Big Brother is back with a bang! The seventh season of the continent’s biggest reality show – Big Brother StarGame – blasted off on Sunday night (6 May at 20:00 CAT on DStv Channel 198) with more star power, housemates, glamour and cash up for grabs than ever before! The biggest bombshell of all? Two of the housemate pairs are already up for eviction during next Sunday’s live show!
Enthusiastic viewers across the continent tuned in to meet the seven celebrity ’Upville’ housemates and 14 pairs of ‘Downville’ housemates who will compete over 91 days for USD 300 000 in cash – with all the money going to the last housemate standing. Two new countries also join the show this year – Sierra Leone and Liberia, with the entire show refreshed by Coca Cola, of course!
Ever-dashing presenter IK was joined by a dazzling new addition to pump up the glamour of the opening show: co-host Flavia from Channel O and Uganda’s Capital FM. Together, they set the wheels in motion for a packed show which saw two stellar performances from US rapper and Grammy Award nominee J. Cole, who put his star stamp on the show early on with his hit “Work Out”.
As IK gave viewers a sneak peak inside the VIP Upville house, the @BigBroAfrica Twitter account raced well beyond the 100 000 follower mark – before the continent had even met a single housemate! With top South African DJ Miss Cosmo spinning the beats, IK welcomed the seven VIP housemates on stage – comedian DKB (Ghana), musicians and singers Prezzo (Kenya), Lady May (Namibia), Goldie (Nigeria), Mampi (Zambia) & Roki (Zimbabwe) and model Barbz (South Africa). Big personalities, one and all, the VIP housemates promised viewers loads of fun and tons of entertainment as IK introduced each of them to the continent. Once they’d all been introduced to Africa, they made their way into the Upville house and immediately set about exploring every inch of their luxurious new digs.
As they settled in, IK gave viewers a preview of the Downville house, which will be the 14 other housemate pairs’ home for the next 91 days. Stylish and fun, the ‘Downville Diner’ is going to be an awesome playground for the housemates! Then it was time for the big reveal  – and IK introduced the 14 pairs, one by one: fun-loving Esperanza & Seydou (Angola), daring sisters Edith & Eve (Botswana), ‘complicated couple’ Mildred & Keitta (Ghana), dynamic brothers Alex & Malonza (Kenya), hard-partying friends Yadel & Luke (Liberia), players and cousins Nafe & Wati (Malawi), bubbly friends Jesica & Junia (Namibia), joker buddies Ola & Chris (Nigeria), cool gal pals Dalphin & Zainab (Sierra Leone), longtime friends Lee & Keagan (South Africa), ultra-competitive lifelong friends Hilda & Julio (Tanzania), fun-loving buddies Janette & Kyle (Uganda), playful sisters Tamara & Talia (Zambia) and self-confessed drama queen siblings Maneta & Teclar (Zimbabwe) before sending them into the house.
Rap superstar J.Cole departed on a high with a dazzling rendition of “Nobody’s Perfect”, promising Africa that he’d be back to visit again soon.
Viewers and housemates alike always know to expect the unexpected from Big Brother – and StarGame promises to be no different, as IK revealed a new random nomination system – and told a stunned Downville house that nominations would begin immediately, with an eviction already looming on next Sunday’s live show.
This year, Downville housemates won’t be nominating each other. At the end of every Sunday’s live show, a disco ball filled with identical smaller balls will be summoned from the ceiling of the studio by pressing a big red button. Balls featuring the names of all the participating countries will drop into a transparent cube, which will mix them by spinning around. One random ball will be released and the housemate pair from the country whose name appears on that ball will be nominated for eviction. The process will always play out live on the show so that the continent can see which ball falls from the cube – with the process also audited by Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo, Southern Africa’s largest black accounting firm.
With the Downville housemates watching in stunned silence, the first nomination began right away – with the ball randomly dropping from the cube bearing the country name ‘Tanzania’. Hilda and Julio could only giggle nervously as they tried to take in what had just happened, when IK received a message from Big Brother that another random nomination should take place. The process was repeated – and verified again by the Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo auditor – with Zimbabwe’s ball dropping from the cube – meaning that siblings Maneta & Teclar are also in the eviction firing line.
The Downville house was filled with nervous laughter as IK and Flavia closed out the show by reminding Africa that they had the power to keep their favourite housemate in the house by voting, with lines open immediately and closing at 18:00 CAT next Sunday.
There are three ways to vote to keep your favourite housemate in Big Brother StarGame – via web, SMS or WAP.
To vote via web or WAP, go to www.africamagic.tv/bigbrother, log in, click ‘Vote’ and then click the appropriate button for the housemate you’d like to keep in the house. You may vote once per hour.
To vote via SMS, send the word VOTE followed by the housemate’s name to the number for your country below. SMS’s are charged per specified network tariffs in the various countries. VAS rates apply. Free minutes do not apply. Please note that you can vote 100 times by SMS per telephone number during each voting period.
Ghana
MTN                          1474                 GHC 0.70
Vodafone                1474                 GHC 0.70
Espresso                 1474                 GHC 0.70
Tigo                          1474                 GHC 0.70
Airtel                          1474                 GHC 0.70
The winner of Big Brother StarGame will be named after 91 days of head-to-head competition – and the power to award to USD 300 000 prize rests completely in the hands of the viewers.
Big Brother StarGame fans can catch all the latest news, video – and all-important voting information – at www.africamagic.tv/bigbrother. Tweet Big Brother @BigBroAfrica, send SMS messages to the on-screen strap and visit the Big Brother StarGame Facebook Group to get the low-down on the continent’s favourite reality show. By simply pressing the OK button on their DStv remote (on Channel 198) viewers can get updated news and information from the Big Brother StarGame house.

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