‘Got To Get Out’ Star Omarosa Reveals She Was Part Of Cynthia Bailey’s Successful Exit Strategy — But She Was Stuck In A Zoom Class When It Happened: “I Totally Missed Out”

Competition show legend Omarosa is celebrating the 20th anniversary of her TV debut. The reality star has accomplished quite a bit over the last two decades. Not only has she appeared on Season 1 of The Apprentice, Celebrity Big Brother, and House of Villains, but she also served a short time in President Donald Trump‘s administration during his first term — and later wrote a scathing book detailing his alleged racism. Now a soon-to-be law school graduate, Omarosa is trying her hand at Hulu’s newest reality competition show Got to Get Out.

The eight-episode series, which is currently streaming on the platform, puts 10 celebrities and game show veterans with 10 regular people with normal jobs in a mansion that they must escape in order to win a $1 million prize pot. With the money growing by the second, everyone in the house must work together to stop one another from successfully (and sneakily) exiting the property and taking the money for themselves.

“This show rivals that craziness of Fear Factor, the strategy I had to use in Big Brother, some of that street smarts from The Apprentice,” Omarosa told DECIDER over a recent Zoom interview. “It kind of combined all of these amazing elements that I love in reality TV.”

In Episode 5, Real Housewives of Atlanta star Cynthia Bailey and adventure filmmaker Stein Retzlaff teamed up on an exit strategy, making them the first and only people to successfully escape from the mansion. What we didn’t see, however, was that Omarosa was also supposed to be right there with them to split the $312,000 prize money.

“I’m so upset because Stein, Cynthia, and I were working together,” Omarosa revealed. “I was in class at the time that I was shooting this and production was so very kind to allow me to do my class in the middle of production. Well, during the time that their escape was going on, I was on a Zoom call. Like, literally in class, finishing law school.”

Omarosa also talked about mooning Spencer Pratt, pranking reporter Steve Helling (a.k.a. Liar Steve), and where she is on her law school journey. Check out the full interview below.

DECIDER: You’ve been doing reality competition shows for two decades. What made you want to sign onto this show?

OMAROSA: Well, this is my 20th anniversary. So I wanted to do something fun. A lot of the concepts that my agent sent to me, I was like, “Eh.” But this show really caught my attention because 20 years ago, in 2005, I shot a show called Fear Factor. It was hosted by Joe Rogan back then and it was the funnest show I had ever done. We were hanging from helicopters and sticking our hands in boxes of snakes and driving race cars over semi trucks. And so I really wanted to get back to that kind of fun. This is that kind of fun. This show rivals that craziness of Fear Factor, the strategy I had to use in Big Brother, some of that street smarts from The Apprentice. So it kind of combined all of these amazing elements that I love in reality TV. So it instantly caught my attention and I wanted to be a part of it. 

I thought it was so funny when you mooned Spencer Pratt. Why was that your go-to defense mechanism? What was the thought process there?

Well, first of all, Spencer had been giving us hell the whole time we were in. He was so clever and strategic. And so Kim Zolciak and I, that’s our bathroom, she’s my roommate, and, of course, the craziness happened in our suite. So he busts into our suite and we’re like, “Stay out of our suite! Get out of our bathroom!” It was total chaos, that particular episode. But he had it coming. Let me just put it that way. 

You described Spencer as one of the weirdest reality stars and called him the “diabolical Spencer Pratt.” Now that you know him, do you stand by your original assessment of his character? Or did you learn more about him through this game?

I’m so upset that I called him weird and I need to put that in context because I absolutely adore Spencer although we battled in this house. It was just, you know, he came into the house he had crystals and he was all zen and I was like, “Where’s this edgy Spencer that I came to love? I don’t want the zen Spencer. I don’t want crystals and meditating. I want the cutthroat, backstabbing, conniving Spencer that we’ve all come to love.” And that’s why I called him weird. So, Spencer, forgive me for calling you weird. But I did call you diabolical, which I know you love. 

You had a few different alliances – there was you and Steven and then there was also you, Doodles, and Kim, to name a couple. Who were your favorite people to team up with?

You know, I really did love working with Spencer. I loved working with him. Doodles, I would say, was my favorite player to play with. I don’t know how much of you saw behind the scenes of what Cynthia and I did, but Cynthia was also my roommate. So it was like the Housewives wing of the mansion. But I would stay my absolute favorite person to work with was Demi and it may not have played out how much we spent time together strategizing. I’m gonna put Demi at the top of my list because you wouldn’t expect her to be the most cutthroat person in the house, but she’s definitely up there. 

You said you had a Housewives wing. Are you a Bravo fan? Were you familiar with them before you came in?

