09 Apr 2024

Some Batswana families will soon appear on our screens in a new television drama called Family Feud Botswana.

The show commences this month and applications from all Batswana families who wish to participate in the drama are welcomed.

It follows a collaborative partnership between government and Steve Harvey Global on the Botswana Ignite project. 

The project seeks to nurture local talent and to foster growth within the television and video production industry.

It will be hosted by Steve Harvey and the shooting will start in August, said Steve Harvey Global chief legal officer, Duncan Irwine, who is also Forge Media chief executive officer.

Irwine, who was speaking at the launch of Botswana Ignite, said the show would be one of the first productions and that two families of five people, with an age limit of 18, would feature in the production.

He added that the production would give Batswana creative students the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of production as they would work with Steve Harvey. 

“We are also going to have an international drama and reality show that we will be shooting in addition to Family Feud,” Irwine said. 

Furthermore, he said Botswana television would also have local productions for game shows, talk shows and kids shows.

He added that three local production companies would be selected to air their work once they had unpacked what they had pitched.

He added that they would be embed with experienced production crews that was relevant to their production. 

He also said they would give them experienced production crews in various aspects. 

“The experienced crew will walk side by side with them all the way through the process,” he said, adding that it included finance, production, structure, running orders, casting and briefing. 

The end goal, Irwine said, was develop one or more of the shows to a standard that could be sold to the wider African market.

Botswana Ignite is a three year project encompassing entertainment and drama production, wildlife film school with integrated programmes and multiple streams that all fed into creating a bigger, better and commercially successful television and film economy in Botswana.

The project will not only focus on improving technical, production and creative skills, but also building business skills and networks as well as aggressively pursuing international production work. Interested families can apply at www.botswanaignite.com. Everyone in the creative industry can also get the latest developments and explore other opportunities associated with the Botswana Ignite project. Ends