Big Brother Canada is back for Season 12, and what better person to get the tea from all about the latest installment than host extraordinaire herself, Arisa Cox! Reality Tea Managing Editor, Daniel Falconer, caught up with Arisa the day before the Season 12 premiere, to get all the latest on this year’s Houseguests, two mystery All-Stars, and more. Here’s everything she had to say…
Big Brother Canada’s rich history going into Season 12
Daniel Falconer: We are about to go into Season 12 of Big Brother Canada! How do you feel looking back on all of the seasons and history made by the show to date, having gotten to this point?
Arisa Cox: I am very, very proud of our show. I think people forget, especially ones that watch many Big Brothers, let alone the Commonwealth Big Brothers, but we have a very small population here. Big country, small population. So I feel like it’s a big deal for us to swing for the fences. We wanna try to really push the envelope. Otherwise, what are we doing here?
I think that’s one thing that brings us together; all the people who work on the show, all the people who try to make the show what it is. We’re all operating on 10 because we wanna push the envelope. We wanna make an impact, and I think that happens when you’re not willing to phone it in, and you wanna keep trying new things. That’s always been the case for us.
We have a great cast, and the house is beautiful. What we’ve planned for them is great; a lot of very clever twists and challenges! So, I think we have the right group of people for this and we definitely have the right All-Stars for this season too.
The Big Brother Canada Season 12 house
Daniel Falconer: We’ve been given a small glimpse of the house so far with a handful of pictures and it’s giving rich and expensive! So what else should we expect from the house?
Arisa Cox: Well rich and expensive, correct! We are making this luxurious fantasy and imagining the Hollywood Hills were here in the Rockies. So, very much Canadian, but it’s very much about our star system and recognizing that these people are playing a game in which, if they do it right, they’re gonna become famous for all of the right reasons. A very scary proposition for a lot of people.
The house is giving grown and sexy, it’s giving fantasy. One thing that’s cool about it is there are more spaces; there are more rooms than there are typically. I think that tends to elevate gameplay, especially with a particularly duplicitous cast, and I think we have that.
We have a lot of super fans. There’s less people who are like, ‘I’m just here for a good time!’ and a lot of people who are like, ‘Let’s play.’ So that’s what I love. I love that they’re gonna feel fancy in it. I feel like almost, it’s gonna be a good reminder that this is a strange game they’re playing. We never want it to feel too much like home, that they forget they’re not at home, because they’re very much inside a game, even though it’s their real life.
BBCAN lost one Houseguest before its premiere
Daniel Falconer: We did lose one Houseguest and while you can’t go into too much detail, is he doing okay?
Arisa Cox: Everyone is okay. We never want that to happen of course, especially when we release the cast, but sometimes things happen and that’s where I can leave it.
I know that Tola is very, very excited. Imagine thinking you’re an alternate and finding out you’re going in! Very happy day for him. He’s really raring to play, another super fan and a dad. Someone who brings a totally different, intense energy to the house, so I’m very excited to see what he’ll do.
Yeah, it happens. It’s a very big ask that we have for these Houseguests, and I feel like it’s harder than ever. People have to give up a lot to do it, they have to be okay with being alone in a hotel room for a long time, they have to be okay with being with a bunch of other people and never getting alone time, and then also competing, all the stress that that brings. So there’s a lot of considerations.
All I know is we want the best people to go through those doors, and if we have to make a tweak beforehand, we’d rather [do that] beforehand than afterward.
Big Brother Canada Season 12’s Mystery All-Stars
Daniel Falconer: And while you can’t reveal the All-Star identities, can you give us any hints as to who to expect?
Arisa Cox: Dan, if I asked you to put down 10 Houseguests who you’d wanna see play again, they would be on your list. Without a doubt! That’s how confident I am.
I’m very excited by who’s coming back to play because, you want that mix of unfinished business, but also people who are adept enough to be able to adapt, because they’re going into a house where people know their previous gameplay. They’re gonna know what their strengths are. Maybe one person’s known for loyalty, maybe another for chaos; maybe a bit of both!
I love that as super fans you would know you have to get them out. Any cast with one, or two, or four, or half [All-Stars], those players tend to win. Kevin Martin won our Season 5, Nicole [Franzel] won Season 18 [of Big Brother US]. Most of the time those players tend to be very competitive.
So on one hand you know you have to get them out, but on the other hand there are different ways to play it. Maybe you wanna get in with them, maybe you wanna soak up some of their knowledge and experience, then sacrifice them later, maybe they’re a great shield for you for whatever reason, or maybe they’re your enemy. There are so many ways this could play out.
How would Arisa Cox play the game of Big Brother Canada?
Daniel Falconer: Putting yourself in the shoes of these houseguests, how would you approach this game with two All-Stars in the mix?
Arisa Cox: I think I would take a page from Tim Dormer’s book. So, Tim Dormer, who won Big Brother Australia, played our game in Season 4, and he went out fourth from the end, in a very auspicious slot; a lot of icons go out in that spot.
I think part of it was that he, on one hand, seemed like he was there for a lark, but then he also offered his services as a guru in some way. Other smart players were very excited by that fact, players like Cassandra [Shahinfar] and Joel [Lefevre]. Incredibly strategic players were able to realize their games were elevated because they were able to bounce ideas off somebody who was that good.
So, I think that’s how I would play, I would be trying to make great human relationships with everybody, and at the same time, make them believe that you are really here to help them make their game as good as it can be. ‘No, I don’t want to win! Of course I couldn’t win! You might as well keep me around.’
Arisa Cox meets Rihanna
Daniel Falconer: Finally, ending on a bit of a fun one, Celebrity Big Brother is back in the UK tonight. The celebs enter the house to a song that usually hints at their character or personality; what song would you choose to enter the Big Brother house?
Arisa Cox: “Work, work, work, work, work, work / He said me haffi work, work, work, work, work!’ I think I would be in there, not that I’d be like, ‘Oh this is a business trip,’ because it would be so fun but I would feel like I would be there to do a job. But the job would be to win and have the most fun doing it.
In the Season 12 premiere, watch the drama unfold when Host Arisa Cox reveals two mystery all-stars on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at 7 p.m. ET/PT exclusively on Global and STACKTV. Then, Big Brother Canada airs Wednesday, March 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT (EVICTION) (moves to 9:30 p.m.ET/PT the following week) and Sunday, March 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT (HOH).
Stream Season 12 live and on demand with STACKTV and access past seasons on GlobalTV.com and the Global TV App.
TELL US – WILL YOU BE WATCHING BIG BROTHER CANADA SEASON 12? WHICH MYSTERY ALL-STARS DO YOU HOPE ARE PLAYING? WHICH OF THE NEWBIES ARE YOU ROOTING FOR?
