rachel-reilly

BIG BROTHER 27:   Grodner and Meehan Need to Go!

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Big Brother!  Fly on the Wall Production Company, CBS

This is an open op-ed from a long time reviewer/op-ed writer about the downward spiral that Big Brother has taken.  For the past years, we have seen lazy production and some questionable decisions by Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan, executive producers of the program.  This year is no different.  I’ve actually spent Season 22 and 25 writing to you for change.  It never comes at the executive level, but it comes from you, CBS network, or Julie Chen Moonves as host.  Julie can only do it on stage for improper conduct.  She can’t control what goes on in production offices where the real ordeal starts. 

When I, a writer, spent both seasons 21 and 22 telling you the problems, it is bad.  It shouldn’t have to come from a fan who does op-ed pieces!  It should have been seen and called out by production.  Thank goodness that CBS took a stand and instituted a zero-tolerance policy during season 25.  I’d hate to see what the witches and non-players would have done in seasons 27.  The real question becomes why have Fly on the Wall, Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan not handled these situations before CBS stepped in and what are they trying to hide! 

Let’s start with the obvious – production bias and maneuvers.  There are many instances of Big Brother production making horrible decisions with their actions.  The excuse, as seen in the statement from the production company over Rachel Reilly’s unfair reindeer game dismissal of “expect the unexpected” may only work with  casual viewers (non-feed followers).  That may have worked once but with the use of social media and “leaks,” this is becoming harder to cover up.

This year, production hit a new low that caused any long-time viewers to tune out and off.  The introduction of the Mastermind was sunk before it began.  You don’t put that type of villain into play then forget about him for weeks.  It was only when jury came into play that Grodner and Meehan rolled him out again.  The reason, I feel, was simply to get rid of a CBS favorite, Rachel Reilly.  They knew she understood the game.  Yet, production used the old “reindeer game” drop wheel to eliminate Rachel.  This is unheard of in the history of Big Brother.  Sure people have left without a vote but never over a game.

Let’s review the situation.  The houseguests get called to the living room and outside.  Ava won the advantage and had to set the wheel in motion.  Rachel knew what was coming.  She’d seen that wheel before during “Reindeer Games” (another stupid Grodner move).   Reilly knew that wheel was hard to move (harder if it was set to be difficult which I expect happened).  She wanted to go first but Ava chose Vinny of all people.  Vinny then chose next and his allies Lauren and Morgan played.  By the time Rachel got a shot, the time to complete the task was so far down in minutes.  .  She was eliminated to jury without a nomination ceremony, Power of Veto play, or house vote. 

This is not how Big Brother is played.  Not only did the show insult Rachel with what appeared to be a production planned elimination, production set things in motion that showed the houseguests as petty and, frankly, stupid.  The cast is primarily younger players (some who didn’t know the game) whose jealousy came out.  They wanted Rachel gone day one because she had won and was an older player who knew the game.  They should have wanted her to stay but no, she’d take the prize.

From the start, Kelley threatened witchcraft, and Ava insulted her and discussed sending her to jury first so she’d be alone on her wedding anniversary.  Good hearted players right!  Petty, childish, jealous, idiotic is more appropriate.  Also consider that Rachel, a former Worst Cook participant, ended up cleaning and cooking for the house. 

With this decision, Fly on the Wall faced backlash.  Did Grodner or Meehan speak.  No!  They left it for an unsigned production assistant to say “expect the unexpected.”  They honestly thought live-feeders/updaters wouldn’t notice the elimination.  Social media riped Grodner to shreds over it.  Now, production again did it off camera with Keanu.  At least he did get an hour to work out a way to stay.  With Vinny, Keanu knew he was gone and finally told Vinnie what he thought of Vinnie’s loyalty.  Once again, Grodner and Meehan thought we wouldn’t notice.  And this is why all live feed followers know you want to kill the live feeds. 

