Big Brother season 28 may have only premiered last week, but there’s already a showmance (or, a show romance, if you’re unfamiliar) that’s taking over the fan-favorite competition series. The couple in question? That’d be Lyric Medeiros and Jack “Rome” Seymour, who have become a hot topic thanks to their intimate moments caught on the show’s live feeds.
In the wake of their showmance, BB15 winner Andy Herren has spoken out against the reality TV trope as it creates a “huge disadvantage” for queer houseguests.
“Time for my annual comment about how annoying it is for the show to focus so much on showmances and only cast one gay person,” Andy wrote, likely referring to Lyric and Rome’s budding romance and drag performer Jason De Puy’s casting, per a screenshot shared on Reddit.
Andy, who made history as the franchise’s first-ever out gay winner in 2013, continued, “It’s an immediate huge disadvantage in terms of screen time/getting fleshed-out. Wish this would change, but it seems like it never will.”
BB fans on the subreddit agreed with Andy’s point, with many of them claiming showmances, for the most part, have been pretty straight throughout the show’s 26-year history.
“This is a good point. That being said, casting only 2 gay people with the intent of them showmancing seems forced as well,” one person suggested. “I feel like if this initiative were to really happen fairly, they’d have to bump the cast up to 20 (with a couple of double evictions added).”
“What gets me is they’ll often ask the gay houseguest in pre interviews if they’re open to showmances. And it’s like, why even ask that if you know all the other houseguests are straight?” another added.
Someone else even pointed out, “28 seasons (26 years) + 5 spinoff seasons, and we’ve still only ever gotten 1 transgender houseguest.”
This isn’t the first time Andy has criticized CBS and BB for their lack of LGBTQ+ diversity in casting. Back in 2020, he gave a statement to E! News, where he wrote in part, “It is important to speak up because Big Brother has always had a problem with minority representation. There are usually at most two Black houseguests and one gay houseguest and Latino and Asian representation is even worse.”
He noted that “straight white males compromise 12 of the 21 winners of the show, which is so crazy when you really break it down.”
If this isn’t proof we need more Andys in the BB Universe, I don’t know what is.
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