Inside the reality TV showdown

👋 Good afternoon! Art Week is still in full swing, and Lagos is having one of its artsier moments. If you’re in the city, there's still time to wander through galleries, discover new artists, admire a few beautiful things, and pretend you know exactly what’s going on in contemporary art. And if you’re not stepping out, don't worry. We've squeezed a little culture into your inbox. Let's get into it!

In this edition: This Week in Culture, an interview with a designer, will Love Island dethrone Big Brother Naija, New Music Friday, and more.

If you’re enjoying this, don’t forget to subscribe and join The Juice community. We’re building this together ♡.

Shalom Tewobola,
Editor.

🗞️ THIS WEEK IN CULTURE

🎵 MUSIC

Adekunle Gold has announced his highly anticipated headline concert, The Greatest Showman, returning this December to the National Theatre in Lagos. After making history as the first Nigerian act to perform at and sell out the newly renovated 3,560-capacity venue, he'll return this time with live backing from the legendary MUSON Orchestra alongside his signature band, The 79th Element.

The presale tickets already sold out instantly, and with the general sale opening today, we just know this show is locked in to be just as electric as last year’s performance!

📽️ FILM

The Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) kicked off its milestone 15th edition this week, with highly anticipated film selections, screenings, and panel discussions over the last few days. The festival is set to reach its climax tomorrow, Saturday, November 7th, with the prestigious Globe Awards ceremony, where nominated films stand a chance to sweep multiple categories.

However, the major talking point of the week was the tech crowd trying to convince everyone that AI should stand a chance in moviemaking.

📚 LITERATURE

Akwaeke Emezi is returning with a tenth career book, an epic fantasy titled Eclipse & the Wolf. Announcing a local publishing partnership with Masobe Books, the author officially unveils the novel’s cover art.

The story is set in a world of dark blood magic and intense political tension, and follows rival clan heirs, Eclipse and Wolf, as they navigate risky alliances and power struggles to save a collapsing city. The standalone book is scheduled to hit bookstores on February 2, 2027.

🎟️EVENT

With the early December spirit already in the air, Lagos is completely coming alive this week as CANEX WKND, ART X, and GTCO Fashion Weekend take over the city.

This massive, back-to-back celebration of contemporary art, design, and fashion is overwhelming, but easily the ideal playground for creatives. Don't miss out on the action; be sure to tell a friend to tell a friend!

⚡TRENDING

It has been two months since Uber abruptly ended its operations in Nigeria, and since then, getting a ride in Lagos has been absolute hell. To make matters worse, remaining apps like inDrive keep rolling out frustrating policies: this time explicitly declaring "zero liability" to shield themselves from any responsibility toward drivers or passengers while also locking prices so they can no longer be adjusted.

With the chaotic energy of Detty December right around the corner, commuting has completely transformed into a stressful chore. Now, what do the people do?

PARTNER MESSAGE

ArtX Lagos Returns for Its 11th Edition

Another edition of ART X is upon us! Lagos is welcoming another celebration of contemporary African art as ART X Lagos returns for its 11th edition, bringing together artists, galleries, collectors, and art lovers from across Africa and its diaspora.

Running from November 5th to 8th, 2026, at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, this year's fair is all about different expressions of contemporary art through painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, and digital art.

There’s plenty to anticipate across the four days. Friday, November 6th, opens with a schools’ programme before the VIP Preview and Opening Night, offering guests an early look at this year’s exhibitions.

On Saturday, November 7th, the fair opens to the public, with ART X Talks, the Development Forum, a special screening and conversation on Ladi Kwali, and then ART X Live, which brings experimental music and visual art together until late into the night.

Sunday, November 8th, rounds things off with the ART X ICON Masterclass and ART X Cinema, featuring screenings and conversations celebrating Nigerian cinema, including a discussion on 100 years of Nigerian cinema and a screening of Mothers of Chibok with its director, Kachi Benson.

Whether you're an art enthusiast or simply curious about the stories and creativity poured into contemporary African art, there's plenty to explore! Tickets can be gotten here!

MAIN SQUEEZE

With Obasola, There’s Proof That Design’s Not Dead

Obasola Akintola has designed for brands, but aside from his client work, he has also built Design’s Not Dead, a growing community creating room for designers to learn, connect, and have conversations about the industry. From teaching and exploring other creative spaces to finding new ways to bring Nigerian culture into his work, Obasola is building a career that goes beyond design.

In this interview, he talks about community building, creative evolution, and why he believes creatives shouldn't be confined to one lane.

You’re a big name in design, but beyond your work, you’ve built a community that people look to for learning and inspiration. How did that community building start, and what has it taken to sustain it?

