Vanessa Obioha writes that the new season of Big Brother Naija is already setting off a celebrity culture rave, a trait that has become very synonymous with the show
Big Brother Naija returned last weekend with two sizzling launch shows: Saturday for the male housemates and Sunday for the females.
Expectedly, the show paraded an array of dashing and appealing housemates who will for the next two months battle for the grand prize of N90 million and the treasured crown of Big Brother Naija winner for the season.
Fans of the show have already settled for their favourites, campaigning aggressively on social media with hashtags, memes, and of course a fascinating name for their fan clubs. Previous seasons have seen outstanding fan club names. Cee-C’s controversial antics during the ‘Double Wahala’ season led to the birth of the Spartans.
For the 2019 winner Mercy Eke, her fans were simply known as Mercenaries. In 2020, fans pitched their tents with either Laycon — who won the season — and Erica, and the outcome was the emergence of two of the fiercest fan clubs in BBNaija history: the Icons and the Elites.
The evolution of the show has undoubtedly influenced celebrity culture in Nigeria and impacted the nature of interactions on social media.
This parasocial relationship — a term for an individual’s emotional relationship with a media personality, in this case, a TV reality character — helps build the celebrity stature of the contestants.
With the wide reach of Big Brother Naija, arguably Africa’s biggest reality TV show because of the premium entertainment it provides for viewers across the continent, individuals looking to achieve celebrity status see the platform as a quicker route to fame.
A survey conducted by Plaqad in 2019 found that Big Brother Naija is the most-watched show in Africa. Data from Keyhole and ID Africa showed that the show generated over 55 billion media impressions from July 19 to September 23, 2020, with the word ‘BBNaija’ appearing over 20 million times on Twitter alone.
In the 2017 edition of Big Brother Naija tagged ‘See Gobe’, over 170 million SMS votes were recorded in the course of the season. In 2019, the show polled over 240 million votes during the season, with 50 million of those votes in the final week alone. In 2020, that figure was almost quadrupled. The ‘Lockdown’ season attracted 900 million votes across all platforms.
With these figures, one can arguably say that Big Brother Naija has made instant celebrities out of the participants. Former housemates enjoy substantial social media followings and leverage their popularity to make something for themselves.
A good number of the housemates from the show’s inaugural season have gone on to have successful careers. A notable example is Ebuka Obi-Uchendu who currently hosts the show and is one of the biggest media personalities out of Africa and a style icon. The success stories of former housemates give young Nigerians the impetus to dream of becoming famous.
Yet, many are called, but only a few ever make it to the house; the main feature of the show where all the top-notch drama, excitement, banter and talking points take place.
Since production began in Nigeria in 2019, each season sees the house transformed. With the catchy theme ‘Shine Ya Eye’, the house is given an opulent and colourful look this season.
Now that the game has kicked off, the 22 housemates — Saga, Boma, Yerins, Liquorose, Arin, Emmanuel, JayPaul, Maria, WhiteMoney, Jackie B, Angel, Princess, Sammie, Cross, Niyi, Beatrice, Saskay, Peace, Nini, Yousef, Pere and Tega — will have to use their creativity to woo millions of viewers across the continent and the UK where viewers can watch the show via streaming service Showmax to vote for them.
Like the theme boldly indicates, they have to ‘shine their eyes’ and find out who the wildcards are by Sunday if they are to stay in the game because, at the end of the day, everyone is eyeing the coveted prize and BBNaija crown. But most importantly, getting that celebrity status.
