The first “House of Villains” castmember was sent packing Thursday night in a dramatic banishment ceremony.
“Vanderpump Rules” bad boy Jax Taylor and “The Bachelor” Corinne Olympios were the first two villains nominated for banishment by Omarosa, the winner of the first challenge.
Taylor and Olympios were strapped tightly to chairs as host Joel McHale revealed their fate.
Read on to find out who was first eliminated from “House of Villains,” how they would’ve changed their gameplay, and what’s next for them.
Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from “House of Villains” Episode 3.
Each of the remaining villains — Anfisa Arkhipchenko, Johnny Bananas, Shake Chitterjee, Jonny Fairplay, Bobby Lytes, Tiffany Pollard and Tanisha Thomas — cast one vote for either Taylor or Olympios.
In the end, Jax Taylor was unanimously voted out. Omarosa hit a button and his chair flung backwards into a dark abyss with the wall sealing behind him.
TheWrap caught up with Taylor to talk about being banished first.
Everyone — include the cast — were surprised by the banishment seats flipping backwards. Were you surprised?
Taylor: So how the seats worked was obviously those seats were built on hydraulics. It’s kind of like a roller coaster situation. And obviously, this is a temporary set. It was pitch black and I was flipped upside down. It felt like I was in Batman’s cave. I was having a good time with it.
What else can you tell us about the elimination set? Obviously it’s not part of the house.
It was actually built on a tennis court, believe it or not!
Speaking of the house, you’re more used to filming in bars and restaurants with your friends. Did it feel very different moving into a house with strangers and being away from your family?
I’m more used to a docuseries-type of show, and obviously this is a competition show. I was eager to get back on TV again. So I was chomping at the bit to get back on. When I found out the premise of the show, I’m thought this is awesome.
What I should have done was research. All my friends told me to research who these people are from the different types of challenge shows. Mind you, the people that I’m on the show with were iconic stars from years ago. When they were on TV, I wasn’t watching reality TV. That’s the last thing I was watching. I watch it now.
I didn’t really research “Road Rules,” “Survivor” or “Big Brother” — these are shows that I have never watched before. So that being said, I was already behind the eight ball. And then, entering the house second to last, I was behind the eight ball there there. I didn’t get to choose my room. These people have already built relationships and alliances. So I was kind of dumb before I even got the house, to be honest.
Once you were in your house, how did you approach your gameplay?
I think they were expecting the kind of the alpha male, loudest guy in the room kind of person than I am. And I kind of did the polar opposite. When we were watching the episodes my wife was like, “God, you’re incredibly quiet, like, you’re not talking.”
But I was just so intimidated by all the people that were in that house like Tiffany/New York, Omarosa — these are iconic legendary women who I’m absolutely petrified of. Johnny Bananas and I would sit in a corner when they were fighting and just want be the fly in the room. And I keep saying, I almost took a masterclass in reality TV being on that show; I learned how to fight, how to argue, how to do this in a different kind of competition way. And I let these women get to me. Tiffany made me cry!
It was kinda shocking to see you cry in the chair after Tiffany called you a “demon.”
She called me all these names and I got into my head about it. And then after I kind of thought about it, this is what she does. This is her. It’s almost like she’s reading a script. She’s not that person in real life. She’s like, “This is who I am. If you’ve known what I’ve done on these shows, this is this is my schtick.” And I just took it to heart and come to find out she was that evil to everybody.
We have to talk about Shake. Obviously there was no love lost between you two at all.
So what happened was, we woke up one morning, I was sitting having my breakfast, and Shake came down to talk to me. And he’s like, “Hey listen, I’ve been doing my research on you.”
And he doing his research between 12 o’clock at night and seven in the morning, when we’re allowed to have our cell phones, because we all had businesses: podcast, jobs, whatever that we need to get in touch with. So he chose to use that time to look up all his opponents, he found out where I lived, how much money I made, what shows I’ve done, everything about me.
He sat down and said, “I see you’ve been on TV for a long time. You’re successful. You’ve gotten this and that, how did you do that?” And I was like, wow, okay, that’s very cool that he’s asking my opinion. And I kind of gave him my playbook: You need to go after companies, do your due diligence and follow up with events and just keep contact with all these these people because this is what’s going to feed your bank account. I used the Michael Jordan [example]. He only made X amount of dollars with the Bulls, right? He made all his money with Nike Gatorade, McDonald’s; that’s where he made all his money. It’s the same thing with reality TV. Yes, we do make some money on reality TV, but where you make all your money is is your endorsements.
I was in his shoes, I’d be like, “Oh man, thank you so much for letting me know.” I wasn’t using it as a bragging moment. The whole world knows what I have. The internet is out there. Everybody can find whatever they want. I was just trying to help him out. I was naive, and I fell into his trap. And sure enough, he used it against me.
He told the others how much you and your wife Brittany made and convinced them you didn’t need the prize money. But you can’t blame him for playing the game.
As much as I hate that guy with a passion — he’s the only one I despise — he was smart. I was caught with my pants down. I was kind of humbled by the fact that he asked my opinion and he used it against me. So yeah [giant sigh], lesson learnt and move on.
Speaking of moving on, what’s next? There’s the rumored “Vanderpump Valley” show featuring you, your wife [Brittany Cartwright] and other “Vanderpump Rules” alums.
I haven’t had a day off in a very, very long time. I’m so grateful to to NBC. I’m so grateful to Bravo and E! for giving me a second chance and coming back into this world. I hope I’m making them happy. I feel like I’ve humbled myself a lot. I took a big piece of humble pie. You know, and I’m just enjoying the ride now and having a good time with it. And I hope but there’s a lot of more things to come my life and I’ve been extremely busy work super excited, but can’t talk about too much more.
I’m not going anywhere. You’ll see me some more on the show. There’s a lot of twists and turns.
This interview was lightly edited for clarity and length.
“House of Villains” airs Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT on E! and catch up on the E! app.
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