‘The Anonymous’ Star Xavier E. Prather Hates DANI: “It Was Like Having A Really Annoying Boss”

Xavier E. Prather has already cemented his legacy in reality TV history. With “The Cookout” alliance by his side, Prather played his heart out and schemed behind the scenes to become Big Brother‘s first-ever Black winner. Also a successful attorney, Prather is a man who has nothing left to prove to reality TV fans. Other than brief stints on The Challenge USA and Big Brother: Reindeer Games, Prather has been very choosey about what shows he appears on. So, what about USA Network’s The Anonymous hit different for him? “The concept initially intrigued me,” said Prather.

Taking place over the course of 12 days, The Anonymous is a fast-paced competition series that is a fascinating hybrid of beloved shows like The Circle and The Traitors. Players must play the game in two ways: face-to-face and behind an avatar in a “anonymous mode.” At the Square House, contestants compete in challenges—both physical and mental—and build real-life alliances. In The Hideouts, the same players operate under unique handles, manipulating their housemates, planting seeds of doubt, and setting them up for elimination. At stake is a prize pot of up to $100,000 dollars.

While the speed of the game appealed to Prather (“I’m not looking to go away for up to a hundred days anymore”), Prather thinks to the time constraint had pros and cons. “If you’re playing with people who can’t handle the speed of the game play, it can be advantageous,” noted Prather. “They might not be able to handle that pressure.” However, Prather was quick to look at the obvious downside. “With the urgency of the game, people can make mistakes, or even I can make mistakes.” “That’s where it can come back to bite you,” added Prather thoughtfully.

DECIDER got to chat with Prather over Zoom to talk game, why he chose to be open with his identity, and why DANI—Digital Anonymous Networking Interface— is the most difficult reality TV host he’s ever worked with.

DECIDER: Xavier, I’m sure you get offers for reality TV all the time. What made you say “yes” to The Anonymous?

XAVIER E. PRATHER: The concept of The Anonymous initially intrigued me. It comes from the producers of The Traitors and The Circle, the two shows that I’ve said in the past I was interested in going on. As I learned more about game, I felt like it was going to be challenging. I’ve turned down numerous shows, but I felt like The Anonymous would stretch me. It’s such an unique opportunity. Every single show that I’ve done has been different. This was another chance to try something new. And it’s fun.

Because the show incorporates so many great elements from other reality competition series, it’s hard to categorize.

It’s a cornucopia of reality competition series tropes. It’s got some aspects of Traitors. It’s got some aspects of The Circle and a little bit of Big Brother. The show is a mesh of a lot of things, but it’s also very different from other shows we’ve seen in the past.

I love the speed of the show. 12 contestants, one eliminated each day. As someone who once spent 100 days in a house, that format must have appealed to you.

The length of time? Definitely. I’m not looking to go away for up to a hundred days anymore. I did my time, so I loved the fast pace. I did Big Brother: Reindeer Games in December, which turned out to be great preparation. From the time we woke up to the time we went to bed, it was all game. The Anonymous felt to me like the middle ground between The Challenge USA and Reindeer Games. It was a lot at once, but I still had time to breathe.

Overall, was the fast pace of The Anonymous an advantage or disadvantage?

I think a bit of both. If you’re playing with the kind of people who can’t handle the speed of the game , it can be advantageous. They might not be able to handle that pressure. In that sense, it can be beneficial. At the same time, with the urgency of the game, people can make mistakes, or even I can make mistakes. That can come back to bite you.

What did you think about playing the game with DANI in lieu of a traditional host like TJ Lavin or Julie Chen-Moonves?

I hate DANI [laughs]. I’m going to just put it out there. You can put that as a giant headline. “Xavier E. Prather hates DANI.” DANI was rude. DANI never let me sleep in. DANI talks a lot of trash. It was like having an annoying boss who you just want to tell off, but you can’t because you don’t want to get fired. As far as the hosts that I’ve had in the past, I probably put DANI at the bottom.

