Big Brother Africa is Back

Once again 12 Housemates from 12 African countries (Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) have been plucked from their homes and their lives to live together cut off from the outside world - which will be watching their every move.
As always the master of the house, Big Brother, expects his “guests” to have no form of contact with the world outside, strictly no violence and an obligation to nominate fellow Housemates for eviction.

This season the three Housemates who stay longest in the House will spend precisely 91 days. Once nominations begin the Big Brother Africa Housemates will have to nominate two fellow Housemates to be evicted.

The viewers will then vote for the housemate they want to evict until only one remains and emerges the winner of the whopping USD100 000 grand prize.

However, Big Brother reserves the right to change the rules at any time introducing twists to make the show even more intriguing.

Tasks

Each week the Housemates will undertake various tasks that will stretch them to the limits in order to win a week’s worth of budget that will enable them to buy groceries and other essential necessities.

Only Big Brother has the authority to assign the weekly tasks which mostly involve team play and perseverance. If the Housemates display tremendous endurance, focus and willingness to succeed, Big Brother can wager up to 100% of their budget.


Rules
In Big Brother’s house, the rules remain as long as Big Brother says so. He can change them at any time, so housemates and viewers alike should brace themselves for a unique viewing experience with plenty of twists and turns.

Field Presenters

To spice things up Big Brother has deployed 12 field presenters to give feedback about each Housemate’s hype and to get a grip on home ground. The presenters will also be expected to interview the Housemate’s parents, friends and compile reports from eviction parties.

Head of House

Each week Housemates will compete against one another for the prestigious title of the Head of Household (HoH). The House leader’s benefits include immunity from eviction plus a luxurious night at the Glass House.

Nominations

Each week housmates nominate two other housemates for eviction in the Diary Room and must give justified and clear reasons. The Head of House may be nominated for eviction as well. After the nominees are revealed to the House, the current Head of House can save a nominee for eviction including themselves if they are nominated and replace the saved nominee with another nominee. While this is revealed to the viewers, the House does not know of the decision until eviction night Sunday.

Voting

Each eviction week viewers in the 12 participating countries vote to eliminate a housemate they do not like. The majority for each country will be counted as a vote. In addition to the 12 participating countries, all other countries not participating in the show can still vote for who they would like to eliminate. The "other countries" counts for the 13th vote.

Schedule
Big Brother Africa III goes live on DStv channel 198, M-Net and AfricaMagic on Sunday 24 August and ends on Sunday 23 November 2008. Each week, there will be four 30-minute daily shows (Tuesday to Friday) and a 30-minute “Uncut” show every Saturday. On Monday 8 September 2008 the game is going to heat up as the housemates will be expected to make their first nomination for eviction. And on Sunday 14 September 2008 one housemate is going to be evicted from the House.

SMS the Show - We Want To Know What You Think
To send a message to the strap line on the TV all you need to do is sign up at Oboma and get in touch! Here's how:
Go to Oboma, click register, and create a social network profile. Upload a picture to your profile, make sure that your mobile number is correct in your profile, and then either send an sms to the number associated with your country (eg, 5626 if you are in Kenya), or use your wap enabled phone to login to oboma.net and send a message for free from the wap site. If you send an sms, the system will match your mobile number to the mobile number in your profile, and then go and fetch your picture for display on the strap. If You already have a login, use this login to sign in, scroll down to "Share" and click on the link that says "txt3tv". This will allow you to send your message to TV for no cost, other than your data connection for using mobile internet on your phone.

Send us a text message and it will appear on the Big Brother Africa III strap along with your nickname and profile picture.
If you're in Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Angola, Zambia & Zimbabwe, send your texts to 15626
If you're in Botswana, send your text to 16626
If you're in Kenya, send your text to 5626
If you're in Nigeria, send your text to 34701
If you're in South Africa, send your message to 34626
If you're in Tanzania send your text to 15726
If you're in Uganda, send your text to 6626
If you have WAP, go to www.oboma.net, choose the SMS to TV option, and let Big Brother know what you think.