Last people in the world to know: Big Brother casts across the globe learn about coronavirus
While the rest of the world is dealing with the onslaught of COVID-19, Germany’s Big Brother contestants have been left in the dark as their country comes to grips with major shutdown measures.
They will finally learn about the coronavirus epidemic that has caused unprecedented lockdowns across Europe on live TV.
The group of 14 men and women, who have been isolated since February 6 in a property sitting in Cologne, western Germany, are currently undergoing in the country’s 13th season of the reality TV show.
When they left for the show and officially cut themselves off, the news of the surprising virus was only just beginning to trickle into mainstream media from Wuhan, China.
All contestants have been left unaware of any of the updates concerning the virus, except for the four new housemates introduced to the show on March 6 – just three days before the country would announce its first death from coronavirus.
On the outside, the Big Brother show producers have been forced to respond to backlash concerning their decision to not update the housemates of the pandemic occurring on the outside world.
They told German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that sharing information was not part of their “blackout” restrictions and would only be lifted in rare circumstances, including family member’s illness.
Some pictures from Big Brother Germany's live coronavirus special - a few housemates have shed tears but they're generally keeping their composure. The doctor spoke to them at length and is now taking their questions #BBDE #BigBrother pic.twitter.com/CayT9HgERj
— bbspy (@bbspy) March 17, 2020
They also told reporters the show was undertaking “special hygiene measures” to protect residents from infections – They did not go into detail on what those measures were.
However, the show’s producers decided to change their tune and announced a live special episode where they would tell housemates about the worrying crisis.
The popular global reality TV franchise told German, Brazilian, Canadian and Australian contestants of the news after being cut off from their contact with the outside world.
"Big Brother will give all contestants the latest information about COVID-19 in Germany and the whole world tonight," a German spokesperson for the broadcaster Sat.1 told CNN.
"The first contestants had been cut off from the outside world in preparation for the show on February, 6th. Theoretically they could know about the virus outbreak in Wuhan/China but don't know anything about the current situation in Germany," the spokesperson added.
Brazil’s Big Brother followed a similar format of Canada’s version by pausing feeds over the weekend and updating contestants on the show of the coronavirus outbreak.
Australia is filming their own version of the show in Sydney’s North. As reported by Yahoo News, it is believed the contestants entered the house three weeks ago – a week before the virus was declared a global pandemic on March 11 and cases skyrocketed in Australia.
According to Channel 7, the cast has been updated on the situation and production is ongoing.