We learned this week that Big Brother 10 boasts the oldest cast ever (a 75-year-old great grandpa and a 53-year-old beauty salon owner!). But what is really in store for this crack-brained group of players? Well, for one thing, BB executive producer Allison Grodner says the show (still hosted by Julie Chen, pictured) is celebrating the franchise’s 10th anniversary by going old school with the format (translation: no more secret couples).
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Because it’s the 10th season, do you feel like you had to do something bigger and better?
ALLISON GRODNER: We’re going back to the original format: putting a cast of strangers in the house who wouldn’t normally cross each other’s paths. This summer you’re going to find a 22-year-old body builder and a 75-year-old great grandpa in the house, and then everything else in between. We’ve had diversity of age in past, but this is clearly the biggest gap, and the grandpa is the oldest contestant we’ve ever had. It’ll be fascinating to watch the generational thing in the house.
There’s nothing old school about America’s Player. Is that twist out this summer?
Casting twists are off the table, but I’m not going to say anything else at this time. You have to keep the game fresh. I think that’s important. These players are die-hard fans so you have to keep them on their toes, as well as the viewers.
AFTER THE JUMP: “I think it’s possible
you’ll see some food restrictions being mixed up this summer.”
A lot of people believed that Adam Jasinski –- the winner of Big Brother 9 — threw one of the stages of that final HOH [Head of Household] competition. Do you believe
that’s true?
He says he didn’t. I believe he threw the final stage of the HOH
competition -– and it was a very smart move to do –- so Ryan would win
and he therefore wouldn’t have to vote out Sheila. Adam was a lot
smarter than he appeared. He made a big point during the jury
deliberation of denying that. It was a really bright move, and it was
also a bright move to lie about it.
Who did you think was going to win?
Ryan played the better game, but Adam had the gift of gab. Sometimes
it comes down to that. Adam did what was important to Big Brother;
you’ve got to make the jury like you. We’ll do an update this summer
and check in on Adam to see if he did what he said he was going to do:
donate that money (to a charity for children).
Whatever happened to Neil, the other gay man who abruptly left the show early
in the season? Fans never really got a satisfying answer explaining his
departure.
The answer remains the same: a family emergency and he
has remained private about the details, so we will respect that as well.
So what was your verdict on BB9 –- success or failure?
I feel like Big Brother is a great summer show, and summer
is where it belongs. I’ve always felt that way. it should air once a
year. It was tough to put on a winter season, but if you look at the
ratings, if you look at the DVR usage, we really weren’t that far off
from where we normally are. I know we still had our core fan base.
At the end of the winter edition, we asked EW.com readers to
submit suggestions on how to improve the show, so I wanted to run a few
of them by you. Here’s one from a poster named Andy: “Get rid of the
food competitions. They’re pointless. Instead, they need to do luxury
competitions in which winners get a prize, but the losers get some kind
of punishment. This would create more chaos in the house than not being
able to eat regular food for a few days.”
Food competitions give us a time to be silly! They lend
comedy. But I also think the house guests should have to work for
something since they aren’t growing vegetables or slaughtering chickens
in the backyard. The idea that their food is at stake becomes a huge
deal in this house. Being on slop or having a food restriction causes a
lot of drama.
Will you ever allow the Power of Veto winner to select the replacement nominee?
Head of Household is what this show is about. If you take
the power away from HOH, you make it less special. It just wouldn’t be
fair. Winning HOH has to be the biggest thing of each week. If you mess
with that person’s nominees, you cut their power in half.
Would you ever consider putting cameras in the jury house?
Big Brother operates out of an elaborately put-together
sound stage. It took a long time for our engineers to put together all
those cameras. To do that to an average house would mean a whole other
set and a huge budget.
Many EW.com readers think you should take the Bible out of the house.
It provides good talking points! It’s given us interesting
story to follow. But honestly, we aren’t putting a Bible in the house.
The houseguests are allowed to bring in religious readings.
Is it time to get rid of the slop?
No one ever said it can’t happen. I think it’s possible
you’ll see some food restrictions being mixed up this summer. The idea
of unexpected food restrictions can add some fun to the food
competitions.
Have you considered forcing the house guests to use the POV?
I go back and forth on that. I would be concerned if all of
a sudden the POV competition would become something people don’t want
to win. People wouldn’t want to be put in the spotlight. You’re also
fighting for your own safety in the POV competition — the idea that
you won’t be placed on the block. And you’re fighting for the power to
make that choice. That’s what we’ve always found so interesting about
the veto: not using it can be just as powerful as using it. I’d hate to
force someone to do it. As producers, we want to keep our hands off of
things. We want to make sure the people in the house get to make as
many decisions as possible.
