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Sanpoulus Maplanka

Ngqwele Dube, Showbiz Correspondent
AUDITIONS for a new reality series, Inside Out, received an overwhelming response in Bulawayo with over 100 prospective participants turning up at a local hotel on Friday and Saturday.

The series, which has concepts similar to Big Brother, is set to start airing on ZTV in January with auditions set to be held countrywide.

Sanpoulus Maplanka, co-producer of the show, said 120 people made it for the auditions and they are looking forward to seeing more people as they continue with the selection process that ends on Sunday in Harare.

He said they were also impressed with the quality of the participants saying judges are certain to have a hard time choosing the finalists.

“It was a good turnout and I’m sure it will be a hard task for the judges to select those that will make it to the second round of the auditions.

“We had 19 questions that we asked the participants and most bordered on personality as we sought credible characters,” he said.

The auditions moved to Gweru on Sunday and today the team will be in Masvingo for more at Chevron Hotel up until tomorrow. From there, they will be in Mutare (African Sun Amber Hotel) wrapping up in Harare at the Rainbow Towers starting on Friday ending on Sunday.

Maplanka said miscommunication saw several prospective participants being turned away from the hotel on Saturday morning adding those still interested should contact them for rescheduling.

After the auditions, 26 participants (13 male and 13 female) will be selected to take a road trip viewing local tourist sites. All their activities will be filmed.

Just like Big Brother, viewers will be tasked to save their favourite contestants by voting to keep them. Afterwards, the winners of the three-month series will be awarded with cash prizes worth $40 000.

The participants will be required to live with each other in a Nomads Style tour truck as it travels around famous tourist attractions around Zimbabwe, sleeping in tents and camps along the way.

The show is produced by Sanhci Productions.