I've just had a chinwag with the winners of Power Couple SA which ended on M-Net on Thursday night and it's highlighted the power of reality TV.
The champs of the show:
30-somethings Emile and Razia Samson who won by public vote. They banked themselves just over half a mil and are obviously thrilled. They partied until late on Thursday night but they were up fresh and breezy on Friday morning to chat about their victory which couldn't have come at a more perfect time for them.
Their win was Meant To Be because there are too many coincidences. Yes-yes, I definitely believe things can be Meant To Be. It's their 10th anniversary this month - on the 24th -
plus they've been together for 17 years this year - on the 17th of this month.
Also, it's clear that the cash is a very big deal for them because they've had a rough time financially. One of their daughters (they have three) needs to have her tonsils out so they're going to do this first because they don't have a medical aid. She's been battling with them for some time so a weight has been lifted for them.
They're going to spend their moolah on sorting out urgent things in their lives and they also want to go on a trip to New York because Razia's never been and she's dying to go.
You can see that they're thick as thieves and the show has made them more so.
Emile: We're definitely more aware that after all this time there's still a need for us to be communicative about how we feel about one another.
Sometimes when you get into a long relationship, you start overlooking those things and you think: ah, we've covered the 'I love you's' and 'You're so beautiful' and 'You look amazing today' because there are kids and work and exams if you're studying distance learning like I am with UNISA, so there's an awareness that the relationship still needs to be focused on. The show's taken us to the next level in our relationship.
What about the cameras? How did they impact on their relationship?
Emile sounded more conscious of them at the start of the show than Razia was but they both soon forgot about them.
Razia: You have to just be yourself and pretend they're not there. When we had our one-on-one interviews... we would make sure that we said whatever we said to the housemates as well. We wouldn't say things behind their backs so that was very important.
Not gonna work on Big Brother but it obviously packed punch for them.