Producers reveal upcoming twist....and a surprise visitor

'Big Brother' scoop! Producers reveal upcoming twist ... and a surprise visitor

by Lynette Rice



Image Credit: Cliff Lipson/CBSAnnie the saboteur, we barely knew ye! Fortunately, she may not be the only backstabber in the Big Brother house this summer. EW talked exclusively to Executive Producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan about the short-lived twist and what they hope to spring on the houseguests in the coming weeks, including a visit from a former player. So SPOILER ALERT! Don’t click to the next page if you don’t want to learn what happens in tonight’s episode and over the next few weeks.
EW: After Annie was booted, why didn’t you let the house continue to believe that the saboteur was still there?
Allison Grodner The saboteur may not be dead after all! You’ll find out more tonight (July 29). Make sure you watch! We loved this twist. We were hoping it would go longer. But we don’t rig this show. People accuse us of rigging this show, people accuse us of trying to manipulate things. We don’t! We picked someone who was playing her own game, who was a huge fan, who had everything going for her. It wasn’t the saboteur (twist) that got her out, it was her own silly game play – which she did not have to overdo. We would have loved for it to go longer, but it didn’t. And the summer goes on! We ran this risk on every twist we’ve played…
Rich Meehan Twin twist, America’s Player…
Grodner Everything had this same risk associated with it. It is what it is with the game. It gave us a jolt, it was fun. But it’s not over yet!
Was it a Big Brother record, seeing the overt affection begin so quickly between Rachel and Brendon?
Grodner He already professed his love and they’re already planning their wedding date! Tonight he actually says `I love you.’ Bren-chel is in it for the long haul.
Meehan In (Wednesday’s show) he named them `Bren-chel.’
Grodner I swear, I think we may get a Big Brother wedding out of this, not to mention that Jeff and Jordan are still together. Wouldn’t that be great? And Jeff will be back too. Jeff might be spending the night in the house in a couple of weeks so look out for that! I can’t say that Brendon and Rachel are the same as Jeff and Jordan; they are kind of the anti-Jeff and Jordan, but they are truly madly, deeply…there was a scene that we’ll figure out how to get in that played over the internet, where he starts to talk about how he’s going to introduce her to the family. He’s starting to worry about how his mom is not going to like her. At which point, she’s like, `What?’ It starts friction.
Can you tell Rachel that she doesn’t need to yell in the diary room?
Grodner We’ve heard that. We will now. Rachel and Hayden are the yellers. It’s like, `give us some energy,’ and they get loud. We will tone them down.
Is there way that you can make the slop kosher for Andrew?
Grodner Slop is that unique mixture that we get that has the protein and the vitamins, so it’s not just oatmeal. This week, because they have the baby food, there is kosher baby food and kosher oatmeal, so he’s eating big bowls of that. It was a challenge. We’ve never had someone with these kinds of restrictions in the house. And the fact that he’s even made it this long is amazng, considering he’s kind of socially awkward.
What do you think of the house so far?
Grodner It’s always different. Last year, it was a split, angry house. This year, it’s nice because these people, even when they get mad at each other, are fine again pretty fast.
Meehan Even when you don’t like them, you don’t despise them and don’t want to change the channel.
What happened to that tease from the saboteur that two houseguests have a lifelong relationship? Will you explain that?
Grodner Eventually. But it’s been fun because that’s something that the houseguests are trying to figure out.
Why are you sequestering all the houseguests this year?
Grodner We’ve done that in seasons past because of the expect the unexpected. That might happen. It’s become a safety net for us. If it plays into something, it plays into something. It may or may not.

Damn it Erika I was about to post this and you beat me to it!!!
Can you believe Grodner is full of herself thinking we like this Brenchel non-sense. I will have to shoot myself if I see Jeff in the House again before an Allstar season. I rather see Russell come back and cause some real tension. Bringing Jeff will never surpass NPH's visit to the BB House on BB Allstars.

I smell desperation trying to save this trainwreck of a season. I dont think it can be done.

It's weird how Grodner comes off as the anti-BB fan, yet she's one of the head honchos of the series. Like you said pajamajon (and I think we all suspected, esp. given the amount of show time and feeds time they get), she thinks we love B/R for some reason. It's like she doesn't get why BB fans are BB fans. Here's a hint, Allison: it's not the crappy showmances.

It also explains why they try to recast former HGs and specific, recurring "types" every season rather than just trying to construct a diverse, interesting cast of people who will play the game. Whenever BB tries to be conventional and formulaic, it fails.

Look at the pathetic excuses they make about the saboteur twist fail versus comments all over the net from fans who had better ideas on how to implement the twist that would both be far more interesting for the game and would have lasted past the first week. Granted, Annie wasn't evicted because she was outed as the saboteur, but still. It's like they took the laziest route possible and put more effort into hyping the twist than developing it.

And call me naive, but I do believe her that they don't rig the game. Rigging the game would seem to require an intelligence and creativity that I'm not fully convinced they have. I've just never seen anything that convinces me (the closest is BB9's Guineagate). Sure, they can produce a show that we all keep turning back to year after year, but we all have even simple ideas that blow theirs out of the water.

pajamajon wrote:

Damn it Erika I was about to post this and you beat me to it!!!
Can you believe Grodner is full of herself thinking we like this Brenchel non-sense. I will have to shoot myself if I see Jeff in the House again before an Allstar season. I rather see Russell come back and cause some real tension. Bringing Jeff will never surpass NPH's visit to the BB House on BB Allstars.

omg, I would have loved for Russell to come back and run ram shot through that house. That would have been awesome.