You must have heard about the reality show on Africa Magic, that is, Omotola Ekehinde’s ‘The Real Me” which started airing some days back. So far, the reality show has generated different reactions from viewers and fans…this piece is a reaction to the reality show and I absolutely, totally and truly agree with it. So here goes this week’s diary, a beautiful article written by Ese Grage and she blogs here…
Now don’t get me wrong, Omotola is one of my favorite actresses and if I ever got into a battle with any of my friends about who is the better actress between Genevive Nnaji and Omotola Jalade Ekeinde I will probably be in a fighting match until I won the argument. Yes, you can tag me one of her voltrons because in my opinion she is nothing short of a screen goddess and if I were to be brutally honest, I kinda have a girl crush on her so you can imagine my excitement and the thrill I felt when the ads began to roll about her soon coming reality television show. And though reality television has been termed the dreg of broadcasting, that has in no way stopped shows like ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ and its spinoffs from reeling in some big bucks. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess this is why MNET felt the need to endorse Omotola with her own reality show.
Well, in all honesty, I received the news of the show with some initial skepticism because hey, this is Nigeria’s first attempt at this genre of reality programming but who better to follow around than OmoT, so I buried my fears and embraced the news with sheer excitement. I guess I should have stuck with my inner skeptic then maybe I would not have been as disappointed at the show as I am in its Pilot.
When asked by CoolFM’s Freeze why she decided to accept the offer of a reality show, she simply said ‘the money was good’. Claiming that she had been approached several times but turned down the offer, I guess it may be safe to say that with her husband resigning from his pilot position at Air Nigeria, she needed the money because after seeing the first episode of ‘The Real Omotola” she would have been better off refusing the offer but hey, she took one for the team and for that, I applaud her.
Let me be fair, I have only watched one episode and it is possible that when the pilot was shot, she was still trying to adjust to the intrusive cameras trailing her every move. But even that does not make up for the lack of theme exhibited in the pilot episode. Yes, it is reality but if you have ever seen an episode of “Keeping up with the Kardarshians” or “Ice loves Coco” you can almost give a title to each episode because there is usually a central theme that forms the basis of every episode. Well, we can’t really blame Omotola if she leads a boring forged life. Nothing much the producers can do to help there but if I am to judge from this first episode, I am almost certain the show will not live to see a second season…
So do you agree with Ese’s submission!