The still badly done, visibly rumpled, red carpet pre-show of the 6th 2018 Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards broadcast on Africa Magic on Saturday evening was again filled with blunders, awkwardly bad production values, and a clueless Helen Paul thinking its funny to be unprepared - although the red carpet production showed improvement in significant ways.
As in previous years, M-Net West Africa and the organisers of the Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards still visibly found it too difficult to roll out a flat red carpet at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos from where Saturday's awards show ceremony again took place.
A ruffled red carpet showed up several times during the 3-hour pre-show broadcast on the Africa Magic channels on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, adding to the once-again amateur-looking coverage that this year had Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and Sika Osei as the main red carpet hosts.
Both were markedly better than the presenters used in previous years, although Sika Osei seemed mostly unprepared to do actual interviews and often veered off into what's obvious her "safe space" where she just rambles with stream of consciousness monologues.
Sika Osei tends to spout mindless drivel she seems to have learnt by rote through watching too much E! without actually thinking, and that ended up damaging the pre-show like at 35 minutes in with her "The red carpet is really hotting up!" although by that time only 3 short interviews took place and the camera showed them standing in the totally empty hotel foyer.
Ebuka Obi-Uchendu was the best thing about the 6th 2018 Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards red carpet show, allowing guests to talk, coming across as patiently self-assured and confident, humorous and warm even when he had visible ear-piece trouble and kept going.
The organisers once again brought back the wholly-inadequate Helen Paul. She stood next to the doing-what-he-can under the circumstances, cohort Uti Nwachukwu as the second tier presenters.
Helen Paul, dressed in a feathered aquamarine swirl more appropriate on a sea cruise cabaret director, once again seemed clueless in her costume more appropriate for a character in a kiddies pantomime, and again inflicted the biggest damage on this year's red carpet pre-show.
Helen Paul kept asking inappropriate questions, trying to "funnily sexualising" interviews and showing absolutely no sign of having studied up on any background on the nominees or having heard of the #MeToo movement.
Helen Paul - often cackling at the camera to try and disguise her ineptitude - awkwardly kept asking people about kissing and even egged on two people to kiss in front of her (they started but didn't).
She caused embarrassing moments like asking a former child star - now clearly a young man - nothing about his actual role but inane, irrelevant stuff like: "What school do you go to?" only for him to mutedly respond: "I'm at university".
Helen Paul point-blank asked nominee Folarin "Falz" Falana: "Do you think you will win?"
(He didn't really know what to say.)
Saturday's red carpet coverage immediately started off with sound problems and audio mistakes when a crossing went wrong and with some that kept happening throughout the coverage - although from the outset Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and Sika Osei did their best and just kept talking over problems.
Lonre Ojoawa was the red carpet show director, with Busola Komolare, Anu Somatun and Uche Ifeanyi-Ogwu as red carpet segment producers.
None of the red carpet presenters really seemed to know what to ask anybody who wasn't actually Nigerian and the coverage was saturated with a naija-centric approach and references that casual Africa Magic viewers from East and Southern African might not be familiar with, understand or know.
When someone's cellphone literally rang during an interview, Sika Osei asked: "Who's calling?" It didn't seem as if people were asked to switch their phones off or to silent, and M-Net apparently didn't have any publicists, assistant or producer on hand to take and hold people's phones and handbags off-camera for the minutes during which they do interviews.
Camerawork and sound were both subpar with a lot of sound mistakes. When a few of the people interviewed were asked to "twirl" or turn around, the camera, instead of moving down and up, would stay focused on portrait mode, completely detached from what it was supposed to do/show.
When Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, channel director for Africa Magic channels and M-Net West Africa director, did her red carpet interview, once again as in the past, the presenter didn't seem prepped about what to specifically ask, or as if there was any direction into his earpiece as to what to actually do.
Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, was asked about her clothes and what she's wearing.
With it the pre-show and M-Net once again missed a golden opportunity to actually ask relevant stuff and work in proper promotion like "Can you talk about the MultiChoice Talent Factory?", "What are the new shows that M-Net are excited about?" (Eve!) or "Why is M-Net proud about the AMVCAs?"
There were red carpet production improvements. The pre-show did away with the gay fashionista commentary corner where in previous years the show would flash to so-called style experts to break down the sartorial choices but done in a bad way.
Also gone was the "360" roto-camera trash-attempt that never worked properly previously and attempted to give a "360 degrees" look of outfits.
The last half hour when the most important and other guests arrived was once again disappointingly a missable pre-taped highlights package of the 2018 Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards cocktail nominee party - basically a these-are-the-sponsors infomercial show, although Africa Magic kept saying it's a "live" broadcast.
The former AMVCA red carpet co-host Eku Edewor awkwardly dartled from sponsor to sponsor, spinning a wheel to win cash at Airtel, taking selfies, and getting a pack of washing powder from Sunlight displaying their cleaning products ... in baskets.
Showing Sunlight soap in baskets, people drinking water from the water sponsor and IK Osakioduwa asking a married woman if she wants another man just before the start of the official awards show made the 2018 Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards look a bit downmarket trashy.
