, like I’m sure she does with everyone, but that’s always that’s been our relationship from the time I met her to now, it’s just very cool. That’s why, when we were in the house, and she would pop off of me, I’m like, “This is so left field.” I always had to like, “OK, this is like a learning moment for me. This is a different side of reality TV that I’m not used to.” And I was like, “OK, let me get ready for these interactions, maybe catch them a little bit sooner than I did.”

Of the people that were in the house, who were you rooting for, whether they won or not?

Definitely rooting for Drita and just out of respect for Tyson’s game, whether he was including me in all of his schemes, I just wanted to see him win just because I’m like, “Yo, real recognize real.” I respect this game just because he’s good at what he does. So I would have liked to see Tyson win or Drita to win.

Somebody had to win out of the worm eaters.

Facts. That’s what I’m saying. I respected his game so much because he was able to beat something that I knew I put my best foot forward. Seeing someone that showed up like that win wouldn’t piss me off.

House of Villains, Thursdays, 9/8c, Peacock

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