Big Brother Canada
Big Brother Canada is a Canadian television reality game show and part of the global Big Brother franchise. The show premiered on February 27, 2013 and originally aired on Slice. After the second season, the show moved to Global. The series is produced by Endemol and Insight Productions. Arisa Cox was brought on as the show's host.
The series follows a group of contestants, referred to as "HouseGuests", living in a custom built home under constant video surveillance. The HouseGuests have no communication with the outside world while in the house, with no access to luxuries such as internet and phones. One of the contestants is voted out of the house each week, while the winner of the series receives a $100,000 grand prize and other luxuries. A live feed into the house is available for viewers to watch for free through the show's website. Big Brother Canada is the first incarnation of the series to adopt the format used in the United States, which greatly differs from others. The rules of the series have also been altered throughout each season through "twists" added to the game.
The show was put on hiatus following the conclusion of the fifth season, but fan support saw the show renewed for a sixth season. On May 30, 2019, host Arisa Cox confirmed that Big Brother Canada was renewed for an eighth season to air in 2020. Season 8 began with a two-night premiere on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 7 p.m. ET/PT and Thursday, March 5, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, followed by a dramatic fallout on Sunday, March, 8 at 8 p.m ET/PT, and production ending early without a winner due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 13, 2020, almost four months after the cancellation of the eighth season, it was renewed for the ninth season.
Since it first premiered, Big Brother Canada has aired 200 episodes and featured 76 HouseGuests.
History
The Big Brother franchise debuted in Canada in 2000, when Global acquired the rights to air the United States edition from CBS. The series has also been broadcast on former sister network, CH. A French-Canadian version of Loft Story, the France-produced version of the series, premiered in 2003. The show was succeeded by an official Quebec-produced edition of Big Brother in 2010, which aired for one season.Global's then-parent company, Shaw Media, announced on May 30, 2012 that an English adaptation of the series would launch in Canada on digital cable channel, Slice. The network later confirmed that the live feed of the Big Brother house would be free to Canadian viewers, unlike the subscription-based United States edition. Big Brother Canada was initially set to premiere on February 18, 2013; this was later pushed back to February 27. The show was greenlit for a second season following the ratings success of the first; a new house was built prior to the launch of the second season. It was confirmed after the conclusion of the second season that the show would be moving to Global.
Following the show's fifth season, it was announced by Global that the series had been placed on an indefinite hiatus for undisclosed reasons. The announcement led to backlash from fans of the series, who petitioned to bring the show back on air. Less than two months after the announcement, it was confirmed that the series would be returning for a sixth season in 2018 due to the large amount of fan support. Prior to the launch of the sixth season, a third House for the series was built with the same layout as the previous one. The seventh season of the series was confirmed by host Arisa Cox in June 2018. It premiered in March of 2019.
Season 8 was a series first for the Canadian franchise: two HouseGuests had to be removed due to a violation of house rules; production ended early on March 24, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic with no winner and the finale aired on April 1, 2020.
Rules and format
There are a number of rules imposed on the HouseGuests competing in the series. The participants are under constant audio and video surveillance, and are required to wear personal microphones at all time. Contestants have no access to phones, television, internet, magazines, newspaper, and are prohibited from contact with those not in the house. The Bible and other religious literature are the only books allowed in the house. Described as a "social experiment", the concept of the show forces people to live in a home with people who may share differing ideals, beliefs, or prejudices. The doors to the house remained locked at all times, though a HouseGuest is free to quit the game whenever they choose; however, once leaving the house, they are not permitted to re-enter. Should a contestant break the rules of the game, they could be expelled and immediately removed from the house. Unlike other versions of Big Brother, the HouseGuests may discuss the nomination and eviction process openly and freely.Each week the HouseGuests compete in several competitions in order to win power and safety inside the house, before voting off one of the HouseGuests on during the eviction. The main elements of the format are as follows:
- Head of Household : At the start of each week in the house, the HouseGuests compete for the title of Head of Household, often shortened to simply HoH. The Head of Household for each week is given luxuries such as their own personal bedroom and the use of an MP3 player, but is responsible for nominating two of their fellow HouseGuests for eviction. From the third season onward, the HoH makes a "shortlist" of three or four potential nominations, two of which become the eventual nominations. The Head of Household would not be able to compete in the following week's Head of Household competition; this excludes the final Head of Household competition of the season.
