Big Brother Canada 8 Cancelled

After almost a full day of live feeds being down Global decided to let us know that the show has been canceled due to the coronavirus.

This season will be remembered as a dumpster and is the biggest example of why this franchise BBCAN/BBUS desperately needs a change in casting direction.

1 person quit
2 people expelled
1 person evcited
1 person wants to quit but sucks too hard to do it

Global and Insight Productions announced today that, in light of developments in Ontario on the fight against COVID-19, effective today Big Brother Canada Season 8 has ended production.

“Big Brother Canada is a labour of love for so many, and even though it hurts to say goodbye to the season, it’s the right thing to do,” said Big Brother Canada Host Arisa Cox. “On behalf of the incredible people who put this show together, thank you to everyone who started this journey with us. Please take care and be safe!”

At this time, Big Brother Canada has no plans to resume production at a later date. After a truly unprecedented season, the show will take its final bow over two episodes Wednesday, March 25 at 7 p.m. ET/PT and Wednesday, April 1 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

source https://www.bigbrothercanada.ca/news/big-brother-canada-special-statement-regarding-end-of-production/

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another name

Thanks to Simon and Dawg for making this dumpster fire season of supersized suckage more tolerable!!!!!!

another name

just imagine if they had put in an alternate for Nico after he quit. and an alternate for Carol when she first wanted to quit on day 7.
Any alternate. Even a sock puppet and a wad of used gum. There was a possibility for some standouts this year, But the casting model they are using is so effed up.

oPoP

“But the casting model they are using is so effed up.”

Diversity is our strength

another name

the casting model i’m speaking is not based on racial or sexual orientation,
the model i’m speaking of is recruitment practices, added to improper mental health evaluation, added to intentionally going out with a checklist of the jock the brain the freak the bookworm the thug the old one, et al. Add to this casting personalities on the basis that they will be combustible together, pushing them to become more antagonistic, and then acting shocked when they combust.
Just how diverse is casting when i could get in my car right now, drive 45-60 minutes depending on which highway i took, and be on the doorstep of any one of 4 house guests? Out of 16 .
Is it any wonder that every season house guests start talking about knowing each other or having friends in common? Let’s go back to season 4 for a minute. beyond the 2 brothers being obviously connected: there were six different cases discussed on feeds of a houseguest being at most 2 degrees of separation from each other. and only ONE of those cases was due to meeting while attempting to be cast on big brother in previous seasons.
Season 7. there were five separate discussions on feeds of houseguests knowing each other socially separate from big brother.
That isn’t an expression of diversity in my opinion. That’s recruiting by going through the social media contacts of one cast select in order to find recruits that they will gell with socially on the show.
and that’s effed up.

Chris and Kyle need to go

Honestly I’m glad, half of the houseguests were dreadful
Here’s to a better season 9 hopefully, and thank you Simon and Dawg for reporting the news to us this past month <3

another name

Honestly, the press release could be read as final episode of season tomorrow, with a series special farewell episode on april 1.

Alfred ngo

I agree. I got the sense from the press release that they will not be bringing the show back.

Covideo

Thanks Simon and Dawg!!!

Frenchie

🙁 Thanks Simon & Dawg for keeping us updated with… well, you know… at least some witty comments about gameplay that could have been… Your takes on BB were way more entertaining than what happened on BB anyway… 😉
Everyone stay safe, and I hope we get to reunite soon, in good health, for something exciting.
Take care!

Frenchie

It’s surreal. life feels like you’re in a zombie movie, but the zombies are just around the corner. So the streets are deserted, but there’s an eerie sense of doom all around.
People are definitely staying home if at all possible.
I’m curious: From what I get from social media, there are so many news revolving around Covid-19 all day long, but it’s coming from reporters, politicians, doctors talking in theoretical terms about it, and its effects on people. Have people who live in North America actually seen or heard directly from people who actually caught the virus?
Here’s a guy, 51 years old, fit, describing what his symptoms are.
Not a comfortable watch, but I’d recommend showing this to anyone who doesn’t take it seriously enough. Stay safe! Lots of love!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW-us3FsOXI&feature=emb_title

Guy From Canada

I work in an ER on the south end of the island Simon works on. Basically we are starting to see a shift now from travelling people who are positive to transmission locally.

