Sunday night's
Big Brother All Stars Finale was an event of
epic proportions - so epic that most of the people who attended it haven't slept for two - almost three! - days.
The afterparty followed immediately after the Finale, it ran until 4am and first thing Monday morning everyone had to dash off in different directions: housemates had to do more interviews, press from round the country and continent had to return to their homes; and revellers had to stumble to work, comatose.
In the Finale:
Uti Nwachukwu was announced as winner of the 91-day show, beating
Munya Chidzonga by eight country votes to seven.
The housemates during the announcement of Uti's win.
At the afterparty: all of the previously evicted housemates arrived with bodyguards who hovered round them everywhere, while the five finalist housemates did interviews before joining the party too.
I hit the party for us to gather as much dirt as poss (comin' soon) and got so lost in it (and boozing) that I
didn't know what going on - I had no clue where the interviews were going down. I eventually worked out what was happening and was the last person to interview Uti, at about 1am.
The cool thing about it was that many of the interviews that happened before were like a press conference, whereas we got solo, one-on-one time with him:
Tashi: What questions have you been asked the most tonight?
Uti: Questions about my father's passing and I've been asked to talk about Sheila, yah, those two questions.
Tashi: And what you have said about both?
Uti: With my dad's passing, I've said: "You know what, he gave me strength," I could have left the game but I pulled myself together and said: 'Okay, you have to take control right now.'
Of course the production did give me a choice to go for the funeral and come back and I accepted that but, as life would have it, there was flooding in my home town and so they had to postpone the funeral to November.
For me, I just said: "You know what, the last thing I told my dad before I left was that I was coming back here and he told me that I had all it took to get to the Finale so the minute the news came out I felt like leaving, but then I thought: "You know what? I'm gonna do this for my dad.'"
Tashi: And Sheila?
Uti: She's an amazing women (*me obviously thinking: "boyish too... do you like boys??"). In the house we said we're going to talk about it - you know you can't say what you want to say, so we both agreed not take it further in the house, so y'll got to wait and see.
Tashi: Did you see everything that she got up in the house?
Uti: Yaaaaah.
Tashi: Are you sure?
Uti: Yah, they showed us highlights of the barn and everything and I was like: "
Whoa."
Tashi: No, no, I'm not talking about the barn - I'm talking about what happened in the house, under your nose.
Uti: Oh yeah, I was like: "She's a very free spirit,"
Tashi: What do you think I'm talking about?
Uti: I don't know, what are you talking about?
Tashi: A Friday night ... with Mwisho - and Meryl?
Uti: Oh no, that was just Sheila being a free spirit.
Tashi: So you knew about it?
Uti: I did know - it's nothing serious for her, I dont know the extent of it but I don't think she went too far - it was just a little fun moment in the house where was just being silly.
Tashi: So you're actually saying that you found her liason with Meryl hott?
Uti: It wasn't hott, it was just like: "Wow."
Tashi: Why do you think you won?
Uti: I don't know, honestly, I don't know. I can't answer that question - the only answer I have in my mind is that I must have done something that Africa can relate to.
Tashi: Did you have a strategy?
Uti: No, I went in to have fun and to be my true self. The only thing I did - I don't know if you'd call it a strategy - I resorted to playing mind games. I enjoyed playing mind games.
Tashi: Like with K1?
Uti: Yah, with K1, with Mwisho - I played mind games a lot and laughed.
Tashi: And a lot of people took it seriously?
Uti: Yah, that's what made me laugh more.
Tashi: Who did you think your biggest competitor was?
Uti: Everybody, everybody was strong.
Tashi: Who did you think was gonna win - you must have thought about it?
Uti: For me, I said it could be anybody - you know what, I thought: "So long as I'm at the Finale," - that was my target.
Tashi: If you'd been a viewer, who would you have voted for?
Uti: I don't know, honestly I don't know. I love all of them, they're sweet, wonderful human beings - I love all of them. I'd have been torn, I mean there was my best friend - my BFF Mwisho, my female BFF Lerato and of course my person Sheila. It could have been any of them.
