Yahoo Finance 'Big Brother Canada' Season 11: Arisa Cox addresses concern about scrapping live feeds
"I think people within the live feed community did not enjoy imagining the change," executive producer and host Arisa Cox says
After reaching Season 11 of Big Brother Canada (premiering March 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global and STACKTV), the popular reality show continues to change and shift, particularly with the decision to scrap the live feeds and replace them with Digital Dailies.
Last month it was announced that Big Brother Canada would be "moving away" from 24/7 live feeds in an effort to "evolve" the show, but not all fans were particularly happy about the change. Arisa Cox, an executive produce and the host of Big Brother Canada, recognizes that this new element is difficult for some fans to understand.
“I know it was very difficult, for specifically the live feed community,” Cox told Yahoo Canada. “I think people who watch the show, they're not experiencing the show in that level anyway, … but I think people within the live feed community did not enjoy imagining the change that this would mean for their beloved program.”
“I totally get that because, I too love live feeds, but I think a lot of that feeling … is without knowing what's coming with Digital Dailies.”
What are the new Digital Dailies for 'Big Brother Canada'?
The newly implemented Digital Dailies for Big Brother Canada will be uncut content from the house, posted on the show's website.
As Cox stressed, this won't be just "a few clips" but "hours and hours of uncut footage every week," throughout the season.
“We want it to be the strategy talks, we want it to be the drama, we want it to be all that stuff,” Cox said. “I think we're going to see this year if this is what works."
"Listen, I'm so faithful to the show and to the hard work of so many people who create the show, who love the show, who truly will do anything to make it the best it can be. All of us, the whole team I could speak for when I say that we care about the people who give us their lives and their reputations. We care about their mental health and their well-being. We also care about the well-being of our fans, and the people who work on the show as well.”
The host and executive producer added that there are "a lot of moving parts" to make Big Brother Canada happen, and as the world changes, so do elements of the show. It's not "static."
“The media landscape that we live in, including the social media landscape, is very different now than even five years ago,” Cox said. “When I was on a reality show, living on camera for a year, we had live feeds. They didn't have YouTube or Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, or Reddit, … things change.”
“I think a really good quality production is one that was able to be nimble and to follow some of those changes to make the show viable, and still amazing and still retain all of the essence of what it is that makes it a great social experiment in the first place. All that is still there. We're still choosing very different people from very different walks of life, coming together, and then adding an element of competition into it. All of that social interaction and the social politics and the psychology, all of that is still there. That to me is what makes Big Brother so special.”
What can we expect from 'Big Brother Canada' Season 11?
When it comes to the new batch of houseguests for Big Brother Canada Season 11, Cox teased that this group is ready to "give more" to succeed in this strategic game.
“We have some real gamers who really know the show,” she said. “That's always exciting to see because sometimes those people maybe aren't the most over the top. This year that's not the case.”
“I think our gamers are really big personalities. So that's exciting, when people decide they're not going to hide that they love the show or know the show. So that's kind of new and different. The people who are newer to the show, I've been already blown away by how much they want to game.”
With 11 seasons of the show under her belt, Cox highlighted that working on Big Brother Canada continues to be a thrilling experience.
“It absolutely is a dream I never knew I had before the show came along,” Cox said. “Season 1, I was just blown away by how incredible of a show this was, how many levels it operates on.”
“It's really a hard show to produce and when it's good, it's really, really good. … Here we are going into Season 11, I'm just as excited now as I was, without a doubt. … I get affected by the excitement of the houseguests going in. … It's just so thrilling and it never gets old.”
