Monday 7 April 2014

Who Would Have Thought?


It's been a strange couple of days...

The past weekend, I went to Sun City for work. I do not usually share stories about work but this experience is an exception to my rules.

The company I work for produced the Miss South Africa pageant, and televised it live!

I never before experienced the intensity of this sort of a production. I have mainly worked in print  media, but my current job combines online, production, and broadcast... all immensely busy platforms.

In any case, it was quite a hoot to see burly production guys cheer and jeer... for a beauty pageant. It was as if they were watching a sports match in a pub. They all had their favourite finalists, and some were surprised by the results. I never thought I'd see the day when men were invested in beauty pageants... and in fact, neither am I.

But, the thing is, when you work so closely on a project, you unwittingly become invested in it. We have been working on "The Road to Miss SA" from August 2013. And because it has been so long, you feel you have held the contestants' hands through their incredible journey. And I suppose that is the lure of reality TV, as fake as it is, audiences are still able identify with the characters.