Anyone who's become mildly obsessed with the guilty pleasure that is Big Brother Canada knows that being a fan of the show comes with certain risks, none of which is more annoying than how easy it is to hear spoilers week in and week out.
The spoilers come from the show's free live feeds that expose the house guests' every move almost 24 hours a day. When the show premiered last month, I decided not to watch the feeds. I mean, really who has time to watch twelve strangers around the clock?
Well, as it turns out, a lot of people. Over the past couple of weeks, countless websites and Twitter accounts that document the feeds have popped up.
Meaning, if you're like me and want to wait and watch the show when it airs on Slice, the online world of Big Brother Canada becomes a landmine of spoilers, something that can quickly ruin your love of the reality show. Because competitions like HoH, PoV and the nominations usually happen three or four days before they actually air on Slice, simply Googling the show or one of its house guests can result in massive spoilers.
Of course, sites that have reality show spoilers are nothing new. Survivor Sucks and Reality Steve have been trying to spoil shows like Survivor and The Bachelor for years. But with those sites, you never really know if the information they have is accurate or not. But Big Brother Canada is different. That's because the spoilers are happening in real time. So although the producers block out the competitions until they air on Slice, you only have to watch to the feeds for a few moments to find out who wins what or who nominated whom.
LOOK: The cast of Big Brother Canada
Story continues after slideshow
"Big Brother Canada" Season 1 Cast
XOXO Jes, who runs Big Brother Canada Updates, defends sites like hers.
"Because the live feeds are freely available to anyone, in reality your Aunt Joan could ruin it with a single Facebook post," she told me in an e-mail.
"If you really want to not have any kind of spoiler, I suggest you stay off the Internet."
Admittedly, sometimes it's my fault -- I have a hard time dealing with suspense. That's why I try to watch shows like Survivor or even The Walking Dead live. Because if I'm given the option, I'll always fast forward to find out what happens. Yes, I'm a very weak-willed man. If for some reason I miss one of my favourite shows, I know to stay off Twitter for a few hours, or at least until I get around to watching it. The Big Brother Canada experience is different because the spoilers are being posted days before the show even airs and there's practically no way to protect yourself from them.
Usually producers use ironclad contracts to protect the secrecy of their shows. Anyone who's ever been on or involved with a reality show, knows that the contract you have to sign is longer than a US Supreme Court hearing. Last summer, I taped something for a popular Canadian reality show and I've been sworn to secrecy until it airs this June. It is literally the longest secret I've ever kept in my life (Well, second longest). Since these BBCan fans don't have to sign a contract, it only takes one person to post the results online and ruin the show for the rest of us.
So far, the live feeds don't seem to be affecting the ratings of Big Brother Canada. After a record-breaking debut, the show regularly pulls in more than 350,000 viewers -- an impressive number, especially considering the show is on a specialty network. Actually, assuming Big Brother Canada will be renewed, I wonder if the execs are Shaw have already started wondering if the second season should air on Global.
At this point, I've decided that the spoilers aren't enough to get me to stop watching Big Brother Canada; I mean, I don't think I could ever not watch the antics of Gary Glitter or AJ's eyebrows. But as we get closer to the finale and the house guests really start turning on each other, I might find myself turning into the live feeds, because as I've said before, I'm a very weak-willed man.