Hot swap: Join battle for a holiday

Producers are bringing out the berg, beach and battlefields to reclaim the wandering eyes of local television audiences. Holiday Swap KZN is a new reality game show scheduled for broadcast from February next year. by Siphiliselwa Makhanya

It pits two teams of three friends each against each other in a series of challenges to win a holiday in KwaZulu-Natal. Jostling with more popular Western fare, it may prove the homegrown hope for domestic reality shows.

Its a big thing for local television. Were competing against Survivor and other international formats, says Apollo Zake, general manager of Launch Factory, the company that created the show.

Conceived to promote domestic travel in the province, Holiday Swap KZN will rely on the emotive stories that set Our Perfect Wedding and Khumbulekhaya fans all atwitter each week.

Zake believes it will feed a peculiarly South African craving for shows that expose ordinary peoples problems.

Africans love drama more than reality. US reality TV is very cut-throat. We wanted something that was more feel-good; television that was more about emotional entertainment.

The genre is one in which Zake is a dab hand.

He is responsible for shows such as Forgive and Forget on e.tv and Touching Lives on Ghanaian, Zambian and Niger television .

Forgive and Forget was very feel-good. Black communities may have issues, but talking about them can be difficult for us.

African viewers enjoy watching content that reflects their own realities, Zake says.

Theres nothing better than seeing yourself on television, so even though you love shows like Game of Thrones, youre also drawn to the shows that deliver that.

Should Holiday Swap KZN become popular, its creators hope to export their format to other countries and the variety of entrants it received indicates its potential.

Our website has enjoyed interest from the unlikeliest of places.

Weve had people from Canada try to enter. Weve had interest from the Netherlands as well, he says.

The show, hosted by former Isibaya actress Nomzamo Mbatha, is aimed at the young, black, middle-class people who have started to earn a bit more money and want to travel but dont know where to start, says the general manger.

Holiday Swap KZN is on SABC1 at 6pm every Monday from February 9 next year

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