Big Brother 19 interview: Allison Grodner reflects on crazy week

This past week in Big Brother 19 was certainly a wild one, and there were fireworks that took place throughout from the Veto Ceremony on. We saw arguments, nasty comments, pots and pans, and in the end, the Halting Hex being used. Jessica saved herself and Cody from eviction, and nobody ended up leaving the game.

You can check out some of the latest events from the house by checking out our morning live feed update; for now, we want to present our weekly Q&A with executive producer Allison Grodner. With the Hex out of the way, there was a less of a need to clarify various rules as there was last week. Instead, the primary focus here was touching on some of what happened this week, getting some historical perspective, and also looking ahead.

CarterMatt – While it may be hard to put things into a historical context, where does this past week stand out for you in terms of one of most explosive weeks you’ve ever seen in the house?

Allison Grodner – In 19 seasons we have seen many tense and explosive weeks but this is definitely up there. As far as fights go, this seemed to be one of the most chaotic moments we have witnessed.

There was a ton of conflict from the Veto Ceremony onward, and at times things got pretty ugly. What sort of debates were there about how much of the chaos to show, and how to structure the live episode? With the Veto Ceremony happening during the Thursday show it was felt different from most eviction episodes.

We had so much happen after the nomination ceremony, which ends the Sunday episode, that we decided to have the Wednesday show be all about that fallout which then pushed the veto ceremony to the Live Show. Since each episode is only an hour, we have to make tough decisions about what to lose and what to use. Ultimately, we are looking to best represent the strategy and story in the house while using the most compelling footage.

We haven’t had a themed week so far this season, so why do horror week now? Any interesting plans in store?

Sometimes horror week is just horror week. I wouldn’t read too much into it :)

Want some other Big Brother news?

The Temptation Competition is currently underway in the house; once we have some more information about that, we’ll provide it over at the link here. (Photo: CBS.)