‘Big Brother 27’s Zach Cornell Reveals the Real Reason He Chose Not to Use His Secret Veto Power (Exclusive) originally appeared on Parade.
WARNING! This interview contains spoilers about the next Head of Household. Please do not read further if you don’t intend to know who the new HoH is before Sunday’s episode of Big Brother 27.
Big Brother’s house is open once more! Every week, Parade’s Mike Bloom will be bringing you interviews with this season’s houseguests as they get evicted from the game.
Former baseball player Zach Cornell knows how one bad week can doom any player’s chances of becoming the MVP. The first out of the dugout and onto the BB field, Zach’s bat was hot to start the season, as he won the opening competition, along with $10,000. But, in private, he found out he got a heck of a signing bonus, as the money was actually a brand-new “BB Buyoff” power. Any time he was on the block, Zach could play it as a Power of Veto, giving the money to the HoH in exchange for his safety. With power in his pocket, Zach seemed prime to make jury, if not go all the way. But he – and we – had no idea what would transpire in the next month, leading to Zach whiffing in one of the worst strikeouts in Big Brother history.
As the opening weeks went on, it seemed like Zach may have been able to cruise far into the game without even using his power. Though he lost a key ally early on in Zae Fredrich, he had many people on his side who were softened by his charm. Despite his boss telling him, “Don’t be a simp” going into the house, that wasn’t simp-le for Zach. He seemed to harbor feelings for Lauren Domingue from the beginning, while also handling feelings coming his way from Morgan Pope. Despite the trickiness of the emotions, Zach worked closely with Morgan, as well as Vince Panaro, to form the tightest group in the game. At the end of the week last week, nobody could have predicted that “The Melting Pot” would soon melt down, and partially at Zach’s own hand.
Despite claiming that all she did is sleep in the house, Ava Pearl woke up and won Head of Household. Initially, she told Zach that he wouldn’t need to worry this week. But those plans soon changed, as Zach found out upon seeing his face up on the wall at the nomination ceremony. He was seeing red with the aura reader, feeling blindsided going up on the block. After losing the Veto, it seemed all too clear that Zach would use his power to secure his safety for the week. But, after surmising Morgan would go up in his place, and believing he would have the votes to stay, he did the unthinkable. After spending all night robbing a bank, Zach banked on his chances to win safety, choosing not to use his power and remain on the block. Unfortunately, after getting off to a hot start, his competition streak went cold at the worst time. After losing the “BB Block Buster” to Keanu Soto, Zach sat on the block alongside his number one ally, Vince. And when the majority chose to keep the man in the egg costume, Zach wound up with egg all over his face. The man who wept when his closest ally left the first week left the house in tears as he walked out, having committed one of the biggest BB blunders ever.
Now out of the house, Zach talks with Parade about why he ultimately chose not to use his power, negotiating his feelings with Lauren (and from Morgan), and his reactions to some major reveals about Ashley and Rachel.
Related: Everything to Know About Big Brother 27
Of course, the first topic at bat is your choice not to use your power. Was not wanting Morgan up the sole reason why you chose not to do it? And, since you said it was a “game-time decision,” how far were you leaning towards not using it when the Veto meeting happened?
Morgan was the only reason 100%. And the reason why is because Vince and Morgan are my one and two in the house. So it would have been a situation where, if I pull myself off, my two allies that I’m riding to the end with would have still been an immediate danger. And so it’s like, why would I risk that? Let’s roll the dice. If either I or Vince make it through past this week, we can still capitalize on this power in later weeks, when we know for a fact somebody like a Kelely is going to be the fourth nom. And so that’s the reason why.
I would say in that moment, I thought it was pretty much like 80% I wasn’t going to use it, 20% I was. And the reason why is because I also understand my time in there is very finite. And the reason why I didn’t use it at the very end is because the perception of that I was going to stay in the house was very solid at that point when the Veto meeting actually happened. If I knew heading up to the very end, that’s when the perception of me changed. There would have been a much greater chance that I used that power. But that’s what’s crazy about the Big Brother house. America doesn’t realize how much time you have in between each thing that happens on TV. And so through that, the perception changed, and that’s the reason why I didn’t use the power.
