With Rylie’s BB27 edit, Big Brother is again covering up toxic behavior

Big Brother is the one reality TV competition that gives us a window into the unedited, raw footage, which, on BB27, has revealed that Rylie Jeffries’ relationship with fellow houseguest Katherine Woodman is a lot more disturbing in real life than it’s being portrayed on the TV show.

While it’s undoubtedly difficult to condense storylines, especially in near-real time, we’ve seen Big Brother and its producers repeatedly edit the show to hide unacceptable behavior and protect people—usually white men, surprise, surprise.

During season 21, the show did not air white men making violent comments about a Black woman, but showed her making a violent joke. Oh, and a Big Brother producer told the Black player, Kemi, to act more stereotypically Black in her Diary Room interviews.

On BB27, once again, Big Brother is not only excluding information, but grossly misleading viewers.

Consider this scene from BB27 episode 20. Rylie is laying on a couch, staring at Katherine, as he often does. With accompanying soft music, we learn Rylie is just a lovesick victim of a woman who can’t make up her mind and just let him love her.

“You don’t like me. This is literally just a summer thing for you,” Rylie said. When Katherine tried to reassure him, denying that, he said, “Yeah, it is. I can feel it.”

The editors cut to the Diary Room, where Rylie could share his feelings with us. “I’m developing real feelings for Katherine,” Rylie said. “I love giving somebody my heart, but she might take my love for granted.” He then looked down, quietly, sad.

The message was clear: feel bad for this guy. Then we saw Katherine approach him in the bathroom and reassure him. “I want to say that I like you a lot and I really care about, and just because I might be thinking a little slower for my own personal reasons doesn’t mean I’m doing this for shits and giggs.”

“I don’t want you to feel pressured into anything,” Rylie told her. “I have a love to give you. I have a lot of love for eternity to give you.” He then cried.

So, that’s vaguely creepy—eternal love for someone you met in a game a month ago? But the music swelled in joy and happiness, and then the scene turned comedic as Keanu interrupted their hugging to use the toilet. Big Brother wants us to think they’re a cute couple and/or Katherine is not letting them be a cute couple.

Compare that horseshit to this conversation:

Rylie: “I’m being with you outside of this, whether you like it or not. I don’t care.”

Katherine: “What if we break up in here?”

Rylie: “We’re not going to. Why would you even say that?

Katherine: “Because. You might not like me.”

Rylie: “You might not like me. I don’t ever think about stuff like that. You need to stop thinking about stuff like that.”

Katherine: (quietly) “Okay.”

Rylie: “Do you want to?”

Katherine: “Want to what?”

Rylie: “Break up in here”

Katherine: “No.”

Rylie: “Why would you say that?”

Katherine: “I don’t know.”

Rylie: “I’m going to marry you after this.”

Katherine: (quietly) “Okay.”

A therapist analyzed that conversation, and while she’s careful to acknowledge that she can’t be sure of intent or true feelings, the therapist uses this interaction as examples of “subtle signs of emotional abuse” including “over-monitoring or controlling under the guise of concern,” such as Rylie “being very controlling over even speaking the notion of them not being together aloud.”

Why doesn’t interaction like that make the show? Why don’t we see moments like that, or like this?

TMZ managed to get Rylie’s mother to defend him—some incredible, enterprising journalism there. She said, “He’s not some obsessive stalker-type person like everyone is saying. He’s got a great heart and wears it on his sleeve.” Good to know his mom doesn’t think he’s a stalker; we can all rest easy.

On RHAP, Taran Armstrong made an impassioned case for why that BB27 episode 20 scene was so bad. He addressed the producers:

You are clearly trying to manipulate the audience. You are clearly misleading the people that are watching this show, hiding the truth of this.

It’s not Katherine’s decision how you portray this relationship.

And they are going really far out of their way to portray it in the way that they are, especially given tonight’s episode, given previous ones.

Let’s go over some of the creepy things Rylie has told Katherine previously:

Watch any of those clips and you’ll see Rylie repeatedly accuse Katherine, and see her constantly try to reassure him. To others, Katherine has denied being in a relationship with Rylie.

Keep in mind that all of this is happening inside a game for $750,000. Big Brother may be silly, like with a talking pig—Otev, not Rylie—but it’s still a game.

If a player is uncomfortable with another player’s behavior, and want to speak up, they may face consequences from other players. That’s exactly what happened on Survivor 39, which became Survivor’s worst season ever for the shameful way the producers handled on-set harassment.

That’s why the producers have a responsibility for creating a safe environment for everyone. Producers haven’t hesitated to remove cast members in the past, though they apply their rules inconsistently.

On RHAP, Taran pointed out that producers “had two different major Riley-Catherine interactions that they could have shown over the last few days,” including this:

He yelled at her the other day. He called her names. He was berating her, telling her to sit down, to shut up.

And they didn’t decide to show that conversation. They didn’t decide to show that interaction. They instead decided to show the interaction where she was trying to tell him she wanted to slow down, and he threw a fit. And they edited that to be from her perspective because she’s being told that this is her fault and that she’s hurting him. That she feels bad, that it’s her fault, that she needs to fix whatever she’s doing to him.

And they showed that perspective instead of the one where he is shutting down, icing her out, blaming her for these things…

He added that producers “are clearly trying to manipulate the audience … hiding the truth of this, and going out of your way to do so. And I genuinely find it to be disgusting.”

Agreed. Unfortunately, this is something Big Brother’s producers have been doing for decades, with CBS’s blessing.