AMANDA DEDIE
Assistant News Editor
News spread like wildfire when the news broke that Steve Moses, a senior from Gouverneur, New York majoring in music and audio engineering, would be a contestant in season 17 of the reality TV show “Big Brother.” While Steve had a rocky start, Fredonians watched eagerly with the rest of the world as he formed alliances and eventually made his way to the final two before ultimately winning the game and $500,000. Despite being busy, catching up with friends, family and current events, Moses graciously took the time to interview with The Leader to talk about his time in the Big Brother house.
Amanda Dedie: Time for the important stuff, Steve. What are your favorite things to do?
Steve Moses: I mean, I’m a music major. I love composing. I love recording. I love getting myself involved in music every way I can. At school, I don’t really have too much other stuff I do that’s completely unrelated, because I basically live in Mason, and I’ll go back to my dorm and sleep once in awhile.
AD: And your favorite animal?
SM: Favorite animal? I don’t think I have one of those. I’ve never thought about a favorite animal. I’ll say a beaver, because they’re very intelligent and can build things.
AD: There’s the engineer in ya.
SM: That was my comic name. There was a competition in the middle of the season where we all had comic books made after us, and my comic book name was that I was “The Engineer.”
AD: We were watching the finale in the Multipurpose Room and people were so frustrated at the part where Julie [Chen] was like, “If we can’t hear you in the studio, they probably can’t hear you at home,” and we were all like, “WE CAN HEAR HIM. Let him speak!”
SM: What mattered wasn’t the people at home, I was talking to the jury. It gave me more time to think so I could make [my answer] better each time. Plus, what was supposed to happen was juror number nine was supposed to have time to ask their own question, but because the extra time was taken up by audio problems, Vanessa didn’t have time for her question, which would have been something very angrily directed at me, so I got to skip that. The audio problems worked out very well for me. It gave me more time to think about that first question, and it prevented Vanessa from asking me her question.
AD: Luckily! And speaking of all of us in the MPR, how does it feel to know that you had over 100 people in the MPR cheering you on in the finale?
SM: It’s absolutely incredible because when you’re in there, you’re completely sequestered. You have absolutely no idea what’s going on on the outside. So you have no idea how people are reacting, and you have a lot of downtime because you have no entertainment, so you spend a lot of time worrying about what people outside the house are thinking and reacting, and it’s such a relief to come out to the positive response everyone has had. It’s so nice to see that there was a positive response. I never would have guessed.
AD: What do you mean, you never would have guessed? Did you anticipate people being negative about it?
SM: I didn’t think anyone would care. I thought it’d just be like, “Oh, this kid was on a show, okay.” I wouldn’t have guessed — it was a very pleasant surprise. It’s really nice to see everyone as a community come together. It’s amazing. Although, I am slightly nervous about coming back to campus.
AD: Oh, I bet! It’s certainly going to be very… interesting. You may as well just make up a shirt that says, “Yes, I am Steve. I was on Big Brother. It was awesome.”
SM: For sure! The thing is, is that I flew home, and that was an experience. My parents were with me, so I kind of had people with me the whole time, but it was an adventure [with everyone recognizing me].
AD: So, when you were in the house, were you ever able to get any alone time at all? Even just a short amount of time to yourself?
SM: It’s very hard at the beginning, because it’s not a big house and there [were] 16 very, very big personalities in that house … you could occasionally get some [alone time] but as time went on, it would get easier and easier, because fewer people were living in the house. But at the same time — if you want to be alone — at any time when you’re alone there could be someone else talking about you and saying bad things about you and maybe working against you. So there’s disadvantages sometimes to being alone.
AD: Was this your first time applying [to be on Big Brother]?
SM: This was my first time. I got lucky. I got very lucky. You have to be 21, and I had some family commitments last year, so this is the first time I could apply.
AD: What was your thought process when applying? Did you have a feeling you’d get casted?
SM: Well there [were] 17 people in that house — and I was told there [were] 20,000 applications — so the numbers are absolutely obscene. I never thought I would hear a word and when I got my first call back, I was shocked — every step, from my first step to my last step, and then somehow I ended up getting cast. So no, I never would have guessed that this would have happened in a million years. Even just making the show, let alone winning it.
AD: Should I apply? I feel like I could totally make it in that house.
SM: It’s a very, very crazy adventure. Just be aware for the emotional rollercoaster. I think one of the hardest things that people don’t realize is that when there’s nothing in your life except the game. There’s no TV, there’s no music, there’s no family. You have no escape, there’s no escape from it. You are on for 98 days.
AD: It sounds like you never get to turn your brain off!
