3rd time's a charm? Big Brother Canada set for TV return

3rd time's a charm? Big Brother Canada set for TV return

The Social co-host Andrea Bain to host the upcoming CTV series

Get ready for a new round of evictions: Big Brother Canada is back for a third time, with a new run slated to debut on CTV and Crave.

The fan favourite reality competition will start production anew next spring in Montreal, with casting details to be announced at a later date, Bell Media said during its upfront announcements in Toronto this week.

The network will also air the long-running U.S. incarnation of Big Brother starting in summer 2027.

With a nod to George Orwell's classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the reality series concept unites a group of contestants — dubbed houseguests — in a custom-built home where they're under constant audio and video surveillance, cut off from the outside world and must compete for cash.

Competitors navigate social conflicts and shifting relationships with people of different backgrounds and beliefs, as they each attempt to avoid eviction from the house and elimination from the game.

Tapped with hosting the Canadian revival is lifestyle host and entertainment journalist Andrea Bain, currently co-host of CTV's daytime gabfest The Social and formerly of CBC daytime talk show The Goods.

"If you've watched me over the years, you know how much I love reality television, big personalities, unexpected twists and unforgettable moments. So to now be part of a franchise that has delivered all of that for decades is truly a dream come true," she posted on social media Thursday.

"Excuse me while I scream into a pillow and happy dance around my condo."

Bell's deal includes the show's back catalogue of 12 earlier seasons, which fans can binge on Crave, alongside French-language version Big Brother Célébrités.

Since debuting in the Netherlands in the late 1990s, a long list of Big Brother adaptations have aired in dozens of countries, finding success from Brazil to the U.K., India to Australia.

Shaw Media and Corus Entertainment debuted a Canadian version on Slice, a digital offering, in 2013 before moving the popular series to main network Global two years later.

It was hosted by broadcaster and entertainment journalist Arisa Cox, herself a veteran of the early 2000s reality docu-series U8TV: The Lofters, which followed young Canadians living and working together in a Toronto loft for a year.

When Big Brother Canada was placed on hiatus after its fifth season, fan outcry quickly helped land it a sixth season. A fresh uproar arose when Global announced its cancellation in June 2024.

"We look forward to delivering Canadian audiences more of the eventful and unforgettable competitive social gameplay they love," Justin Stockman, Bell Media's vice-president of global content, said in a statement Thursday.

Based in Toronto, Jessica Wong covers Canadian education stories for CBC News. In a past life, she covered national and international arts and entertainment news. You can reach her at jessica.wong@cbc.ca.