''Five was too much,'' e.tv's beautiful Popstars judge Azania Ndoro tells me in an exclusively first interview on how and why they chose four Popstars contestants - after e.tv just officially announcing the new group: Lihle Ngongoma (21), Lyle Volkwyn (23), Oscar Toorn (22) and Zinhle Dube (22) who will now be known as Nne-Vida.
''With five it's too hard to get concensus. It was always going to be three or four,'' Azania Ndoro tells me. And did they consider an all-boys band or an all girls group? ''We played with that. We played with that idea but we ultimately decided that a mixed gender group would be what's best for Popstars.''
About the incredibly emotional episode that was just broadcast which I was shown yesterday and in which the judges visit the top 10 contestants at their respective homes to tell them who made the group - and who didn't - Azania Ndoro says ''that was very hard. It was a very hard thing to go and do. It's people we've gotten to know. We got to see them work and give their best and to then only get a ''no'' at such a late stage . . . It was difficult.''
''The one that affected me the most was the first ''no'' I had to give. I had to ''yes''-es and two ''no''-s and with the first ''no''. . . it was heartbreaking. I ended up crying. As much as you can encourage someone, the message is: You're still rejecting me. You're still saying no to me.''
