The 5th edition of M-Net’s Big Brother Africa will be launched on July 18, just days after the newest World Cup Champions are crowned. With the golden prize of $200,000 up for grabs once mnore, Big Brother fans in over 40 countries across the continent are going to get a show that’s more edgy, more tactically challenging and more intensely strategic than ever. This, M-Net Africa Managing Director, Biola Alabi, who was delighted to make the news official, promised its cherished viewers. “What a great moment this is – to bring back a show that our audience loves for an incredible 5th time. We wanted season 4 (Big Brother Revolution) to be special but it exceeded our hopes. With the volume of interaction the show received from fans, it was clear that season 5 was definitely on the cards. So we’ve been developing what we believe will be thrilling new format changes.” And breaking with tradition, M-Net has announced it won’t be calling for entries for the new show. The company has revealed that having run the series 4 times previously, they’re now head-hunting contestants from a database of previous entries submitted for the show. “We want to invest more broadly in season 5 and having already been introduced to a world of interesting characters from previous searches, there’s limited value in spending extensively in another search for contestants,” says Alabi. “We’ll still be looking for entertaining persons with a sense of humor, a love of adventure and the ability to enjoy the very exciting Big Brother experience. In the past we’ve spent widely to find contestants in 14 countries. This year, we’re using these funds to develop a gutsy new series, recreating the house in a very different way and focusing on putting new technology into place,” She added. This year contestants will once again be drawn from 14 countries – Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Myjoyonline.com