The obligatory reality show voting fiasco has hit The Voice South Africa and this season it's about paid-for boosts on social media.
In the first season the voting lines crashed during the finale while the final four were engaged in their showdown for the win and this season the shambles has to do with money.
According to M-Net, they have reason to suspect that some of the finalists have been paying for social media boosts. As you'll see, they don't mention who and they clearly don't have the proof to disqualify them.
This is the statement they released on Tuesday night (27 June) before the voting lines closed for the week:
M-Net has decided that none of the five remaining talent in The Voice SA will be going home this coming Sunday. In addition, M-Net has also given Luke Lovemore and PJ Pretorius, who received the fewest votes in the previous two weeks, the option to return to the show. As such, the voting lines have been closed.
The decision was made in the interests of fairness and transparency, after M-Net was alerted about alleged paid-for marketing efforts (boosted posts) on some talent’s personal social media accounts.
Paid-for marketing, which is against the rules of the competition, can cause voting spikes which could provide an unfair advantage. This prompted M-Net to conduct an investigation into the way in which these efforts could have affected the outcome of the voting results.
It was ascertained that only the past two voting periods, in which Luke Lovemore and PJ Pretorius left the competition, could have been affected.
“Despite our best efforts, we could not determine with certainty whether misconduct took place and what the impact was on the voting results. We believe the fairest solution under these circumstances is to give all the affected talent another chance,” says Nkateko Mabaso, GM for M-Net South Africa. “The Voice SA has proved to be an excellent platform for launching the careers of new singing talent and we would like encourage our viewers to continue to vote for their favourites”.
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Will you continue voting?