‘Big Brother 17’: Julie Chen Explains Why ‘BB Takeover’ Disappeared
Big Brother fans are always told to “expect the unexpected.” To that end, CBS announced “BB Takeover” ahead of the Big Brother 17 season premiere. The “takeover” was to be twists and special guests that would shake up the game every week.
In the season’s early days, the “takeover” provided some side entertainment, such as Rob Gronkowski making the house guests party on command. It also introduced temporary game elements that had the potential to change the result of an eviction vote, such as Kathy Griffin’s “Last Laugh” twist.
But then the takeovers stopped. There was no official announcement, but online speculation — such as this article on Bustle — was that Big Brother 17 was just too good. No extraneous twists are necessary to keep things interesting.
In an interview with Reality Blurred, show host Julie Chen seemed to confirm the idea that any more “takeovers” would just distract from an already active game.
“We had so much going on, it was better to focus on the pure game–because the game is genius–and the twin twist. You don’t want to give the viewers too much to balance out between, ‘Oh, the power of veto. Oh the double HOHs.’ There was enough going on. You have to clean up a little bit. Pure game.”
The season had early drama when house guest Audrey Middleton came swinging out of the gate. But that’s not all. This year has featured a twin twist, the last-minute addition of a CBS reality show duo and a minor controversy surrounding one house guest’s advances towards another. All that and a cast that included a former wrestler, a professional poker player, a college football star and a whole bunch of superfans.
In other words, there was enough going on inside the Big Brother 17 house without any additional manipulation from producers.
The twin twist became even more complex when Liz and Julia Nolan survived the necessary five evictions and both earned the right to enter the game. The house discovered their secret long before their first five weeks were up, but they were protected by their alliance instead of being evicted.
Chen told Entertainment Weekly last week the twins should have an identifying caption, if not for the viewing audience, then for her.
“I cannot tell the twins apart! It’s driving me crazy! I think we need to chyron every time who’s who, even when they are just in the background.”
Big Brother 17 airs three nights a week on CBS: Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
[Image: CBS]
