Big Brother Africa postponed after fire guts house

Big Brother Africa postponed after fire guts house

The ninth edition of popular Reality TV show, Big Brother Africa has been postponed after a fire gutted the house reserved for the housemates, the show’s producers said on Tuesday.

According to a statement by M-Net and Endemol, as well as tweets on the Big Brother Africa Twitter handle, the “devastating fire” has necessitated a need to postpone the September 7, 2014 launch of the Big Brother Hotshots.

It said, “The cause of the fire, at this stage, is unknown and investigations will commence as soon as it is safe to do so.

“At this stage M-Net and Endemol are urgently looking for an alternative Big Brother house in which to film the production, however as this production has highly technical infrastructure, camera and edit requirements an alternative is not immediately available.

"Every effort will be made to find a solution as quickly as possible to ensure that Africa’s biggest reality show will continue.”

The BBA house is located at the Sasani Studios in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Meanwhile, no life was lost and no one was injured as a result of the fire.

The Big Brother Africa is the African version of the Big Brother reality game show. The show initially involved 12 countries within Africa –Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with two countries (Ethiopia and Mozambique) being added in season 4 and two other countries (Liberia and Sierra Leone) being added in season 7 while Rwanda was added in season 9.

Each country provides at least one contestant living in an isolated house while trying to avoid being evicted by viewers and ultimately winning a large cash prize at the end of the show.

Nigeria has won the show three times which is the highest number won by any country competing in the house.