By SAM PHIRI –
WELL-DONE! I must say, to Suwilanji Siame for a brilliant concept of a scintillating reality ZNBC’s Junior President Show!
Before delving into the programme’s production issues, let me congratulate the two youths who made it to the finals of Junior President – 17-year-old Perrykent Nkole of Lusaka Secondary School and his 14-year-old school-mate Natasha Mwansa!
While this platform gives its utmost congratulations to Perrykent, the winner and the first custodian of the ‘instruments of power’ of Junior Presidency, we would as well like to salute the brilliant runner-up Natasha for a strong-willed fight.
Both contenders had their strengths and weaknesses which, according to this platform, were at par at the grand finale but only with the exception that Perrykent just had to have more votes than the rival.
Perrykent was good in his ‘National Address’ segment which captivated the audience so much as evidenced by the prolonged applauding and at some point standing ovations!
However, in the debate category, it was Natasha who brought out clear and tangible points superseding Perrykent in this particular segment as she too received a numerous applause from the visibly impressed audience.
From my couch and before the television set, what I saw was that the two contenders had equal points on the grand finale offering. Well done to both of them!
Coming to the issue, on Sunday, I watched the entire grand finale with great interest knowing it was the first of its kind and that was a brainchild of one brilliant young man I personally know very well.
Credit must be given to where it is due; in this case, especially to the young man Suwilanji and the entire supporting production team.
I looked at the venue with interest used for the Junior President grand finale and what immediately caught my attention was that it was the exact venue that actually messed up one of ZNBC’s mega shows, the Born and Bred Awards.
This validates my point that you can use the same venue but what matters is the level of preparation prior to the event.
To be honest, Faith Chitulang’oma and the youthful Suwilanji did their homework so well that they were almost on level terms in their grand finale offering.
The sound was on point, the picture was good and the maturity of the audience in such a corporate event was just something to talk about!
Now, if almost everything was superb, especially as regards sound and picture, why then does this platform still feel there was something that wasn’t properly worked on in order to record a flawless production?
When I gave my opinion of the poor offering of the Born and Bred Awards, I mentioned the great significance of programming time, especially for live shows.
During the 19:00 hours main news, on Sunday anchored by ZNBC Corporate Affairs manager Masuzyo Ndhlovu and Pennipher Nyirenda, it was announced that the 21:00 hours main news would be pushed to 22:00 hours in order to facilitate the live transmission of the Junior President grand finale.
This was the point at which the good production was somewhat flawed.
Time mismanagement was poor with the show ending at 10 minutes past 23:00 hours; an hour later than what was announced.
Knowing the young man behind the production and my good God-fearing lady Faith, I am sure that if they could pull up such an almost perfect debut grand finale of a reality show, they are surely likely to perfect it in the subsequent seasons.
To be clear-cut, everything except time management was without flaw, Suwilanji and the humble Faith must be commended for the job well-done.
I will use the exact advice I gave the Born and Bred production team to the Junior President producers who just by looking at their first production I believe the future is bright.
On time management, as I earlier alluded to, you ought to know that screen time-keeping especially for live shows is an integral part of such live corporate events and that any over-run in time is deemed failure according to broadcasting rules.
When the expected ending time has been well announced as was the case on Sunday, it is even recommended to finish minutes before the stipulated time not otherwise as was the case with Junior President show.
I saw Suwilanji with a tablet in his hands but was not sure if he and Faith were following a written script on the teleprompter or not.
But from the look of things, they were in most occasions using their natural intellect and straying from a written script.
Even though the two might naturally be good presenters, in respect of professionalism and time, they ought to be aided by a written script on a teleprompter.
The script was in this case supposed to confine the two hosts Suwilanji and Faith to a specific timeframe which if put together would add up to one hour.
To cut the monotony, the performances by Nathan Nyirenda and Kings Malembe Malembe were good but unregulated.
Kings’ performance was too long for such a programme more that it was miming. That would have even been easier for the DJ to cut him!
All in all, the production especially that the programme was the first of its kind deserves immense accolades from this platform.
Indicators so far are of a brilliant and even more exciting seasons to come coupled with the prospect of the corporate world’s investment in the programme.
I end here today as I look forward to the exciting Idols SA elimination performance on DStv channel 161.
Let us continue interacting and this platform is asking for your opinion on the Junior President Grand Finale. Email samphiri77@gmail.com  or text to 0962215687 /0955362470