Brekkie Boy

I think they've been free in most countries for their first season.

Interesting report Jenn. As for the time between the evictee leaving the house and entering the studio - can I ask is the studio on the ground floor as obviously the house entrance is on the first floor (from the inside), with the "front of the house" made to look like it's the same door, but I'm guessing there is probably a flight of stairs between the two doors.

The "Hot Phone" is a feature of many Big Brother's around the world and can basically be used to throw in a twist on a slow day. I don't think it was the right way to select the first ever HoH, but I do like the idea of a Secret HoH (if selected in a more secret way) - but they really should have pushed it forward with the Secret HoH making the nominations in secret (then announced by BB, not the HoH) - and the HoH having to keep their position a secret or risk possible eviction themselves. With the HoH a secret, the two nominees would choose two players each to compete for the Veto - and the Veto Comp is simple - they each get one guess at who is the Secret HoH. The first person to correctly identify them in the diary room wins the Veto. And here is the consequence for the HoH - if the Veto is used the Veto winner has two options - let the HoH nominate the replacement as usual, or choose the Secret HoH as the replacement nominee. Another way to have done it would have been to have the viewers be the Secret HoH. So the viewers basically choose the first two nominees - and the housemates spend all week trying to figure out who amongst them is the Secret HoH when in fact none of them are.

A simple idea for a change to the Veto which requires zero effort on producers part and keeps it to six players - only those that play in the Veto Comp can be named as replacement nominees. For it to work they'd need to go back to the HoH and nominees picking (or perhaps the nominees picking then HoH choosing one at random) - and this twist makes backdooring impossible and the choice of who to play in the Veto all the more interesting. On the one hand they'll want people who will play to save them, but on the other they wouldn't want to put their alliance members at risk.

Some caps: Front of the house: Entrance balcony: (brown door is to the diary room) Lounge: Dining Room: Diary Room (located under entrance balcony): HoH Stairs (I think), Kitchen: Bedroom: Back yard: Outdoor spa:

I wonder where they might all live.

Hopefully the extra two weeks will just mean one less fast forward episode and back to two on the final night and not more contestants. I've given up hope of there ever being any shake up to the format or even just a twist that isn't casting pace making things slightly unpredictable for a week or two.

Arisa Cox has been named as the host of BB Canada. I know it's not saying much but she seems to have much more personality than Julie Chen. http://blogs.slice.ca/big-brother-canada-host-arisa-cox/ Can't believe we're only a month or so away now from it starting.

The main yard is indoors with lighting effects to mimic day/night. I think they have said they'll be a small outdoor area as somewhere for contestants to get fresh air.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1099933/big-brother-canada-gives-fans-the-biggest-multiplatform-entertainment-experience 24/7 live feed will launch following the series premiere, accompanied by loads of social media nonsense as you expect nowadays. No word yet on if it'll be available outside of Canada.

Big Brother premieres on the 27th Feb and will air Sundays and Wednesdays at 9pm with live evictions on Thursdays at 10pm. In addition Slice will also air Big Brother: After Dark nightly from 2am to 5am - so what time will that be in the house itself? http://blogs.slice.ca/new-big-brother-and-big-brother-after-dark-details/

A video:

Some photos of the house under construction:

Sad news today with one of the housemates (Josh) leaving following the death of their brother. The producers seem to have handled it quite well - no live feed to worry about though but they took Josh out of the house last night into the Captains Quarters where he was met by producers and his parents to be informed of the news away from the cameras and then stayed with them overnight. Not surprisingly he opted not to return to the house (though there have been BB HMs in the past who've stayed after the death of family members), but he did return briefly to say goodbye to the HMs and explain why he was leaving, which again was all done off camera. As a result this weeks eviction has been cancelled (although Josh wasn't a nominee).

Notice Morty you have it down as starting Monday 18th Feb - do we know what nights of the week it will air then?

Anyone got any idea what the CBS budget for the show is. In the UK we've remodelled the house internally at least every year since 2002 although here at times they've had around £60m (so nearly $100m) to play with (for the entire show)- though it's probably around half that now. Australia's budget would be considerably smaller I imagine and they generally remodelled every other year (heck, they had the best house twist ever by having two separate houses which merged into one a few weeks in). And like the US version the German house of recent years was just on a sound stage and they even remodelled theirs mid-season one year.

Dan didn't lose because he backstabbed the diary - Dan's biggest crime was already having won a season and Ian being fairly popular amongst the jury, and having made some key moves himself without having to resort to the sort of tactics Dan used. Had it been Dan v Danielle I'm sure Dan would have won (and probably Dan v Shane too), but Dan v Ian wasn't the jury judging two players as equals. Had Dan done what he did this year as a newbie then he'd have had a better chance with the jury IMO.

It would be nice but I think going HD and redeveloping the house is a greater priority as it isn't as if the $500k isn't a big enough incentive for the houseguests to stab each other in the back anyway. I guess BB gets a summer level jackpot while Survivor and The Amazing Race get an in season level jackpot.

You're dismissing the BB fans in the rest of the country though who ultimately have a bigger influence. Here in the UK we've had winners from pretty much all part of the country and the local factor hasn't played a big part at all (incidently this years winner is from my home town - but about five years too late for me to care!). Big Brother 1 in the US "failed" because producers and channel bosses didn't really like the fact that viewers controlled it - and though there were some notable voting patterns ultimately they weren't really the cause of the problems in season one, but really just an excuse.

The logo

The Veto definately needs shaking up - I've been suggesting for years it should be linked to the jackpot. Double that to $1m, but kncok $100,000 off every time it's used, giving it a real consequence. And from the comments here sadly I suspect it's now inevitably next season will involve some returning HGs.

Hated the coaches returning and hated the reset - but since the reset it's become the best season in years IMO, though arguably as influential as the coaches have been in the whole thing, it's the originals that have been willing to flip their game every week and that may have still happened without the coaches around. Or not - we'll never know.

Now you wouldn't want people calling the show "Survivor in a House" would you! One thing I'd like them to do - and I think they might do to keep costs down and avoid the need for a jury house - is have the winner decided by the public. Evictions would be as normal, but once they get to the top 10 the Canbot reveals the twist that once down to the final two the winner will be chosen by the viewers, not by the evictees. It just adds a new dynamic and announcing it mid-season means we get to see if people change their game in order to try and appeal to the public, and I do think viewers in Canada are experienced enough with BBUSA to reward smart gameplay rather than just give the prize to Mr Popular.

So we know BB Canada will basically be following the US format but with Grodner nowhere to be seen hopefully producers will be willing to make some changes (whether small or game changing) to differentiate the first season of BB Canada from the many almost identical seasons of BBUSA we've seen before? I would stick with the basic HoH, nominations and eviction format - but it would be the Veto where I think there is an opportunity to change things, whether it's something small like going back to everyone playing - or something bigger. Maybe after Frank saving himself every other week this year a new rule where you can only be saved by the Veto once during the season would add a bit of a new dynamic, making using the Veto even more of a strategic decision and meaning that more often than not the HoH's original nominations actually mean something. I hope too they return to Food competitions rather than Have/Have Not - I'd add the twist that all HMs compete individually for their food for the week, then at the end the HoH decides whether to gamble so either the whole house eats or none of them do.

I can't see Grodner and CBS giving them the permission to broadcast it in the US and risk showing them up, so the best hope is that live feeds won't be geo-blocked and that episodes are easily available online one way or the other. Even if it's a reduced service (as little as episode recaps and perhaps live updates on nominations etc.) that would still be great - and I'm sure you have plenty of Canadian members willing to help out.