Open Letter to CBS: Big Brother 15

I have been watching, with dismay, the atrocious behavior of Big Brother 15’s Amanda Zuckerman and I am appalled that CBS Big Brother executives have allowed her bullying behavior to continue throughout the entire season. It is bad enough that all of the minority cast members had their games severely hindered by the racist beliefs of the likes of Zuckerman, Gries and Zimmerman, but now the outright bullying of a Big Brother contestant, Elissa Slater (who has no one to back or support her), has been allowed to persist throughout the last couple of days.  This includes Zuckerman’s declaration that she would murder Slater in her sleep. Today the bullying and harassment by Zuckerman has continued and,  instead of putting her in check, feeds were censored in order to shield her repugnant behavior. I find this to be unacceptable.

During a time where bullying has seen tremendous backlash from society at large, it is shameful that CBS has not done anything to put their foot down and set an example for the viewing public, as a whole.

I have been a fan of Big Brother since the early years and have questioned why I have continued to watch this bastardized version of a game that is normally one of the highlights of my summer. If season 16 sees its ratings severely drop, it will be due to season 15’s overall lack of integrity and moral virtue and CBS’s lack of effort to remedy the situation.

This is my plea to CBS to do something about this horrendous behavior. I get that the idea is to show people as they truly are, but there must be a line drawn in the sand at some point. There has to be a point at which one crosses that line. What cast members Candice Stewart and Elissa Slater, in particular, faced this season on Big Brother can only be described as bullying and emotional abuse. Please do not continue to be a party to such behavior.

Thank you.