Months ago, I wrote about how Big Brother Canada didn’t suck, though it probably should have (hold up: we never discussed the finale: I’m still not over it. Planned or not (I genuinely don’t believe it was), that was GREAT TV). Now that news about some cast members of the current season of Big Brother making racist and homophobic comments has made headlines, this is what the matriarch of the franchise can learn from it’s youngest member.
Big Brother Canada wasn’t perfect. Of course not. Having Arisa Cox and her limp wrist as the host didn’t allow for that. But when it worked, it was absolute magic and remains the best season of the show I’ve seen in years (I have a life and have no interest in Big Brother UK). The original Big Brother reins supreme (right now), of course. It has The Chenbot, what more do you need? But here is where Big Brother Canada worked, and here is where I’m going to brag about how awesome we Canadians are: everyone got along and were nice. So nice that even when they would fight, they made up hours after. That didn’t mean the show lacked drama, it didn’t. That didn’t mean some contestants weren’t idiots. they were (that time Tala picked up the piece of mud thinking it was the torso? #neverforget). But as a whole, for a show coming from a genre that is rooted in mean-spiritedness – it was a really nice show. Never boring, never not entertaining but almost always nice, and thanks to Glitter Gary, always inspiring. Seriously – remember how moved Alec was by Gary’s speech at the finale? And how much Canada liked Gary; enough to vote him BACK into the house? Do you think the same would happen on Big Brother? I want to say yes but unfortunately Aaryn (WHAT is this name?), not everyone “loves the queers”.
The reason we love Big Brother is because it’s a really stupid, really entertaining, really fun show. The ignorance that happens on the live feeds is nothing new. It’s expected. This is reality. As much as the producers get in the way of the natural flow of the show, ignorance is still very real and you can’t edit it out – no matter how hard you try. But you can try to be more inclusive. On Big Brother Canada, 7 members were, in some shape or form, a minority. 7! SEVEN! That’s a big deal because in typical Big Brother fashion, they filled their minority quota this year with the standard – 2 black people, 1 asian and 1 homosexual. Hmmm, maybe if you included more than a handful of minorities CBS, this ignorance would happen less.
The thing is this wont change. Because this is CBS. This is the network where The Big Bang Theory and NCIS are it’s top rated shows. White people LOVE CBS. Now, while we may have had to put up with Arisa, at least we were nice and inclusive. Hey CBS, your ignorance is showing.
