Who’s watching Big Brother?
Not only is George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 seeing a resurgence in popularity, but TV’s Big Brother franchise is back on screens as well. The Canadian version of the CBS reality show will return for a fifth season March 15 on Global, and will air 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. On Thursdays, following the eviction episode, fans can ask their 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.
As always, the Big Brother franchise sequesters a group of strangers in a house filled with cameras and microphones, tracking their every move as they complete challenges and compete for a cash prize.
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
From Blues Brothers to Workin’ Moms. Dan Aykroyd will guest star on CBC’s first-year 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.
Also in the instalment, Anne (Dani Kind) tries to connect with her preteen daughter, and Jenny (Jessalyn Wanlim) realizes some difficult truths about her life and relationship with Ian (Dennis Andres).
“Almost every moment you see on the show, and I mean it, is based off of something that’s real that happened, if not to me then one of the women in our writers’ room,” Reitman recently told The Canadian Press. “It’s a pretty accurate show.”
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 and possible shape-shifter Benedict Cumberbatch will star in and executiveproduce 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. The Child In Time will be the first drama produced by Cumberbatch’s company SunnyMarch TV. It will air under the Masterpiece banner on PBS.