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Lerato Sengadi

Lerato Sengadi

Published May 6, 2013

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So Vuzu’s entertainment magazine programme, 10 Over 10, is back for season two. Yay, not!

Obviously someone liked it so much that in the station’s content planning meetings the Vuzu team agreed to the show’s return.

Since we are stuck with it for another season, let’s chat about what is wrong and what is right with 10 Over 10.

If you haven’t seen the show, it’s sort of like that part in a magazine where people gossip about local celebrities. On paper it must have sounded like a great idea, and, granted, when you see it for the first time, you will be hooked.

Everything is marked out of 10 so you have the usual subjects such as the Top 10 celebrity hunks and which celebrity has the strongest Twitter presence.

It is interesting what their peers have to say about any given subject and that essentially is the core of the show.

When season one started, the show’s commentators were celebrities (most of them has-beens), socialites and publicists. We saw the likes of Big Brother Africa contestant Babalwa Mneno, blogger Mika Stefano and events co-ordinator Lerato Sengadi (pictured).

When Mneno was on the show, the subject was the most popular local celebrity on Twitter. As everyone picked this or that name, Mneno had a nasty habit of repeating the line: “I don’t follow so and so on Twitter, so I don’t know.”

So you were watching this former model who had been briefed about the subject spend precious airtime telling us she didn’t know anything.

She even asked an arrogant question at one point, “Who do I follow?” as if everyone else mentioned before was beneath her.

Then you get Stefano, who is all things under the sun, from a blogger to Twitter addict with a bit of music-maker in the middle. I read somewhere that he is also a publicist for a reputable theatre company.

Granted, Stefano knows his celebrities, but his clout is self- imposed and having a lot of followers on Twitter does not make one an authority on the famous.

Fraternising with celebrities does not make anybody knowledge-able enough to comment as an impartial party. In fact, it clouds the judgement and soon we all see is a situation where the show’s guests are showered with praise which, in turn, looks like a long self-promotional advert for the celebrity.

Then you get Sengadi who, before entering the Big Brother Africa reality series, was unknown in the media circles. Now she frequents every industry party and has been called a socialite. She is an events co-ordinator.

We are happy for the sister doing it for herself, but again, is she the right person to sit on 10 Over 10 and comment? I think not.

This is not an attack on the aforementioned people, but 10 Over 10 was punted as a “no fear, no favour” type of show. We were supposed to have those grudges that were rumoured about shown on TV for all to see. It was the show where no one was supposed to feel safe and no subject would be taboo.

Instead, we have a bunch of scared “commentators” who are very vocal when praising, but prefer to sugarcoat the facts when it comes to criticising.

The reason for that is that they know the celebrity they are talking about is watching the show.

So why punt a show that is all bark and no bite?

And several people who were on the commenting segment in the show’s first season make a return. Several publicists and some bloggers make a comeback and I really don’t know why.

It is okay to have celebrities on, as they can speak about their peers, even though it verges on sucking up. Entertainment reporters, too, are good, but methinks they are a little gagged when it comes to negative comments.

It is the publicists whom I feel should not be part of this show. In my line of work, a publicist is nothing but a behind-the-scenes strategist who pushes a brand.

You don’t have to go up front unless you, too, want to be famous – a thing I won’t put past some of the people on this show.

• 10 Over 10 starts on a date to be set this month.

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