- Power of Veto : After the nominees are determined, the Power of Veto competition is played, with the winner receiving the Power of Veto. If a HouseGuest chooses to exercise the Power of Veto, the Head of Household is responsible for naming a replacement nominee. The holder of the Power of Veto is safe from being nominated as the replacement nominee.
- * Veto Players: During seasons 1-6, only six HouseGuests competed for the Power of Veto each week; the Head of Household and both nominees competed, as well as three others selected by a random draw. From season 7 onwards, there would only be 5 veto players with the HoH prohibited from playing until there are a total of 5 HouseGuests remaining in the house.
- Eviction: On eviction night, all HouseGuests must vote to evict one of the nominees, with the exception of the nominees and the Head of Household. The eviction vote is by secret ballot, with HouseGuests casting their votes orally in the Diary Room. In the event of a tied vote, the Head of Household will cast a tie-breaking vote publicly. The nominee with the majority of the votes is evicted from the house.
Notable contestants
In total, there have been one hundred eighteen HouseGuests to compete in Big Brother Canada. In addition to this, there have been seven potential HouseGuests that did not enter the house and eight HouseGuests that have competed in two seasons. Season one HouseGuests Jillian MacLaughlin and Emmett Blois went on to participate in the fourth season of The Amazing Race Canada; the duo came in second place. Blois later went on to enter the Big Brother Mzansi house in South Africa as a guest; he remained in house for a week, attempting to cause trouble among the contestants. Demetres Giannitsos and Dane Rupert hold the record for the most Head of Household wins in a single season with five, while Kevin Martin, Adam Pike and combined HouseGuests Nick & Phil Paquette hold the record for most Power of Veto wins in a single season with four. Giannitsos, Martin, Paquette brothers, Pike, and Rupert are all also tied for the most total competition wins in a single season, with seven each. Martin, alongside HouseGuests Ashleigh Wood and Kaela Grant are the only HouseGuests to win three consecutive Power of Veto competitions. Martin has also spent the most time in the house of any HouseGuest, with a total of 118 days.Reception
Since its premiere in 2013, Big Brother Canada has been met with a positive reaction from viewers. Calum Marsh with National Post called the show "one of the most thrilling things on television" following the conclusion of the sixth season. The show was a ratings success during its run on Slice, with the first three episodes of the season causing a 24% increase in Slice's viewership. The show averaged 2.7 million viewers per week, at one point reaching a peak of 4.2 million in one week. The second season reached more than 6.4 million viewers during its run, becoming the number one specialty reality program of the year in key demographics. It was reported that the show's official website was visited more than 46 million times during the season. The show's seventh season saw the highest overall average for the series in terms of ratings, while season two was the least viewed season.The show has been compared positively to the United States edition of the series on which it is based, with several fans and publications citing it as the superior series. The sophomore season was ranked as the fourth best North American season by BuzzFeed in 2018, with the fifth season coming in seventh place. Producer Trevor Boris has been praised for his role in the series, including producing the challenges and voicing the recurring character Marsha the Moose. He later went on to work on adaptions of the show in the United States and the United Kingdom. The series has received criticism for issues such as blocking the live feeds from viewers for long periods of time and for being seemingly "over-produced". Since it debuted, Big Brother Canada has been nominated for a total of fourteen Canadian Screen Awards, winning Best Production Design or Art Design in a Non-Fiction Program or Series at the 2015 ceremony. It has also been nominated for two Canadian Cinema Editors Awards, once in 2016 and once in 2017.