Sasa Majuma
2 December 2008
column
The Stars Must Be Crazy is a reality adventure show that was shot in Botswana, but watched by millions in Hungary and is reported to be receiving high ratings throughout Europe.
Apparently, the show has been running on Hungarian television since last month and the final episode was due on Sunday.The show came as a result of agreements between the government of Botswana through the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism and Hungarian production company Frei International.
The company had shown interest in shooting a reality show in Botswana to market the country in Europe and government agreed to give them logistical support such as issuing of permits to shoot in national parks and game reserves as well as issuing them with a temporary broadcasting licence to transmit back to Europe.
Journalists and the minister of Wildlife and Tourism, Kitso Mokaila, visited the set at Mmokolodi Nature Reserve near Gaborone to get first hand information on what has been taking place on the show.
Mokaila said that the company did not ask for any money from government to market its tourism in Europe. "They just asked for a permit and as our country is the one that is going to benefit from this because the show exposes our country as a good tourist destination," Mokaila said.When the show started late last month its first episodes were shot in Zambia before it crossed into Botswana where 17 of the 22 shows have been shot in different locations.
Some episodes were shot along the Chobe River, some in the Ngamiland District Makgadikgadi pans as well as Khwai and Hyena Veldt.Tomas Frei, the producer-director of the show, explained that this was only the first season of the show and that they would be back to shoot another in March next year and that for the next four years they were aiming to sell it to at least 20 countries around the globe."We started with Hungary and our next stop is Germany. France has shown interest and so has Holland, Japan and Argentina," Frei said.
Concerning the popularity of the show in Budapest, Frei said: "We competed against some of the best shows in the world and we have been able to beat CSI Miami which we all know is a very popular show, we have also beaten ER, the hospital drama, so our ratings are high.
The only programmes we have not been able to beat are the daily soaps .Contestants in the show, which follows almost the same pattern as Big Brother (BB) or Survivor, are chiefly Hungarian celebrities. But unlike Big Brother viewers were asked to vote who they think should stay instead of who should go home. By last week only four of the 10 contestants were left in the race.
Talking about their experiences since they started shooting the show, Frei said that it was both challenging and fulfilling citing Botswana as a very unique country.
"Our viewers like the differences in locations, What is interesting about Botswana is that you find the vegetation different on different locations so visually the viewer gets a different feeling with every episode," he said.
"One other thing that helped us choose Botswana over all these other Southern African Countries is the economic and political stability. You can easily plan and already we are planning for our shows next year," Frei said.
The winner of the show will be chosen for the Fair Trade Goodwill Ambassadorship and will be contracted for a year to promote Botswana at different occasions.
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