10 Thoughts On… Big Brother Canada Side Show

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

1. There is no question that the Big Brother Canada Side Show is a great idea and a great exclamation point to Canada’s most successful television franchise adaptation. While I initially thought that the chemistry between Peter Brown and Gary Levy would be lacking, their selections immediately made sense as the two bounced off each other perfectly and brought different kinds of expertise to the table.

2. There was a lot to cover in the 22-minute episode and this included a reintroduction of Gary and Peter to the viewing audience, a house tour, a video that included Peter’s breakdown of the cast, a video package update and interview with Jillian MacLaughlin and an interview with the first eliminated houseguest (Anick Gervais). I thought that this was done quite well and while the show seemed a little rushed, there was a lot to cover and this was done quite well.

3. My only major suggestion would be to have Gary, Peter, and Arisa seated on a couch. This would give the show more of an informal feel. With Arisa standing, it almost felt like she was still hosting Big Brother Canada, with Gary and Peter looking like eliminated houseguests. I believe that having all three seated on one couch and having the guests seated on another chair would allow for a more casual discussion which is exactly what the Side Show is hoping to do. I want it to resemble The Hills After-Show a little more.

4. The tricky thing about the Sideshow is that it needs to be an in-depth discussion while not revealing anything from the live feeds. That is basically the tightrope that the hosts will have to walk carefully across every week. I was thinking about this in detail and it is much harder to do than initially realized.

5. I am especially enjoying Peter’s brutal analysis. Insight Productions should be credited for allowing him to speak freely and not restraining his opinions. This allows for a great degree of authenticity in his assessments. Instead of just taking the Canadian route and being nice to everyone, Peter openly discusses who is playing well and who isn’t and this is undoubtedly the best part of the show.

6. I’d love to see Gary do a Fashion Police kind of segment where he critiques the contestants both on their day-to-day wardrobe as well as they wear in competitions. I think this would be the holy grail of awesome.

7. I honestly don’t think that the Sideshow needs to rely on houseguests from previous seasons. I prefer seeing longer interviews with the eliminated pre-jury contestants and then saving special guests for the post-jury episodes when they won’t be able to talk to jury members.

8. The bobbleheads are one of things about the new season of the show and I would love to see Peter use these on a chessboard to discuss what he thinks each player should do every week and how alliances stack up. He used the bobbleheads very effectively in his opening critique and I think they definitely can be used each week.

9. For the first show of its kind, I think all involved should be quite proud of their first effort and (as the season progresses), I am sure that the show will get even better.

10. It is my new goal to appear on the Side Show. Arisa, Gary, Peter, Trevor, and Sue… if you’re listening… I am putting it out there

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.