Someone tweeted that when the first episode of Rich Kids aired on Vuzu AMP, a lot of parents went to bed with a heavy hearts, possibly feeling like they hadn’t quite made their mark in life.
The show is about young South Africans who live lives of opulence, thanks to their wealthy parents. They are basically spoilt brats who live the life seen in American music videos and take pleasure in showing off. Most of them have never worked a day in their lives and are not about to begin now.
The aforementioned parents whose hearts were sore after the first episode must have ululated when information surfaced that episode four was based on a lie. The “rich kid” of the day, Aleks Fortunato, pulled a DJ Sbu and lied about his so-called wealth. Apparently, he went to a friend’s home and acted as if he owned the place. Neither the production company, Something’s Cool, nor Vuzu AMP picked up the deception. It was only when one Twitter user, @AndyDlamini, came out on the social network claiming that Fortunato was a poser that Vuzu and Something’s Cool were forced to admit that something was amiss.
In a statement, the production company admitted that they had faltered.
“Something’s Cool extends an apology to the South African audience with regards to episode 4 of Vuzu Rich Kids,” read the statement.
Their explanation tries to prove that they followed all the necessary steps, but were unaware that they were dealing with a fraudster.
undefined“A brief was sent to Mr Fortunato, which included the contents and prerequisites of the show, of which he agreed to. As with all our participants, we do sub-character and home visit checks. As a company, we validate as much as possible.
“We had no knowledge of his wealth being untrue, contrary to validating our research, and we were made aware of these allegations closer to the time of broadcast, of which it was already too late (sic),” continued their statement.
Let’s be honest, there are con people out there and we can only do so much to avoid being their marks. Nevertheless, in this case a lot could have been done to avoid this shameful debacle. To start with, Something’s Cool had to have a thorough system in place to investigate their subjects before putting them on TV. This research should have included indisputable evidence, like three months’ bank statements and the like. From the way things look, it’s almost as if they went with word of mouth, which is careless.
Then there is the issue of learning the truth before the episode aired and still going with it anyway because “it was already too late”. That was basically going with the lie knowing full well that Fortunato was not rich.
The episode should have been pulled and we would not have known why, but it would have saved the show and all the parties involved from the resultant embarrassment. Now the future of the show hangs in the balance and even if it were to continue, its credibility has been lost. Also, there must be some sort of criminal charges laid against Fortunato if he was in breach of his contract.
Nkateko Mabaso, the director of Local Interest Channels at M-Net, also commented on the matter.
“We are aware of the commentary around Vuzu AMP’s reality show, Rich Kids. We are currently engaging with all parties involved to establish the veracity of the claims made. In the meantime we have taken steps to ensure that the episode in question is not re-broadcast,” he said.
As to whether we will see any further episodes of Rich Kids, Mabaso had this to say:
“Any allegation of this nature is taken seriously and if any production house has acted wrongfully, M-Net will not hesitate to take whatever action may be necessary, which may include cancellation of the production.”
• We don’t know about tonight, but Rich Kids usually airs every Thursday at 7pm on Vuzu Amp (DStv channel 114).