Only a day left and the entries to yet another exciting season of Culture Shock will be closed.

“Do you have what it takes?” was the tagline Mzansi Magic used to punt the show.

Assuming there are some who do not know how the programme works, here’s the lowdown.

Culture Shock is a televised experiment in which two members of different families are challenged to live in “foreign” households. The catch comes in the first two days: the visiting family must adhere to the rules and the lifestyle of the host family. The departing member of a family leaves behind a house manual, which explains his, or her, role in the family set-up and the duties they perform.

You can already see some interesting results coming out of this.

Then comes the second half of the show, where the visiting family is allowed to establish their own rules, and their new families must adhere to these.

With South Africa being what it is, everyone will be rooting for their “home” team, hoping they understand the other participants’ culture the most.

But what are viewers to expect from this season?

Tonight caught up with the show’s executive producer, Bongiwe Selane, who gave us an idea of what to look forward to.

“The applications started off slowly, especially over the holiday season, but, as of the beginning of this month, the process has picked up substantially,” she explained.

This year the applications for the show were much more diverse, which is a good thing as the greater the differences among the people who enter, the better the quality of the show.

“We’ve received a wider variety of entries from different regions, as well as different economic backgrounds.

“However, we are still encouraging all South Africans to continue sending in their applications so we get an even wider and more interesting pool of people to participate in this one-of-a-kind social experiment,” urged Selane.

“The original series focused more along the lines of race, traditions and gender and other differences.

“With the new series we are going to diversify and blur the boundaries. The show is going to be about finding the ‘unusual’ that makes us tick as a society,” Selane said.

“Our constitution has come a long way in uniting our country and in helping us to accept our diversity. The show’s new season is going to be about showing that diversity and celebrating it.”

In reality TV shows, there is always someone, or an incident, that makes the whole process memorable and Culture Shock is no exception.

“The most common and constant incident is people applying and thinking that Culture Shock is an acting show, or a chance for them to become TV stars or presenters. Obviously the show is about people being themselves. It’s not about acting – it’s about being yourself. There is no script,” he said .

Unlike other Tv programmes that give away prizes at the end and make stars out of the participants, Culture Shock has a much deeper mission that it aims to accomplish.

“The show hopes that by accepting ourselves, we are more readily able to accept others,” Selane said.

“The show aims to celebrate and showcase all that makes us so diverse and colourful.”

Entries close tomorrow.

• See www.mzansimagic.tv to download entry form, then e-mail it to culture.shock@ mnet.co.za, or fax it to 086 521 3321.

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