Three former BBBs launch their candidacy for the October elections

In a movement that has been repeated for some years, former participants of Big Brother Brazil chose to try a career in politics. Three former BBBs have registered their candidatures at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and will run in the elections for federal deputy in October: Ariadna Arantes, from BBB 11, Adrilles Jorge, from BBB 15, compete in São Paulo, and Elis Nair, from BBB 17 , in the Federal District.

Of the 349 participants in 22 editions, 27 have already tried a political career in previous elections and only one was successful: the champion of the fifth edition, Jean Wyllys from Bahia. He was elected to three terms as a federal deputy (2010, 2014 and 2018), but resigned in 2019 after death threats.

Today, Jean is doing a doctorate on “the articulation of fake news with hate speech and the impacts of these speeches on electoral processes and the way of life of minorities” and lives in Barcelona.

There are curious stories about former participants of the program in its candidate version. Cida Santos, champion of the fourth edition, reappeared ten years later in search of a seat in the Chamber. In Rio de Janeiro’s electoral propaganda, she asked a question, which was almost like a catchphrase: “Remember me?”. It seems not. Cida had only 167 votes.

Among the new candidates, Ariadna Arantes was the most outstanding of the trio. Now a friend of Anitta, the makeup artist went down in history as the first trans participant of the reality show, in 2011.

She only revealed her gender to the other participants when she left the house, right on the first wall. Viewers already knew that the sister was a trans woman, and Ariadna always pointed out that her departure would have been motivated by transphobia.

Adrilles Jorge is a bolsonarista and was in the middle of the controversy involving the podcast presenter Monark, who in February this year defended the existence of a Nazi party in Brazil. The former BBB was even fired from Jovem Pan at the time, after making a gesture with his right hand, a salute that refers to Nazism, when commenting on Monark’s statement.

Adrilles had a controversial participation in the reality. He fought with Luan, a black participant, whom he called a “bandidinho”, and lived a love-hate relationship with Mariza, an art teacher from Pernambuco. He came out on the tenth wall, when he faced the BBB champion that year, Cézar Lima.

So that no one would forget where she came from, Elis Nair assumed the name “Elis BBB” for the elections in the Federal District. In the 17th edition, the then trader ended up being the fifth eliminated from the reality show, with 80.32% of the votes. The high rejection was motivated largely because of the gossip and intrigue of Elis, who even earned the nickname “agent of chaos”.