Now, I know I television history.  Believe it or not, it was taught in a college history class with the Groucho Marx show as an example.  I have some television trivia for you.  Did you have that “reindeer game” rigged?  To me, Rachel had a harder struggle turning the wheel than the others.  But I’ll be kind and not point out how it could have been done.  Let’s go to production’s attitude.  Allison, you should have addressed the public.  That would have worked much better than the message from production which talked down to viewers.  Lazy, much!

But let’s move on to other issues, shall we.  I’m going to give a few examples from the past.

The physical conditions.  Hello Grodner and Meehan!  Who thought it was a good idea to put at least half of the house outside for a week under a blistering sun and extreme heat.  This show isn’t done in a cold climate but sunny, hot California.  Plus, there have been bad storms that causes rivers to rise. Isn’t the Big Brother house near a ravine that fills with water?  Jankie’s World was cute but taken to violent extremes when you killed Jankie off.  Of course, you had to rectify that when viewers complained.

At least the 27 cast didn’t have to deal with extreme weather conditions.  Their problem was a “Mastermind” which wasn’t well thought out.  Just put Boston Rob in his Traitor’s costume and let him handle the guests inside the house.  I know Clue is a new game show in development, but that is what should have been played.

Live feeds have always been a sore spot with producers.  In years past, we had to pay for the right to see them only to find you blacked them out with “be right back” when something you (a) didn’t want us to know or (b) wanted only to use when the shows aired for ratings.  I understand that.  You need fresh material. 

I think that the live feed issue goes much further than that.  Live feeders (and those who keep track of the show from them) want to know what goes on in the house.  This year, the long duration of outage and the dull Big Brother Unblocked program  show that you are moving toward what Canada did – eliminating the live feeds entirely.  Did you ever stop to think that will turn fans against you more Grodner?  Live feeders have called out misconduct over the years. Without us, who will tell the truth about the houseguests.  Certainly not you.  And without complaints, CBS can’t act since you don’t relay problems to them. 

Viewers also noticed that production favors certain players (mostly ingenues and hunks).  The “favorites” are allowed to break rules at will and suffer no punishment.  This was most noticeable during Season 21 when Jackson Michie (the ultimate recruit winner) would eat watermelon and other food while a “have not.”  When called out on it by social media, the rumors started that his mother complained and said he had a eating disorder.  Yet, others had to be a “have not.”  Let’s face it!  For anyone who has food allergies, slop (steel grated oatmeal) could cause health issues.

Next issue is the attitude of entitlement, harassment and bullying caused to the non-Caucasian and LGBTQ communities.  Season 15 was the first most noticeable case with Aaryn Gries.  She was an equal opportunity insulter.  Not only did race come into play but the LGBTQ angle  was an issue also.  She showed her disdain through words (Aunt Jemina) and actions but was never ejected from the game.  GinaMarie Zimmerman and Spencer Clawson were just as bad that season.   GinaMarie made comments while Spencer offended with Adolph Hitler comments.  No ejection or comments from Grodner or Meehan.  Julie Chen had to do it!

Then Big Brother 21 happened.  Jack and Jackson formed Gr8teful who took it upon themselves to show the outsiders how they felt.  Jack was aggressive and mouthy.  Jackson used  his power as HoH to target outsiders and make comments.  With the social media outrage, the network or production intervened, and both FINALLY got called out.  While Jackson took it to heart and laid low (with his girl friend), Jack was finally voted off the show. 

Moonves didn’t let them off easy.  Aaryn knows what the fan base thought and she lost her job.  Julie Chen Moonves is the only one who called them out publicly.  Aaryn looked shocked when Julie turned up the heat.  Jack tried to play if off as a joke and the heat of the moment.   Jackson, the eventually winner, seemed to fade into the background as soon as he could after Julie had words with him. 

Season 25 finally saw the ejection of a houseguest for a racial slur.  Luke Valentine, who had ‘sensitivity issues’ was caught on live feeds making a racial slur.  I congratulate CBS for expelling him and starting a zero-tolerance policy.  The question is:  Would production have done it without live feeders talking about it and CBS’s intervention? 

