It was an instant hit that got millions of viewers punching the air in ecstatic romance with reality television. By the time the first season ended, all the housemates of Big Brother Africa (BBA) had become household names across the continent.

South Africa’s sassy girl, Abergail Brigette Plaatjes, popularly known as ‘Abby’ was in hot demand in Nigeria, starring in several Nollywood movies. Ugandan Gaetano Kagwa rose from an unknown law student to become a well-known AIDS campaigner and host of a popular television travel programme, ‘Studio 53’.

Nigerian Bayo Okoh launched his own clothing line and like Tapuwa Mhere of Zimbabwe and Warona Setshwaelo of Botswana, used the BBA exposure to his advantage. Then there was BBA’s first winner, Zambia’s Cherise Makubale who became an ambassador of Goodwill, has traveled extensively around the world donating to charities and even embarked on building a Children’s Park in Lusaka.

Indeed, it was like a shot in the arm. Having seen the BBA show as a veritable platform, more candidates queued up for Big Brother 2 hoping to unleash their potentials. The first season of Big Brother Africa began on May 25th, 2003 and ended on September 7th of the same year, lasting 106 days. The second season kicked off in August 5th 2007 and lasted for 96 days. As with the first, contestants for the second were chosen from the same twelve countries: Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The winner, Richard Bezuidenhout is among other things involved in a project aimed at highlighting the plight of Albinos who are the targets of ritual killers in his native Tanzania. Uganda’s Maureen Namatovu is reportedly doing well in the fashion industry and has launched a clothing fashion line. On her part, Angola’s Tatiana Durão, has made a jump for modeling. She has created an event called ‘Music on the Catwalk’, which aims to encourage a better generation of youths, promote tourism, fashion and African Music.

Given what is an obvious success story, it is understandable that millions of viewers across Africa have been waiting with bated breath for Big Brother Africa 3 billed to kick off Sunday August 24th. While some were already doing a countdown, the show was hit by sniper fire, throwing up a totally ugly dimension with the prospect of Season 3 being aired in other African countries except Nigeria.
It all began with a petition sent June this year to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and containing damaging allegations regarding the BBA reality show. The complainant had asked that BBA be yanked off the screen in Nigeria, citing in particular an incident involving two housemates in last year’s show. In fact, the petitioner claimed there was an incident of rape and other lewd conducts while the show lasted.

Nine months after the second season ended, accounts vary of what exactly happened between the eventual winner Richard and the girl who emerged second, Nigerian Ofunneka Molokwu in the house at Sasani Studios in Lyndhurst, Johannesburg. It is said that neither these two housemates nor any other can accurately say what happened because they all had had too much to drink that rainy afternoon.

One account has it that Richard was lying flat on his back in the middle of the bed in between two female housemates. To his right was Tatiana, the 26-year-old Angolan with whom he had already had intimate relationship on the show. To his left lay Ofunneka. Something was moving between her thighs - it looked like Richard's left hand. He seemed to be touching her private parts, and she seemed to be responding. She thrust her hips up and towards him, gripping his hand between her thighs.

It is not clear how many minutes this incident lasted but it clearly has turned into ammunition in the hands of those aiming to shot down Big Brother Africa. Producers of the show are accused of creating the environment that saw Richard attempting to take advantage of a drunken female housemate while others argue that Ofunneka was not unaware of his silly game and indeed had egged him on. To this day, the 29-year-old Medical assistant has not said that she was violated or abused in some other way. However, for being slow in responding to the situation given that it was a live programme, Electronic Media Network Limited (MNET) promptly fired the supervising producer and the producer on duty during the incident.

Corporate war
Observers of pay television enterprise in Nigeria describe the slingshots at Big Brother Africa as fallout of a simmering corporate war between competitors. The popularity of the reality series has been such that in between seasons, the Nigerian and South African versions of the show have been produced, namely Big Brother Nigeria and Big Brother South Africa. Winner of the later went home with one million rand. Indeed, the appeal was such that Multichoice competitor in Nigeria, HiTV also ventured into reality programming, creating its own show called ‘NIGERIA’. However, just when HiTV was about to open its own house, the door was slammed via an injunction from a company called Endemol accusing it of plagiarism. Endemol are the producers of Big Brother Africa.

