The maiden edition of the Big Brother Titans reality show, which began on January 15, has ended with a South African Journalist, Khosi Twala winning the grand prize of $100, 000.
Khosi was crowned winner during the grand finale of the show on Sunday, April 2, 2023. The show, which lasted for 72 days, commenced with 20 housemates from Nigeria and South Africa after which four others were introduced a week later.
The six finalists who competed for the grand prize were Khosi, Kanaga Jnr, Tsatsii, Yvonne, Ebubu and Ipeleng.
On the course of the show, there were relationships formed and broken, intense networking, fights, tears, heartbreaks, dollars won, amidst highly competitive games for 11 weeks of evictions.
Unlike Big Brother Naija which was the most trending television show across the entire country, BBtitans failed to bring such enthusiasm.
This could be because many Nigerian youths focused on the Presidential and Governorship elections which were held on February 25 2023 and March 18 2023, respectively.
Nigerian youths made up the bulk of new voters in the 2023 elections.
Fans of the show had even attributed the election as one reason a Nigerian failed to win the season 1 edition, especially as they are known to showcase excellence at Big Brother reality shows.
DAILY POST highlights other factors that failed to build up excitement among Nigerians
Culture
Fans of the show expected a special fusion of Big Brother Naija and Big Brother Mzansi, especially as Nigerians have had ugly past experiences with the recent xenophobic attacks on some citizens residing in South Africa. Fans expected a display of both cultures during activities in the house but could notice that the housemates struggled to adapt to each other’s culture.
Although the pairing of housemates from both countries forced housemates to relate with each other, some viewers of the show were on some occasions offended by statements the housemate had made about their food, personality and culture.
Voting pattern
Some fans of the show berated the organizers for changing the voting patterns and not showing the voting percentage weekly.
At the beginning of the show, viewers were shown the voting percentage of how their favourites performed at the polls and how the housemates who were evicted performed. This way, viewers could form alliances and predict how best to vote the next week in order to keep their favorites in the show.
However, four weeks to the end of the show, the organizers changed and stopped showing the percentages. This made viewers lose faith, as some were upset that despite putting in effort their favorite was voted out.
Also, the poll which was meant to show how Khosi was voted winner was not shown last Sunday. The organizers only announced the winner and runner-up without showing the full chart. This is the first time such a thing has happened, especially during the finale.
Saturday Night Party
Another reason viewers could have lost interest in the show could be because they did not enjoy the Saturday night party which promised to be entertaining and keep them glued to their screen.
An interesting and diverse mix of Amapiano versus Afrobeats, Zulu dance versus leg work which was meant to thrill and captivate the audience, did not live up to expectation.
The first Saturday night party, which was supposed to make viewers anticipate a more beautiful experience every Saturday, was short-lived as viewers called out DJ Deep London over his poor performance during the party.
He was accused of making the party boring and playing only South African songs that neither thrilled the housemates nor the viewers. Although other DJs who performed after him did better, the first impression could have sent a message to the viewers.
Location
Some viewers of the show opined that the maiden edition being held in South Africa was a way to boost BBMzansi which they claimed did not get the buzz as BBNaija. Although it is uncertain if there will be a new season of BBMzansi and BBNaija, some have said that BBTitans showcased more of South African culture than Nigeria.
They claimed that the organizers used Nigerians to boost BBMzansi which started because it failed to thrill their entertainment industry as BBNaija does in Nigeria.
Here are some comments DAILY POST gathered;
@lollypeezle, “Big Brother killed Big Brother by itself. You can’t run that kind of show when you just ended one. You can’t run it at a time when people are busy with one other thing that matters most, election. Like “let’s do it, dem no get sense, dem go watch am.”
@Bimbola25, “They added the naija angle to boost the viewership for the South African big brother, that is why I stated that the winner would most likely be a South African a few days to the finale even though I didn’t watch it. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the viewership they were expecting.”
@theAdeolu, “I think the show was majorly for South Africans because it’s not Big Brother 9ja, it’s Big Brother Titans. They just use Nigerians because they wanted to pull a crowd, I guess it didn’t really work though.”
@iamthommie, “The opening ceremony, location and other factors also show more of a “South African show” and Nigerians hate being used.”
@queen_Ozioma_, “The show was mostly watched by South Africans this time. Only few people in Nigeria showed interest, that’s why it never banged here.”
Skin goddess, “A South African was bound to win though, you think they will allow a Nigerian win on their soil. They just needed us for visibility and trends and I am happy we served them better breakfast on that.”
@Sabiradio, “If it wasn’t that evictions were happening in pairs, there may not even have been up to 2 Nigerians in the finale. The elections distracted Nigerians and there’re no regrets. The stakes were high. We hope the Nigerian housemates understand.”
