Big Brother goes pan-African

The third episode of Big Brother would be on the screens of M-net, starting from Sunday, May 25, this year. For the first time the whole of the African continent will be in the House. The Big Brother show was first held in 2001, and until this year it has been for South African housemates.

MultiChoice Ghana held a press conference in Accra last Friday to launch the 2003 Big Brother III and to inform Ghanaians that registration forms for entry into the Big Brother house would be out on 2nd February.

The Big Brother show involves a number of people who are put under one roof and have to live a normal life. The house belongs to "Big Brother" who has absolute control over the housemates. Anyone who enters the house has to be submissive to the instructions given by Big Brother.

Although people in the house have their freedoms, those freedoms have limits. Those who are found uninteresting or troublesome are evicted from the house by their own mates and votes from viewers. This continues every week until everybody is evicted and the last person to remain in the house is declared the winner by Big Brother for his/her ability to keep to the rules and instructions of the house.

In Big Brother III, dubbed Big Brother Africa, the 12 housemates would be chosen from 12 different countries in Africa with different cultural and religious backgrounds. The countries are Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and South Africa.

Entrants would go through interviewing, psychological testing and finally short-listing of housemates. Only people who are eighteen years and above who can speak English are eligible.

Big Brother Africa housemates would spend 106 days in the house without access to television, radio, telephone etc, etc. One is strictly banned from any information outside the house.

Just as in the second show, contestants would be under 27 cameras and 56 microphones running continuously to catch every moment of housemates' activities live and in full colour.

The final person after the 106 days would win a cash prize of US$100,000.

Carl Fischer, Chief Executive Officer of M-Net Local Production, is quoted as saying, "we are looking for fun-loving, outspoken, uninhibited, English-speaking personalities with a sense of humour, not perfect but real and tolerant."

"Whilst maintaining all the Big Brother hallmarks including nominations, eviction, weekly tasks, allocated allowances and diary sessions, Big Brother Africa will showcase several innovations."