SM: It’s a lot of work. [Your brain] can’t [turn off]. It’s definitely one of the hardest parts, because you can’t stop for 98 days. It was very challenging. But I was just at work for 98 days, and I never left, so that’s essentially what happened — especially since everyone that’s there wants themselves to win. So you’re always around people that want you to fail. When you’re at school, you have a you have other people who want you to succeed. Like, if you have a friend, and you’re on your sports team together, you can both cheer each other on to perform well. But even with your closest friend in the house, you need them to fail eventually if you want to win. So, it’s hard.
AD: What is your favorite memory of the show?
SM: Winning, obviously. I would say, actually, when I first walked in the front door, because my goal was to walk into the front door. So the two highs were definitely the very beginning and the very end.
AD: And what was your least favorite memory?
SM: Probably when I got into the first week and I was nominated — when I lost that first battle of the block. [It was my least favorite] just because I knew a lot of alliances were going on, I knew people were getting together and I had nothing. I was new, I was on the outside and I was afraid it was going to be one of those situations where alliances were formed the first couple of days and then it just goes “ba-bam-ba-bam-ba-bam-ba-bam.” I thought that I had no shot at a long-term game.
AD: By the way – what’s the deal with “trombonists?” I didn’t get to watch the whole show, so I have no idea what that means.
SM: There was a competition for the Power of Veto and we had this giant mess of stuff we had to look through. And in there, there were letters, and we had to look through the letters to spell a word. The goal was to spell the longest word that you could, and whoever spelled the longest word won the power of veto. The word I ultimately ended up spelling was “trombonists,” and that’s how I won the veto: because I spelled the longest word, and that was the word that I spelled.
AD: Cool! Thanks for clearing that up. So, what was the first thing you did when you got home?
SM: I got home, and there’s this big hometown welcome for me. We had some fire trucks … I walked into the part at the center of the town and there was a whole bunch of people … all these signs, all these posters. I just said “hi” to everyone that supported me. I signed a lot of things, took a lot of selfies, gave a lot of hugs. There was a news channel there. I received a very big welcome home, which was a very amazing thing to get.
AD: But what did you do when you actually got home, like inside your house?
SM: I went to bed. Actually, no … I went on the internet, because I haven’t had that. It’s very interesting when you haven’t been on the internet in three months and also, there’s a lot of things on the internet about you so I went online and just started poking around … I barely scratched the surface — just seeing what’s been said about me. And it’s been absolutely amazing just seeing how positive everything’s been.
AD: Were you given any updates at all about current events when you were in the house?
SM: None. Absolutely nothing. I found out about two days ago, that Donald Trump was running for president, and it sounds like he’s doing very well.
AD: So what else were you surprised about?
SM: Gay marriage is now legal in all 50 states! I also found this out about two days ago. When did this actually happen?
AD: June 26.
SM: Yeah, and I found out like Sept. 25. Yeah, that’s awesome! I’m really excited to hear about that. I was very surprised, but it was a very pleasant surprise.
AD: What’s it like being home now? Is there anything you actually miss about the Big Brother house?
SM: I will say it’s really strange being alone. Because I never slept alone in a room before because even when we were down to the final three and there were empty bedrooms, all three of us willingly chose just to all sleep in one room together. So it was just strange that I slept alone in my room last night … Just some habits from the house are really weird to get past. Like for example, … you always had to be wearing [your microphone], and I always have a mini panic attack when I’m feeling my chest, like, “Oh, I don’t have my microphone! Oh, wait a minute, I don’t have a microphone anymore.” Little habits like that, every day, are just strange not doing. Like, we had to change the mic batteries every morning. It’s weird — when I wake up, the first thing I’m supposed to do it change my batteries and I don’t have the batteries to change.
AD: And on the flip side, what did you miss the most about being home?
SM: My family and friends, 100 percent. On the outside, you have people who are on your side supporting you but when you’re in the house you have people maybe supporting you for the short term but even you best friend is someone you, ultimately, need to fail, and that’s really hard, like, you need everyone in your life at the moment to fail.
AD: What were your parent’s reactions upon seeing you for the first time in three months?
SM: Very, very positive — especially since I just won $500,000. They were worried thinking about me the whole summer, because it was definitely a roller coaster. I definitely had some very low points in the game, especially early in the game. I was very much on the outside and I don’t think anyone, including me, thought I had any shot at lasting long term after the first week or two, so it was definitely a very long and very emotional roller coaster.
AD: I can only imagine! So, Steve, I think that’s it. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
SM: Just, thank you again, to the Fredonia community, for all of your support. I never would have guessed I would have had it, and it’s such a great feeling to walk out and see how much love and support I’ve been getting from Fredonia. It’s been absolutely amazing and I’m very thankful for it.