Globacom’s latest empowerment initiative, Glo Battle of the Year Nigeria reality TV show premiered on Saturday night on GloTV, the company’s mobile streaming app to glowing reviews and overwhelmingly positive sentiments online.

The first episode focused on the audition and elimination rounds and one of the stand-out performers was BBoy Prym whose dexterity was applauded in the comments section while Episode 2 was drama filled as crew members and siblings battled one another to get ahead.

As we countdown to Episode 3, this piece looks at what the show means from a numbers standpoint.

October 13, 2021 was launch date: The Glo Battle of the Year Nigeria reality tv show was launched on October 13, 2021 with a call for entries. The company describes the response as massive and overwhelming. “Since we kicked off the “call for entry” phase of the Glo Battle of the Year Nigeria competition, we have been amazed by the response we received. The array of Nigerian talents we have seen has been nothing short of exceptional and we are excited to show the world the quality of dance talents and entertainment Nigeria has.”

Auditions were held in 6 venues across 7 dance categories: Dancers and their crews came out in large numbers to take part in the auditions and elimination rounds which held in six different cities – Abuja, Kaduna, Benin, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Lagos. There were tears of joy and pain as many saw their dreams atrophy before they had fully formed, but win or lose, it was clear that whether breakdancing or krumping or locking they all had mad skills.

1 episode down, 12 more to go: Did you miss the premiere episode on February 5, 2022 which ran on GloTV, Globacom’s streaming app? Well, don’t beat yourself up. The Glo Battle of the Year Nigeria reality TV show will run for another 12 weeks so there is plenty of time to play catch up and enjoy all the exciting dance floor actions. Check out highlights that are posted daily on social media or click on GloTv and watch again and again.

13 Judges will help pick winners: As contestants battling it out for a chance to win mega-millions in the Glo Battle of Year Nigeria reality TV show, there will be 13 dance icons, award winners and experts in their various fields drawn from across the world to help decide who stays on and who drops off. The judges include Menno from the Netherlands, BGirl Manuela from Germany and BBoy Poxxy from Cameroun. Others are BBoy Gidnasty, Locking Si’on and Izzy Odigie from Nigeria/USA. The rest are Nigerian based JC Jedor, Poco Lee, Pinkie Debby, Frank Okwara, Big Flow, MaxBuck and Dunamis from Nigeria.

1,542 entries received from around Nigeria: Auditions are necessary for separating the chaff from the wheat but sometimes, especially as was the case with the Glo Battle of the Year Nigeria reality tv show, it gets pretty hard making that distinction but some had to progress while others had to drop off. In all, 1,200 dancers took part in the auditions with 168 (28 from each city) progressing to the next rounds.

Over 200 men and women involved in the production: For a massive production stretching over 6 cities with the semi-finals and finals billed as live recordings in Lagos, the Glo Battle of the Year Nigeria reality TV show is a massive undertaking providing employment to hundreds of Nigerians. Over 200 production crew members are working on the show from camera men to sound men, events coordinators to logistics managers, editors to graphics designers, security to medical personnel. This is a massive undertaking with Globacom as sponsor.

How much is involved?: At Globacom it’s all about empowering Nigerians so it’s never about the money but it is important to take a look at what Glo must be shelling out to produce this 13 episode reality TV show through which the company hopes to empower young Nigerians who want to make it to the top as dancers. There is the cost of production, of paying crews, buying air time for broadcasting the show on terrestrial and cable TV then the mega millions that winners will go home with. Add it all together and you are looking at something hoooooooooooge as they say on the streets.

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