Reality Shows and Nigeria.

"Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors"

Many people believe reality shows started in the late nineties when actually, history recalls it to have begun in the 50's through to the 60's and onwards. However, people started taking serious notice in 1999 when Big Brother came on stream......im talking about the Western World here, then Nigeria was still jubilant over the passage of a wicked dictator. This was the start of Live Television and everyone loved it, in the US where this whole thing started, more shows like Survivor, the famed American Idol featuring Simon & Co, Tyra Bank's America's Next Top Model, Dancing with the Stars, Donald Trump's Apprentice, Temptation Island, Heidi Klum's Project Runway etc have become family favourites. 

Some other popular ones include America Sings, Dont Forget the Lyrics ,the money spinning Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Britains' Got Talent and America's Got Talent and Project Fame. These days, its a money spinning market, taking the shine off recorded TV shows. Everyone seems pretty excited to watch people on live, unrehearsed TV, no scripts, show of instincts, survival, real (or not so real) emotion, suspense, just raw action and people LOVE IT!. The principal actors in all these shows, or should i say, the most intriguing become instant superstars, no matter what role they played, what they said, how they behaved. Someone watching usually identifies with a characters on screen personality whether real or faked.

So huge is the following of the Reality Shows these days that you rarely have a TV in the world that hasnt shown an episode at least once a day. With the advent of Pay TV, that is when DSTV ameliorated Nigerians of boredom by upstaging the primitive NTA with the introduction of foriegn programmes which were laced with semi-real reality channels such as Discovery Channel that awed us with the intricacies of nature. Suddenly, in 2003, some Southern Africa firm had a bright idea, "Why dont we copy Big Brother International? Lets replace the caucasians with Blacks and see how it goes!" and by so doing, the window which today is a gapping hole was opened to the copying of "reality shows" into the African Media Market. South Africa started it, Nigeria upstaged it, howbeit badly.

Big Brother Africa did get the massive response it estimated, originally and unconsiously we witnessed a subtle battle among nations to see which is superior through the actions and in-actions of their representatives. Big Brother has become a global brand with 6 functional formats and the same rules for continents and countries such as Africa, former Yugoslav countries, Arab States, Scandinavia, the Pacific and UK, interestingly the founding Nation; US takes no part in this franchise. Africa so far has so far since its first season in 2003 has organized 4 others in 2007, 2008, 2009 and the current Big Brother All Stars. 

Nigeria also after the first success of Big Brother in 2003 joined the fray in 2006 with the first Big Brother Nigeria which also recieved a large following largely out of curiousity. A young Plateau indigene Katung Aduwak won the show.

Whats the point of all this history you already know?

Realistically, the emergence of reality shows in Nigeria has taken a new dimension, and like every other thing in Nigeria a wrong turn. Virtually all reality shows in Nigeria of prominence are direct copies of brands abroad.Companies go abroad and get the rights to reproduce the shows and the "everything-western"  loving Nigerian public just catch on mainly because the "foriegners" do it. The Nigerian public also catch on easily because we are a very competitive people, unlike the originators who think up this ideas for the purposes of catching fun. 

Remember, we live in a "Do-or-Die" society. This may have fuelled the idea for the first Nigerian version of Survivor which was supported by a Nigerian brand Gulder. Gulder Ultimate Search, a show of physical strength, play of human instinct and tact won the hearts of many youths who were eager to show their brawn, and little of brains which actually where the show was based.

Other than that, other Shows were brands copied from abroad.

Today, no reality show of importance is of Nigerian origin. Is it Idols West Africa? Idols Nigeria? Or even Port Harcourt Idol whose banner threw me off my feet in laughter at the absurdity of the Entertainment industry. Im waiting for my Area to organize "Mgbuoba Idol". Or is it Naija Sings? Project Fame? Don't forget the Lyrics? Deal or No Deal? Apprentice West Africa? Dragon's Den? The Intern?. 

Whats more interesting about these programmes is the focus on the monetary rewards in winning. This may be one of the attractions that captivate Nigerian banks who form the bulk of the sponsors of these shows and Telecoms Companies. Someone will say Nigeria is poor and that we need to use our gifts to alleviate our sufferings. Bull****. 

Another interesting discovery is the leaning to the Arts, Sports and Commercial sectors. Can you mention a "reality show" in Nigeria that doesnt deal with either Soccer, Acting or Singing? What happened to the Sciences? or any other field? Now every tom dick and harry wants to sing irrespective of the talent content or quality, and many of them fade away after the show has ended. Apart from intellect based shows (which are actually pre-recorded) like Who wants to be a Millionaire  and The Debaters, which others can we say is developmental?

Every "brand" these days wants to "encourage" talents and development through organizing "reality Shows" no matter how small. They ask you to pay money into Bank Accounts to get a form, unknown to many, these contributions form the Winning Amount. So, many dont know that by buying a form printed for N30 or less and paying N2,500, you have contributed to the amount to be taken home by the winner. In cooperatives, thats known as Esusu....go and ask someone!

I make bold to say, theres nothing real about Reality Shows, people fake thier lives on air and we love them for it. For some others, we see the true colors of personalities we adore on screen such as those in Celebrity Gulder Ultimate Search. We have copied everything possible from the western world except thier orderliness and thier progressive strides. Shamelessly, we copy things that arent real, we settle for less. Instead of heavy investments in such enterprises, wont it be better these banks focus on developmental initiatives that educate?

Big Bird, Kermit the Frog and Grouch were part of a series that educated millions through the popular Sesame Street (when NTA was worth watching). Its now rested and today we dont see educative broadcasting anymore, just junk talk about who a minister met and how the President met with his cronies to welcome another political prostitute (sorry political) jump from another party to thiers, and thats what we call news. 

Whats reality anymore? Nothing is real anymore. We dont see anything good in our nations football, so we rather pay monthly 5000 and more to have our houses hooked up to South Africa to thereon be connected to Europe to watch them play football and we turn "Die-Hard" fans of teams whose winnings or losses profit us little and even though i need only to pay N100 bucks to get to the dead Elekahia stadium....(which will never do!)

Did Tuface, Dbanj Okocha, Joke Silva, Basket Mouth or Fashola come out of Reality Shows? Did they need to have Judges tell them what they were or werent? Please dont get me wrong, its a nice idea....where it was made. But here, its not anything close to real. Artistes of the mould of Timaya and Terry G are similar to those who get kicked off the American Idol show in its opening days and are regarded as jokers. Dear readers, these guys today and in this country are expensive "jokers".

I have to go because my back aches, but a parting shot. Jennifer hudson didnt come first at the American Idol and Simon Colwell told her point blank that she wasnt good enough. Today, the young lady has featured in Oscar winning films such as Dream Girls and came out with a Best Supporting Actress Award,  a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. 

She won a grammy for her debut album that sold 1 million copies worldwide. She has performed at the Super Bowl, the American Idol (the same show that told her she wasnt good enough) and was one of the few privileged to "minister" at President Obama's inauguration. She was "not good enough" huh? Same with Project Fame and Omawumi Megbele.

Lets be real and stop decieving people. If we are to copy the whites; if we must lets do it in style. Other than that, we are an unrealistic people.