One EW.com reader named Angie suggested that you finally do away
with the scripted moments like, say, when the HOH looks at the photo
wall and decides who to nominate.
There’s tradition, there’s routine, there’s a ceremony that
goes with a few different things in the BB house. They give us a sense
of structure and a place to build drama. It’s really about storytelling. BB has been going for 10 [seasons]. We have a format that we like
and there are reasons for everything we do.
Big Brother doesn’t have an order beyond this summer, right? Will there be an 11th season?
It’s always been the case with BB that we don’t learn about
the following year until after we just finished one. It’s amazing we’ve
gone this far. But it’s gone this far because at its core, the basic
idea of people in a bubble and the multimedia elements that go with it
are still so fresh and exciting. It can continue to grow and evolve as
long as we continue to put amazing personalities in that house. So why
not?
A lot of people believed that Adam Jasinski –- the winner of Big Brother 9 — threw one of the stages of that final HOH [Head of Household] competition. Do you believethat’s true?
He says he didn’t. I believe he threw the final stage of the HOHcompetition -– and it was a very smart move to do –- so Ryan would winand he therefore wouldn’t have to vote out Sheila. Adam was a lotsmarter than he appeared. He made a big point during the jurydeliberation of denying that. It was a really bright move, and it wasalso a bright move to lie about it.
Who did you think was going to win?
Ryan played the better game, but Adam had the gift of gab. Sometimesit comes down to that. Adam did what was important to Big Brother;you’ve got to make the jury like you. We’ll do an update this summerand check in on Adam to see if he did what he said he was going to do:donate that money (to a charity for children).
Whatever happened to Neil, the other gay man who abruptly left the show earlyin the season? Fans never really got a satisfying answer explaining hisdeparture.
The answer remains the same: a family emergency and hehas remained private about the details, so we will respect that as well.
So what was your verdict on BB9 –- success or failure?
I feel like Big Brother is a great summer show, and summeris where it belongs. I’ve always felt that way. it should air once ayear. It was tough to put on a winter season, but if you look at theratings, if you look at the DVR usage, we really weren’t that far offfrom where we normally are. I know we still had our core fan base.
At the end of the winter edition, we asked EW.com readers tosubmit suggestions on how to improve the show, so I wanted to run a fewof them by you. Here’s one from a poster named Andy: "Get rid of thefood competitions. They’re pointless. Instead, they need to do luxurycompetitions in which winners get a prize, but the losers get some kindof punishment. This would create more chaos in the house than not beingable to eat regular food for a few days."
Food competitions give us a time to be silly! They lendcomedy. But I also think the house guests should have to work forsomething since they aren’t growing vegetables or slaughtering chickensin the backyard. The idea that their food is at stake becomes a hugedeal in this house. Being on slop or having a food restriction causes alot of drama.
Will you ever allow the Power of Veto winner to select the replacement nominee?
Head of Household is what this show is about. If you takethe power away from HOH, you make it less special. It just wouldn’t befair. Winning HOH has to be the biggest thing of each week. If you messwith that person’s nominees, you cut their power in half.
Would you ever consider putting cameras in the jury house?
Big Brother operates out of an elaborately put-togethersound stage. It took a long time for our engineers to put together allthose cameras. To do that to an average house would mean a whole otherset and a huge budget.
Many EW.com readers think you should take the Bible out of the house.
It provides good talking points! It’s given us interestingstory to follow. But honestly, we aren’t putting a Bible in the house.The houseguests are allowed to bring in religious readings.
Is it time to get rid of the slop?
No one ever said it can’t happen. I think it’s possibleyou’ll see some food restrictions being mixed up this summer. The ideaof unexpected food restrictions can add some fun to the foodcompetitions.
Have you considered forcing the house guests to use the POV?
I go back and forth on that. I would be concerned if all ofa sudden the POV competition would become something people don’t wantto win. People wouldn’t want to be put in the spotlight. You’re alsofighting for your own safety in the POV competition — the idea thatyou won’t be placed on the block. And you’re fighting for the power tomake that choice. That’s what we’ve always found so interesting aboutthe veto: not using it can be just as powerful as using it. I’d hate toforce someone to do it. As producers, we want to keep our hands off ofthings. We want to make sure the people in the house get to make asmany decisions as possible.
One EW.com reader named Angie suggested that you finally do awaywith the scripted moments like, say, when the HOH looks at the photowall and decides who to nominate.
There’s tradition, there’s routine, there’s a ceremony thatgoes with a few different things in the BB house. They give us a senseof structure and a place to build drama. It’s really about storytelling. BB has been going for 10 [seasons]. We have a format that we likeand there are reasons for everything we do.
Big Brother doesn’t have an order beyond this summer, right? Will there be an 11th season?
