Big Brother adds live chats
TV’s Big Brother franchise is back. The Canadian version of the CBS reality show will return March 15 for a fifth season on Global, airing Wednesdays, Thursdays and Mondays. Arisa Cox hosts once again.
New this year is After the Eviction Live, a weekly Facebook Live chat that features Cox interviewing the evicted house guest. Following Thursday’s episode, fans can ask questions in a live conversation on the show’s Facebook page.
Season 4 of Big Brother Canada averaged nearly 1.2 million viewers per episode, according to audience measurement company Numeris, and each of the three weekly episodes regularly landed among the country’s top 20 shows.
The U.S. version of Big Brother is hosted by Julie Chen and will return for a 19th season this year.
AYKROYD GUESTS STARS ON WORKIN’ MOMS
Dan Aykroyd will guest star on CBC’s comedy Workin’ Moms, the public broadcaster has announced. In the Feb. 21 episode Phoenix Rising, the Ottawa-born actor plays the father of Kate (Catherine Reitman), a PR rep and new mother, and offers her career advice.
In addition to starring on Workin’ Moms, Reitman is the creator and executive producer, as well as a writer and director.
Aykroyd was a writer and executive producer on last year’s Ghostbusters movie and is working on an animated TV series based on his and John Belushi’s Blues Brothers sketches on Saturday Night Live.
CUMBERBATCH TO STAR IN PBS SERIES
Acclaimed actor Benedict Cumberbatch will star in and executive-produce The Child in Time, a 90-minute retelling of Ian McEwan’s 1987 novel, for PBS.
Cumberbatch will play children’s author Stephen Lewis, whose young daughter goes missing.
“I read the novel years ago and it stayed with me — profound, beautiful and very moving,” Cumberbatch said.
Writer Stephen Butchard adapted the novel for television, and Julian Farino will direct.