People here are not taking it seriously…look at what happened on a local hiking locations the Squamish Chief (a ferry ride away) and that sums up the social distancing that the 1/2 Simon is talking about (google the video it’s amazing the stupidity). Local teens around in Victoria are organizing house parties, play dates, all with the premise that they can’t get sick and die from it. The other half are working from home, not going out, avoiding playgrounds being informed and following instructions. We are one step away from martial law in BC and I would argue Canada as a whole.

I’m running away to a different ward (accepted a new job prior to this happening) but I expect the next month will really be interesting.

Have friends in France too, be safe sounds like you guys are doing it right!

Guy From Canada

Yeah we have a drive through for the public in Victoria. For health care employees they call the ER and then we gown up and swab em from our parking lot.

Yeah I’m careful not to spread, but this is not to fear. Regular old Influenza A has peaked and is tapering off locally….worse timing similar symptoms to Covid.

You take care up there too Simon, and hopefully I dont see Dawg walk in as a local patient (I will totally fan boy him if he does though Haha)

Just a game

Too bad 🙁
I think next season should be called big brother season 8.2 not 9 .
Even though it was a bad pre jury , i think the season had potential . At least they can go back home now and believe they would of won. ( I think Brooke could of won)

wut

this was Sheldon’s season to win.

Disappointed fan

Yes definitely Sheldon’s season to win…for once they finally had a black guy who was a true super fan and was very committed to winning. Was hoping he would be the first black winner. Really sucks this season got cancelled, I can’t see these contestants ever coming back to play together again

Larry Pooper

So funny Just a game… so funny indeed!

another name

Final decompression thoughts:
As a fan I enjoyed the fact that the house targeted and broke a showmance before it had the opportunity to dominate. It’s about time somebody in Big brother said not on my watch, even if it was alllll because some crazyeyed weirdo wanted the girl for himself.
As a fan I enjoyed the first week of feeds. That is in large part due to Minh ly, and the absolute chaos to established big brother norms that she brought to us. I could have done without the Jamar camera talking and strutting, but I didn’t hate his contribution to also being a factor in early feed entertainment. Their game strategies however: wow did those stink. They were destined to be good time not a long time in the game. Horrible Horrible game strategies. But multiple popcorn moments were thanks to one or both of them.
As a fan: I want every future big brother contestant (if there ever are any more) to reconsider using the term superfan if they’ve only watched the edited shows. I don’t care how many times you’ve watched the edited seasons, if you haven’t watched feeds you don’t know jack about a season of big brother. Two VERY different things.
As a fan i’m disappointed i won’t see all of the too comfortable people take their first casualty in the game and go into panic skitter mode. Those always make for fun on feeds.
Oh well.
If i were suggesting for production:
NO MORE PRE FEED VOTES. If they have to have a vote before the first episode, turn on the feeds for a couple of hours during the usual blockage week one, let the viewers actually get to know the houseguests a bit, and then have the vote. The produced promo intros suck for actually portraying a cast member in the game. They just show which archetype role they were cast to fill.
No more casting by American Archetype Model (Canada and America have different identities, and that’s an issue). Considering the American Model has been going downhill in terms of who it has been putting on the air for a while, let’s not do that.
NO more wannabe social media influencers that think bbcan is going to make them stars. Let’s be honest: for every one former cast mate that is able to carve out a small niche, there are 15 more that didn’t.

Free Carol. Thank your local deity, they finally freed carol.

BBJam

Well at least Carol can go home now with her head held high. And isn’t that what BBCan is all aboot.

