Big Brother Africa Hotshots will now start on 5 October, with the Endemol South Africa produced reality format show which has found a new location and production facility in Johannesburg following the devastating fire at Sasani Studios' stage 1 two weeks ago.
The upcoming 9th season of Big Brother Africa entitled Hotshots was postponed when a blaze destroyed cameras, glass, other equipment, and damaged props, walls, the roof and other instrumentals on 2 September.
Endemol South Africa and M-Net quickly scouted various locations in an emergency exercise - including looking at London and the Big Brother House outside Jerusalem in Israel, but decided to remain in South Africa and make do, so as to lessen exorbitant production costs and insane and intricate visa regulations.
Changed South African visa regulations and Ebola fears from West Africa already damaged the upcoming season which first saw the chosen Ghana contestants dumped from the show, followed by Sierra Leone and Rwanda being eliminated from the season before housemates had even entered the house.
To go through a protracted process to secure visas for African contestants, South African crew and equipment proved too difficult and too high a hurdle for the producers who settled on a studio in Johannesburg.
Big Brother Africa Hotshots will now start on Sunday 5 October at 19:00 on two dedicated MultiChoice channels on DStv across Africa, with regular highlight programmes on M-Net's AfricaMagic Showcase channel.
