Salina in the house! Bootz in the house!
Salina EsTitties, best known for competing in the 15th season of RuPaul's Drag Race, pulled an iconic stunt this week as she became the first-ever drag queen to enter CBS' Big Brother house in the U.S.!
"1st drag queen in the @bigbrothercbs house," Salina wrote on Instagram, later clarifying that she's the first queen to enter the U.S. house of Big Brother — after all, Courtney Act famously competed in the U.K. version of Celebrity Big Brother and even won that season.
"It was a mini dream come true," Salina tells Out. "The official Big Brother Instagram account messaged me, and I truly gagged! My first question was, 'Can I come in drag?'"
Salina was in the BB26 house for as many as eight hours. "I was surprised by how big [the house] is," she reveals. "The paranoia is real! If I'm in the kitchen, there's so many places people could be having side convos. It really is structured in a way to have you double-guessing who's where [and] saying what."
When asked who she's rooting for (or has a crush on) in the Big Brother 26 cast, Salina says:
"The new cast?! Oh my god, I'm not sure yet, but I'm just happy there's hot people. It's so toxic, but I love HOT and SMART Big Brother players."
She adds, "Ultimately, I'm so grateful they asked me to be a part of the mini, one-day content creator series. I got a taste of what BB was like! And to say, and have them post, 'America is ready for a drag queen in the BB house,' I think was my proudest moment.
"Representation matters for a show like Big Brother," Salina concludes, "whose audience is primarily white Midwest America. I think it was a big step forward to include me in this."
Even though CBS' Big Brother has never cast a professional drag artist to compete in the series, different U.S. seasons of Celebrity Big Brother have featured RuPaul's Drag Race judges like Ross Mathews, Todrick Hall, and Carson Kressley.
To help promote Big Brother 26 ahead of its two-night premiere on Wednesday, July 17 and Thursday, July 18, CBS invited TV personalities, content creators, and influencers to enter the BB26 house before the actual houseguests moved in. To our delight, Salina was chosen for that group — which also included Davis Burelson, Kiki Monique, Hannah Kosh, Markell Washington, Julian Burzynski, and Nischelle Turner.
For some reason, Salina's videos entering the Big Brother house did create confusion within the BB26 fandom. Quite a few viewers were convinced that she was an official houseguest competing in season 26… and while we would've loved to have seen Salina in the cast, that's different from what happened.
But we still got footage of Salina twerking all over the official Big Brother house, which absolutely makes us even more excited to tune into this new season!
Keep scrolling to see Salina EsTitties' experience inside the Big Brother 26 house — and tune into the grand premiere on Wednesday, July 27 on CBS.