The most boring, expensive BBA The ex-housemates who stirred up things in Big Brother Hotshots
The ex-housemates who stirred up things in Big Brother Hotshots

The ex-housemates who stirred up things in Big Brother Hotshots

Jonathan Mbiriyamveka TV
It’s good to be back after a two-week break during which I literally became a couch potato. Yes, I was enjoying myself and the kids far away from the hullabaloo of the newsroom. But all good things come to an end and yours truly is back and in one piece. Trust me, I had all the time to watch almost every channel including ZBCTV. By the way, I came across an email from a reader who said these days there was no need to subscribe to DStv since ZBCTV had all the drama and action.

Not sure of what he meant I thought there must have been something that the national broadcaster was getting right this time around. How I wish I knew what it was, could it be the news, current affairs or live coverage, I wonder.

Sadly, I wish I could say the same with this year’s edition of Big Brother Hotshots.

But unfortunately this has been the most boring and expensive series to date.

Imagine the misfortune that happened days before the launch of the show when fire gutted the Big Brother house in South Africa.

Obviously after flying every housemate to South Africa ahead of the launch, producers Endemol South Africa could have done the honourable thing and postpone the show to next year but they did not do so.

But due to reasons best known to themselves they went ahead with the show oblivious of the fact that the reality series was doomed to fail. Instead of running for the full 93 days the show was cut to just 63 days during which time a winner will be an- nounced.

However, having decided to go ahead with the show, they also ran into several pitfalls including paying rentals for housemates who were doing nothing while producers looked for a new house.

Can you imagine the costs of the equipment and shifting of stuff from the old house to the new house. If you look closely during Sunday Eviction Shows, there is hardly enough space for live performances while the camera work is poor and perhaps this is why they never boast of how many cameras they have in the house like they used to in the previous editions.

Then there was the issue of confidentially whereby Big Brother kept the identity of housemates “a closely guarded secret” but this too did not work because eventually the media would leak their respective country representatives.

Naturally, Big Brother is a reality show that thrives on twists and surprises but when a secret becomes public knowledge then it kills the vibe.

I felt sorry for Big Brother because he could not keep the secret for long and was forced to reveal the housemates at least days before the launch. That was something unheard of in the history of Big Brother Africa.

And again like the last time when Big Brother introduced the Barnyard concept for one of the editions.

The concept saw evicted housemates being thrown into the Barnyard where they would plan, plot and re-strategise, against the other housemates as they would follow the action on tele- vision.

I used to think that was the dumbest twist ever until this season when Big Brother brought in housemates from previous seasons to “cause confusion” in the house.

And like mercenaries, the ex-housemates executed their duties with zest. We saw IK, the host, introducing the returning housemates one by one.

The “match-ups” were: Idris vs Feza from BBA: The Chase; Macky2 vs Sulu from BBA: the Chase; Goitse & Sheillah vs Miss P from BBA Amplified; Sipe vs Natasha from BBA: The Chase; Tayo vs Uti from BBA 3 & All Stars; JJ & Butterphly vs Vimbai from BBA Amplified; M’am Bea vs Elikem from BBA: The Chase; Ellah vs Denzel from BBA: The Chase; Trezagah vs Leonel from BBA Revolution and Nhlanhla vs Luclay from BBA Amplified.

The returning housemates were back in front of the Big Brother cameras for one week but since the viewers already knew about the twist there wasn’t much to write home about.

By the way some of the ex-housemates surprisingly forgot to “cause confusion” and instead were now interested in knowing the hotshots up close and personal.

For instance, Feza did not do well with Macky 2 and so was Uti, he didn’t deliver anything. And still on Uti, I don’t think any Hotshot took Biggie seriously when they saw him in the house.

Frankly speaking, Uti is a past winner of the show and for him to return for the third time it was unbelievable if not foolish.

I thought Melvin would have been better and for some reason Tayo’s tantrums at Miss P were foolish. Tayo went over the top, ranting and raving and viewers thought he would lose his mind but alas he didn’t. This proved that Tayo was acting up for the cameras.

Sulu also blew his cover by being too loud in the house something which was different from his first appearance while Denzel was a bit mature.

Elikem didn’t do much either and you could tell he was aware that Pokello was watching him 24 hours. He even lied through his teeth that this time it was about the “money” and not “clothes”.

There was nothing amusing about the ex-housemates and, in fact, it was an anti-climax to the Hotshot season. Imagine, having evicted almost 14 hotshots and 10 ex-housemates returning just three weeks before the finale who does that? Poor Biggie!

Until next week remember this is television and it is real.

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