After a whirlwind summer of blindsides, shifting alliances, and high-stakes competitions,Big BrotherSeason 27 comes to an end tonight with a live two-hour finale, and a fave of the “Micktators” is weighing in!
Source: Big Brother / Big Brother
Mickey Lee did not plan to spend her summer locked in a house under 24-hour surveillance, competing for $750K. In fact, before CBS reached out, she was minding her business on social media, racking up likes and views.
“I was recruited based on just my personality,” the ATL-based boss bae told BOSSIP.
Producers first discovered her through TikTok, where the master manifestor had built a following with candid stories about dating and self-discovery. Even after her page was hacked and deleted, casting agents found her again.
“I am not one to turn down an opportunity,” she said. “If something comes to me, that means it’s meant for me. So when they submitted it, I was like, well, yeah, absolutely, heck yes!”
Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
Once she walked through the doors of the Big Brother house, however, the reality of the experience set in.
“Day one, it was kind of scary,” she admitted. “I felt like I was four years old and it was my first day going to daycare. You’re combating so many different things—don’t be too strong, don’t act like you know too much. It’s a lot of fighting yourself and not being able to be yourself, while also trying to make friends. It was uncomfortable.”
Her strategy was to stay under the radar, but her vibrant personality quickly pulled her into the spotlight, cementing her as one of the season’s most unforgettable personalities.
“My goal was to go undetected, not too opinionated, not too cool, not have experienced too many things, and just be a yes woman,” told BOSSIP. “That was my strategy going in. That is not what I ended up doing at all.”
Instead, Lee became a commanding presence, so much so that her fans dubbed themselves the “Micktators,” a playful nod to her strong-willed dictator-like decisions as Head of Household and her reputation for speaking her mind.
Early on, she formed bonds with several houseguests.
“I loved Jimmy down,” she told BOSSIP. “He and I really clicked. He would read people for filth, and I ate it up.”
She connected with Morgan over conversations about race and belonging.
“She told me that girls like me typically never embraced her, because of how she looked and because she knew she had privilege,” Lee said. “Hearing that, I immediately went into, oh no girl, that’ll never happen. I would never want someone to feel ostracized by me.”
She also found kinship with Will, whose energy reminded her of her father, and with Keanu, with whom she laughed so much in the early weeks that they shared a bottle of throat spray.
“We both lost our voices the first two weeks,” she said.
But those bonds shifted as the weeks went on.
Lee now sees her eviction as the result of misplaced loyalty and decisions she wishes she could take back. Chief among them was nominating Jimmy for eviction.
“Even though in the moment it made sense in my mind, I would have changed that,” she told Managing Editor Dani Canada. “I would have talked to him more, communicated my distrust, tried to find common ground. That’s one thing for sure.”
She also wishes she had been more ruthless.
“I should have been a little bit more cutthroat,” she said. “It’s obvious—it’s a game of Big Brother. You don’t have to have an allegiance to anyone. And I don’t think this season had any allegiances, to be honest. I think I tried really hard to stick to people I said I would, despite my better judgment.”
Her eviction stunned her in the moment, though she concedes the warning signs were there.
“I knew for a fact that Will and Ava probably would not have voted for me, even though they told me that they were,” she said. “Morgan was peculiar when it came to her loyalty to me. And I wasn’t a fan favorite anymore—you can feel it. There’s an aura it gives off in the house, and it starts to wear on you mentally and physically.”
By the time she was eliminated, Lee said her “social battery had already died.” Outside viewers have told her the same. “Honestly, I was kind of already defeated,” she admitted to BOSSIP.
Since leaving the house, Lee has been buoyed by her supporters.
Returning to Atlanta, she has hosted watch parties, reconnected with friends, and reveled in the city’s peach state embrace.
Source: Paras Griffin / Getty
“Atlanta has always shown me so much love,” she said. “Coming back and having the Micktators added to that was just like a cherry on top. I’ve had my crab legs, my lemon pepper wings, one Magic City Monday under my belt. I’m doing what needs to be done.”
She has also been active online, where the flood of attention from Big Brother viewers has brought both encouragement and criticism.
“You have to be very mentally sound to do this,” she said of her time in the house. “I’ve embraced all of the hatred and I’ve embraced all of the love equally. At the end of the day, those things don’t define me—but the love does nothing but uplift me.”
That doesn’t mean she has let every critic into her feed.
“It’s looking fairly decent,” she said of her block list. “I’ve blocked maybe three people. And yes, I blocked Morgan. That’s not me being bitter. It’s literally just protecting my peace. I’m entitled to block whomever I choose, and to be in control of what’s on my feed.”
Lee insists that her greatest takeaway from the season is not about strategy but about resilience.
“No matter what you do, people are going to have the best things to say and some of the meanest things to say,” she told BOSSIP. “But that is no representation of me as a person. I showed up as myself. And I’m proud of that.”
Tune in to the Big Brother season 27 finale TONIGHT at 8:30 on CBS!
