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'Big Brother': Burning Questions Answered!

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Fans watching the feeds see the houseguests come out of the Diary Room and start talking about how the producers attempted to sway their vote. Cynical viewers think you are trying to strong-arm the houseguests into doing your bidding. How do you respond to that?
ALLISON GRODNER: [Sighs] We are the only show that is heavily scrutinized because of the live nature of the Internet, which is also what makes the show so terrific. We can't manipulate the houseguests because we know we have the viewers watching us. That's something that we are very much against here. We do ask the houseguests to talk to us in pros and cons so we can understand their line of thinking. It's important for us to do that in order to understand the strategy, which can get so complex. That's what is happening. We are very careful to ask balanced questions. We will ask them to weigh both sides.

Does Eric have to do everything America tells him to do?
When it comes to the vote, yes — that's a given. He needs to make every effort to complete America's task to get credit for it.

And if he says no?
He has never done that, but he basically has a contract with America to be America's Player, which means he will do his absolute best to try to complete a task.

How much has he earned so far for completing the tasks?
He has his first $10,000. I think he's closing in on another $5,000. For every five tasks, he gets $10,000. He will have $30K if he completes all of his tasks this week.

If Eric makes it to the final two, will he be able to tell his fellow houseguests that he's America's Player?
That would certainly be part of the finale, but I'm not saying when he'll be able to reveal it. That needs to be determined. He needs to be judged on how he played the game and how he's perceived. So the question is: Should he reveal it before or after? It's my opinion that it should be revealed after in order for him to have a fair shot of winning this game. But that has yet to be determined.

Why didn't Julie Chen tell Kail about Eric being America's Player during her exit interview?
We had a tight show. It's live TV. Sometimes you have to make decisions about what's important. I believe she was told the next day on The Early Show.

How did you feel about the banner flown over the house that accused Amber and Eric of lying and compared the Late Night Crew to BB6's Nerd Herd?
It's great that there seem to be so many fans involved with the show who feel compelled to do something like that. I don't condone them whatsoever. They interfere with the game. Was this the most intrusive banner in BB history? No. Those occurred in BB2.

There is a rumor going around that Jen somehow managed to stumble upon an America's Player card in the Diary Room...
I heard this. Where did that come from? We know better than that! What's fascinating is the conspiracy theories that fly through this house. I believe there was one moment — and the video is available on YouTube [of players talking about it] — where Eric leaves the Diary Room and Jen says, ''Mr. America!'' And he kinda goes, ''What?'' It was just her doing her thing. But that was exaggerated by viewers. We are very careful about America's Player envelopes.

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