Every year I look forward to Big Brother, both Canadian and American iterations.
Season 8 of BBCAN started on March 4th.
Big Brother is a social experiment game show; placing different walks of life into one home under 24-hour surveillance for months without any access to the outside world. They compete, scheme, vote each other out until only one is left to claim a cash prize.
Think the The House of Commons with bathroom camera's and consequences for lying.
I have auditioned for the first seven of the eight Canadian seasons -- either by video submission, open call, or sometimes both. This year I opted out to dedicate myself to my studies.
Maybe some of this cast should have opted out as well ...
Big Brother is never short on delivering surprises but at the very least usually Big Brother itself is in on them.
Not this year.
At two weeks into the game there should only be two evicted houseguests thus far but the house is actually down FOUR houseguests with only ONE being evicted via game rules, Michael from Prince George (pictured above).
Yes, four houseguests GONE!
For context, we can watch the live feeds of what is going on in real-time in between the edited shows and live evictions.
On Thursday night, Arisa Cox hosted the live eviction show from her own home out of social distancing practise. She announced that after the house live feeds went dark 24 hours prior, TWO houseguests had been REMOVED from the game BY BIG BROTHERRRRR!
From what we saw on the live feeds, Kyle and Jamar (pictured respectively above) got into a passive-aggressive war of words during a house meeting. We didn’t get to see the spat in its entirety but expected to on the live show. But, nah.
Instead, Arisa simply stated that both were removed not just because of what we saw but also what we didn't and will not get to.
Fans and alumni called the move of production to not show the dispute a cop-out. Why?
The news of Jamar being kicked out was announced by ET Canada while the feeds were down. Twitter erupted with cries of racist intentions against Jamar despite not having the full story (#IStandWithJamar).
Some believe Kyle was also ousted to balance out the criticism and prevent further backlash by hiding the offending moments from public judgment.
Or perhaps they wanted to save the pair from outside consequences, as reality TV has been known to cause employment issues and even death threats.
We likely won’t know the truth for sure, at least not until the game is well over and those involve decide to talk.
Kyle already touched on it when he returned to Instagram:
*Kyle has made his account private and post may not be accessible.
Nonetheless, this comes on the heels of the only houseguest to ever self-evict, Nico, who left before the first eviction could take place due to the pressure of the house.
Along with the coronavirus and houseguest Carol constantly threatening to also self-evict on the live feeds, fans are wondering if they shouldn’t just cancel the season.
Carol, if you wanted to prove to those who are "old or big or whatever" that you can still make it to the BB house and all you do is whine, you are actually doing a disservice to those you want to represent. You should have stayed home.
*As I wrote this, Carol called a house meeting to ask the house to evict her this week. The current Head of Household obliged and put her up for eviction.
When the news was announced of Kyle’s removal to the house, producer Erin reminded the houseguests over the loudspeaker they are lucky to be picked as houseguests and should remember to “do better.” DID YOU HEAR THAT, CAROL?? YOU’RE LUCKY TO BE THERE SO ACT LIKE IT.
As I said, I've tried out seven times and haven't gotten close. There are people who have tried out eight and also haven't gotten close. Carol went all the way and wants to leave. What a waste of a spot, point blank.
Glad she's gonna get her wish and speaking of wishes, I do wish her well.
Funny enough, that house is probably one of the safest places to be right now; they have been quarantined for a month and completely cut-off from the world. A lot of prep and work go into such a show and it is able to provide 24/7 entertainment, something we can use these days.
The houseguests were told about the virus and received letters from families to assure them they were all fine.
The only other times in North American Big Brother history the rule to not inform houseguests of current events was to the final three on BB2 in America about the 9/11 attacks. One of the houseguests, Monica, ended up losing a cousin that day.
The second time was in a special off-season iteration when Donald Trump won the presidency.
I love Big Brother. And while the COVID-19 virus developments may mean the show has to take a dramatic and quick end, it just goes to show that the American tagline of the show not only applies to the houseguests but Big Brother itself …
No, no Julie ... "expect the unexpected" was what I needed you to say.
Wonder what next week will bring. In the house, and out.
Cheering for ya, BBCAN8!
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What do you think about these unprecedented events in BBCAN history?
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Images of BBCAN houseguests property of GlobalTV.