LAST EDITED ON 03-18-08 AT 02:18 PM (EST)

"I read that the producer in the diary room called Jen the "c" word."

This season? or last? Both seasons had Jen's who might have been called C's by various others.

"I think that with so much money involved, the producers will do what they can to manipulate what goes on in the house... and get actively involved in strategizing with the houseguests."

Cheating (illegal manipulation) is not something they can do unless they are well covered legally.

The money thing...there are prospects of large law suits against the show if the fraud (i.e. illegal manipulation) gets to be provable, and/or prevalent. That would work against the temptation to manipulate the outcome. With all the production personnel involved, hiding illegal manipulation would be nearly impossible, so any real attempt at illegal manipulation would leak.

Then the question becomes, what is ILLEGAL manipulation, and one would have to read the contracts involved to decide that. If the players contracts promised each one a fair chance at the prize, then the producers are pretty well constrained to be even handed, I would think. Or be prepared for lawsuits by each of the non-favored players.

The show has contracts with advertisers, who might seek legal redress if their reputation were to be besmirched by association with a controversial 'cheating' program. Again, a maze of lawsuits looms.

The Feds could actually get involved, although the Doc. in Estee's post would seem to make that less likely.