WINDHOEK
Bottom of Form
Acclaimed Africa’s biggest reality TV show, Big Brother Africa (BBA) has been cancelled.
Organisers of the reality TV show say their decision to cancel this year’s show was due to lack of sponsorship. The organisers, Africa Magic and Endemol were unable to get sponsorship for this year’s edition of the show, which would have been Season 10. Namibia’s Dillish Matheus won Season 8 in 2013.
Namibia’s first participant in the Big Brother Africa house was Stefan Ludik in 2003. Since there have been Meryl Shikwambane in Season 2 (2007); Lucille Naobes in Season 3 (2008); Edward Moongo in Season 4 (2009); Meryl against Season 5 with stars from previous editions in 2011; Jossy Joss and Bernadina in Season 6 (2011); Jessica Shikewa, Junia Cloete and Martha Namundjebo in Season 7 (2012); Dillish and Maria Nepembe in Season 8 (2013) and last in 2014 in Season 9 Luis Munana and Elioth Owoseb.
The Manager of Multichoice Ghana, Anne Sackey, confirms that they at Multichoice Ghana had received notice from MNET that this year’s edition of Big Brother Africa would not hold. She explains that MNET did not give them any reasons as why they would not be holding the Big Brother this year, but then, “she personally thinks it’s due to sponsorship constraints”.
Last year the 9th season of Big Brother Africa was postponed by a month after a devastating fire swept through the Sasani Studios complex with the blaze which caused millions of Namibian dollars of damage. Endemol Shine Africa refused to disclose the cause of the fire as the production moved to another house.
Sudden dramatic changes to South African visa regulations as well as Ebola fears last year this time also saw chosen Ghana contestants dumped from the show, followed by Sierra Leone and Rwanda as countries being eliminated as well before possible housemates from there had even entered the house.
Last year during South Africa’s Big Brother Mzansi season on the Mzansi Magic and Big Brother channels, a male contestant was removed after hitting a woman in the show, which M-Net called “an isolated incident”.
This April, the latest Big Brother Mzansi season exploded in controversy over alleged rape when a male contestant bragged how he “dipped her” when he allegedly had sex with a drunk and passed out female contestant who was horrified about what she was told happened.
Endemol Shine Africa removed both from the reality show competition after the alleged sexual misconduct which lead to criticism and calls for M-Net and MultiChoice to end the misogynistic and voyeuristic reality show “which keeps encouraging and rewarding” violence and sexual misconduct against women.
M-Net and the production company decided to monitor alcohol consumption more closely in the booze fest series shown across multiple channels on MultiChoice’s DStv platform.