Production (especially Grodner) hates social media for getting the facts out to the public.  She hates the leakers even threatening The Spoiler Girl on X with legal actions.  Is this the way to run a show!  Production should “expect the unexpected” from viewers.

Other issues that need addressing are the showmances which Grodner loves.  Granted some have found their soul mates because of Big Brother (Brendon/Rachel and Jeff/Jordan), but girlfriends and boyfriends are left humiliated.  Production plays it off as a love story.  Fans see it as wasted space. 

One last issue is bullying.  This came to an all new high with the isolation of Taylor Hale.  At least the Cook-Out realized what was happening and protected her.  That doesn’t happen often on a show where the producers bully participants. CBS, I could go on.  I’ve faithfully have watched since season 6 and remember those incidents.  Never were any of recent) as bad as the knife incident of season two. 

Please consider a change to the show.  If you want a reality show that is a sociological study of people living together, let them interact.  Go back to the book, 1984, that the show drew on with voices telling them what to do.  Don’t use fake games (like with Rachel and Keanu) that deprive us of seeing what happened.  Get rid of the “have-nots.”  Make sure that favoritism isn’t in play.  Yes, we know production really wants Vince t win this season.  We’re watching how you manage to pull this off.  Watch you step!  You better “expect the unexpected” from viewers and sponsors.

Big Brother 27 – Grodner and Her Privileging Forces

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Big Brother, I see you.  Maybe you never thought someone who worked with a sociologist would get on your case.  Look, I’m always watching and calling out bad behavior (especially yours).  Your minions have brought you down this time!

In case you missed it, a message came out from the show that tried to paint the Rachel incident in a good light.  In the Daily News’  article, “Big Brother Production Team Speaks Out on Rachel Reilly’s Elimination:  ‘It Was All Planned” (shownewsdaily.com), we read: 

[quote]“Now producers insist the twist was intentional – and that fans may not like the truth.

},,, ‘It was all planned,’ the team wrote.  ‘Big Brother has always been about expecting the unexpected.  This season, we wanted to remind viewers and houseguests that the game can change at any time – even for a champion.’ “[/quote]

No comment except it was the worse unexpected twist ever.

This brings me to the sociology impact. This show was set up as a sociological experiment.  I edit books for a professor named Thomas Arcaro, a sociology teacher at Elon University (no relation to Musk).  Tom wrote a book entitled Confronting Toxic Othering which teaches his students about “Privileging Forces” through the use of the heads of the mythological Hydra.  The heads are the privileging forces that sociologists see in life.  Let’s see how many Allison and her band of crazies have included in this “unexpected” game of Big Brother.

The eight heads are:  patriarchy, race/ethnicity, paternalism, hetero/cisnormativity, classism, ableism, ageism, and anthropocentrism.  I can easily see some of these heads at work.  I’m not going through all. Let’s just look at the ones that Big Brother has a fixation on.

Let’s start with “Ageism.”  Ageism has come into play often on this program.  Sure, they cast one or two older players but the hope is that they can’t do the competitions and leave early.  It’s a tribute to Rachel and Will that they made it to jury.  How many other players (besides Chicken George (seasons 1 and 7) and Angela (season 26) make it that far?  How many win?

Ableism is the next.  While the physical aspects of games are important, most are geared to the young, athletically prone people.  In the event of an injury is where Big Brother makes the mistake.  Let’s look at Will and his leg injury which made it hard for him to play Power of Veto.  No help.  Yet, Christmas, a younger player in season 19,  broke her leg while joking around and they allowed a stand-in to play for her.  This shows that Big Brother just changes a rule to protect the players they want to win.

Race is the next one.  While this season hasn’t really had many racists comments except from Kelley, the past seasons (Jack/Jackson in particular in season 21) has been very much in evidence.  While the producers “talk” to the offending player, nothing really stops it.  There is no penalty. In Kelley’s place, it is apparent that she can say anything and not even get warned.

