Skip to main content

Big Brother Canada - Season 11

Kingston said:
I think the whole “mental health” excuse is just a whitewash. If their duty of care was really that big of a deal they would have acted sooner. With the show in decline the decision to cut the live feed is about control. Corus believe they’re going to pull more viewers in to the broadcast show by taking control of the narrative. Yes they’ve pissed off BB Twitter in the process but they’re banking on the majority still watching. TBH completely honest I think they’re probably 100% correct in that assumption. I was in a Twitter space earlier with some BBCAN alumni and while they were all critical of the decision many said they’d still support the show.
Click to expand...
Twitter is irrelevant to viewership because the majority of them are American....not that I’m one to talk.

Can’t disagree that it’s easier for the show to control narratives, but I think killing feeds will still cause a slow dropoff of superfans; not because of any “boycott”, which is useless, but because of the inherent slowdown of community discussion.
 
Mustard said:
Any other format and I’d agree it’d be penny pinching, but this was inevitable since BBTwitter gets worse and worse every year, and BBCAN has shown that it’s willing to cut feeds in reaction.

Especially last season, any feed with Jess became gone even though they were HOH, and I think there was also another period of time where Marty was treated persona non grata? Not to mention the fans trying to contact sponsors and workplaces over any minor transgression.

Cutting costs might be a part of it, but I do think BBCAN at least cares about the mental health of its participants. It’s just a shame that feeds are the heart and soul of the show; might as well prefilm it.
Click to expand...
Disagree really - on the whole the BB live feeders are very supportive of the housemates and behave accordingly. If anything it's the casual TV show watchers who are far more problematic.

There will always be people who cross the line but they can't play into the hands of the people who claim that any criticism of them is "trolling" or attacks. Yes, it goes beyond opinion and accountability at time, but as ever that is in the minority.
 
Mustard said:
Can’t disagree that it’s easier for the show to control narratives, but I think killing feeds will still cause a slow dropoff of superfans; not because of any “boycott”, which is useless, but because of the inherent slowdown of community discussion.
Click to expand...
I don't think it'll be slow at all - it'll be very quick and substantial. We saw that when BBUK dropped the feeds - BB10 was over a quarter down on BB9. They reinstated them for BB11, but when they dropped them again for BB12 they lost half the audience, but that coincided with the channel change and new (awful) host too so unfair to pin that completely on the live feed - but it was a major factor.

And as the superfans stop talking about it the casual fans become less exposed to it, so they lose them too.
 
Brekkie said:
I don't think it'll be slow at all - it'll be very quick and substantial. We saw that when BBUK dropped the feeds - BB10 was over a quarter down on BB9. They reinstated them for BB11, but when they dropped them again for BB12 they lost half the audience, but that coincided with the channel change and new (awful) host too so unfair to pin that completely on the live feed - but it was a major factor.

And as the superfans stop talking about it the casual fans become less exposed to it, so they lose them too.
Click to expand...
The main reason I’m not completely writing them off is because Survivor has shown that it can maintain a passionate fanbase even throughout a slew of bad production choices in recent seasons, and the hardcores are at least going to give this season a shot out of morbid curiosity.

Is the choice going to screw the show? Most likely, but there’s always a chance.
 
Survivor didn't remove it's USP though in all the bad production choices over recent years. Removing the BB live feed is kind of the equivalent of Survivor keeping the challenges and tribal, but sticking contestants up in a hotel in between them.
 
Brekkie said:
Disagree really - on the whole the BB live feeders are very supportive of the housemates and behave accordingly. If anything it's the casual TV show watchers who are far more problematic.

There will always be people who cross the line but they can't play into the hands of the people who claim that any criticism of them is "trolling" or attacks. Yes, it goes beyond opinion and accountability at time, but as ever that is in the minority.
Click to expand...
You’re 100% correct. Blaming fans for calling out problematic behaviours is taking the easy way out. Not to say there aren’t times where people take things to extremes but from what I’ve seen those cases are few and far between.

BBCAN is far less nasty than BBUS and production have done a far better job at intervening when necessary. I think the decision had less to do with BBCAN and more to do with reacting to what’s been happening with BBUS and fear of things progressing further.

As for BBUS production really only have themselves to blame. For years they took a hands off approach, cast HG’s they either knew would be or ought to known would be problematic, and are still extremely slow to act when problems arise. They’ve essentially invited fans to react in the way they do.
 
I watched a few series of BBCAN last year after initially downloading the one with Tim Dormer. So I must remember to fire up the VPN and see if I can tune in to a few live shows :cool:
I like BBCAN...
 
