Big Brother fans and contestants will occasionally refer to Julie Chen as "the Chenbot" for her somewhat robotic delivery as host on the reality series. But anyone who watches The Talk knows that the Chenbot lets her circuits hair down and her personality shine during the daytime talk show. After CBS aired some of the racist comments that Big Brother houseguest Aaryn Gries has made on the live feeds, I wondered if the subject would be addressed on The Talk, which features a diverse group of female hosts, one of whom happens to be Big Brother host Julie Chen, an Asian American who may not be one to insert any strong opinions of the houseguests during her hosting duties for the reality show, but might have some thoughts to share while sitting in her Talk seat. Sure enough, the video above reveals the conversation Chen and the other Talk hosts had about some of the things Aaryn said, including the derogatory comments she made about Asians.
Here's what Julie Chen had to say about Aaryn's remarks...
"It stung. I took it personally. You know, I'm a human being. The really sad part was, it took me back to the 70s, when I was growing up in Queens, when I was seven years old, getting bullied, being called a 'chink' and people pulling their eyes. It took me back so many years, and I thought to myself, wow, I haven't heard comments like that… The year is 2013, and there are still people - and then I felt ignorant. I felt like, wow, there's still people who live in this country who feel that way and act that way? Yes, there is. Yes, there is. Afterwards, it just made me sad, because she's 22 and she's college educated."
Sharon Osbourne described it as "terrifying" to think that someone 22 and in college would say things like that, while Sara Gilbert commended CBS for airing the segment at all. It's true that Big Brother doesn't always expose some of the houseguests for the less flattering things they say on the feeds. Julie Chen claims that the reason the show aired the segment was because it's affecting how Aaryn is perceived by other houseguests within the context of the game. That may be somewhat accurate, but it seems like a stretch to me, as I'm not even sure Howard - the houseguest featured in the diary room discussing some of Aaryn's comments - Helen, Candice or Andy (the other targets of some of Aaryn's worst verbal infractions) are even aware of the extent of her comments. Howard might have been in the room when Aaryn did her impression of an Asian manicurist, but I'm not sure he heard any of the things Aaryn or GinaMarie have said about African Americans.
Regardless, Big Brother airs non-game-related segments all the time. It's how we get those random clips in previous seasons, like Ollie freaking out over birds, Jeff explaining to Jordan how to tell time or Amber crying. For Aaryn, it was a very unflattering segment, but it's hard to fault CBS for targeting her in this case, since we're not talking about one passing comment, but a series of comments and a pattern of behavior that indicates that she's completely unapologetic and unashamed of her views. The segment is only part of the backlash Aaryn's in for when she gets out. She'll also learn that she lost her spot at a modeling agency, and something tells me that some of the other houseguests won't be so happy to hear her comments when they hear what was said.
In the meantime, if and when Aaryn is evicted, it'll be interesting to see what kind of reception she gets from Chen when she comes out of the house.
