{"id":58730,"date":"2026-07-15T12:22:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/?p=58730"},"modified":"2026-07-15T12:22:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:22:38","slug":"big-brother-winner-calls-out-disadvantage-for-lgbtq-contestants-after-rome-and-lyric-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2026\/07\/15\/big-brother-winner-calls-out-disadvantage-for-lgbtq-contestants-after-rome-and-lyric-romance\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Brother winner calls out disadvantage for LGBTQ+ contestants after Rome and Lyric romance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new season of Big Brother is on air, but past winner Andy Herem is calling out a major problem for LGBTQ+ contestants that still has yet to be addressed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/tag\/big-brother\/\">Big Brother 28<\/a> is on, introducing <a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/realityshrine\/2026\/07\/10\/these-salaries-of-the-big-brother-season-28-cast-reveal-whos-actually-earning-the-most-money\/\">17 new cast members<\/a> to our screens, including three reality TV veterans. As any Big Brother fan will know, one of the most heavily focused on aspects of each season is the possible showmances that develop between houseguests.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Lyric to Rome: Why can\u2019t we just get out of here and get to know each other? <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/bb28?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#bb28<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qJzIOwgRU6\">pic.twitter.com\/qJzIOwgRU6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Melissa Calvin (@melicalvin) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/melicalvin\/status\/2076729543583297680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 13, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Last season, we had the controversial romance between Rylie and Katherine, and the most iconic showmance of them all, Jeff and Jordan from season 11, who are now married with children.<\/p>\n<p>The new season might have only been on for a week, but it&#8217;s already developing its own showmance. Lyric and Rome have gotten extremely close in a short amount of time, cuddling, spending lots of one-on-one time together, and even kissing on footage that wasn&#8217;t aired on TV. This has caused a bit of backlash as some viewers think it&#8217;s too soon, and are comparing the competition show to Love Island.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Lyric to Rome: &#8220;Tell me what you love about me&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yeah I&#8217;m going to bed. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/BB28?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BB28<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/BBBitez?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BBBitez<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/whyy8pQjLj\">pic.twitter.com\/whyy8pQjLj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Big Brother Bitez \ud83d\udd0a (@BBBitez) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BBBitez\/status\/2075854470462755150?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 11, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Previous Big Brother winner Andy Heren has called out the casting choices this season, as there&#8217;s only one confirmed out gay contestant, Jason De Puy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; the season 15 winner said in an online comment &#8220;It&#8217;s an immediate huge disadvantage in terms of screen time\/getting fleshed out. Wish this would change, but it looks like it never will.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_58745\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58745\" style=\"width: 1290px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-58745\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3cwayznr2uch1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1290\" height=\"742\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3cwayznr2uch1.jpeg 1290w, https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3cwayznr2uch1-300x173.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3cwayznr2uch1-1024x589.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.realitytvshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3cwayznr2uch1-768x442.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1290px) 100vw, 1290px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-58745\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">via Reddit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lots of viewers agreed with him, as it&#8217;s a common thread that on-screen romances get a lot of screen time, however queer contestants are way less likely to get that chance because of tokenism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What gets me is they\u2019ll often ask the gay houseguest in pre-interviews if they\u2019re open to showmances. And it\u2019s like, why even ask that if you know all the other houseguests are straight?&#8221; one commenter added.<\/p>\n<p><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">For all the latest reality TV cast member news, scandals, gossip and updates \u2013 like\u00a0<\/i><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\"><a class=\"c-link c-link--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Reality Shrine<\/a><\/i><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\">\u00a0on\u00a0<\/i><i data-stringify-type=\"italic\"><a class=\"c-link c-link--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/realityshrineofficial?rdid=TzQu2kEd2cUqU4rD&amp;share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F14zX5cKubf%2F#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" 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point<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249734284,"featured_media":58742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1358],"tags":[1395,1471],"class_list":["post-58730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-big-brother","tag-cbs"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/realitytvshrine.com\/realityshrine\/2026\/07\/15\/big-brother-winner-calls-out-disadvantage-for-lgbtq-contestants-after-rome-and-lyric-romance\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Big Brother winner calls out disadvantage for LGBTQ+ contestants after Rome and Lyric 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