Big Brother Africa is so far the biggest reality show in Africa. The competition brings together countries from various parts of the continent with Kenya being amongst them. Participating countries includes:
Angola
Botswana
Ethiopia
Ghana
Kenya
Liberia
Malawi
Mozambique
Namibia
Nigeria
Sierra Leone
South Africa
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Nigeria
The show which first started way back in 2003 and has run 8 successful seasonal series with the latest being The Chase. But history is telling quite a story,who really have been winning this game,Kenya is yet to win with Prezzo being the only Kenyan contestant who came closest to Winning the $300,000 grand prize this was the stargame series,he came close at number two loosing it to South Africa’s Kigen. Kenya have been sending contestants to the game all through the series but none has ever won begging the question as to why we can’t make it. History also tells that most of the countries who keeps winning are either from west or South Africa. Could we be doing something wrong? Here are the possible fault lines:
•Voting criteria
Initially votes were manually summed up from the voting countries but this has since changed. All the participating countries(14) cast their votes to save the contestant up for eviction,each participating country count as one vote,the non participating makes the 15th vote. Now here lies the discrepancy, West Africa makes the largest population of the participating countries making their voting magnitude immense. The western countries have been accused to being in their own alliance making the block unbeatable,when put up for eviction they will end up saved,when it gets to the finals they will vote for their own.
Kenya and the East Africa countries in their alliance doesn’t stand a chance so as long as the differences shall be in existence then Kenya will have to wait a bit longer to lay hands on the millions.
•The Celeb factor as compared to entertainers.
Lets make it clear BBA is a game where you are put up with strangers and left,people expect to be entertained in order to be glued to the screens. Key word “entertainer” this one value one needs to have to be likeable by all across board. Prezzo again is seen as the only Kenya contestant who gave Africa the entertainment value,matter of fact he was the most liked and brought drama into the house,the star game is put as the most entertaining series in the game ever. Critics say that Kenya is obsessed with taking in contestants with the celeb value more as compared to entertainers. One of the highly criticised is one Huddah who unfortunately got the boot barely one week into the game. As other countries takes in entertainers more as compared to celebs,take a look at Uganda’s Gaetano,Nigerians’ Karen they weren’t much popular prior to BBA but they brought in the much desired entertainment value making them likeable.
•Game Tactics
The core lies on voting,having known the criteria of voting from above it’s obvious a strategic plan must be drawn to perfectly beat it while at it. Voting is mainly done via SMS,wap and internet. Mobilization for people to vote is the backbone and the giant within. Most of the well participating countries have a major forums especially on social networks built specifically to drum up support for their preferred countries,there is a group on Facebook with over 200,000 followers “westerners on bba” here they decide on one participant each week put up for eviction and mobilize for voting,it keeps working all the time,Kenya or East Africa lacks such a forum.
With such glaring failures points,it’s also worthy to point out possible breakthroughs into the matter. The East Africa like the other block should form an indomitable alliance to curb the western menace,like they say,if you can’t beat the,you join them. With the alliance,we can drum up well for one of our own.
Send in entertainers more as compared to celebs. We have learnt the hard way,taking in people with the celebs factor,lets take in individuals with entertainment value to get to the major heights in the game. Embark on a serious social networks mobilization.
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