The eighth season of Big Brother Canada finally had a premiere date released in the form of March 4, and that news on its own was a friendly reminder of how much any Big Brother fans should be paying attention to Big Brother Canada.
Most international versions of the show stray far from the format that the U.S. show has used for so many years. Often the audience is given a larger amount of power in voting for who gets evicted each week, and even who wins the game in the end, rather than the houseguests themselves deciding this all. It's more of a popularity contest instead of an actual strategic game. The Canadian version does certainly let the audience have an impact once in a while, perhaps even too often in some seasons, but the U.S. version isn't fully free of that either. These two versions at least have more of the actual strategy that fans love to dissect so much week to week as they watch the live feeds. So if any of those people are only doing so with the U.S. version then they're missing out.
One thing that Big Brother Canada almost undeniably handles better is casting. This version is not as married to all of these predictable archetypes that the U.S. never gets tired of rerunning season after season. There are countless characters across the first seven seasons who were excellent in their time there, yet seem as though they would never have made it onto the U.S. version. It also tends to cast more people who were already fans of the game prior to applying for the show. Its third season was arguably filled to the brim with fans who were all playing hard from the start and none of them were simply waiting around to make the jury phase and get their stipend. Not casting people who love the game is one of the most common complaints that viewers throw at Big Brother U.S., so here's Big Brother Canada fixing that.
Of course the fact of the matter is that an ideal cast does at least have some people who are less familiar with game, because a variety of perspectives makes the game interesting. Even in that aspect Big Brother Canada still has notable successes. In its most recent season, the runner-up played an excellent under the radar, puppet master type of game despite him barely knowing the show existed prior to being recruited to play. Also worth noting that their casts barely cause any controversy for the show. Every part of casting is consistently higher quality in Canada than it is in the U.S.
This version isn't without its flaws though. The edited episodes aren't the most reliable when it comes to storytelling and twists aren't entirely absent. However, the twists Canada uses do differ from the U.S. in that the U.S. generally use ones that completely reshape the game for the worse during the first four or so weeks, but Canada never does that for longer than one week. Usually they just throw in a power to shake things up every few weeks. The frustrations with them as a fan of the game are still there, just less so. But honestly being able to whine about producer decisions is a huge part of being a Big Brother fan in the first place.
Big Brother Canada's aesthetic is also worth a mention. Look at any of the house designs that have been used over the years and anybody would be impressed. The host, Arisa Cox, always has an endless supply of excitement for the game. There's in general more love and care put into the show than in other versions. There's so much worthwhile content in the Canadian version that any fans are doing themselves a disservice if they haven't already been watching for seven years, but it's especially the case for strategy fans. Go back and watch the nearly perfect second season, or the fifth season, or just wait for this next one to start. Big Brother Canada is a flawed but wonderful treat that deserves just as much attention if not more than the U.S.