Corus Entertainment confirmed Thursday that Big Brother Canada will not be returning for a 13th season.
“Today as we say goodbye to the beloved series,” began Corus Entertainement co-Chair Troy Reeb in a statement. “We celebrate the great success and impact Big Brother Canada has had in our country and in the Canadian media landscape for over a decade.” Corus also praised the reality show for “always prioritizing the rich diversity of Canada in front of and behind the camera.”
The decision to end the series clearly was reached well before Corus’s upfront to advertisers in early June. When I spoke to Reeb on Upfront Day, and mentioned that Big Brother Canada was missing from the published 2024-25 schedule, he admitted that the series’ future was in doubt. Ratings for the past two seasons showed that Canadians were not watching the series at levels obtained in the past — and this is an expensive series to produce.
Fans of the series have noted on line that elements of the Big Brother Canada house have already been dismantled.
The fact is: TV shows do not last forever. Twelve seasons is nothing to sniff at. We also live in an age that old TV shows never die — they just get re-booted. Big Brother Canada could rise again, but let the house be taken off the market, fumigated and de-bugged. Rest it for a few years and viewers might clamour to move in again.
