It’s pretty dark in here, except for the nine big monitors on the wall, each split into multiple screens and showing different parts of a fake house. The onslaught of buttons, computers and chairs facing in one direction makes you feel like you’re in a space station flight control room.
But this place isn’t owned by NASA – it’s for the people behind Big Brother Canada. And they’re always watching.
“Because we have robo-cams all over, there is literally nowhere in this house that you cannot be seen,” says Big Brother Canada showrunner Erin Brock at Toronto’s Showline Studios recently, as light from the glowing monitors bounces off her blonde hair. “There’s not one place. We have tested it. We’ve had people in there. There’s absolutely nowhere you can be that we can’t see you. I know that sounds kind of creepy.”
The reality show, which is hosted by Arisa Cox and returns for Season 3 this week, follows a group of 16 strangers living together in a house with cameras and microphones recording their every move. The houseguests vote someone out of the house each week, and after three months, the last remaining contestant gets a $100,000 prize.
The houseguests share fairly tight living arrangements – there is only one toilet for them to use, for example, unless they win the right to use a private one – and they’re not allowed to have any outside contact at all. That means no smartphones, no television, no friends and no family. And especially no games.
“Sometimes they try to make games,” says Brock. “They’ll get the tin foil and they’ll try to make little balls – and then we confiscate it.”
Big Brother first emerged as a Dutch series in the late-’90s, and has since branched off into dozens of versions across the globe. For this season of Big Brother Canada, the producers have utilized a steampunk-inspired aesthetic, with clocks and gears placed along the house walls.
“We created an environment this year that’s a bit more challenging and not as warm and welcoming,” says Brock. “We wanted to put them on their toes from the moment they walked in the house.”
The word “challenging” applies to the people behind-the-scenes as well, since the Big Brother Canada team needs to pump out 25 hours of content a week – and that’s just for television. Aside from the main show running three nights a week on Global, the team also produces two titles for Slice – a weekly after-show, and a late-night feed from the house called Big Brother: After Dark.
And starting later this week, fans can also stream free live feeds from the house at any time from the show’s official website. Last season, Big Brother Canada streamed over 46 million minutes of content online. So, if you feel like you can’t get enough of the houseguests, you can literally watch them at every moment.
“We react to the fans online constantly on this show,” says Brock, adding that the live feeds help keep the producers honest. “Since they can watch you 24/7 online, you have to tell true stories, you have to tell people’s true experiences, and you can’t make up some cagey reality thing. You don’t have that choice. You’re held accountable to the truth of the experience with those houseguests. That’s why it really is an authentic social experiment.”
The digital element plays heavily into the show’s success, as it recently won a Canadian Screen Award for best Cross-Platform Project, Nonfiction. In the past, fans have been able to affect in the game in major ways – including choosing which houseguests are up for eviction. You’ll see more of that sort of stuff this season, Brock promises.
And since fans are constantly engaging with the show, and the cameras are always running, people need to staff the master control room at all times. Brock says she doesn’t sleep much during the show’s production, and often takes calls in the middle of the night.
“I just give my life up,” she says with a laugh. “From the minute they walk in the door, it literally does not stop until that last houseguest wins. There is never a wrap. No one ever calls ‘wrap.’ You do 70 days and no one calls ‘wrap.’”
Brock says that every contestant this season is a Big Brother fanatic – people who have studied the game and are bringing strategies to win. But she knows one of them is better than the rest.
“Oh, I have my prediction,” she says, her eyes gleaming in the light of the monitors as editors and producers return from a lunch break. “But I can’t say.”
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