Big Brother alum Kyland Young is giving Us his expert opinion on the gameplay of surprise season 28 players and crossover Survivor stars Dee Valladares and Rick Devens.
“This season of Big Brother has been absolutely insane,” Kyland, 35, exclusively told Us on Saturday, September 19, while walking the UFC 331 on Paramount+ red carpet outside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
“I mean, one — shoutout to the Survivors for sure. They are entertaining. They brought some amazing people,” he continued. “Dee is someone who I’ve met. She’s wonderful. Devens, I haven’t met but he was actually [on] one of the first seasons I watched of Survivor. I see why he’s a fan favorite, for sure.”
Back in July, fans of the hit CBS reality show learned that Survivor 50 favorite Devens, 42, would be one of 14 players joining the Big Brother cast, vying for the coveted $750,000 prize. He was joined by Dee, 29, who fans recall won season 45 of Survivor back in 2023, alongside remaining contestants Drew Campbell, Melody Morris and Taylor Brown.
“Both of them are kind of pulling some amazing moves in the game,” Kyland continued of the Survivor alums. “I am a little biased, because I’m just like, this is supposed to be the Big Brother house, so it’s kind of like we put in these icons and then we give them the powers. And then I’m just like, they are doing impressive things.”
He continued, “But at the end of the day, if you’ve played any of these games — just one day in one of these games — gives you [a] miles ahead advantage over someone who’s never played a game like this. So it kind of does feel like I’m watching NBA players compete against college players in basketball. It’s not that they’re not doing impressive moves, but when you add that context it’s a little bit less impressive.”
Given what Kyland considers to be the Survivor stars’ undeniable advantage, the former Big Brother player — who fans met in 2021 during his Big Brother season 23 appearance, in which he gave a memorable exit after he was blindsided by Xavier Prather — can’t help but hope a less-than-experienced contestant ultimately walks away victorious.
“I gotta root for the underdogs who didn’t get these advantages coming in,” he explained to Us on Saturday. “You know, they didn’t have the existing fan base, they didn’t have that experience and they’re still there as well. So who knows what’s gonna happen? You know, we got Drew, Melody and Taylor left. Hopefully, one of them can get their way into those finale chairs.”
He continued, “At the end of the day, Survivors [Dee and Devens] have been doing some real work to get themselves to the end, and they’ve both stated how much they want both of them at the end. They flip back and forth sometimes, but for the most part, they’re trying to get each other there.”
