BLOOMFIELD, P.E.I. — Big Brother Canada has gained mass of new of followers and it’s all because of Vanessa Clements.
Clements, a 26-year-old lobster fisherman from Mill River, P.E.I., made it onto the show Wednesday night and proudly declared to her 15 fellow houseguest that she is from Prince Edward Island.
That’s significant considering this is the eighth season of the reality television show and she’s the first competitor from P.E.I.
Clements is the only house guest from east of Montreal this season.
Clements parents, Blair and Cindy, organized a watch party for the season’s premiere Wednesday night at St. Anthony’s Legion in Bloomfield, attracting about 60 viewers, some of whom let out a cheer when the house guest from P.E.I. appeared on the TV screens.
There were posters and a message board for supporters to sign. It will be given to Vanessa when she returns from the show. There were also special concoctions prepared just to mark the occasion.
Among the new followers of the show who took in the watch party were Emily Ramsay and Mike MacLean.
“I’m going to watch it this year,” Ramsay declared. “East Coast is on it this year.”
MacLean confessed he knew nothing about Big Brother Canada until Clements made it onto the show. Now he’s hooked, thinking she will do well.
“She’s a live wire, for sure.”
Previous to last year, Blair Clements said he’d catch glimpses of the show while Vanessa watched it.
He and Cindy became loyal followers last year once Vanessa displayed interest in auditioning. They last saw their daughter in person on Feb. 20 when she left for Toronto to prepare for the start of Season Eight.
“We got one message from her, something she wanted us to do for her,” Blair said. It was relayed via a liaison for the houseguests.
Cindy inquired how Vanessa was doing.
“She said she’s doing amazing.”
Cindy expressed surprise over the amount of people who are only now finding out about the show. Many, she said, are planning on keeping close tabs on this season to see how the lone Atlantic Canadian does.
Prior to the first show, viewers had the opportunity to vote for the house guest they wanted to be kept safe from Week 1 eviction.
Only the four with the fewest votes were revealed and the watch party crowd was able to relax. Clement was not among the four who had to compete to stay in the show. Once the field got narrowed down to two during Thursday’s show, one houseguest opted to self-evict, thereby reducing the number of houseguests to 15 without a house vote.
One of the elements of the show is a have-not room where the houseguests banished there have the same food to eat for a week. The Clementses don’t anticipate that will be a big challenge for their daughter.
“If it happened week after week, it might get to her,” Blair suspected, “but I think she could handle it for a while.”
The season runs for 12 weeks, airing on Global on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday nights. There are also live feeds where the show’s followers can keep tabs on the houseguests around the clock.
