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The Anonymous "Put Me to Work": How Xavier Prather Prepared His Next Big Game Strategy
The Big Brother winner is bringing his social strategy skills to The Anonymous, but will it be enough to win $100,000?
With The Anonymous bringing together 12 strangers to manipulate, mislead, and do whatever it takes to secure up to $100,000, it could be anyone's game. But Season 1 of USA Network's revolutionary new series features some familiar faces to look out for, including Xavier Prather.
Best known as the mastermind behind Big Brother's "Cookout" alliance, Xavier is a reality series veteran and lawyer who — despite his knack for social strategy — found himself amazed by The Anonymous' "intricate" gameplay.
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"This was easily the most layered show I've ever played," Xavier told USA Insider ahead of the series' August 19 premiere. "It pulls from so many other shows. It's just like a nexus of all these different show ideas compiled into one.
"Like, The Traitors, to me, brings a lot of the reality TV personnel to one space, but this show brings a lot of reality competition concepts and melds them together. And that's where it's like, 'Oh, man, you guys are really putting my brain to f---ing work. This is going to be exhausting,'" he said, laughing.
How did Xavier Prather prepare for The Anonymous?
The Anonymous reminded Xavier of a lot of shows: The Traitors, The Circle, The Challenge, and, yes, Big Brother, in which he competed (and won) on Season 23 as well as the holiday-themed Big Brother Reindeer Games. It's the mix of challenges and social strategy that Xavier was expecting, but the combination of so many different concepts is what took him by surprise.
"I like that because there's no blueprint, which means you gotta figure it out," he said. "Like [before] Big Brother, I watched a ton of seasons getting ready for my show. I was analyzing it. But on these shows that don't really have much of a precedent, it forces you to kind of elevate your game as a game player. And I like that. I like to be challenged. I think it's gonna bring out the best in me in whatever capacity it is. This capacity was more social and strategic. Woof. That put me to work."
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While other competitors had different prep strategies, Xavier said he ended up watching The Mole as well as The Circle, on which his friend James Andre Jefferson was a competitor.
"Those two concepts, I felt like were most at play here," he explained. "I just watched the most recent season of The Traitors, so I didn't need to go and rewatch that. So The Mole and The Circle are what I watched before this 'cause I also wanted to get used to the language."
By "the language," he's referring to the players' interactions with DANI, the disembodied A.I. who runs the household and serves as the series' gamemaster.
The Anonymous is played in two worlds: one in person and one in a series of "hideouts," small pods where the players interact with each other from behind anonymous online handles. While in the pods, the players compose messages by speaking aloud and having DANI send those messages on their behalf — like a suped-up Siri with an attitude problem.
"I needed to get used to kind of that verbiage because I don't just walk around in my everyday life like, 'Oh my God, L-O-L. L-O-L, ROFL,'" Xavier explained with a laugh. "'Winky face emoji, eggplant emoji, splash emoji...' Like, I don't talk like that. Who talks like that?"
Find out how Xavier Prather and the 11 other contestants fare when The Anonymous premieres with a three-episode premiere on Monday, August 19 at 11 p.m. ET/PT on USA Network. Episodes will also air simultaneously across Bravo and SYFY on premiere night and repeat in primetime daily on USA throughout the week.
