By Toju Egbedi

Without a doubt, M-Net has indeed wrung out a winner with the All Star Edition of Big Brother Africa. The logic was simple: every Big Brother Africa fan had a season they considered the most exciting largely because of the housemates that brought the show to life.

For every season there was that Housemate who gave viewers something to watch and be excited about. So what M-Net did this season was to bring back all those favourites; the controversial and expressive housemates from the previous seasons, and lumped them all with a fresh opportunity to win the cash prize that eluded them their first time around.

For that quality alone, M-Net could have gone to bed knowing that the combination of housemates was nothing but combustible, resulting in pure undiluted entertainment for the viewing public. Yet, M-Net threw in an intriguing twist that saw the show retaining all the housemates except Hannington, (Sammie who left for health reasons and Yacob who voluntarily quit the show) willing to stay on the show, till the end of Week 11 by placing the evictees in an alternate accommodation called The Barn.

Evicted Housemates who may have imagined that the game was over and that they were on their way home were ushered to an alternate abode not as glamorous as the Big Brother House they had just left. Reactions ranged from shock to horror and even tears, adding an increased thrill to the viewers. Skeptics originally felt that the fact that these house mates were kept on in the game detracted from the show. However as the barn began to fill out, this notion was immediately thrown out the window as more and more people began to clamor to watch The Barn just as much as they did to see the house.

Any keen observer would have seen the notable difference in people’s behavior once they were transported from one house to the next. Tatiana who appeared reformed from her wild relationship with the married Richard in her previous season was the picture of calm while in the house. The reverse was the case when she was transferred to The Barn. The wild and sexy Tatiana was back on the show and all the men knew it. Yacob however made the irreversible error of calling her a slut; this incurred the wrath of the other female housemates who made the remainder of his stay in The Barn unbearable, leading to Yacob begging to be evicted.

Even Sheila shared a moment with Hannington where they kissed. This would never have happened back in the house as she appeared solely devoted to Uti with whom there had been no physical expression of affection. Though The Barn was laced with more awkward and exciting moments, the biggest of them all may very well be the fight between Lerato and Hannington, which led to his forced eviction.

Today is pregnant, as the saying goes, for all the remaining five Housemates. Being in the finale and just a touching distance to the ultimate prize, it is not unlikely that like the rest of the African continent, they are ruminating over their chances. So who would it be, Lerato, Mwisho, Sheila, Uti or Munya?

Though the finalists have a one-in-five chance of emerging winner, some housemates have statistically proven to have a better chance than others. These housemates are Munya and Uti. The Nigerian Uti suffered a major tragedy in the loss of his father earlier on in the show and there were questions as to how this would be managed. Uti decided to stay on believing that is what his father would have wanted him to do. Reaching the finals, Uti may very well justify this decision and make not only his family proud but his country making him the second Nigerian to win the coveted prize money. Yet he is up against very steep competition from the Zimbabwean Munya. While Uti has survived eviction every time he was put up, he has only been put up four times in comparison to Munya’s eight. Munya has survived a record eight times with some of those occurring back to back.

Whoever emerges the winner today, Africa cannot deny that once again, these individuals have given their best. Though some can argue that since it was their second time in the same house they were more conscious of the cameras and played a tougher game making them quite artificial, one cannot deny that this was well taken care of when evictees were sent to The Barn.

Worthy of note is the fact that this edition saw the most number of people walking out voluntarily in the history of this show as well as the first forced eviction. So would it be Lerato, Mwisho, Sheila, Uti or Munya? Today is pregnant.