Big Brother 20 interview: Allison Grodner on eviction drama, Sam’s power, Sunday’s episode

This was a pretty eventful week in the Big Brother 20 house for a wide array of different reasons — there was drama, controversy, comedy, and everything in between. Winston was evicted, but the incident with Rockstar and Brett after the fact may be more memorable than the eviction itself.

For the start of our weekly Q&A with executive producer Allison Grodner, we kick things off by discussing the moment with Rockstar before moving into the rules of Sam’s Bonus Life power and also the decision to show what transpired with JC and Bayleigh on Sunday’s new episode.

CarterMatt – We saw tonight the show linger a little on Rockstar and Brett after Winston’s eviction, rather than going quickly back to Julie with Winston outside. It made for compelling in-the-moment drama, but how are those decisions made on the fly? How is it determined when to cut away from the house and back to Julie?

Allison Grodner – This is what is so great about producing live television. We can make decisions on the fly to follow the breaking story and drama. We always cut back to the house after an eviction to check in on what is happening and if there is compelling drama or conversation we will stay with it and trim up some of the live elements later in the hour like the interview questions and teases.

Based on the rules of Sam’s power app this coming week it will be in play automatically. When this happens, how much clarity will the evictee have about the power, i.e. who had it and the rules of it? While it seems many houseguests are aware of Sam’s power, there’s mass confusion about how it works!

Julie will explain the bonus life power and the details of the power once the eviction vote is announced. She will not reveal who had the power but if Sam chooses to disclose that information herself, that is allowed.

There have been headlines for days about what JC said in his conversation with Bayleigh. What made you decide that Sunday’s episode was the right time to address it on the actual show?

The conversation that will be covered on Sunday happened after the Wednesday show was locked and the day before the Live show. We do not have a lot of time for taped segments in the eviction show and we wanted to make sure that we could show the most complete version of what transpired as possible. We will have more time to let the sequence of events play out during the hour long taped episode this Sunday.

Related – Check out nominations + more from the live feeds

Be sure to watch the video below to get some more information in regards to last night’s eviction; for more, be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube! You can also like CarterMatt on Facebook for more of the latest news. (Photo: CBS.)