Big Brother Season 25 is on the way, and unfortunately, the quest to uncover all details about it led to a rather nasty rumor about live feeds. It was reported not long ago that Paramount+ is considering taking a note from Big Brother Canada and potentially reducing or eliminating live feeds following the anniversary season. As that rumor continues to linger, Season 24 winner Taylor Hale stressed just how important access to feeds were to her story.
Taylor Hale shared in a recent interview that while she was courted by a lot of reality shows, she ultimately chose Big Brother because of the live feeds. Taylor told EW that she felt like having people viewing live feeds with a Paramount+ subscription acted like a "safety net" that protected her from the dreaded "reality show edit" in which a cast member can be portrayed however the producers like. She said:
It's no secret I was recruited for a handful of reality shows and Big Brother was among that list. Big Brother was the most enticing to me because of the live feeds. They felt like the ultimate safety net for me. Everything happens in real-time. And so if I do something bad, I do something bad, and I have an opportunity to own it and apologize if necessary. Or if something's being manipulated, you can't manipulate the live feeds. Other shows can completely change your character and you can have a reputation that you can't solve coming out of the house. And that's what I love about Big Brother. And ultimately, they were my safety net going into the house.
It turned out that live feeds played a vital part in Taylor Hale's Big Brother experience, thanks to some house bullying. The earliest episode set up tension between Houseguests when Taylor ruffled the feathers of Paloma Aguilar and others by flaunting her finale outfit during the first couple of nights in the house.
What the episode left out was that Paloma and others egged Taylor on to do it, and then when she did, turned it against her as a reason to get her nominated. Fans who saw the live feeds were quick to point out the episode misrepresented the Houseguest, so imagine if they never knew that was what happened! Taylor pointed out that without live feeds, she could've easily been portrayed as the villain in Season 24:
I can't imagine [starts to tear up]. I get a little emotional thinking about this. I can't imagine what the perception of me would've been had I left the house within the first three weeks. I think it's very easy to say, 'There's no way that an entire house bullied Taylor,' or 'There's no way that Taylor didn't do something that deserved the treatment that she had.' But the live feeds proved over and over that I wasn't doing anything to earn the hatred that I was getting. So I'm a big, big proponent of live feeds. I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Sunlight is the best disinfectant. And to me, the live feeds are the sun.
As a Big Brother fan who lives on the live feeds during the season, I want to give a big thank you to Taylor Hale. She just gave the most convincing argument for why the feeds need to remain as unfiltered and accessible as possible and continue to be an edge that the long-running series still has over the rest of reality television. It's the one show on television where viewers can see the true reality behind any editing and get as close to the truth as they can on how the game plays out.
Unfortunately, Big Brother executive producer Allison Grodner recently confirmed to Variety that removing live feeds is discussed "all the time." It's not entirely surprising to hear, given the number of controversies Big Brother has landed in because of them, but disappointing all the same. Perhaps Taylor Hale's story can convince any decision-makers that the feeds are worth keeping in the future, and we'll get to keep the unprecedented access to the game that other shows lack.
Big Brother Season 25 premieres on CBS on Wednesday, August 2nd at 8:00 p.m. ET. This season is supposed to have an exciting theme, and if you can't wait to find out what it is, we already have some theories on what it may be.