How surprised were you when people like Lauren, Morgan and Mickey voted for Vince to stay rather than you?
Look, I knew that they were the middle votes. There were four middle votes in my eyes. It was Rylie, Lauren, Mickey and Morgan. So I knew that they were all going to vote together in one way or another. And so I had accepted that fact. Going into the live [vote], Vince and I had a two-thirds chance of getting out of this. And Keanu, regardless of who he was going up against, would have been sent home. Obviously, he’s a comp beast, and that did not happen.
And so when I was walking downstairs, and I was hugging people, people were literally telling me, “Good job.” And when I knew that people were telling me that, I didn’t have any case whatsoever to really keep myself in this game. They probably had decided that five minutes beforehand, and that was my perception of it. And I knew that it was probably going to be a pretty steep vote. Did I think it was going to be eight to two? No, because there are a couple of other people that I thought I still had, no matter what, ride or die. But, but yeah, at the end of the day, I’m not surprised that they kept Vince over me sitting there in the finale.
Let’s talk about some of these relationships. From our perspective, it seemed like you were harboring some attraction to Lauren, while simultaneously knowing that Morgan seemed to harbor some attraction towards you. Talk to me about negotiating those feelings, especially in the midst of a game.
Look, I told myself coming into the game that I was gonna focus on my game rather than a showmance.
Yeah, your boss told you, “Don’t be a simp.” And look what happened!
[Laughs.] That’s exactly what happened. My boss literally said that. Ashley, if you’re watching this, I’m so sorry. But Lauren is exactly my type. But in terms of a game sense, you immediately connect with somebody like Morgan, and I could really kind of feel that coming on. But it’s one of those where it’s like, I’m trying to respect my game, Morgan’s game and Lauren’s game. And so it’s kind of like trying to separate yourself from a romantic situation with Morgan, because you’re trying to clearly focus on Lauren in that situation. But Morgan is one of my number one allies.
So it’s really tough to kind of talk about personal stuff instead of game. There were moments where I got very awkward, a very awkward situation. But I tried my best to make it very clear I was very focused on Lauren in terms of a romantic sense. However, I was working with both of them in terms of the game as well. At the very end, I sat down with Lauren specifically, and I said, “You have to do what’s best for your game. People are perceiving us as a two, and I’m not going to hold it over you if you vote to keep Vince in this game. Just for the sake of your game, you have to do what’s best for your game.” Because if she was on the wrong side of the vote, for example, people would immediately be targeting her 100%.
You spoke with Julie last night about why you decided to not force the tie to keep Adrian in the house. And, while you thought Rylie was a swing vote, you had actually pissed him and Katherine off when you didn’t tell them that you would not be voting to keep him. So how do you look back on that move?
First off, that’s, that’s news to me. I didn’t realize that I actually pissed off Rylie and Katherine in that moment. But I will say this, the reasoning behind it was true. I did not want to put Lauren in danger. There were multiple nights where it be me, Vince and Lauren up. And we’d be talking about that final vote, and then we grew really close because of it. And so I didn’t want to put Lauren at risk, because she was in another small group with me and Vince.
But in retrospect, like I look back at it and still Adrian and Will to me were like equals. So there was no real push either way from me. So in the end, it was looking out for one person that I did want to work with in the future, and that was Lauren. And I was sitting there, and I did not want to tie the votes. There was no reason for me to do that if both people on the block were 50/50. And to be quite honest with you, if we did actually go with Adrian in that moment, we never knew that Mickey had the power. I definitely had a hunch, but nobody knew that she was going to take over that HoH. If that had happened and we had turned away from Morgan and Mickey in that moment, Vince and I probably would have been on that block the week before. And so for that reason, we kind of looked at each other and said. For the game specifically, that was hindsight, 20/20, we did the correct thing. Even though it did anger people on the other side, it’s a game, and we had to make that decision. And in that moment, it was the best decision for us.