Though some have been quick at interpreting the injunction as the hands of Esau but the voice of Jacob, Multichoice insists it has no issue with HiTV. Whatever, industry watchers see it as a case of tit for tat given that HiTV is believed to have, just before it entered the market, set the then Minister of Information against Multichoice, accusing the South African company of running a monopoly in Nigeria. The same HiTV had fought tooth and nail to cause an upset in the pay television market by acquiring rights to the English Premier League.

In spite of all the heat generated, the two operators have refused to comment on the activities of the other, just as they insist there is no bad blood whatsoever. Meanwhile, M-Net, producer of BBA has said its objectives is to produce original and entertaining programming which will cater to the preferences and tastes of a diverse African audience, According to the company’s CEO, Patricia Scholtemeyer, the object of the petition was to damage her organisation’s reputation in Nigeria. She stressed that the attractiveness of Big Brother lies in the fact that the show is live, unedited and at times controversial. This appeal she attributed to the success of the reality show and to the fact that to date, it has been produced in more than 70 countries. However, Scholtemeyer added that her organisation is always aware of the possible sensitivity around the content of a reality programme and this has made it imperative to put in place stringent measures to protect sensitive adult viewers and children.

Season 3
Producers of Big Brother Africa point to the popularity of the series as the primary reason for the decision to produce a third season of BBA. Insisting that the behaviour of housemates is not within the control of M-Net, Scholtemeyer explained: “To attempt to control housemates behaviour would be incongruent with the reality genre and would interfere with the format and integrity of the show. However, M-Net acknowledges its responsibility to the housemates while they are in the house.”
Sunday Sun gathered that while participation in Big Brother is entirely voluntary, housemates are well briefed regarding their participation.

They are made aware that their actions and conduct may impact on those outside the house and are advised to speak and act accordingly. In particular, there is a set of house rules with which housemates undertake to comply and consequences for non-compliance.
It was further gathered that as a part of more stringent rules, M-Net has decided to limit the supply of alcohol to housemates during Big Brother Africa 3. In addition, there is a strict set of guidelines for producers of the series on how to deal with issues of nudity, sex, politics and religion. Shower hour will not be aired in the morning. Viewers who wish to know how many times housemates have their bath in a given day will be able to do so only after 23hoo CAT. Though Multichoice already enables its subscribers with technology to block certain content, M-Net explains that the new measures are additional precautions.

Nigerian viewers
Statistics from BBA2 show that Nigeria accounted for second highest audience on the website as well as accounting for second highest number of text messages. Viewers in Nigeria accounted for third highest voting figures just as they are in the top three countries that requested for video downloads. It is this statistics that M-Net holds on to in saying it does not impose unpopular programming on viewers, rather it seeks to be responsive to viewers preferences.

Reacting to the suggestion made in the complaint to NBC that BBA 3 should be transmitted to the rest of Africa excluding Nigeria, Collins Khumalo, managing Director of Multichoice Nigeria explained that Multichoice is not involved in the production of programmes or channels. “The channels on the DSTV service are pre-packaged and are carried on the DSTV service in their complete and unaltered form. He pointed out that DSTV contains over 60 video channels that provide a variety of entertainment to suit different preferences and that subscribers choose programmes they wish to view or listen to, as they will not past with their hard-earned cash to subscribe to a service they do not want.

To block access to the Big Brother channel, Khumalo said that Multichoice would have to acquire additional satellite transponder capacity which is not automatically available, to say of the huge financial implications. Describing the suggestion as contained in the letter to NBC, as using a bazooka to swat a fly, the Multichoice MD said the desired objective can be achieved without infringing on freedom of expression or denying the majority of viewers simply by using the parental control mechanism or the channel block system that allows the subscriber to block and unblock particular channels.

Though no Nigerian has yet won the BBA contest, they have always stood out as excellent ambassadors for their country. After BBA2, the information minister, John Odey, congratulated Ofunneka for the high moral characteristics and intelligence she displayed in the house. Similarly, chairman of the House Committee on information Dino Melaye, together with the committee members for being a worthy Nigerian and African ambassador.