Francis Doku: Kudos Kojo Yankson

This is not the review of his performance or of his show. It’s been about five months since Kojo Yankson took over the reins of the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, right? That’s five months come very quickly some will say.

Some friends of mine, especially on Facebook, have asked me several times when I am going to do an analysis of his time on the station and the programme.

As you may know, I am very efficient at biding my time and doing things on my own terms than the average guy. So in due course, I will analyse Yankson’s time on the show as I have seen it to be going and will give my verdict on what I think his performance is. Oh yes, trust me on that! I will.

I just felt that, although it probably is coming a little too late, I needed to commend him as the lead presenter and also commend the entire morning show team including Sedem Ofori and their boss Kofi Ansah for the trip they took to Nigeria to see how our “closest” neighbours were handling the Ebola outbreak in that country.

They came back with a few good stories about how the authorities in our neighbouring country had been tackling the disease with utmost efficiency that our own authorities needed to take a leaf from.

 Of course we would have known from other sources even if they hadn’t gone to Nigeria to find out, but making that journey was a bold call, a call that sets you out as serious about this business and that need to be commended.

Ebola is a very serious case that we need to be on our guard for.

 We need to be prepared for it and those good points picked from Nigeria might go a long way to help. At least I hope so.

Perhaps it has nothing to do with it, but not long after he had come back from Nigeria he got the chance to take part in the BBC Africa Debate and the coincidence seems a tad too coincidental (if that is not tautological) for me.

 That having been said I am still listening to Kojo Yankson and his team on the morning show and in due course you will read what I think their performance has been so far.

For prelims however, he should take his Swansea and shove it somewhere and also continue to work on eliminating completely that “errrm” “errrm” that spoils his flow of conversation. The rest will be delivered soon in good measure, pressed together and over flowing with all the pointers you can imagine.

DRAB BBA OPENING; GHANA REPS UP FOR EVICTION

Meanwhile, down in South Africa there were no smokes, lights and life about the opening of the Big Brother Africa show. BBA opening nights have been spectacular entertainment events. The mystery of who the housemates would be, the line-up of artistes and the entire caboodle of razzmatazz got the average viewer on the edge for the entire duration.

For eight seasons followers of the continental television reality show had sat in waiting to know who the housemates will be. Not this time. The producers of the show Endemol decided to release the names of the housemates on their official event website days before the launch.

This I believe took away that needed mystery and oomph from the show leaving it with nothing beyond the theatrics of long time host IK Osakiaduwa. 

He came with his own swag as usual and lit the stage from the onset till the last housemate had entered the Big Brother house.

As had been announced, the all-singing, all-dancing 9th edition of Big Brother Africa kicked off on DStv on Sunday as the 26 housemates showed off their talents to the continent – giving millions of viewers a glimpse into what makes them Hotshots. Or lack of it thereof.

It was announced that the season will last for 63 days instead of the usual 91 days. Indeed, considering the fact that the show had lost a month following the burning of the original BBA house, the producers wanted to still keep it within the timelines.

Viewers were officially introduced to the housemates who will be competing for the USD300, 000 prize over 63 days, one-by-one, as they showcased their talents, live on stage, in one-minute slots. 

The studio audience scored each performance with a mark out of 100, and right at the end of the show, Big Brother called the housemates together and revealed the reason for the scores.

The housemate who scored the highest would be named as Head of House and would be the only housemate not up for eviction on Sunday. Tanzania’s Laveda led a Top 6 that included Ghanaian M’am Bea, meaning the Tanzanian is the only one not in danger of going home after one week.

Let that sink in. Every single one of the 25 other housemates are up for eviction except Laveda from Tanzania. This means that our own M’am Bea and Kacey Moore need to be saved lest they do a Ras Wayoe on us.

Keeping the musical theme going were Emmy Gee, AB Crazy & DJ Dimplez with their smash hit Rands and Nairas, South African hip-hop sensation Cassper Nyovest with Doc Shebeleza and Nigeria’s own BET Award winner Davido with Skelewu.

Voting opened immediately after the launch show and runs until next Sunday morning. The more you vote for your favourite nominated housemate, the better their chance of staying in the house and being named as the winner. 

There are four ways to vote for your favourite housemate each week:

1.       Via SMS

2.       Via WeChat

3.       Via 

www.bigbrotherafrica.com

4.       Via the mobisite on your mobile phone

SMS Voting

To vote via SMS: Text the keyword ‘Vote’, followed by the name of the housemate to the short code 1474. 

Big Brother Africa is live on channel 197 and 198 on DStv.

RTP WAS NOT THE BEST

I had hoped that this year’s Radio and Television Personality Awards will be the one that would save the face of all the previous ones and the public opprobrium they had to go through. 

I was not lucky enough and this one also had more than a few issues that marred its aesthetic quality.

I missed the earlier performances and I hear Joyce Blessing was amazing on the night. That aside every other performance on the night was not good enough. My heart was broken when my own idol Obrafour was as terrible as one can be and the guy who backed him on stage was a disgrace to a live show.

Apart from terrible performances, the show also suffered terrible coordination from whoever it was who was in charge of coordination. Wrong videos were played many times over and so were other technical issues with the show.

In my view, emceeing was not the best too as David Dontoh seem to be on the wrong stage and his too much talking ended up as lecture on the night. Gideon Aryeequaye and Stacy Amoateng were just accomplices in the act.

It must be said however that attendance was very good as usual, however, because the show dragged for far too long, by the time it was time for Obrafour to perform, more than half had left the auditorium. There were too many awards to be given on one night, in my view.

The organisers should also be commended for recognising the contributions to broadcasting of Kweku Sintim Misa, Grace Omaboe and the late Komla Dumor and accordingly honouring them and calling them to the Broadcast Hall of Fame. That’s a no brainer on the part of Prince Mackay and his team and they ought to be commended.

When it comes to awards itself, anyone who gets nominated is an eligible winner and so I won’t criticise so much those who picked up awards. On the contrary, I would rather commend them and wish they work harder in their chosen field of endeavour.

I will say as I did last year after the event that, the guys at Big Events ought to sit and relook the RTP Awards. They have to give back to the people who have bought into the idea a good reason to continue to do so.

Tomorrow will be the Prime Time Event for the Ghana Television Awards at the National Theatre. Hopefully, we shall see a show that is better produced and with a lot less issues of negativity when all is said and done.

@TheGHMediaGuru