Standing onstage with host Mel Tracina after he left the house, there was really only one thing that Michael was concerned about: how many emails were waiting for him when he finally got his phone back.
“It was only about 1200,” he told 10, “I was thinking it could be 3 or 4 thousand, but, of course, a lot of that is junk.”
Despite being back in the real world and no longer having to share a bedroom with 12 housemates, Michael admitted that his first night out of the house wasn’t as restful as people may have thought.
“Everyone says, ‘When you get out, don’t check everything,’ but of course you do. You check your emails, call your kids or whatever – but you’re going to have a quick squizz at how much of a horrible person you’ve been,” he laughed.
While some housemates struggle with being cut off from the real world, Michael said it was the separation from his phone that was his biggest struggle. “Being without your phone, even for a week or a week and a half, is horrific… you’re on it all day every day, you rely on it for everything. That was the hardest part.
“I’m divorced, so I only have my kids week on, week off, and that was my off week so, having only lasted a week, family-wise it was a normal day-to-day,” he continued. “For me, it was the anxiety of wondering if my house had been burgled, if it was burning down, if I had emails, if my business was failing. All that sort of stuff.”
For Michael, the Big Brother experiment wasn’t about the prize or glory at the end, but the experience as a whole. “It’s one of those FOMO things, right? You always regret the opportunities you don’t take, and I thought if I don’t do something like Big Brother, I’d always be thinking I wish I had.
“It was literally just that, it was the adventure. It wasn’t for the money or the Instagram followers, it was just literally for the fun and the adventure of it all.”
Describing himself as the token “grumpy, old, straight, white guy,” Michael’s lack of filter and love for ruffling feathers meant that he always knew he’d be a target for early nominations.
“I was put there to do that, so I didn’t want to disappoint Big Brother and sit in the corner, you know?
“I’m a bit of a slow burn, I don’t think this week or next week I would have been nominated,” he said. “The first week where people don’t know you and they see a few of what I see as comedic jabs as hard opinion, then yeah. It’s about interpretation… I don’t think I truly offended anybody, really. We all had a laugh.”
With Jane automatically nominated for failing her first task when entering the house, and Holly earning the most nomination points for the week, Michael surprisingly but correctly assumed he’d be the first housemate evicted.
“I just know media these days is so heavily skewed to social media, and now TikTok, and I just don’t see tweens and teen girls voting for the old guy with the opinion.
“I was absolutely sure it was Jane or me going, but I was never going to win that show, let’s be real. As soon as I was up [for nomination], I thought, okay, I’m packing.”
Last night, when asked who he thought would win the season, Michael gave a very strategic answer of Emily or Vince, saying that their under-the-radar approach could see them skirting nominations. But who he would like to win is a different story.
“Bruce or Ed, because they’re my two bros in there. They didn’t nominate me, and I didn’t nominate them. I know we would have gone the whole way without nominating, unless it got to a final three, and we were already organising to go to the cricket and do stuff after this. They’d be my two.”
As for who he wouldn’t like to see at the end, the always honest Michael simply said, “Jane and Alana. They can go next.”
Big Brother continues Monday to Friday at 7.30pm, Sundays at 7pm.
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