Sassy

Definitely after. TP’ing a house right now is an act of generosity to the homeowner

Kung Fu Charlie

Good luck acquiring enough tp for that

newname2020

well, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Hopefully, those in the cast who were not quitters will have an opportunity to play again in the future. Not their fault that their opportunity was squashed. Also, hopefully, the casting person will be fired forthwith and the production company will get it’s shit together.

Guy From Canada

I kind of want a USA vs Canada version. We vote who we want from this season to be half of the USA house.

Sassy

I loved when they voted in the international players. They were AMAZING

im so sad its cancelled

OMG yes that was my dream season, big fan of BBUK and BBAU

aaron

if the show does not come back, or it does and the houseguests whio were left, do not get brought back next year, global had better be prepared for what I imagine will be a very SERIOUS (and financially damaging lawsuit) for not only the network that broadcasts the channel in Canada.) but this could MAYBE even spell the beginning of the end for the entire big brother franchise worldwide.)

aaron

not only serious, but granted the fact that many of the houseguests had to give up their JOBS/CAREERS to go into the house, and to learn that they basically did it for nothing at all in return? I certainly believe that GLOBAL will get the crud sued out of them by all the houseguests, (or at least the families of the houseguests) who were still in the running for the $100,000, because I read on a facebook post this morning that a friend of one of the houseguests from season 14 of the US version, obviously. (I’m fb friends with the hg in question.) thinks that they are just using the coronavirus as an EXCUSE to cancel the season, because of the fact that so many houseguests have already either been expelled, or decided to leave VOLUNTARILY

Mark Dietrich

I think that on April 1st that all 10 players left should share in the 100,000 because those were the true players of the game.

hernanday oleary

That’s too bad, I was looking forward to the SECOND eviction, LOL. Are they going to speed up the season between now and April 1, or what is the deal?

I would also note, Ontario did list tv production as an essential service, so they could have kept going legally in the province if they wanted to. I am curious as to what caused them to pull the plug.

Bajoca

I heard that the staff were really concerned for their own safety

SHEESH

what about the stars of the show? the houseguests? Scared production released them from isolation and now theyre at risk of exposure. Way to go production, way to protect your houseguests. sheesh

Save the Humans

The houseguests couldve been kept safe in isolation incase the world needed to be repopulated

Covideo

Poor ratings is my guess.

Uhmm

If they are essential in a crisis aren’t they legally suppose to stay open?

Bajoca

Dawg and Simon. thank you

im so sad its cancelled

when was the picture of maddy? right before feeds went off? i would like to know the context because its the last screenshot of the season 🙁

another name

Small amounts of information I’ve pieced together from multiple sources: (take * annoted piece with a grain of salt it’s a new source).
– They were informed of a shutdown on Monday evening after Insight liaised with the network . The house guests were released Tuesday afternoon after arrangements had been made and asked to socially distance in self quarantine for 14 days. At that point there were still 12 people in the house.
* the hg’s after they were informed spent a couple of hours sitting around and telling each other everything they’d been doing in the game, and all of their game secrets / alliances were revealed to each other. possibility it makes the apr 1 episode.*
-The articles detailing staff fear for safety and staff quitting played a role in part of the decision, when the ontario closure of non essential businesses came out, even though television production is on the list of essential, they made the decision to close. A large number of people (roughly 300) just joined the ranks of the unemployed.
-The season record with self evictions, expulsions, and an ongoing threat to self evict was already causing great concern. There is some talk that their mental health guidelines for getting on a season would require more strict guidelines in the future. If there is a future.
– Kyle is still out on social media trying to blame anyone he can for not getting 100k. If you can find video of his chat with Godfrey (s3) where kaela (s5) and sarah (s3) are giving their two cents, get some popcorn. Down some kraken when he starts on his ‘thug’ talk. I’d say he’s already past his 15 minutes. next.

-five years ago on the day of season 8’s shutdown… season 3 premiered. Is this Risha’s Revenge?

