The pomp and pageantry that usually precede every season of the Nigerian Breweries’ Gulder Ultimate Search will do little to persuade people to follow it as keenly as before.
The television reality show, which took the country by storm some years ago, when Ezeugo became the debut winner to the acceptance of the people, has over the years been suffering a decline in followership due to the perceived fraud noted in choosing the winners.
It started some years back when, during the screening in Lagos, it was alleged that the organizers of the screening, after asking those who were present to participate to drop their phones and other equipment, were told that the show in which 12 contestants were supposed to slug it out, with one emerging winner, would only be picking two out of several thousands that would participate in that year’s screening across the country.
They added that the company already had 10 models that would be contesting. This, according to the source, forced some of those around to return home without passing through the screening. A winner eventually emerged from the models.
Recently, it has been discovered that a new strategy is being employed by the organizers of Gulder Ultimate Search to make sure that the winners are from one agency or the other working with the organizers.
It was gathered that models are now asked to join the screening, with an assurance that they will pass even if they did not qualify.
It is to be noted that Gulder Ultimate Search is more or less the only television reality show that picks its winner by ways other than the vote of the people and this is aiding their alleged persistent fraud on viewers, who are of the opinion that the best participants are usually not the winner.
This, we gathered, is responsible for the people’s attitude towards the show.
Sources revealed that though the viewership has been suffering decline in the recent past, it became more obvious during the recent one, which saw erstwhile ardent followers disenchanted.
Those who spoke to us echoed the same problem. They complained that those who during the course of the show won the admiration of the viewers with their intelligence, hard work, confidence, and many of such attributes, usually lost out to those that were not as qualified at the end. All these have led to the boycott the programme is suffering from at the moment.
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