Every year we have various conspiracy theories about whether or not Big Brother is rigged for a particular HouseGuest to win. With the Big Brother 15 cast, the prime ‘suspects’ for CBS plants to win the competition have been Elissa Slater and Amanda Zuckerman. While the ‘Elissa is going to win!’ rumors have somewhat cooled, the ‘Amanda is rigged to win’ accusations keeping increasing every week.
Originally, there were a lot of theories roaring around that Elissa Slater was set up to win Big Brother 2013 because she is the sister of former winner Rachel Reilly. Why? Well, something about keeping it in the ‘family’ and maybe CBS was hoping for some kind of reality TV spin-off featuring the two sisters. We do admit that CBS does like to reuse reality TV stars and their families, like when Rachel and her boy toy Brendon Villegas went on The Amazing Race. Or when the brother of Survivor’s Russell Hantz, Willie Hantz, was a contestant on Big Brother 14.
However, we think an incredibly obvious ploy like rigging Big Brother 15 for Elissa to win seems way too over the top for even the most hardcore conspiracy theory. Of course, if she does end up winning, that would be really amusing — and everyone will claim it was planned that way from the start!!! We still won’t think it was even if she does win. We’ll just think the HouseGuests were idiots for not getting her out when they had the chance.
The rumors about Amanda Zuckerman being primed to win Big Brother 2013 are far more insidious. These have been primarily sparked by an anonymous Facebook posting by an alleged former CBS employee about Amanda and her relationship with the network and Big Brother 15 producer Alison Grodner. (She also brings in the Elissa conspiracy theories too.)
Using the fake name of Hailey Jones, this alleged former CBS employee posted the following cryptic message:
This Facebook message was posted on Tuesday, July 24. ‘Hailey’ allegedly used a fake name to protect her identity. TVGrapevine.com notes that Amanda Zuckerman — on the same day — said on the 2013 Big Brother Live Feeds that she worked on a “scripted reality” web series and then moved on to do post-production and editing work in reality TV for two years.
Due to CBS copyrights, we can’t post the video of Amanda’s statements on this. However, here is our transcript of what she said on the Live Feeds. This occurred at approximately 2:19 to 2:25 on July 24:
Amanda Zuckerman: “If you really, really want to be in the entertainment business, you gotta live in L. A. or New York. Like, I stopped working as an actor after I… I mean, I got the taste of what it’s like to be a working actor when I did that web show. I didn’t have to waitress or do anything else but act for four months. And I met my ex-boyfriend who was an editor on the show. And it was considered reality, which is why I was able to work during the writer’s strike. But it was like scripted reality. He got me into post-production, which is why… I worked in reality for a while and editing for two years. And then I got into production but the hours in reality television, because it’s not a union… and they don’t pay you sh*t and the hours are like crazy. That’s when I got into real estate and I’ve done it ever since.”
TVGrapevine claims they “checked” and Amanda allegedly worked for CBS in production for a while and possibly as a “PA for Big Brother.” On IMDB.com, we did not find any mention of Amanda working on Big Brother, however, we did find an Amanda Zuckerman apparently worked on the TV series Who Are You Wearing (TLC) in the Editorial Department, the TV series Jessie James is a Dead Man (Spike TV) as miscellaneous crew, as an actress on Big Shot Live (CBS web series) and Behind You (short film), and as a hair model on the TV series Shear Genius (Bravo).
Amanda now supposedly works exclusively in real estate, which CBS lists as her employment in her Big Brother 15 profile. Nothing in any of CBS’ press or promotion on Amanda talks about her history in TV either on screen or working behind-the-scenes. Amanda does not talk about any of these in any of her pre-show interviews either. Interestingly enough, her real estate page has been taken down recently — possibly as a response to the negative backlash against certain derogatory, racist-tinged remarks she has made on the Live Feeds.
So, if Amanda Zuckerman did once work for CBS and has a history in television — specifically in reality TV — is this evidence that Big Brother 15 really is rigged for her to win? Is she really friends with Alison Grodner as the anonymous ‘Hailey Jones’ claims? Well, she could very well know Alison, we have no proof either way. And maybe CBS was fully aware of her background and maybe that’s even the reason they cast her on Big Brother 15. (We do know she didn’t audition like a regular Joe or Jill, she was recruited, which happens a LOT.)
We don’t really believe CBS Big Brother 15 is rigged for any certain person to win. Does production have a favorite they WANT to win? Probably. Maybe even more than one they’d like to see at the end. Do they perhaps manipulate game play to get their favorites to the final few spots? Possibly, we could make a claim for that based on things we’ve seen. Does any HouseGuest have a guarantee they will definitely win? We don’t think so and based on what we’ve seen of Amanda freaking out like a crazy f**ked up weirdo over going up on the block, we honestly don’t think she actually “knows” she is going to win anything or even make it all the way to Jury.
So let’s just let the conspiracy theories fester and smile and nod when they come up. Then click over to the Big Brother Live Feeds, grab a beer and just enjoy all the drama — that’s all that really matters!