-if the production company has any self interest thoughts at all, the prize money will be donated to something covid related. Given their past and present image problems (some ongoing regarding staffing contracts breaching canadian employment standards act) added to the articles detailing staff fears and staff quitting, the fact that the host appeared from home self isolation last week, and siting ontario’s reaction to the virus as the reason for the shutdown: they should. No word yet on what will be done with that money, but it will be addressed on the April 1 show.

another name

You know how in previous seasons house guests are told to avoid social media for a few days, and given helpful hints on what they may encounter and how they should attempt to respond? Yeah, in past seasons they’ve done that.
Not this year. And it’s messier than they were in the house on their social media.
so much grimacing and shuddering.

another name

Social media game spoilers from houseguests speaking to each other (not going to go into the bile and hate machine, which is abundant with crazy as fandom follows their choice of pied piper into mob mentality style judgmental madness) In terms of where the game was when the season was called:

As per maddie: sue had blown up her game, with everyone assuming it was to do brooke and sheldon’s dirty work to flip the vote and keep carol.
As per hira: carol informed minh that sue was in the process of vote flipping. minh confronted sue. which leads into what maddie was saying.

Therefore: the move that Sue wanted drew a huge arrow at the line in the sand, but nobody has actually come out and said how the vote would have actually gone down and who would be on what side of the line in the sand when one nominee is saying ‘why aren’t you voting her out, she wants to leave,’ and the other nominee is saying ‘yeah, why aren’t you voting me out, i want to leave.’
In case anyone cared where the game stood when it was called off.

another name

Sue today confirms that Carol ran to everyone about Sue trying to convince Carol to stay in order to make Sue look bad, and improve Minh and Vanessa’s spots in the game.
she also confirms the houseguests had a dinner where they all exposed their game strategies to each other the night production was shut down. Many of the house guests are a wee bit bitter. Others… it went over their heads. side eye not full roll.

The big takeaway i’m getting from houseguests post game social media discussions:
leaving the house was too new and too raw for them to run immediately to their social media accounts. They should have taken the 72 hour freeze recommendation to heart. They are messy. All of the houseguests that had the character flaw in the game where they needed everyone to hate whoever they didn’t like are treating social media in the same manner to get the lemmings to hate anyone that played them. Remember, there were over 20 fake alliances in 3 weeks. that’s going to require a lot of hate.
The evicters are back to talking about being lied to in the game as character flaws of the others and saying as their example Dane never lied… wow they didn’t watch season 7 feeds. Like. At alllll. Lied through his non existent teeth. Daily.
Jamar is pied pipering and saying his social game was 100 while implicitly inferring the fanbase go off on anyone that played him. Social game to me means not a big target to most using charisma, while at the same time being able to read the house and houseguests so that you can manipulate them without getting manipulated yourself. If half the house was playing him, his social game couldn’t have been 100.
I agree Jamar should have gotten a warning not expulsion so the ones that pushed for expulsion should answer that question, but if everyone else in the game is being called out for culturally/ socially insensitive remarks: He made some too but is being given an absolute pass like even asking would be a crime against humanity. I dislike that hypocrisy.
Sue has joined the anti Vanessa league because Vanessa lied and played her in the game better than Sue lied to and played Vanessa. This group cannot handle anyone lying in big brother apparently. Unless it’s them and then it’s just game.
Carol should have stayed waaay off social media. She’s saying the live feeds are edited to make her look bad? Vanessa pretty much has stayed off social media. Angie implies she was playing but the live feeds missed it? No, they got the napping sequence in one of the last episodes, you’re good Angie. Chris has been mostly absent on social media and perhaps that’s for the best, crazy eyed weirdo.

Unless any of them reveal how the vote was actually going to go down, I think i’ve given all the updates of these people’s social media that I can handle without corrective surgery for all the eyerolls. What a bunch of messy petty children. It’s so much easier when they have press junket day after the finale. That just requires sitting through a couple taped and printed interview batches while suppressing my gag reflex. This crap of having to watch untrained amateurs try to do media spin control with a fickle fanbase known to unhinge it’s jaw and swallow whole while also screaming queen at someone that could have been replaced with a cardboard cutout when it comes to game play: so cringe.

