Big Brother 20 interview: Allison Grodner on Swaggy C, App Store twists

We’ve still reasonably fresh off the second eviction cycle on Big Brother 20, and today, we’re kicking off what should be a weekly tradition for the remainder of the season: Interviews with Allison Grodner! Much like we did last season, we’ll be asking the show executive producer three different questions every week about the game. Think of this as a way to get even more behind-the-scenes insight into production and some of the big topics of the past seven days.

In this interview, Grodner talks with us about Swaggy C as a character, the preparation that has to be done because of Sam’s Bonus Life power, and also the decision to end the BB App Store at this particular point in the season.

CarterMatt – Happy to chat again this season! Let’s start by getting your take on Swaggy, who I thought was a really dynamic guy different than many other past people we’ve seen. Did he live up to some of your expectations that you had back in casting?

Allison Grodner – Swaggy played hard and was very entertaining to watch. His personality in casting was the same as in the house but his strategy was definitely different. He told us he was going to try to play in the middle of the pack and be low key at first but he did just the opposite. His swagger made him a huge target from the start. It was probably not the best ‘lay low’ strategy to win the very first competition.

Even though it didn’t seem as though Sam was going to use her power to give Swaggy a second chance, did you still have to have some sort of competition on standby just in case she chose to use it? 

As long as the Bonus Life power is in play on eviction night we must have the competition ready to go. Sam makes her decision to use the power live as soon as the vote is announced so we need to be ready just in case.

What went into the decision to end the BB App Store this week? Was this a move to throw off the houseguests since many of them know that there are five possible apps / punishments? 

If you look back at the last few seasons you will find that the twists come into play every 3 to 4 weeks. Just like the Den of Temptation, the app store twist was only scheduled for the first three weeks of the summer. We had extra apps so that the houseguests have a choice to make instead of just being assigned what is left.

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