Big Brother producers discuss potential return of more past winners (exclusive)

Big Brother is known for its twists. Some are outlandish. Some are controversial. And some are just plain absurd. But the twist that paid the biggest dividends in the recently completed season 27 was the decision to bring back former winner Rachel Reilly.

Rachel entered the house in typical boastful fashion — “Floaters, grab a life vest, reality royalty has officially arrived!” — but she backed up those boasts by adding vim and vigor to the season while never being nominated for eviction until her controversial exit on day 60, courtesy of the White Locust hamster wheel competition.

Bringing back one or several all-stars to compete against new players used to be a relatively frequent occurrence on Big Brother. In fact, Rachel’s previous victory on season 13 was as a returning player going up against newbies. But that was a different era of the franchise. The last time the show mixed old and new players was when Paul Abrahamian returned way back on season 19.

So considering the interest Rachel generated in her celebrated return, does that mean Big Brother will start bringing back more former winners or popular returnees to compete against first-timers? We asked executive producers Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan, and although we know all too well to expect the unexpected, we could not help but be a bit surprised by their answer.

“You never know,” says Grodner. “I mean, it worked out nicely, but we don’t necessarily like to repeat ourselves all the time either. I think it was nice that there was a break and that we had complete newbie casts playing. And so it just depends.”

According to Grodner, it’s not as simple as merely deciding whether to bring back a particular player. “It also depends on the creative,” she notes. “And this was a big part of the initial creative going into the season, the mystery element and allowing her into the game via the Mastermind’s accomplice and that kind of thing.”

For Grodner, whether we see a Taylor or a Danielle or a Vanessa in season 28 is more about whether it fits into the creative theme than a simple desire to get someone back on our screens. “If it works for that, then certainly, but I don’t think it’s a given that it needs to happen every season.”

Meehan echoes the statement that it all begins with figuring out the season theme. “We had the creative of this season, which kind of dictated, ‘Hey, let’s bring someone back. That would be really fun to watch.’ It wasn’t vice versa. It wasn’t like, ‘Let’s bring an all-star and then build creative around that and figure it out.’ So it was the creative that kind of dictated it.”

That approach extends back to season 14, when Britney Haynes, Dan Gheesling, Janelle Pierzina, and Mike Boogie returned for one of the franchise’s most celebrated installments (and the most famous moment in Big Brother history). “It typically works that way,” says Meehan. “Whether it was the Coaches twist or whatever, usually there’s some creative element that kind of lends itself to that. So we will take a break for a little while and then dive into the creative next year, and then we’ll see.”

And when exactly will they start working on next year’s theme? “We’ll start at the beginning of the year,” Meehan explains. “It’s evolved over the years, but what we tend to do now is try to find something that is a little bit zeitgeisty that we can parody. Or have fun with in a very Big Brother way. That’s been the last handful of years, whether it was the multiverse, or whether it was AI, or the mystery and crime theme this season. We try to look at like what’s popular that we can kind of poke at.”

“And you don’t want to do that too early,” Grodner adds.

Of course, even if players don’t come back to compete, they always end up showing up in some bizarre fashion or another, such as this year’s finale reveal of not one, not two, but three Masterminds. Jessie “Mr. PEC-Tacular” Godderz, Frankie Grande, and Eric Stein were revealed as the trio controlling the season from behind the scenes. (The producers also assure us that Dr. Will, who was originally arrested for carrying out the Mastermind’s dastardly scheme, was “immediately freed and cleared of all charges” after the triple reveal. Phew!)

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Speaking of the Mastermind(s), with Halloween around the corner, any chance they will mass-market Mastermind masks for sale on the CBS website? “We missed the boat on that because those are some good masks!” says Grodner. “We could have been selling them for Halloween!”

Alas, the masks were more complicated to make than some may realize. “Those were specially made masks, by the way,” Grodner notes. “They are not cheap.”

“We heard all the Party City jokes,” Meehan says, laughing. “But those were actually like works of art.”

Evil, diabolical art.