It speaks to your presence, your personality, and your gameplay that no one in the house seems to see you as a potential threat , at least in the first three episodes. What was your strategy going into all this?

I’ll be completely honest with you…I wanted to lie. I was hoping I could approach this similarly to how I approached Big Brother. I was hoping I was going to arrive, conceal my resume and what I do for a living, and use my personality to gain trust, gain favor, and just keep it moving. That didn’t exactly happen according to plan. So, once I felt like I needed to tell people who I was, I thought, “okay, now I just got to lean into it.” Controlling the narrative around my past allowed me the opportunity to build trust in a way. I said, “look, I’ve have a target on my back. It’s gigantic. If you take a shot, I get it. However, here are the ways in which this giant target can be a benefit to you.”

That’s smart.

When you walk in the game and people have preexisting conceptions of who you are as a game player and who you are as a person. It’s not really your job to try to downplay your history. Your job is to make them ignore that voice in their head that’s telling them, “Get rid of this person,” for as long as possible. At the beginning of the game, I would say I did a fairly good job of that. The players who can distract the other game players will find success, like Cirie Fields.

In the first three episodes, your competitor Nina Twine was able to keep her lineage and Survivor: Australia experience under wraps. Do you think that will pay off for her in the long run?

That’s the game that I wish I would’ve been able to play. Whether or not that will work out for Nina, time will tell.

Did you prefer playing the game face-to-face or behind the screen in the hideout?

Face-to-face is always fun because you get to meet all these different people with incredible personalities. There’s no shortage of characters in this cast. It was also cool to be in The Hideout. I got to sit down and talk through everything that was going through my head.

You picked the fish as your anonymous digital handle, which I thought was smart. Can you talk about your reasoning behind that choice?

Big fish [laughs]. People tend to gravitate towards things that they recognize and give them a sense of comfort. I thought people were either going to lean towards icons that represented something meaningful or pick something totally opposite to try and throw people off. I wanted to go somewhere in the middle. That’s why I went with the fish. I don’t really have any ties to fish, but my dad and my uncles go on an annual fishing trip. It allowed me to be able to speak freely because I knew I was never going to accidentally give them a clue to my hideout identity.

The editing in the show is great. As you were describing all the potential traps players could fall into, the editors cut to players falling into said traps. It just shows how good you are at these games.

In this game, people are going to appreciate my social and strategic abilities. Before this, I think that some have used the fact that I’m not an overly vocal player to take me down a peg. I don’t think people have questioned my abilities competitively, but I think people have always wanted to see more of what I can do. I’m glad they’ll be able to watch the show and find out.

It took you until episode 3 to form an alliance with Robbi, Jack, Christopher and Nina. Why these 4 players?

The game is very fast paced, so you don’t really have a ton of time to figure out who you really rock with. By day three, I was like, “okay, these are the people that I think I should work with to put me in a good position to be successful.” I want strong game players on my side. After some time, I realized that I could bend the anonymous mode to my will, but the group I was with had to be on the same page. It takes a lot of moving pieces. That’s where it gets difficult, especially in a game where everyone’s trying to be anonymous.

I love that, despite being a reality TV legend, you are also still very much a lawyer. Can you talk about your new legal consultancy, LawyerLike?

LawyerLike is based on my experiences in the entertainment realm. I know the reality TV world very well, but I’m also an experienced transactional attorney. I’ve worked on multimillion dollar investment deals in private equity and hedge fund transactions, but I saw that people involved in reality TV—whether they be models, TV personalities, influencers, or content creators—also need legal assistance. With my background, I feel like I’m the perfect person to offer my services. They will not be getting legal guidance from a typical lawyer but from someone who’s been in their shoes. The Anonymous and LawyerLike merge my two worlds. This feels like a rebirth for me.

The Anonymous airs Monday nights at 11/10c on USA Network