Big Brother 19 interview: Allison Grodner on gameplay, goodbye messages, & more

Another week has come and gone in the Big Brother 19 house, and that means in turn another Q&A session with Allison Grodner! The show’s executive producer has been rather generous with her time this season to offer some insights on the game and some of what happens with us on a weekly basis.

In this week’s email Q&A, Grodner takes us through planning the haunted house-themed Temptation Competition, looks at the gameplay for the season as a whole, and also answers one of our long-burning questions about the goodbye messages that you often see during the eviction show.

CarterMatt – The Temptation Competition this week was especially fun, and in general I like anything that forces the houseguests to interact with their environment in unique ways. What was the process like transforming the house into a haunted house?

Allison Grodner – It is always fun to try new games and new ways to use the house for competitions. Our art department and competition team loved dreaming up the story behind the haunted house. They also worked hard rehearsing with the ghosts and demons to make sure that their scares were consistent for each houseguest. Seeing people taken by surprise and scream with fright never gets old in the BB house.

We’ve just made it past the halfway point of the game. What has stood out to you the most about season 19 so far in terms of gameplay?

It was interesting to see Cody and Jessica who have isolated themselves socially make it as far as they did. It is also surprising that the majority of the house seems to not see a veteran like Paul as a threat.

Finally, this is a question that I’ve always wondered — is there a specific process that goes into choosing the goodbye messages that are shown on the show? Obviously with Jessica I’m sure you wanted to show Cody’s, but what about the others?  

There is a difference between the messages the houseguests record before and after jury begins. Pre-jury, they are unfiltered and honest and, since we do not have time to show all of the goodbyes, we choose the ones that are most important to the story of the person evicted. For Jessica that would be Cody for obvious reasons, Alex because Jessica hated her so much, Kevin because he was a friend, Paul who was her nemesis, and Josh who she fought with but who ultimately revealed in the message that he did not intend for her to be the target.

Want some other CarterMatt – Big Brother coverage?

As always, you can head over to the link here to secure some more insight from the live feeds, and also our review from Thursday night’s new episode in the event that you missed that.

Thanks to Allison once again for her time! There will be another interview coming a week from today. (Photo: CBS.)