The chief executive officer, MultiChoice Nigeria, John Ugbe, has said the Big Brother Lockdown Season recorded the highest votes ever in the history of the show.

He also said it cost N3.5 billion to put together the reality show which lasted 10 weeks.

He stated this at a media briefing and prize presentation to the season’s winner, Laycon, in Lagos on Wednesday.

Mr Ugbe also said the show recorded 900 million votes (inclusive of online voting) from the different voting platforms and the DSTV application, which was way beyond the number of votes the show has ever recorded.

Speaking at the prize presentation, Mr Ugbe said, “Planning a show of this magnitude during these times was not without its challenges. For one, we resorted to holding virtual auditions where we received over 30,000 video entries, from which the ‘Lockdown 20’ were selected.”

The channels director of Africa Magic, Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, also said the just concluded show had a very large engagement and appreciated every fan of the show who stayed tuned to the 24 hours show.

She also stated that the level of engagement for this season was off the charts while appreciating the housemates for bringing the drama and keeping the viewers tuned to the channel.

“It’s been a journey of drama and excitement. This year’s engagement was off the chain. Right from the first day the show began, the viewership and the commitment to it was massive,” she said.

The headline sponsor of the show, BetWay, represented by the local director, Chris Ubosi, announced that the team that won the BetWay Make a Difference task, Laycon and Ozo, will be awarded N5 million to support the initiative they argued for.

Mr Ubosi also appreciated the organisers of Big Brother Naija for giving them the opportunity to showcase their brand in Nigeria.

He said, “Big Brother Naija gave us a chance to prove that we are not just a global brand but we are here, we are present in Nigeria. We are going to give N5 million to support the sports development challenge that Laycon and Ozor participated in. It was such a good initiative, thank you for arguing hard for it.”

Even though the show is a winner takes all contest, where the housemate that emerges first carts away N85 million worth of prizes, the marketing manager, Spirit of Guinness Nigeria, Aigbeme Okonkwo, announced that Dorathy will also be going on a trip planned for the winner.

“We are sad that the show has come to an end, we look forward to future partnership with BBN. We will be taking the winner and the first runner up on a journey through the Guinness house in Ireland, Dublin,” she said.

Source:- Premium Times