Touted as Ghana’s television station that is first in news and best in entertainment, TV3, after happenings in the last week–should be aptly tagged as the ‘first in news, first to mess you up.’
The station has over the years been able to make its base the home of reality television shows, taking advantage of the craze in audience affinity to reality TV to cash in and making most of its reality-based shows ‘cash cows’ at the expense of the unsuspecting viewing public and the hapless contestants.
It has rolled out a deluge of reality shows, some successful, some ridiculous – ‘Mentor, Dance Fever, Bands Alive, Talented Kids, Ghana’s Most Beautiful, The Pulpit, Celebrations, and Looking For Love have all attained airtime on the station.
Unfortunately, TV3 leaves most winners of its numerous reality shows disgruntled, dejected and desperate. Here, afrovibez presents a list of winners of some TV3 reality shows who were given raw deals with respect to their well-deserved awards.
Prince (Mentor 1): The first winner of the successful Mentor 1 show, as part of his cash prize and a record deal, was also promised a UK trip together with his fellow finalists. His record deal with Family Tree ended as swiftly as it started with the release of a forgettable single and the UK trip never materialized. TV3 cited poor communication and sponsors reneging on promise as excuse for not taking the winner and finalists to UK.
Kesse (Mentor 4): Before he wowed audience at the ‘Project Fame’ music reality show in Nigeria where he placed an impressive 2nd position and before he stepped up to receive the Best Male vocalist for Ghana Music Awards 2012, the chap via his mother chided the TV station severely in the media for not living up to all the mouth-watering promises made to her lad.
Lee Stone (Mentor 6): Lee Stone, affectionately called Stone, was so flustered and livid about the TV Station’s ill-treatment meted out to him; he is on record as the only winner to openly lambast the station for its failed promises. “It was painful to anticipate something and you end up being disappointed,” he blurted. Stone went to discourage others from getting entangled in the fake promises of TV3. He bellowed, “To the people who are interested in Mentor, if it’s the record deal you want please do not bother your head, but if it’s something else, then you may participate.”
Lamisi Sam Awinongya (GMB 2009): There was media uproar when Mariam Abdul Rauf aka Nasara was stripped off her Ghana’s Most Beautiful Crown for allegedly stealing a mobile phone in UK. The crown was supposedly handed over to the runner-up Lamisi Sam, who took over the reign as queen. Shockingly, after 5 years of being crowned winner of the pageant, Lamisi dropped a bombshell – “TV3 used me because when the issue of Nasara came up, TV3 never informed me personally,” she muttered. She lamented that she did not receive any prize or crown from TV3 to confirm her as queen and all her efforts to get them to support her Road Safety project which she started as queen proved futile.
Emmanuel Owusu Asiedu (Talented Kidz 2): As the ultimate winner of the competition in April 2010, Emmanuel, then a primary 5 pupil of Ann’s Preparatory School, North Kaneshie was promised a two-week educational trip to UK courtesy Travelite Travel and Tour, one of the sponsors of Talented Kids. After two years of no show, the father had to take the ‘fight’ to the media until the station made some effort in ensuring the kid made the trip.
Kosmos Boako, Tutulapato (Talented Kidz 4): Arguably the most popular kid in the series, Tutulapato turned out to be the winner alright but he seems to be the most unlucky and the most poorly-treated winner. His promised UK trip went down the gutters after some flippant excuses came from TV3 and his prize money has been ‘confiscated’ for 10 years. The young talented rapper with such promise seemed to be moving from grass to grace and back to the withering grass.
