MultiChoice Nigeria has announced the commencement of online voting for BBNaija online auditions, which held from 25th to 27th February. Contestants were expected to record a two-minute video, stating why they should be picked to become housemates in this year’s Big Brother Naija.
The online auditions were an unprecedented move by MultiChoice Nigeria and a way of giving voice to the audience, giving them the power to vote a Housemate into the House.
10 contestants were selected from the online auditions and the voting portal (https://africamagic.dstv.com/show/big-brother-nigeria/audition) opened on Thursday and DStv and GOtv subscribers are expected to vote daily for the personality they would like to see in the house; this started from March 21, and will end on March 31 2019.
Organisers say voting is open to only active DStv and GOtv subscribers who may vote in 10 voting round(s) across the voting period. Voting rounds are open from 9am to 11pm on March 21 and from midnight to 11pm from March 22nd to March 31st.
To vote, participants are to simply register on https://africamagic.dstv.com/show/big-brother-nigeria/audition using their Twitter of Facebook username, enter their smartcard, phone number, and accept the official voting rules. Once that is done, a voter will be taken to the audition page to meet the 10 candidates. The voter can then select the preferred candidate and will receive a verification message.
MultiChoice Nigeria CEO, John Ugbe believes that the online auditions democratise the BBNaija process. “The online auditions are a way of involving our subscribers in the decision-making process of who gets to go into the house. They are the reason the show remains popular, always rooting for their favourite Housemates. Also, just thinking about the people who turned up for the physical auditions, we thought to give them another opportunity. Big Brother is a fun show and rejigging things a little bit shows that there is no predetermined script even though it continues to follow the international format,” he said.
