Arisa Cox, sports reporter.
Okay, not literally.
But in her role as host of Big Brother Canada, which debuts Wednesday, Feb. 27 on Slice and Global, Cox will have to call upon some sports-reporting skills.
Think about it: Cox (pictured above) will be the one doing the exit interviews when contestants are booted from the Big Brother Canada house. It’s as if they’re athletes who have just lost the big game and have to face the media.
“That’s a perfect analogy, actually,” Cox said. “Because they’ve still got that adrenalin running through their systems.
“And a lot of times when people are evicted from the house, they didn’t see it coming. For a viewer, those are the best evictions, for sure. But a lot of the contestants are really blindsided when it happens.
“So just like an athlete, they’re coming out of this extremely stressful situation. They’re already so overwhelmed from being in this surreal life experience, and then they pop out, and there’s a huge live studio audience, and cameras, and I’m there.”
That’s when Cox will have to be at her best, gauging what approach to take to get the most out of her interview subjects.
“There are millions of things going through their heads, but it’s a really good time to get at some of the meat of the drama that has happened in the house,” Cox said. “So I’m really excited to do those exit interviews.”
Cox described the Big Brother Canada hosting gig as the “perfect job” for her. It gives her an opportunity to call upon many of the things she has learned through her career, both on-camera and behind the scenes.
“I think having come from a reality-show background myself (Cox was a house-guest in the first season of Canadian reality show The Lofters back in 2001), and before that journalism, I feel that you have to come at this with a fair amount of levity, because it is, of course, entertainment,” Cox said. “But at the same time, you do have to bring a certain amount of gravitas to it, because it is serious for the people in the house.
“I think what I’m bringing to the table is a certain amount of empathy. Sympathy is not the right word, because I don’t feel sorry for anyone on this show. They’ve all volunteered with their eyes wide open, the (U.S. version) has been on TV, they know what they’re getting into. But that said, the second they’re in that house, and the applause has died down, and there’s nothing to do but talk and be with other people and interact, it becomes really real and a little bit scary.
“So I definitely have empathy for the people and what they’re going to be going through, because audience members get the wrong idea that it’s easy. It’s a hard, hard thing these guys are going to do.”
As hard as trying to win the Stanley Cup or the Grey Cup or the Super Bowl or the World Series?
Well, the reporting side of it is very similar. But at least Big Brother Canada host Arisa Cox won’t have to venture into a sweaty locker room.
* Want to know who the Big Brother Canada contestants are? Click here. *
Bill.harris@sunmedia.ca
@billharris_tv
