SPOILER ALERT — When “Big Brother” contestant Jack Matthews sat down with Julie Chen after his eviction Thursday, she dove into the racist and discriminatory comments he spewed while on the show.
What We Know:
- The first comment discussed were about evicted houseguest Kemi Fakunle, which Chen recapped by saying “…you called her bitch, you called her dog poop — you didn’t use the word ‘poop’ — and we just heard you say you wanted to stomp a mudhole through her chest…Watching that now, what are your thoughts?”
- Matthews attempted to backtrack and apologize for what he said, stating “…I will say that the ‘stomp the mudhole comment’ was based on something that Sam [Bledsoe] said last season when she was frustrated, and I don’t think there was any personal vendetta behind saying that…I think my statements were playful in a group of people. I do apologize for what I said…”
- He continued by stating “I think Kemi was, and is, a great person. I think this game and being in 24-hour view of people and you say things and… um, I wouldn’t say I fully support the things that I said and the way that I said them. If I could take them back, I would…But it doesn’t take away the fact that I don’t think that Kemi is a wonderful person inside and outside of this house, absolutely.”
- Chen then moved to another questionable comment that Matthews made, showing him a clip of himself responding to another houseguest who said the “proof is in the pudding.” Matthew then responded by saying “the rice pudding” — a reference to houseguest Isabella Wang being Asian-American.
- “Because Bella is Asian-American, and you made the pudding comment rice pudding, some people thought that was a derogatory statement about her ethnicity,” questioned Chen. “What is your response to that?”
- Matthews responded by saying “I appreciate you letting me be able to voice my opinion about that…We spoke earlier in the evening. There was the slop thing going on and people were making different recipes earlier in that evening…rice pudding was spoken about in slop pudding.”
- He continued by stating “earlier in that evening, rice and slop pudding were going, around so Tommy bringing it up in that situation made me say it there. It had nothing — absolutely nothing — to do with her ethnicity whatsoever. I appreciate that I get to voice me saying that.”
- Matthews being put on the hot seat occured after CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl was questioned at the network’s annual Television Critics Tour panel in Los Angeles last week about why these comments were not on the regular broadcast.
- “In terms of how people are represented, the vast majority of time we are very happy with how they are represented. Most people who have been on those shows speak very fondly of their experience. I’m not sure how much better we can edit that show…We are not able to show every single thing on the show. We strive to show a good representation of what happens” she stated.
Matthews definitely deserved to be in the hot seat after those terrible comments.