In Big Brother, patriarchy and class go together.  We have really had very few women who win.  Taylor won because she overcame obstacles.  Others, like Rachel and Jordan, have won against the odds just because of their determination and help received from their allies.  Always men dominate the show.  And production allows them to break rules (again Jackson with eating while a have-not) and never punishes them.

The last one that I will deal with today is the hetero category.  Yes, they have LGBTQ people on Big Brother.  Yes, a few have won but let’s look at how they present themselves.  While most tell their sexuality, times started to change after the appearance of Frankie Grande (season 16). He came across as being over the top.  If you don’t flaunt it, Big Brother shows you as existing.  If you are flamboyant like Frankie, you become a star and get asked back.

I could go on but I’ll stop there.  I owe Thomas Arcaro a big thank you for allowing me to use his teaching guide today.  I’m one writer who always puts Big Brother on the hot seat.  Now, Tom has given me more items to pick at the executives about.

BIG BROTHER 27:   The Aftermath of Rachel’s Exit

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Big Brother!  I started with an article on the history planned.  I changed to the dynamics in the house.  Yet, I realize that both are tied to the Rachel situation. More importantly, the situation is tied to the outcry on Twitter and X.  So why all the hate directed at the show’s executives.  Here we go!

Big Brother fans, you know the rules that began the show.  Originally established by John (Jon) de Mol, Jr. as a Dutch show in 1997, the premise was a social experiment.  I call it the mouse experiment that some sociologist use for illustration.  You put people who don’t know each other in a house.  You create one Head of Household (HoH) by a game.  You give the HoH the power to nominate two people for eviction.  They play a game with the HoH and three other people.  The game, the Power of Veto (PoV), begins the end of the present HoH’s reign.  If the PoV is won, they can save themselves or another nominee.  Campaigning begins to stay.  Vote by the housemates determines who leaves.  Simple, right.  Yeah, until this production company, Fly on the Wall, decides to incorporate Big Brother Reindeer Games without telling anyone.

Reindeer Games had mixed reviews.  It was a filler show for CBS one December.  I’ll be honest.  I saw Frankie Grande and ran.  I decided I’d rather watch the Hallmark Channel.  Nothing against Frankie.  I just didn’t need his over-the=top behavior as I prepared a church Christmas program.  Since that was such a short season, they played it with competition games, eliminating one at the end of each round.  Hmm!  Maybe that’s why I hated it so much!

Now, let’s get to the root of the problem: this year’s edition of Big Brother.  The powers-that-be, Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan, decided that a feature from a previous season was a hit (it wasn’t really) and incorporated it into this year’s game.  HoH now had to chose three.   The “Big Brother Block Buster” added a new game for just those three.  The “Block Buster” saved one person but the other two remained on the block.

This twist is fine only as long as you have more than 10 in the house.  When it gets down to 10, the players in veto are more limited and the social game goes out of the window.  I’m sure it was a way to stop the nine and ten member alliances but it causes new headaches when the cast is full and controlled by one player.   There can be no true alliances when the player joins all and takes out who he chooses.  When jury comes into play, the  real problems begin.

Add to that the old “Mastermind is going to cause mayhem and one will be eliminated tonight.”  This was not related to the house mates prior to entering the game as we learned from Will.  It was a complete surprise.  Rachel, who knows how the Reindeer Games worked, recognized what was coming.  The maze wheel is hard to turn and she knew the time limit wasn’t fair.  Add to that only five (or six) people could play with the best time becoming HoH.  Not completing the game in the time limit meant automatic explusion. 

