Big Brother Nigeria 2017 kicked off on 22 January and the fact that the second season was not filmed on location in Naija, but was filmed in the Big Brother house in South Africa has many Nigerians fuming.
According to a statement from Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Lai Mohammed, the minister of Information, says his office has been inundated with complaints from viewers over the broadcaster’s decision. These complaints have prompted an investigation into the decision to film the show outside of Nigeria, stating this could be a case of “deceitful location fraud.”
In 2006, Endemol South Africa teamed up with a Nigerian production team to produce Big Brother Nigeria. Since then Big Brother Africa has not returned to Nigeria, with the Mozambique and Angola versions using the same Johannesburg house.
The Nigerian government says it is investigating why the reality TV series Big Brother Nigeria, which was re-launched as Big Brother Naija, is being shot in Johannesburg.
The NBC Nigeria is looking into if MultiChoice has breached the Nigerian Broadcasting Code in any way. “As a country of laws, only the outcome of the investigation will determine our next line of action,” the statement says.
A statement issued by MultiChoice Nigeria says that decision was informed by the desire to deliver the same high quality production that its subscribers are accustomed to on its platforms.
“Staging the show in a Big Brother facility that already exists – and has been specially built for such purposes is not only cost-effective but has also allowed MultiChoice Nigeria to maintain the same excellent production values as with previous Big Brother editions whilst meeting tight timelines,” the company explains. The Big Brother Johannesburg house is already outfitted and technically rigged to suit the requirements of the show. The production demands uninterrupted electricity, as the cameras need to be rolling 24 hours for 11 weeks on the reality TV show.
“MultiChoice is a proud supporter and investor of local creative industries and currently has ongoing entertainment productions across the continent, including the much-loved Tinsel and upcoming AMVCAs which are filmed and produced in Nigeria and aired in several countries across Africa,” the statement concludes.
Last year’s The Voice Nigeria and The Voice Angola were also filmed in South Africa. This was to enable contestants to make use of the existing South African set used for The Voice South Africa. South Africa has long been the preferred location for international film sets. It has set the scene of northern African countries like Sierra Leone in Blood Diamond, futuristic Scotland in Doomsday, the shores of Mauritius and New Zealand in The Perfect Wave, and even the US Avengers. South African film studios and locations have been turned into science fiction worlds on planets far away; in to small American towns, European villas, and Asian streets, to list all the countries that have been staged in SA would require a page on its own. This is not reason to fume; it is simply testimony to the high standard of the film industry in SA.