It’s always been the case with BB that we don’t learn aboutthe following year until after we just finished one. It’s amazing we’vegone this far. But it’s gone this far because at its core, the basicidea of people in a bubble and the multimedia elements that go with itare still so fresh and exciting. It can continue to grow and evolve aslong as we continue to put amazing personalities in that house. So whynot?
Comments (1-20) of 20 Add your comment
I am interested in how the 75 yo contestant will fair in physical challenges or if they will change them up for him
will they have to change the physical challenges to accomidate the 75 yo?
Hey, I think Dana wants to know if they’ll change the physical challenges to accommodate a 75-year-old.
how did ya guess?
Old school, new school, pre school…what’s the point? Grodner had bent the BB rules so much I’m surprised she hasn’t been investigated for gameshow-rigging. I stopped watching after #8. When Les Moonves gets the stones to evict HER and gets an executive producer with some integrity is when I’ll watch again.
How can you mention Big Brother and integrity in the same sentence? The reason we love this show is because it’s people with absolutely no integrity (or shame, or manners, or intelligence, or decorum, or tact…) put on display like circus freaks. Viva la Big Brother!!!
I had watched BB from the beginning, but I also stopped watching after the disgusting mess of #8.
This article could have been reduced to “Thanks for your suggestions, but we’re too lazy to change anything.”
Although I was pleased to hear there would be no pre-existing relationships in the house, Grodner is foolish for not taking advantage of the fanbase and their suggestions. These are the people who will watch the show no matter what, but Big Brother could be a much more interesting piece of social experimentation and probably better television to boot if Grodner didn’t insist on pitching to the lowest common denominator.
I was the one with the food question. Thanks for asking it, Lynette. I don’t see the drama she’s talking about…OK, maybe once with Jen. But, otherwise, they’re meaningless.
The answers to Lynette’s questions reminded me of lame Corporations who do the same old same old until they run the company into the ground. Basically she said they “do what they like” and heck with the fans. I agree with the posters who say they’re lazy.
Diversity? They have two token older people and then everybody else is pretty much twenty something. zzzzz
Great questions!! Thanks for asking about the food restrictions… I’ve always thought the weekly food competition was a waste of time, when I’d rather be seeing FUNNY moments (or even touching ones) between the houseguests just hanging out.
It really is more interesting when everyone is a 20-something…..It doesn’t take old people…just some 30’s and 40’s….last year the winner, Adam, was so obscene and vile in one afterdark, streaming video, I was shocked. I didn’t watch the show after seeing him talk about the fat, ugly women he’d tried to sleep with. it was realllllly bad.
I meant to say NOT a 20-something!
Like most BB fans, I suspect some measure of “game tampering” by the producers – it’s pretty obvious imho. The reason they don’t get investigated, is because TECHNICALLY it’s not classified as a game show, it’s “scripted drama” or something close to that.
My one suggestion to improve the show, dump Julie Chen – she’s just a robot who shows up at the last minute and reads a teleprompter. I much rather have someone like past winner Dr. Will ( and sidekick Boogie ) be the host.
the scripted moments provide structure bs is exactly why I won’t be watching season 10 after watching every other season. I used fast fwd thru about 80 percent of season 9 because of idiocy like “shiela tell me why I should use the veto on you instead of myself” and pink haired guy whose name dissapeared from my memory why should we not vote you out when we’ve spent the last 3 weeks trying to get rid of you? What a waste of precious time and words. Yeah we’re really tuning in to watch someone staring a bunch of photos agonizing over what they want to do when anyone who’s been watching already knows. This whole interview shows she cares nothing about what the fans think when she even brushes off a change that would not effect the show other than to remove a severly annoying waste of time.
Allison Grodner has the talent level of a basic cable producer. She won the lottery by landing on a network show, but her lack of imagination (combined with a lame budget–the prize has been $500,000 since 2000) exposes her as someone who will be presenting common reality shows one day. When you see the wild twists in the British BB, and the eye-poppingly designed house in the Australian BB, you start to realize how we Americans are getting ripped off on the infrastructure of this show. Our house is an unchanging box, our twists recycled, our interior design cheap. Grodner’s high-concept twists fizzle within a week or two. The endless censorship of the feeds is a further indignity–as if the Live Feed subscribers don’t watch the CBS show, too! I’ve never been able to tell how much of the lameness is forced on her by CBS, but this interview doesn’t make me think much more of her imagination.
I don’t agree that the British B’s success is about the “wild twists”. I think that the US version’s “wild twists” are what made it go downhill (the secret couples, America’s players, the enemies from the past, etc). The British version’s success is in its casting – and year after year they cast the most ridiculously psychotic houseguests, and it’s great. The other versions of BB are more “fly on the wall” and they focus less on gimmicks and more on the human interactions.
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