Cape Town – M-Net and Endemol Shine Africa’s Big Brother Africa on DStv has been canned for 2015 apparently due to “cash constraints” and a failure to find sponsors.
Anne Sackey, the manager of MultiChoice Ghana, spilled to Razz newspaper that M-Net told them there won’t be a new season of Big Brother Africa (BBA) this year. She thinks it is because of sponsorship constraints. “I think it’s mainly because of cash constraints as we all know the show is very expensive to put up,” Sackey reportedly told Razz. Big Brother Africa and Big Brother Mzansi, both produced for M-Net channels in South Africa by Endemol Shine Africa remain mired in controversy. Last year the 9th season of Big Brother Africa
was postponed by a month after a devastating fire swept through the
Sasani Studios
complex with the blaze which caused millions of rands of
damage. Endemol Shine Africa refused to disclose the cause of the fire
as the production moved to another house. Sudden dramatic changes
to South African visa regulations as well as Ebola fears last year this
time also saw chosen Ghana contestants dumped from the show, followed by
Sierra Leone and Rwanda as countries being eliminated as well before
possible housemates from there had even entered the house. Last year during South Africa’s Big Brother Mzansi season
on the Mzansi Magic and Big Brother channels, a male contestant was
removed after hitting a woman in the show, which M-Net called “an
isolated incident”. In April this year, the latest Big Brother Mzansi season
exploded in controversy over alleged rape when a male contestant
bragged how he “dipped her” when he allegedly had sex with a drunk and
passed out female contestant who was horrified about what she was told
happened. Endemol Shine Africa removed both from the reality show
competition after the alleged sexual misconduct which lead to criticism
and calls for M-Net and MultiChoice to end the misogynistic and
voyeuristic reality show “which keeps encouraging and rewarding”
violence and sexual misconduct against women. M-Net and the
production company decided to monitor alcohol consuption more closely in
the booze fest series shown across multiple channels on MultiChoice’s
DStv platform.
