‘Big Brother 25’: Cory Wurtenberger’s secret connection to ‘Survivor’ doesn’t bode well for his chances

Marcus James Dixon
·3 min read
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If you watched the first episode of “Big Brother 25,” you learned that one of the new houseguests, Jared Fields, is related to a “Survivor” legend, Cirie Fields, who later joined the show as the 17th player. However, Cory Wurtenberger also has a connection to a former “Survivor” castaway, but that relationship wasn’t revealed to viewers. At least, not yet.

Cory’s brother is Zach Wurtenberger, who was the first person voted out of “Survivor 42.” Zach is perhaps best remembered as being the fated love interest of eventual winner Maryanne Oketch. (Remember when she told Jeff Probst that Zach was “literally picture perfect” following his elimination?) After that season aired on CBS, the two jokingly changed their social media names to “Zach Oketch” and “Maryanne Wurtenberger.”

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Zach’s younger brother is a student at Vanderbilt University, where he’s studying to one day get into law school. Cory, a “Big Brother” superfan, is a self-proclaimed “public speaking whiz” who wants to use his skills to “speak persuasively” in the house and win the $750,000 prize. Unfortunately, his first challenge in the 90-minute live season premiere had nothing to do with speaking.

Cory competed against Red Utley, Luke Valentine and Reilly Smedley in the backyard during the Scary-verse challenge. They had to prevent monster hands from dragging them away from their perch into the “nether region” for an undisclosed amount of time. After a strong showing from all four, Cory let go first and disappeared, becoming the fourth nominee for eviction alongside fellow competition losers Jared, Felicia Cannon and Kirsten Elwin.

SEE ‘Big Brother 25’ episode 1 recap

Is the Wurtenberger curse about to strike again on a CBS reality TV show? As of this writing, Cory has a 25% chance of going home. But remember, the Head of Household still hasn’t been crowned yet, and the Veto is presumably still up for grabs. We won’t find out until Thursday, August 10 who’ll be the first person evicted from the “BB25” house, but many Gold Derby users are already making their predictions.

On social media, Zach announced he is “so, so proud” of his brother and compared him to Willie Hantz, aka the person who appeared on “Big Brother 14” after his older brother, Russell Hantz, made headlines as a “Survivor” contestant. Willie was infamously ejected from the house by producers after he got into a physical altercation; here’s hoping Cory doesn’t fight anyone in the “nether region.”

SEE exclusive predictions: Who will win ‘Big Brother’?

Be sure to make your predictions to influence our reality TV racetrack odds. You can keep changing your predictions until just before the eviction episode airs live on CBS. You’ll compete to win a $100 Amazon gift card and a spot on our “BB25” leaderboard. See our contest rules and sound off with other fans in our reality TV forum. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.

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