As Ava (the preliminary winner) tells it, Rachel “grabbed and pulled” her into the room.  Rachel wanted to warn her but Ava got mad and wouldn’t listen.  Her attitude,  “No  one touches me” didn’t seem to apply to the rest of the season.  Ava just didn’t try to understand the dynamics.  Rachel saw it as a way to make Vinnie work for his place in the game.  Ava started the daisy chain of six with Vince who then took control of the picks.  He chose Lauren and made her promise to choose Morgan.  Morgan was to chose Kelley (another Vinnie favorite) but went against his orders and picked Rachel.  Rachel had  a little over three minutes which made the game harder.  She didn’t finish and was out. 

Thus Vinnie, the one who has controlled the game, controlled who left.  I honestly place the blame on Ava for not reading the room.  She had the chance to get Vinnie out but didn’t take it.  Vinnie knew he could run Lauren’s and Morgan’s  HoHs and made the choice  with the stipulation of order of picks.  The only good thing was Morgan had a spin and picked Rachel who didn’t have the time to finish.  Get the picture.  Once again, a competition was played  that kept Vinnie (who most people dislike) in control of the game.

Rachel has been the only one who tried to play the game as it was written.  She studied.  She calculated.  She helped weaker players.  But most of all, Vinnie was scared of her.  By eliminating Rachel at this point of the final three weeks, we have a bunch of whiners (I mean potential winners) left in the house.  What was really upsetting no campaigning, no vote.  Hey, they did promise us a “Julie interviews Rachel” for Thursday night.  Wonder if that would have happened if the negative posts on X and Blue Sky hadn’t come into play/??

Why was Ava motivated to chose Vinnie?  Cerrtainly not the volunteer element.  Ava says it is because Rachel almost yanked her arm off.  From what I saw, Rachel had her clothes folks.  Ava chose Vinnie because she thought he was a good one to keep her safe.  Vinnie has been anti-Rachel all game.  He, at least, has some sense of the game.  Ava, meanwhile, has gone the “Mean Girl” route and called Rachel terrible names (which I won’t repeat).

Truth!  This version of Big Brother will hurt the franchise.  It was designed because they didn’t have the time or were too lazy to do a triple elimination.  And, once again, we see the tendency of “favorties” winning.  I don’t know why they love Vinnie so much.  My zing for him is that the 1920’s want their moustache back!

Big Brother goofed this year.  The Hotel Mystere could habe been a fun game with clues and competitions centered around a hotel with victims eliminated by the jury (house mates).  I won’t call it Clue as I understand that is in development.  Yet, all the old tendencies are there.  The Taylor Hale win was a fluke that the powers that be didn’t want.  Other recent seasons have had winners that met the executives’ plans. 

CBS, please make Fly on the Wall return the game to its roots.  There are other ways for the mean alliances to fail.  Please listen to fans.  Viewership will fall if the show continues to take this tack.   I’ve watched since the Four Horsemen.  Is it right that I leave due to the Reindeer Games insertion?

BIG BROTHER 27: RACHEL’S DEMISE

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Big Brother 27!  I had such hopes for you.  The Rachel edition made the show a illustration of how a returning player can teach a bunch of “losers” how to play.  Of course, some of these people aren’t losers but they’re not enjoyable either but let’s get to the heart of the story, shall we.

At midnight last night, the story broke that live feeds were back.  To only television viewers, live feeds are what gives you the true story.  Television only reflects what production wants you to believe happened.  Live feeders expected two things:  some would be living outside and someone would already to voted out.  The outside living for part of the cast has happened before with terrible results (Joseph leaving Taylor) but a vote off camera has never happened and should not be labeled an eviction.  Instead we got an off-camera “elimination” from a game not played on feeds or air.

Feeds were down for over a day.  When they returned, we learned that not only did the White Locust come into play while we were left twiddling our fingers but by results of said event, Ava had eliminated Rachel Reilly for grabbing her arm.  The results of a game?  Grabbing an arm.  No HoH nomination on camera?  NO PoV?  No Big Brother Block Buster.  Just Ava, who comes across nice, saying virtually bye Rachel.  You grabbed my arm!

