Producers Have Kept Coronavirus A Secret From The Cast Of Big Brother Germany Since Feb 6

The cast of Big Brother Germany is not aware of the growing Coronavirus crisis and will find out on-air tonight

Some people may be in denial about the global spread of coronavirus, but one group of individuals in Germany don’t even know it’s happening. The cast of Big Brother Germany have been living in the reality show house since February where producers have kept them in the dark about the COVID-19 crisis, but now after pressure from the fans, the show is finally going to tell the cast — on air — what is actually going down outside their reality show bunker.

Some contestants have been in the Big Brother house in Cologne, Germany since February 6, when the Coronavirus was mostly contained to China and the World Health Organization hadn’t even named it COVID-19 yet. A few cast members were added to the show later, but show producers told them not to mention the crisis to the original housemates, so they didn’t, and the cast continued on — blissfully unaware of the global pandemic.

Variety reports that German broadcaster Sat.1 has decided to tell the cast about the pandemic and that episode will air later today. The show’s host, Jochen Schropp, and Big Brother physician Andreas Kaniewski will inform the contestants who will be allowed to ask questions and receive video messages from relatives.

Big Brother famously upholds an “information blackout” stipulation during all seasons of the show, meaning the cast are kept in the dark about the events of the outside world and it’s only broken to let a cast member know about say, a family illness. To put it mildly, a global pandemic is uncharted territory for the reality series.

Many on social media are concerned how the cast will react to the news and think it’s cruel to televise their immediate reactions.

The Big Brother Canada show is facing similar issues. That show launched two weeks ago and the contestants have relatively updated information about the coronavirus crisis, however, on Big Brother when a participant is “evicted” from the house, they do so in front of a live studio audience, but with the pandemic, the show has scraped the “live-studio audience.” In a leaked clip from the show, one Canadian Big Brother cast member pointed out the eeriness of the empty set saying, “we’re living on a set, it’s not a house, we’re like little doll people” before a producer’s voice comes over the megaphoning asking them to “please stop talking.”

The world has bigger fish to fry, obviously, but it’s wild that a Truman Show-esque series continues to naively prattle onwards despite the global pandemic happening just outside their studio walls.

Information about COVID-19 is rapidly changing, and Scary Mommy is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. With news being updated so frequently, some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For this reason, we are encouraging readers to use online resources from local public health departments, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization to remain as informed as possible.