Being the first Houseguest evicted from Big Brother is never easy. Being the first one to be evicted on a unanimous vote is even harder.
Ashley Trail, a bartender from Chicago, Illinois, was the first person to be evicted from Season 28 after a whirlwind week of reality show alums entering the house, competitions for safety, and getting to know the game. She shocked the house by telling them that at 24 years old, she had never had a burger… until she ultimately got to try one in the house.
After being one of the two people who couldn’t compete in the competitions for safety, Ashley sat back and made her first week pretty calm. She wasn’t put up on the block and didn’t seem to be anyone’s target.
However, when Mallory Aurichio won the Power of Veto and took herself off, Ashley found herself in hot water. Head of Household Dee Valladares had made alliances with a lot of people in the house, and Ashley was one of the few options she could pick.
Since Yash Patel won the Blockbuster and became safe, Ashley found herself on the block next to Taylor Brown. Since Taylor had formed bonds with her Have-Not crew and talked game with her Houseguests, they made the decision to vote out Ashley.
Here’s what she had to say about her time in the house and more.
Matthew Taplinger/CBS
How are you doing?
Ashley Trail: Oh, I’m doing so good. I am feeling well rested and kind of missing everybody’s snores.
Did you ever think that you would be the first one out?
Oh my gosh! It was my biggest fear forever in life, watching Big Brother since I was a little girl. I guess I kind of manifested a little bit too hard.
What was your reaction to the reality alums coming in this season — Angela and Dee and Devens?
It was so intimidating seeing the alums come in because I’m like, “OK, they are reality TV superstars. They know what they’re doing. They’re gonna play us newbies around.” But then I started to love them because I was like, “Wait, they’re actually so chill. There’s no need to worry and stress.”
The first competition where you had to find the canisters with Enzo [Palumbo]. How hard was that?
Oh my gosh! Genuinely, I never want to hear the word “canister” ever again. [Laughs.] I actually never want to see a numerical number. I was already so intimidated whenever I saw that the competition was going to be math. That’s my one true fear in life — any type of equation to be done.
But I was like, “OK, I can do a little simple addition.” Whenever I couldn’t find Enzo, I mean, I didn’t even have a chance. It was strictly up to luck and whatever universal power is out there. I couldn’t find Enzo in the first place, because I couldn’t even basically participate in the competition. It was just like, “Throw something up there and hope it works.”
Do you think that not forming a solid alliance early on was kind of your downfall for why you were evicted?
Oh my gosh, absolutely! I mean, you need people that feel like they’re bonding with you and that they’re gonna want you in the game. And I tried so hard. I feel like, whenever you’re running for a sorority or something, and you’re like, “Please like me, pick me, choose me, love me,” and that’s how I felt. And I was like, “Wait, this is not being reciprocated.” I’m like, “What am I doing wrong?”
I mean, people might have liked me on a personal level, but I think gameplay, maybe I just wasn’t being taken seriously, and I wasn’t really even being shown because I wasn’t in any comps, maybe. So I would have loved to have an alliance. Oh my gosh!
Who would you say that you were closest to, though, in the house?
I don’t even think I had my one true person that I was closest to. I had people that I liked a lot. I really liked Angela [Murray]. I wanted to get along with the girlies that were my age, the whole Melody/Lyric/Mallory thing, but I just couldn’t break into their triple threat. I really liked Yash [Patel].
Were you surprised that you didn’t get at least one vote to keep you, as a sympathy vote or anything?
I was a little bit shocked whenever I did hear the large kind of contrast of numbers there. However, I was going to go either way. I really was convinced that I did have my posse that was backing me up. It seemed like there was a campaign to keep me to stay that was going on.
I really thought I might have had Angela and Barrett [Pfeiffer] and Drew [Campbell] and that they would have cascaded that onto a little Haley [Thogmartin]/Chuk [Anyanwu]/Kamu [Kirk] moment. So I really thought that it could have been either my campaign worked or it didn’t at all, and it didn’t at all. Confirmed.
I saw on Twitter that you were the first person to be evicted 14 to zero.
What? That is so messed up. It is kind of shocking, though, because I thought that like week one in the house, everybody kind of did keep it the same because nobody wanted to be so off on their own and against the house for the next week.
Did you have any strategy for the Blockbuster?
For the blockbuster, I was really just trying to keep my calm, count to 10, and stay focused because that was really the first real comp that I competed in. So I was so behind in the group. I mean, the people that I was going against — that was their third or fourth comp, I believe it was. So, I was just trying to kind of make myself feel really confident in that whatever it was I could do because I had no idea what to expect.
Were you surprised when Dee [Valladares] told you that she was going to put you up as renom, or were you kind of expecting
it?
I wasn’t surprised that she said she was going to put me up as renom because her plan was oh so very smart, and I respected it. However, I was surprised when she said, “OK, I’m thinking about putting you up for renom, and also I’ve heard your name thrown around there because I was like, “Whoa, what am I doing?” That could be the drama stirring about. How could I be a recommendation? It’s day two. It was day two, afternoon. I was like, “What did I do?” So I think it was just easy for people to say me over Barrett, just because nobody really felt like they were into gamey with me.
Do you think that because she put Yash up, who was somebody from her group, that it was just easier because you weren’t really in a group?
Yeah, I think that me not being in a group could have been a perk because people wanted me as a number, but at the same time, it’s so easy to just be like, “There’s an outcast” in a way. “Nobody’s gonna really care, and therefore, I’m going to be in good with the house. Let’s just get her out.” So it wasn’t win and lose, but ultimately lost.
Do you have any regrets or anything you would change about the game?
I guess my one regret and something I would change is that I just would have tried to talk game sooner with everybody rather than just get to know them,
I have to ask, how was your first burger?
Girl! My first burger was delicious. I gotta realize this isn’t the peak in life. Like, yes, I just went on Big Brother. That was bucket list, but I got to keep striving for higher. I feel like I lost my party trick in a way, too, to be able to say, “Never have I ever had a burger.” Everybody’s jaw drops. It kind of feels so exhilarating. So I need a, I need a new schtick.
Now you could say you were evicted first off Big Brother.
That’s my new one.
Would you ever come back if you were asked?
I’m only gonna hope and pray and beg every single night that I would get another chance at the Big Brother house. The fact that I wasn’t even able to do one of the things I wanted to do, such as just compete in HOH. Usually, you get that out of the way first night in the house. So that’s something iconic that I never got to experience. Honestly, I was telling everybody I was down to volunteer to be a have-not next week. I was like, “Give me the slop. Let me get my summer bod. I don’t care.” I wanted Zingbot. I wanted the wall comp so bad. I wanted all of these Big Brother celebrations to occur to me that just didn’t.
The have-not bed looked crazy this year.
I genuinely think that’ll drive you to insanity. I mean, it’s one thing to be on a wooden slat, but the fact that it’s spinning around — oh my gosh — I was feeling for them.
Do you have any final thoughts or reflections?
My only final thought is how much regret I have. I am literally having anxiety at the fact that I did such a big campaign around the house. I wish I had never taken that advice, really, at this point, and did the whole trying to turn people against each other. That’s my regret.
Big Brother, Season 28, Sundays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, 8/7c, CBS, stream next day on Paramount+