This is not Big Brother as we know it.  It’s not even Big Brother in the book 1984 (as I remember it), this is Logan’s Run but without giving Rachel the chance to flee.  It’s going back to new school where petty grievances could more than game play and strategy.

This is my note to CBS.  This show could have been a dud except for one thing – Rachel Reilly.  She breathe life into the show due to the fact that she agreed to return.  She knew the game, and it was the hint of old school.  Sure, the younger players hated her.  Sure, she could see the pattern of the players better than anyone.  Rachel did not coddle the players.  She didn’t go easy of them.  She played the straight up Big Brother game that had been missing from before season 20.

Rachel knew that you had to show people what it means to go against the HoH.  Lauren hated her for that.  She took someone down and lost her ally.  Ava, who sent Rachel out, got mad because she wasn’t in the alliance, yet she was always sitting around with her eyes closed and afraid to make a move.  Rylie and Katherine created a bad showmance which to live feeders equal to domestic violence.  Production didn’t care.  They had what they wanted – a showmance.  Rachel didn’t send Rylie home due to that.  She put him up because of his treatment of Catherine.

This game was supposed to be a “sociological experiment” on how people who didn’t know each other lived together in a house.  This game was supposed to be on how people interacted.  Instead, the game has steadily evolved into what the world is becoming.  Instead of strategy, it’s bullying.  Instead of finding and helping your allies, it’s become the game of alliances falling apart in the first week.  Instead of villains you love to hate, it’s become a show of hunky guys, ‘mean girls,’ crying for advancement, people who always get what they want, and fear.

Rachel with her knowledge saw this.  She tried to counter it but the spite came into play.  The smartest person seemed to be Keanu because he finally figured out that strategy beat bullying.  Vince and his tears, the new showmance, and power control always seemed to me to be a plant from Perils of Pauline.  Lauren seemed to be a dumb child who was never taught that actions had consequences.  Will and Ashley seemed to get that the game isn’t built on power but knowledge.

I just found a quote from the live feeds.  It sums up what Big Brother has become.  Morgan gave us the speech from Rachel as she left the game.

“You have to get blood on your hands to win.  Congratulations newbies.  You have to win once to be a two time winner.” 

Ava replies to Morgan. “Well, you’re also a two time loser.” Let’s see how Ava feels when she sleeps her way to a nomination!

As I write this, Blue Sky (my favorite) and X are blowing up at what they view as an unfair elimination.  People are calling for CBS to wise up about the show.  It’s not the first time that CBS production has faced fall-out.  I’ve been doing it for years due to people who were racist (Jack/Jackson) and bullies (the Taylor incident).  Then, we get a glimmer of hope only to find that all but a  few were the same from the past few years — bullies, showmances, crazies, and wimps.  Rachel was what kept the audience coming back!

Since Rachel is gone, will viewers still watch?  For me the answer if simple.  If I have a strong dislike for the players, no.  This year I can only still watch and root for Will who is an older, sane player and Ashlee.  Ava had potential but it seems she is the one who eliminated Rachel due to Rachel grabbing her arm (don’t get this but whatever).  Grabbing your arm and not making you the center of your world Ava is not how Big Brother is played.  At least she didn’t isolate you.  I don’t want the Vince/Morgan showmance rammed down my throat due to no chemistry.  Kelley, with her antics, is driving us crazy.  The sad thing is that Kelley didn’t know we were seeing them 24/7 and doesn’t seem to care. The only other one with any potential to cheer for is Keanu and he makes dumb decisions.

CBS, I’m begging you.  Do some damage control?  The way it was written, I doubt Rachel can return even if she wanted to do so.  Brendon apparently learned about what happened while he had their kids at Chuckee Cheese.  Rachel needs to decide her fate not CBS or Grodner.  She played to help build ratings (even if that’s not what they told her).  If she leaves, let her leave with dignity.  The house guests got what they wanted!  Rachel out to jury first.  Let her go and give us the vote.  In fact, let us have the final vote and finally get rid of Grodner.