'Stick it to everyone': Why Big Brother's Kieran quit for $15k

Fresh from his spectacular exit from the Big Brother house, Kieran Davidson has revealed the specific — and slightly savage — reason he opted to pocket a cash prize of $15k and walk away from the competition altogether.

The 21-year-old videographer explained that he hadn’t fully decided on accepting the money on offer while in the show’s ‘White Room’ — that’s until he found out how much it would sting his fellow housemates.

“$15,000 is incredible, especially because some other people have left [the show] will get absolutely nothing,” Kieran said on Nova 96.9’s Fitzy & Wippa on Thursday morning.

“When I was offered that money I wasn’t sure if I was going to take it but then Sonia [Kruger] says, ‘It comes off the grand total prize money’ so I thought, I’m going to stick it up to everyone who thought I wasn’t a threat in the game. Take the cash and run!” he laughed.

Kieran made his bold move while in Big Brother’s ‘White Room’ with fellow star Sophie Budak. The pair were faced with two red buzzers and a screen displaying a rapidly increasing amount of money; the housemate who presses the buzzer gets to claim the dollar amount but must leave the house while the other is allowed to stay. If neither presses their buzzer, Mat will be allowed to decide who stays and who goes.

With the timer ticking, Kieran asks Sophie if she’s going to take the cash or stay in the house. She wants to stay so he waits for the cash amount to grow a bit more then slams his buzzer earning him a cool $15,344 — and leaving the housemates with just shy of $234k in total prize money.

“Mine!” he shouted, adding, “I just got 15 grand. Woo!”

A teary Sophie, meanwhile, was welcomed back with hugs from Sarah and Chad while unofficial villains Dan and Mat — who voted Sophie out in the first place — remained stony-faced.

Several viewers took to social media to share their reactions to Kieran’s feather-ruffling decision.

“Brilliant! Wipe the smirks of Dan and Matt’s face!” wrote a fan on Instagram.

“Oh my golly goodness....revenge comes in all forms. This is hilarious!” said another.

Sophie on a ‘revenge path’

In a post-exit interview on the Big Brother Instagram account, Kieran explained how his cash grab came with the added bonus of sending Sophie back into the competition to battle it out with Dan and Mat.

“I felt like I was sending a bullet back in there to get them [Dan and Mat] out and I'm the gun that shot it and walked away with some money which is really good,” he said.

“Now that Sophie's gone back into the house, her and Chad will be on a revenge path. So I think it will be Sophie, Sarah and Chad in the top three,” he added.

Fans on social media seemed to agree with Keiran’s speculation, with one writing, “Yes Sophie, your time for payback girl”.

Kieran the ‘cockroach’

Kieran failed to leave a good impression on his former housemate Marissa Rancan, who branded him a ‘cockroach’ that ‘throws people under the bus’ after she was ousted from the show on day 31.

"I sort of felt that I was going to go that day, because the cockroach will live on and on and on, and that’s Kieran," she said during an appearance on Sunrise.

"Kieran just throws people under the bus and then runs around and does nothing,” she added.

Additional reporting by Marni Dixit.

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