Julie Chen Confronts ‘Big Brother’ Contestant Jack Matthews Over Racist Comments On Live Episode

Big Brother fans witnessed a blindside on Thursday night’s live eviction episode of the CBS reality show. When Jack Matthews was evicted from the game, host Julie Chen confronted the controversial contestant about derogatory comments he made on the live feeds that were not shown on the CBS telecast until now.

During Matthews’ exit interview, Chen played back some of his most offensive comments that were captured on the live feeds, many of them directed toward previously evicted contestant Kemi Fakunle. The Big Brother star looked like a deer caught in headlights as he realized how his behavior looked to viewers of the show. When Chen played a clip of him saying he wanted to “stomp a f**king mudhole” through Kemi’s chest, Matthews said, “Oh, controversial.”

In response – and without missing a beat— Matthews calmly explained that the “stomp the mudhole comment” was based on something that Big Brother contestant Sam Bledsoe said last season when she was frustrated, and that it did not signal a personal vendetta, Entertainment Weekly reports. The Jason Momoa lookalike denied that he meant any harm toward Kemi, and he apologized for his poor choice of words.

“I think my statements were playful in a group of people. I do apologize for what I said, and that’s very sincere. I think Kemi was, and is, a great person. I think this game and being in 24-hour view of people and you say things and… um, I wouldn’t say I fully support the things that I said and the way that I said them. If I could take them back, I would, and I wish I could have articulated them in some other way possible.”

Julie Chen grills Jack Matthews about offensive Big Brother comments https://t.co/CJLBMemiwb

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) August 9, 2019

Matthews also had a quick answer when shown a clip of him responding to contestant Tommy Bracco talking about the “proof is in the pudding” by saying “the rice pudding” when referring to evicted houseguest Isabella Wang. Matthews said his comment had nothing to do with Bella’s Asian-American ethnicity, and instead said it was a callback to an earlier discussion about the Big Brother staple, “slop,” and pudding variations.

“We spoke earlier in the evening. There was the slop thing going on and people were making different recipes earlier in that evening, mainly Tommy and Christy. And rice pudding was spoken about in slop pudding. And so earlier in that evening, rice and slop pudding were going, around so Tommy bringing it up in that situation made me say it there. It had nothing — absolutely nothing — to do with her ethnicity whatsoever.”

Matthews, who is now the first member of the jury house on Big Brother 21, repeatedly thanked Chen for allowing him to explain his comments on the live show.

The live blindside was something many Big Brother fans never thought they would see. All season long, CBS has been criticized for the “edit” that Matthews and his former bromance Jackson Michie have received on Big Brother. Live feed viewers have long reported the alleged bad behavior of the house’s alpha males, but it wasn’t shown on air until now.

Chen’s decision to confront Matthews on the live Big Brother broadcast is reminiscent of a similar blindside she did in Season 15 when the racism in the Big Brother house was rampant. In 2013, Chen confronted evicted houseguest Aaryn Gries over her troublesome remarks about Asian and African-American houseguests after CBS exposed her negative live feed remarks to all viewers by airing a shocking montage of the contestant’s worst comments.

When confronted about the statements she made in the Big Brother house, Gries denied remembering those things being said and blamed her remarks on a misunderstanding of cultural differences. Gries also claimed that some of her comments may have been taken out of context, per Big Brother Network. Chen advised Gries to go home and watch the footage for herself.

You can see the unaired second part of Jack Matthews’ Big Brother exit interview below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G68LCb2E34k

Big Brother airs Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on CBS.