Cynika

can you link the kyle/godfrey video?

another name

it was an ig. i don’t think access is possible any longer.
there are clips of it on twitter.

Mary

Thank you Simon and Dog for working so hard during this train wreck of a season. They should take this opportunity to regroup and hire an all new casting department with fresh eyes and more than 2 brain cells each. This season was a complete disaster.

The Foosa

And a new host, please. I’m over the nonsense otherwise cancel the series already and go the way of the UK.

another name

LAST EPISODE. Personal Response:
I would have rather if they’d showed the drama they glossed over that was about to occur when feeds went down. At least for an 8 minute segment instead of a 1 minute lead into doom and gloom. The gravitas would have been heightened.
Man, were they ever pushing the Shooke storyline in that last episode. 30 plus minutes of episode was concentrated on the two of them. I know everyone was saying they were playing the best game (the were playing the game might be a better analysis). I could argue they’d overextended alliances on all sides which would have been their ruin within 2 weeks, but it’s supposition now (somewhat backed by game related information houseguests have talked about post season). I found them boring, and to me that’s the cardinal sin that makes my eyes roll at just how many brooke is crying and chasing sheldon around like a shadow edit clips were shown. For over 1/2 the episode. Yawn.
by 32 minutes into episode they were STILL trying to pull emotional heart strings that I just don’t possess. Yeah, the real world is tough right now, people have died, sorry you don’t get to appear on a gameshow based reality entertainment program anymore.

I’m noting the donation of prize money to Covid response. If they’d done anything else i’d have been pissed. Frankly, the runner up prize should have been added, or given as bonuses to the staff (the people now jobless that probably need it).

I know it sounds heartless, but frankly after looking at their social media for a few days in lieu of exit interviews to see how they thought the game would have gone: I just don’t care that these petty little asses didn’t get to finish the season. All the gratuitous kumbaya on the episode? 180 degree shift to what they are acting like to try to squeeze out an extra ten seconds of notoriety with fandom. Last eyeroll of BBCAN 8.

HannibalCannibal

Last few seasons have been absolutely horrible. Casting: horrible. Production: horrible. Host: lovely person, but so phoney.

I could never understand why the viewers have to watch the most irrelevant clips; a houseguest dozing in and out of sleep (boring!); a houseguest whining about her $60. t-shirt turning pink (annoying!). Surely, there must be hours of houseguests talking gameplay/arguing that could have been aired.

And, what’s with the music throughout the entire episode???? It’s not even done at a lower level, but one has to listen to what the houseguests are saying with music playing at the same decibel level of real voices.

Why did Jean Luke lower his voice by 7 octaves????? His voice sounded so unnatural and fake.

Maddie is a close second to Sam (season 7) for most annoying female houseguest ever.

Show has been a flop for quite some time now. No need to bring it back.

another name

Hey HannibalCannibal:
What if they were to overhaul their casting process, and perhaps alter their presentation to have more of a mixture of bbuk, the original bbaustralia added to the mostly based on bbus model that has been used?
What if they’d just thrown in a couple alternates in place of the expelled as they have in uk editions? What if the house were all asked who they would nominate (name one or two each) and the house guests with the most votes in the house were used as the short list of 4 the hoh could pick from (a take off of the bbau model). I think this would be a better method of changing the game up to keep it fresh than the hoh doesn’t participate in veto change they are running with.
As far as the filler they toss into episodes in order to attempt to make us feel a human connection to the houseguests… I got nothing. it’s a choice I don’t necessarily agree with, given just how much they omit from episodes in order to make room for the puff piece clips. In a season with well over 20 alliances in four weeks: the only alliances the episodes show were Evictors, KVBS, and Six Feet Under.
If the program were to return: I think a bit of overhaul is required. How would you fix the problems you are seeing?

J E T S Jets Jets Jets

Any word on BB America? Are they going to play at all