Big Brother 19 interview: Allison Grodner on penalty votes, rain delays

This past week, Big Brother 19 brought you the eviction of Matt Clines (which we were at the studio to witness on Thursday), some more ugliness in the house, and something that was ultimately a show first: A rain delay for the Head of Household Competition. (It may have been brief, but a rain delay is still a rain delay!)

Still, we knew going into our interview this week with interview with executive producer Allison Grodner that the primary subject at hand was this: Would the show consider changing the have-not punishment rules after what Matt did? Is getting a penalty vote enough for someone who is repeatedly breaking the rules and doesn’t seem to care? For the record, you can buy Matt’s explanation — that he was trying to ensure he went home over Raven — while also not buying that he didn’t still need to break the rules after the penalty vote was handed down. That just felt like him shrugging his shoulders at the game.

You can check out an answer to this question and more below.

CarterMatt – After Matt intentionally broke the have-not rules this week, is there any consideration to changing the punishment at all for players who don’t care about penalty votes?

Allison Grodner – I think people not caring about penalty votes is a rare occurrence. Most players are looking to win the game and not get themselves evicted, and I think BB history shows that getting a penalty vote or a penalty nomination will cost you the game.

How surprised are you that [at this point in the game], people are STILL under Paul’s spell?

I think it is incredibly surprising. There are still BB fans in the house who seem to think Paul is their most loyal ally even though they are aware of what a strong player he is. He has a firm grip on the house and it will be interesting to see if they will remain clueless to the end.

How surprised were you by the rain, and what goes into preparing for that sort of situation with the HoH competition?

I was in the studio for the taping and had no idea it was raining outside! In fifteen years of doing this show, I have never seen it rain as hard during a live show or any other summer day for that matter. We had a game that involved electronics and we were already covering it for the extreme heat. Our fantastic art and competition crew rallied and threw the plastic tarps over the set as soon as it started to drizzle. Ultimately, it was another BB first for the season with an HOH rain delay. Expect the unexpected…

Want some other Big Brother news?

If you head over to the link here, you can see some of our insights from being at the taping for Thursday night’s eviction show. Also, be sure to click on the tag below to get all of the latest live-feed updates and more. (Photo: CBS.)