BBNaija's 'Kayode' Opens Up On How, When Camera Is Taken Away From Housemate, Activities

The name Kayode is not strange to social media users especially fans of the Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) reality show who go either Twitter or Instagram to rant when the camera is taken away from a particular housemate or activities they are interested in.

Gbenga Kayode, the Series Director for Big Brother Naija Lockdown edition has worked on previous seasons of BBNaija (‘See Gobe’, ‘Double Wahala’ and ‘Pepper Dem’) and now, Lockdown edition.

Even though many do not know him physically, he is the most popular of the show's production team as Nigerians sometimes wake up to see Kayode trending on Twitter for one reason or the other.

In an exclusive obtained online, Kayode opened up on moments the show goes on commercial breaks during interesting scenes.

According to him, the commercial breaks are usually scheduled a day before the broadcast, and coming in during interesting moments are coincidental.

He said "Interestingly, the commercial breaks are scheduled a day before the broadcast. It is just unfortunate that with the nature of the show being an unscripted reality, some drama simply unfolds on a scheduled commercial break. We try to manage the events we can control. For instance, when the housemates are in the middle of a task, Big Brother may ask them to freeze or take a break, this is often because we have a scheduled commercial break coming up. In the end, these breaks are necessary for our sponsors to showcase their brands.

On how to decide what the audience sees, Kayode said "Well, we have three things that guide the process. One, we have a strict editorial guideline. This is in line with the Nigerian Broadcast Code. Some content is restricted, and we must respect that guideline. Two, we endeavour to follow the story. This is an unscripted reality, meaning that we never know when a story will unfold, and must therefore be on our toes to capture a moment as soon as it breaks.

"Finally, we have a strictly internal process that guides the time allocated for each housemate. This process ensures that each housemate has an exact number of minutes or hours of exposure on air. This ensures that no single vocal housemate gets more screen time than any other housemate. It prevents what we call screen hogging."

Kayode oversees the overall creative, technical output, and the actual show content.