Catching Up with Toke Makinwa on ‘BBNaija: The Buzz’

Vanessa Obioha

It’s nearly a month since the popular reality TV show Big Brother Naija premiered its ninth season and so far, four pairs have been eliminated, alliances have formed and shattered, and the drama is still unfolding. On the streaming platform Showmax, media personality Toke Makinwa elevates the excitement with her show ‘BBNaija: The Buzz.’ Toke dives into the latest gossip, dynamics, and all the juiciest details from the house, engaging with select guests who are passionate fans of the reality TV drama. So far, Toke and her guests have explored the housemates’ relationships, the strategic players, the gossip swirling among them, and other hot topics. We caught up with Toke on set to discuss what it takes to host ‘BBNaija: The Buzz.’ Below are excerpts:

What has been the most intriguing part of hosting the show over the past two seasons and now hosting the third?

It’s watching the viewers warm up to their favs and fight for their favs. Just watching the social experiment of Big Brother come to life is the most intriguing feeling ever.

How involved are you in the creative process and content development of the show? For instance, do you have a say in determining the guests, shaping the narrative, and curating content that attracts and engages the audience?

Everything we see together as a team, we have to go through it. I watch the show a lot so that I don’t miss a thing. We also have a content team, so each morning, we go over what I know and what they know, and we build up a show. I think the Buzz team has the best set of people who actually don’t miss a thing, and we can create a story from the things that we watch and have viewers either agree with us or disagree with us; it’s all part of ‘The Buzz’.

However, I do not determine the guests, to be quite honest, but this season I’m trying as much to know who is coming before they come on the show. There’s a team that is in charge of booking guests, and they love to book not just the show enthusiasts but also celebrities or content creators who are around and who know what is going on in Big Brother House. It is very important for us to have people who are also invested in the show so that each discussion is actually engaging. It’s much more than having guests; it makes up the content that we discuss in the show.

How do you gauge audience engagement? What indicators have you seen that make the audience anticipate the show?

Drama!!! Once, there’s an episode of The Buzz, everyone’s Snickers is in a bunch, and people are arguing. I have a love-hate relationship with the viewers of the show, it’s like a toxic relationship. They hate half of the things we talk about and I always say to them that the fact that your housemate is being discussed shows that your housemate is doing the right thing. Imagine having a fav who’s in the house, and we don’t talk about the person for the entire duration of the show; that means the person is boring, or the person is not worth talking about. But people are very sentimental and you can’t blame them because they’re invested in their fans. They only want to see their fans being portrayed in the right way, and this is a show that is honest and cut-throat, and we literally just say things as it is. So there’s always that, but then we always find a way to love ourselves at the end of Big Brother.

What dynamics in the house do you find most interesting, whether from a gossip perspective or in terms of friendships?

I think friendships over the years have been incredible. Also, there’s always that one person who everybody gravitates towards either for their cooking skills or maybe their people skills or maybe the drama that they bring to the show. So it’s always nice to locate who that person will be every season and to watch how it all unfolds. Sometimes, there’s more than one, and that’s the tipping point of Big Brother. As the house begins to declutter, as Big Brother begins to send people out of his house, the show gets heated, and you get to see people more. There are people who start kind of like boring but towards the end of the show, they’re like the strongest men standing as well. So, it’s an interesting social experience; it just depicts what real life is, to be fair.