Tashi: Seeing Munya stay in and in and in after being up for eviction so many times - didn't you think he stood a very good chance?
Uti: I did think maybe, but then again, most people hadn't been up as he was - if Mwisho had been up nine times maybe he would have survived nine times, if I'd been up nine times maybe I'd have been up nine times.
Out of us I really thought it could have been anybody, I was like: "You know what, let's just see how it goes."
Tashi: What are you gonna do with the cash?
Uti: Aaaaaai, I don't know yet. My head's still up in the clouds, I haven't thought about exactly what I'm gonna do - when I get home I'm gonna talk to my family, pray and everything, come back down to earth.
Uti's arrival at the afterparty. He arrived at about 11pm, everyone made a line for him to walk down, he spoke to party goers on stage and then went to do interviews.
Tashi: What you've won, $200 000, is much bigger than any other season, or reality show.
Uti: Yes, it's great.
Tashi: I always wonder with reality shows - when you get handed that giant-size cheque for show, you obviously can't really deposit it but are you gonna actually see it going into your bank account? Will you be sitting at your computer logged into your internet banking to watch the cash go in - like they do in the movies?
Uti: *laughs* Probably, probably and be saying "Okay -
balance, okay -
balance." It hasn't only been about the money for me, it's been about proving a point.
I was third out in my season and all my supporters, like my dad, wanted to see me go further. This season was about my fans, my supporters, my family - I was doing not only for me, but for me and everybody else.
Tashi: You've done it twice, would you do it again?
Uti: You know, after my first season they asked me and I said: "No, unless I'm a visitor," but here I am again. So maybe if they do a Winner All Stars and the prize money is one million dollars, hell yeah *laughs*.
Tashi: What do you think of the idea of having a year's Big Brother?
Uti: A
year?
Tashi: Yes. One housemate could be evicted every month. Would you do it?
Uti: Ayyyyyyy, never, never, never. People would go crazy, no-no-no-no-no. It would be too much. Three months already is stressful but a year.
Tashi: What was the biggest stress of the time?
Uti: I guess towards the end of the game, just saying: "Could this be over," because most of the people have left, and you really feel like you're in competition.
Tashi: What's going to be the best thing about having so much money?
Uti: I'm going to be secure now, I won't have to think about surviving - I've been given a great opportunity, a great gift and I'm not going to waste it. I can have a home, I can be comfortable, I don't have to worry, grovel or whatever.
Tashi: What's the most difficult thing going to be?
Uti: Everybody expecting me to be a ... what word would you use? ...to be a money-player, because people will expect things and want me to be overly-generous. I have an open heart and I have a difficult time saying no.
Tashi: Now you won't have to work for a very long time so what are you going to do?
Uti: No I do have to work, I still have to work.
Tashi: Oh? I wouldn't work.
Uti: Naaaaaa-hahaaaaaa - yah, I wanna take some time out but I'm an actor, I enjoy the screen.
Tashi: That's what you'd ultimately like to do - an acting job?
Uti: Mmmm, like get a role in a series like Heroes, or be in an epic movie that's worldwide, something very dramatic, something that challenges me in acting, like playing a physcho or someone mentally challenged or very sad or coked out. Something very deep and action filled. I've got to get those Oscars.
Tashi: What was your lowlight on the show?
Uti: Obviously when I heard the news about my dad. When Sheila left, when Lerato left 'cos then point I didn't know that there was another house - I suspected after a while.
Tashi: What made you suspect that there was another house?
Uti: I don't know ... I thought that they wouldn't just let people go like that, esepcially the strong people, I was like: "Something's up." So those were low times before I suspected.
Tashi: And your highlight - besides winning?
Uti: The arena tasks, they were wonderful. All the moments of laughing, telling jokes, making fun of people, just laughing and laughing.
EndsMoolah facts:
$200 000 on Monday, 18 October 2010 = 30,528,002 Naira (Nigerian dollars); and R1,369,840.
If Munya had won he'd have won: 72,380,000 Zimbabwean dollars.