So the new season premiere's a week on Wednesday and we've had radio silence on all fronts since the live feed announcement. I'd love to be a fly on the wall behind the scenes...
 
Well, they're not going to change their minds - and they're not dumb enough for this to have been a "we listened to you and made changes" type of stunt. At best they'll return next year but I doubt even the show will now they've axed the live feeds. They'll be scratching their heads about why nobody is watching the broadcast shows.
 

BBUS plans to keep live feeds on in America​


ew.com

'Big Brother' plans to keep live feeds on in America

'Big Brother' plans to keep live feeds on in America even after 'Big Brother Canada' announced doing away with them
ew.com ew.com

Never thought I’d see the day where the fans praise Grodner over BBCAN, and yet here we are... I don’t doubt they’re watching to see how BBCAN goes, though.
 
Last edited:
They really worked for them last year in driving people to Paramount+. Global should have followed suit and attached them to their streaming service rather than axed them completely. Indeed with how poorly BB Canada is scheduled this year (Tue-Thu, 7pm on two nights) premiering the show there some night might make sense too.
 
Brekkie said:
They really worked for them last year in driving people to Paramount+. Global should have followed suit and attached them to their streaming service rather than axed them completely. Indeed with how poorly BB Canada is scheduled this year (Tue-Thu, 7pm on two nights) premiering the show there some night might make sense too.
Click to expand...
Global’s “streaming service” requires you to have a cable subscription and StackTV is an add on to Amazon Prime and a few other services.
 
Mustard said:

BBUS plans to keep live feeds on in America​


ew.com

'Big Brother' plans to keep live feeds on in America

'Big Brother' plans to keep live feeds on in America even after 'Big Brother Canada' announced doing away with them
ew.com ew.com

Never thought I’d see the day where the fans praise Grodner over BBCAN, and yet here we are... I don’t doubt they’re watching to see how BBCAN goes, though.
Click to expand...
Keep in mind this isn’t an official statement.
 
Brekkie said:
Well, they're not going to change their minds - and they're not dumb enough for this to have been a "we listened to you and made changes" type of stunt. At best they'll return next year but I doubt even the show will now they've axed the live feeds. They'll be scratching their heads about why nobody is watching the broadcast shows.
Click to expand...
I don’t see them doing anything pre-season but still yet to be seen if a dip in the ratings is enough to scare them. Given how the sponsors are bankrolling the show I can’t see them being happy when no one is watching.
 
Brekkie said:
It's disgusting to that they're hiding behind the contestants and their families mental health as the justification for penny pinching on the feeds. When things go wrong for contestants it is far better the true story is out there and people have seen everything in the context it happened in - it's usually far worse when fans are left to fill in the blanks themselves.

I suspect too it's better for the family to be able to tune in and see their loved one is doing OK than wait 5 days for the next TV show.
Click to expand...
Transparency and duty of care are not mutually exclusive. I agree it's a load of rubbish and a rather insensitive excuse. Some past housemates have even spoken out about that, saying that the fact the fans witnessed the truth is what helped them stay sane after leaving the house.
 
Why are fans turning on Arisa? Yes, she is an executive producer, but clearly this decision was above her pay grade. She is in a difficult position because she most likely does not agree with the decision, but it's part of her job to promote the show. Plus if she publicly echoed the negative sentiments of fans she would probably be in breach of contract.
 
BigBrothersCousin said:
Why are fans turning on Arisa? Yes, she is an executive producer, but clearly this decision was above her pay grade. She is in a difficult position because she most likely does not agree with the decision, but it's part of her job to promote the show. Plus if she publicly echoed the negative sentiments of fans she would probably be in breach of contract.
Click to expand...
It’s a mix of people not realizing how little control production have over the show and the fact that she’s literally the face of BBCAN. Her blocking people at this point is the same as Gretel tearing a strip off Michael for saying the show was unfairly edited.
 
To be honest I don't blame anyone for blocking people rather than trying to rationalise with them - life is too short to deal with people you don't need to be dealing with. Sadly in life though when you're one of the people and become one of the management you often find yourself implicated in decisions, or even making them, which aren't popular with the people.


Will be interesting now to see how ratings are impacted next week considering the fan engagement has seemingly crumbled - not that Canadian TV has ever been too forthcoming with ratings. Sadly too the sim-sub arrangements which prioritise US content means it's scheduling isn't great with 2 of the 3 episodes at 7pm - indeed a bit baffled why considering it just displaced ET Canada on the nights it airs at 7pm why it couldn't air on the Monday instead of the Tuesday, though think the first Monday is the post-Oscars show.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top