You and your alliance spoke a good amount about who you wanted on the jury. Word about this got back to people like Ava, Will and Rachel, who were understandably angry, considering that the implication is that you want to bring them to the end for the sole purpose of them voting for you to win. Talk to me about why you decided to talk about this so publicly in the house.
First off, I didn’t know that it got back to them. So I actually have no idea that it really did. I don’t know who would have said that to them, but whoever did, they are an idiot for actually saying that to them, that they would only end up on jury. I had heard rumors that Rachel found out that Morgan had mentioned that she only wanted her on jury, and that really did piss off Rachel.
The issue with the Big Brother house is there’s so much downtime in between. So you run through every single scenario. And I feel like where people tripped up is just kind of trusting too many people in that moment, because you have this overconfidence that you’re safe. That’s really, honestly the biggest thing that tripped people up. Obviously, it tripped me up this week. And so you get excited. You kind of look towards the future. Because in that week, the correct person is sitting in the HoH position. If that’s a reason why Ava put me on the block, then that’s fair. But that was definitely a blindside from her as well. So yeah, it is what it is.
To finish, give your rapid-fire thoughts on each of the remaining houseguests. Starting with Ashley.
Oh my gosh. She’s dumb, is the best way to describe it. I don’t know what her real occupation is, but I feel like it’s not a marketing manager or social media marketing, because she spills the beans. And she’s not really playing the game. So dumb is not the correct word. She’s just not playing the game, and she kind of revealed all my secrets. So yeah, that’s kind of why I think of her in this moment.
What if I were to tell you she’s a lawyer?
She’s a lawyer?!
That’s correct.
She’s a lawyer. [Pause.] There’s so many things I could say right now. But I know that I’m being recorded, so I’m not going to say them. But I would not trust her to be my lawyer. That’s the best way to describe how I feel about Ashley. Because I would say something about Jimmy and, ten minutes later, Jimmy would talk to me about it. That is what Ashley is doing in this game so far. If she makes it much further, in my opinion, it’s because people are just kind of bringing her along. But I don’t see where her game is for, respectfully. I love you, Ashley. I just don’t.
How about Ava?
Personal game. I love her. I don’t know what the hell she’s doing in a game sense. So I’m confused is the best way to [describe her]. She’s under the radar. Let’s just say that.
Katherine.
Showmance.
Keanu.
[Rolls his eyes.] Sloppy social game. But a comp beast, I’ll give him that.
Kelley.
She’s a cat with nine lives.
Lauren.
I love that girl. She’s a fantastic human being.
Mickey.
She should win.
Morgan.
She’s the second person who should win. However, her one kryptonite is she’s an emotional player.
Rachel.
[Pause.] She’s a pot-stirrer.
I don’t know if you know this. But she’s the new HoH.
She’s the new HoH?! Are you – wait, was it the wall comp? Was it endurance?
No, apparently it was a quiz.
Wait. Can I tell you my three of who I think is gonna be on the block?
Sure, go ahead!
Vince, Morgan and potentially Mickey. So I think it’s going to be Vince number one. Morgan will be on the block number two. And then she may put a random three in, but she may try and backdoor Mickey. That’s my hard guess in this.
Rylie.
Fantastic guy. Didn’t start playing the game until Week 3.
Vince.
I love Vince. He’s one of my best friends. I don’t know what he was saying leading up to it, but I tried my hardest to never throw him under the bus at all. But I also had to play my own game. That’s why I kind of revealed my power to certain people who we’re both close to. I love the guy, though.
And, finally, Will.
He is a father figure to me. I love that man to death 100%.
Related: ‘Big Brother 27’ Star Jimmy Heagerty Does Not Blame Mickey For His Shocking Blindside (Exclusive)
‘Big Brother 27’s Zach Cornell Reveals the Real Reason He Chose Not to Use His Secret Veto Power (Exclusive) first appeared on Parade on Aug 15, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
