Big Brother 21 interview: Allison Grodner on Camp Comeback twist, Ovi’s power, more

On this past new episode of Big Brother 21, it feels fair to say that the game underwent a fundamental shift. Thanks to the presence of the Camp Comeback twist, Ovi is now sticking around and has a chance to re-enter the game — and the same goes for David, the first person sent packing. While a returning-houseguest twist is not an original concept to this show, the method of it this time is what makes it special because the evicted houseguests will continue living in the house. It will cause chaos for quite some time — think in terms of the next couple of weeks, at least!

So why did executive producer Allison Grodner go with the Camp Comeback twist this year, and are we going to get clarification on the subject of Ovi’s nightmare power now that he has been “evicted” from the game — but not the house? Check out what she had to say to us below! For more video discussion from the live feeds, you can also check that out at the bottom of this article (we have daily live feed update videos all season long); once you do, be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and also view our show playlist.

CarterMatt – Just from the show [Wednesday] and what I’ve seen on the feeds, Camp Comeback may be one of my favorite twists in a while and it totally shakes up how people handle eviction votes. Is this an idea that you’ve been wanting to do for a while? How did it come about?

Allison Grodner – We have had Battle Backs and first four returnees throughout our 21 seasons but the houseguests have never had to deal with evictees in the house.  We have always wondered what would happen to the social experiment if you were forced to live with the people you evict and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I want to get some clarification on Ovi’s nightmare power. I’m assuming he can’t play it since he is currently not “in the game,” but if he hypothetically returns to the game down the road, would he still be able to use it until the predetermined expiration date?  

All will be revealed in the show. ;)

Let’s close with a question about editing since I’m continually impressed about how quickly events from the house can air on the episodes — like Ovi revealing his power to Jack and Jackson even though it was the night before the eviction. Is there a specific cut-off time where if something happens in the house, you’re not able to edit it into the live show?  

We have an amazing team of editors and story producers working around the clock to edit an hour of television in just two days and many times less.  We have edited scenes that took place in the few hours leading up to the live show but that is our cutoff.  Once we are within a couple of hours, you will usually see anything important that happens in that time as a flashback in the following show.

For some more written Big Brother 21 live feed updates…

Be sure to check out the link here! We’ll have more soon, and we welcome all of your thoughts on this interview in the comments. (Photo: CBS.)