Is Big Brother Canada 13 canceled? Off Global schedule
After twelve seasons on Slice / Global, have we reached the end of the road regarding Big Brother Canada? The answer is complicated, but for now, it isn’t good news.
Earlier today, we noticed that the reality show was not included in Global’s parent company Corus’ upfront presentation or schedule release for the 2024/25 season, which is never a good sign. It was hard to gauge the popularity of Big Brother Canada 12, given that Canadian ratings have become harder and harder to view by the public, and they never really accounted for streams or any other data, either.
Now, a post at brioux.tv quotes Troy Reeb, executive vice-president of broadcast networks at Corus Entertainment, as saying that “final decision has been made as yet” on the future of the series. However, performance was down for season 12 and there is not room for it currently on the schedule. If it was more successful, note this: The network would have made room.
The best way to consider Big Brother Canada’s future is that the series is on hiatus — it could return at some point, or not at all. Using the word “canceled” is a bit too harsh since reality shows can come and go so much easier than a scripted effort.
What went wrong
It is strange to use that terminology in a way, given that almost any show that goes for a dozen seasons should be viewed as an overwhelming success. However, we would say that Big Brother Canada did suffer over the years for a series of questionable corporate decisions, ones aimed at casual viewers over hardcore fans who live and breathe the franchise.
We would argue that the first misstep was actually several years ago, when the show shifted from cable network Slice over to Global, which led to more restrictions on what could and could not make it to the air. The watering-down of the content then continued with more and more live-feed blocks and eventually, the doing away of feeds altogether before season 11. These were replaced by Digital Dailies, which offered content from the house but destroyed the voyeuristic aspect of the series that made it what it was for so many years.
Looking back, the ideal move for Big Brother Canada could have been utilizing a paid model for the feeds from the start, and it turn working through whatever loopholes necessarily to make them accessible internationally. There would have been an expanded international audience and from there, revenue to further offset operating costs and limiting (at least to some extent) the number of on-air sponsors. Setting all of this up may have required a larger short-term investment, but it would have paid more dividends in terms of long-term success. The lack of social-media interaction on the past two seasons proved that without truly getting to know the houseguests, the investment in the game was no longer the same. The show essentially participated in gatekeeping its own fans from the content they wanted the most.
Are there negatives to live feeds that are 24/7? Absolutely but with this show, they remain the cost of doing business.
Big Brother Canada did a number of things right over the years, from exceptional challenge design to the presence of host / executive producer Arisa Cox, who showed both enthusiasm for the brand and also a measure of legitimate empathy for the contestants. Yet, most good things do end, and from this vantage point, it was decisions made by people at the top who caused the decline of what was once a great spring-TV experience.
Do you think this is the end of Big Brother Canada at Global?
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