Big Brother’s Chuk Anyanwu Reveals the Moment He Knew His Game Was ‘in Trouble’ Before Eviction (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Chuk Anyanwu is the latest Big Brother to walk out the front door

• Anyanwu spoke with PEOPLE about where he thinks his game went wrong and which reality TV returnee he thinks has the best shot of winning the whole thing

• Big Brother airs Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS

Chuk Anyanwu is leaving the Big Brother house with his head — and his cowboy hat — held high.

The Big Brother 28 houseguest, 27, was sent packing during the Thursday, Aug. 13 live eviction, after the entire house (minus his closest ally Haley Thogmartin), voted to evict him. It’s a far cry from how he was positioned in the weeks leading up to the vote, with his once-majority alliance holding power for much of the summer. For him, it all came as a surprise.

Now, with the day to reflect, Anyanwu tells PEOPLE where he thinks it all went wrong.

“It was the Lyric eviction,” Anyanwu says of houseguest Lyric Medeiros, whose eviction blindsided him the week prior. “The Lyric eviction let me know that there’s people inside my red corner [alliance] who have been having conversations with other people in the house to agree to the same vote, and I was not aware of it. Icing me out. That is when I knew, ‘Chuk, you are in between a rock and a hard place.’”

The fact that Anyanwu was left out of conversations to change the vote last minute told him “everything” about where he really stood in the game. He adds, “I said, the day I don’t know what’s going on in the house and I don’t know where people are going to vote and I don’t know who’s going to be nominated… is the day I’m in trouble.”

Throughout the summer, Anyanwu had a tight alliance with Thogmartin, 29, and fellow houseguest Kamu Kirk, but one of those relationships only went so far. Kirk, 32, had the opportunity to save either Thogmartin or Anyanwu from eviction this week after winning the Power of Veto. He opted not to use it, in favor of Head of Household LaTrice Verrett’s mission this week.

“That was an amazing move for his game. Are you kidding me? If I was him, I truly would’ve done the exact same thing,” Anyanwu says. “… The fact that now Lala’s someone where you’re worried she’s going to put [houseguests] Dee [Valladares] or [Rick] Devens for a renom if you give the veto to me, it completely buffooned me. That one stung me. But that’s perfect for his game. I would literally do the same.”

Valladares and Devens, both Survivor alums, are giving Big Brother 28 a try this summer with fellow reality returnee Angela Murray, who previously competed on Big Brother 26. None of the three familiar faces have touched the block this season, or even been remotely close to being evicted, which Anyanwu attributes to thinking “they were with us.”

“I just got hit to the fact that they were working against us,” he says, noting that Valladares played a role in flipping the vote last week. “Dee could not even look Haley in her eyes this week. Dee was avoiding Haley like the plague. And I said, ‘Yeah, Haley, she feels guilty and she cannot help it, so she’s avoiding you.’ And then Devens, he went from being someone who would joke with me all the time to where he would barely say a word when I was next to him. And I realized these people think we’re stupid. We weren’t born yesterday. We did this to other people the last four weeks.”

Anyanwu has his own theories for which of the three reality icons has the best shot at winning the whole game. “I would have to give it to Devens. He’s witty, he’s funny, usually had a really good memory… I would have to say it’s Devens, hands down.”

As for his since-abandoned ally Thogmartin, Anyanwu believes she has a lot more work to do to make up for the position she’s found herself in.

“I think she’s going to be on an island by herself because I don’t think she’s aware of the amount of people who are probably working to get her out and the amount of people who backstabbed her,” he says. “She’s a hell of a competitor. She’s going to be going into all these comps, gunning for it…. But people are going to say, ‘Hey, this is an easy person. Let’s get her out.’ And I think people will always do anything that the house will do.”

Moving forward, Anyanwu is ready to adapt to life outside of the BB house. His first order of business is heading back to Texas and giving his mom a call ahead of her birthday this weekend.

“I’ll just hear her bawling because I’m going to be home a little bit before her birthday,” he says. “So I’m stoked I’m home for her birthday. I did tell her, ‘I’m either going to see you before your birthday or after.’ So I’m seeing her before.”

Big Brother airs Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS, with Big Brother: Unlocked airing Fridays at 8 p.m. Episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.