Of course, the Atlanta Housewives, that’s where all the fun happens. I absolutely love the Atlanta Housewives. And I was so surprised that they made my roommate two Atlanta Housewives, but pleasantly surprised. Cynthia and Kim are on two ends of the spectrums. Kim is just go, go, go, high energy. Cynthia’s very zen. It was a wonderful balance in our room. And I was so fortunate to have both of them as my roommates during the show. 

Cynthia Bailey really gave you your due in the beginning when she called you a master at playing these types of games. How did you feel about her being one of the only two players who were able to get out?

So I was a part of this alliance and I’m so upset because Stein, Cynthia, and I were working together. One of the things you may not know is that I was in class at the time that I was shooting this and production was so very kind to allow me to do my class in the middle of production. Well, during the time that their escape was going on, I was on a Zoom call. Like, literally in class, finishing law school. And it was a critical class that I couldn’t miss. So, of course, I go to do my class as is scheduled and while I’m in this huge walk-in closet, dealing with this Contracts of Law class, they’re escaping with all this money. So, I totally missed out on that escape. I was a part of that. I know that she and Stein should tell you that I was a part of it. But my education came first and I couldn’t miss that class. So I missed out on the amazing escape that they had. 

That’s such a fun little tidbit that we didn’t see on the show.

I’m in my last semester of law school and I will be Esquire in less than a month, Samantha. 

That’s amazing! I was going to ask how your law school journey was going since you talked about it in the show.

Yes, one month. I graduate May 17 from Southern University Law School. 

That’s amazing! And you even had time to do a game show.

That’s the thing, I didn’t have time and I want to just take a moment to thank Hulu and Disney and production for working around that very important aspect of my life because I really couldn’t have done it and they worked it out so that during the time of my class, which was this Tuesday and Thursday, at this particular time, that I could go grab my iPad, jump onto class, turn in my work, and then get back into the game. So there are moments that you may see me in the middle of some of the action. And I was in the middle of class. The house guests – they were so supportive. They would even remind me, “Isn’t it time for your class? Are you studying?” I couldn’t study on camera, so I was always in the class, they would come and tap and say, “Hey, food is out, do you want me to bring it to you so you don’t miss out on your class or miss out on homework?” So I absolutely loved the cast for doing that and having my back, but particularly production. 

It’s amazing that they worked with you on that. Shifting gears a little bit, it seems like everyone had a lot of fun messing with Liar Steve. What was your favorite prank on him?

Oh, poor Steve. This one I feel a little bad about, but not so much. Steve was really mixing it up. And I actually like Steve. I love the villains. I like the bad guys. But I did have to take advantage of the fact that there was this big rat head in the house. And when he was not in his room and I believe that he was kind of mixing up with the guys, I took the rat head and I hid it underneath his covers so that when it was time for him to go to bed that night and he pulled the cover back, he was facing this massive rat head. I know, it’s a terrible prank. We had a lot of fun, but it really startled him. It upset him for the rest of the show. And he came to confront me about it. And I was like, “Well, I’m kind of Omarosa and that’s what you get.”

Everyone ended up winning around $43,000. Were you happy with the final result? What did you end up doing with your winnings?

Um, was I happy? Of course! I mean, at some point you’re like, “Oh, I want to walk out of this house with $1 million. Oh, I want to walk out to this house with $700,000. Oh, I want to walk out with a half million dollars.” At some point, you’re like, “Am I going to leave this house with anything? Am I going to get out of this house? Ami I gonna leave this house empty-handed?” And really towards the end, you’re kind of thinking of a different strategy. Your strategy has to shift. So I got to get out with some money, right? So I was very pleased with the end result. And of course, you know, it all goes towards law school because law school is very expensive. 

Well, congratulations. It’s very exciting. Maybe not $1 million, but still exciting.

Oh yeah, just being able to leave with prize money. I mean, this was one of the most great experiences. And I, like you said, I’ve had a lot of experiences in the last 20 years and I’m so excited that I got to celebrate my 20 years of reality TV with this amazing cast and this very unique social experiment, Got to Get Out.

Are there any other reality competition shows you hope to do in the future?

Of course! In fact, I talked poor Val’s head off. I want to do Dancing with the Stars. That’s on my bucket list. And Jeff Probst has been talking for the last 15 years about doing a celebrity version of Survivor. If that comes to fruition, I will be the first person to sign up. I want to go out and compete with the roughest, most rugged, most competitive game show I think there is. And that’s of course, Survivor. And then, last but not least, I love all of the shows, but I think that there needs to be an Amazing Race, where I get to team up with somebody fun and I get to go around the world and do it. So those are my three shows. Dancing with the Stars, Celebrity Survivor, and Amazing Race. 

Let’s put it out there! Congratulations again on 20 years of reality TV success and graduating law school!

Thank you so much. And I want everybody to go follow me for all of the behind the scenes updates on Got to Get Out, including the one I posted right before this interview, @omarosa on all social media platforms. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

All eight episodes of Got to Get Out are currently streaming on Hulu.