Honestly, it didn’t start as “community building.” It started with me just showing my work and talking about how I think, in my own voice, not some polished LinkedIn version of me.

People started asking questions, then DMing, then showing up. At some point it was obvious a lot of us wanted a space to talk about design properly, not just post and scroll. That’s how Design’s Not Dead happened. We’re on the third edition now, and this forthcoming one (November 14) is about AI and design slop, because that’s the conversation everybody is having in private anyway.

Sustaining it has taken more work than starting it. You have to keep showing up when it’s not exciting: sorting tickets, answering the same question for the tenth time. And you have to keep giving.

Talks, workshops like the one I did at UDC on African visual identity, teaching through Dreamax, sitting with junior designers on small things like why a logo disappears on a low-contrast banner. Community isn’t an audience. It’s infrastructure, and infrastructure needs maintenance.

You’ve designed for brands like Cowrywise and Chowdeck, worked on Hilda Baci’s Cookathon, and contributed to the film House of Gaa. What does each new project demand from you that the previous one didn’t?

Each one moved a different muscle. Cowrywise taught me to make money feel human. Fintech is serious, but people still want warmth, so things like illustrating Gifts by Cowrywise or leading brand work on the Stocks launch were about making something intimidating feel approachable.

Chowdeck is a different speed entirely. Food is emotional, and the timeline is now now. One week it’s a campaign, the next it’s bags on Big Brother Naija, then a jersey launch with Shooting Stars. It demands speed without losing taste.

The Cookathon demanded speed, execution, and cultural appropriation. House of Gaa pulled me into storytelling at a different scale, where design has to serve a world and a period, dealing with new tools and understanding the reason behind the cultural references. So every project asks me to drop some of what made me good at the last one.

Moving between something like fintech, logistics, and entertainment means constantly entering completely different worlds. Has moving between industries changed the way you think about design, or do you find yourself bringing the same design principles into them?

Both. The principles travel: know who you’re talking to, say one thing clearly, and make it feel like it belongs to the culture it’s in. What changes is the dialect. Fintech needs trust, so you earn it with restraint.

Food delivery needs appetite and noise, so you can be louder and funnier. Entertainment needs feeling. Moving between them has made me less precious about “my style.” My style is the thinking, not the colours.

Is there a part of design you feel you’ve outgrown, or a direction you’re still trying to push yourself towards?

I think I’ve outgrown designing just to make things look nice. Pretty is the starting point now, not the goal. Where I’m pushing is design that feels unmistakably from here without leaning on the obvious symbols. That’s what the UDC workshop was about, and it’s why I loved working on Sounds of Lagos with Peter, turning the loudness and quietness of the city into danfo-style type.

Also, design is meant to bring value, provide revenue, and profit to the brand. I want to keep pushing into work that sits between design, sound, motion, and space –the kind of thing people experience, not just scroll past. Teaching is another direction. Putting my process into a course forced me to understand it better myself.

You’ve also explored things outside design, including modelling. What keeps you curious about trying different creative spaces?

Curiosity is the job, abeg. Modelling showed me what being on the other side of the camera feels like, how directors and stylists think, how much a brief changes when you’re the subject.

The way I decide is simple: will this teach me something I can’t learn sitting in Figma? If yes, I’m interested. If it’s just for the aesthetic of doing many things, I pass. Everything I try ends up feeding the design anyway.

For someone who has built such a broad body of work, how do you keep yourself from repeating the same ideas? Where do you go when you feel creatively stuck?

I get out of design. The world in itself is my biggest reference. Lagos is also a library I have: danfos, signboards, market noise, how people actually talk. Music helps, R&B especially.

I also watch a lot of things outside my lane; animated shows like BoJack Horseman and Rick and Morty are smarter about storytelling than half the brand decks out there. And when I’m stuck, I talk to my people. Community isn’t only something I give to; it’s where I go to get unstuck. Someone always sees what you’ve stopped seeing.

For creatives who feel pressured to find one niche and stay there, what has your own career taught you about choosing between becoming known for one thing and allowing yourself to evolve?

Be known for how you think, not for one category of output. People thought of me as a fintech designer, then a food brand guy, then an events person, but the through-line has always been the same: culture-first work with personality.

A niche can be a starting point; it just shouldn’t become a cage. Go deep enough in something to earn trust, then let yourself evolve. The industry will catch up with you. And if you’re intentional about showing your work along the way, people will follow the evolution instead of getting confused by it.

🔪 THE PEEL

Will Love Island Dethrone Big Brother Naija?

The discourse

On Sunday, a link to Love Island applications circulated on Twitter. Before long, official social media pages had been created, confirming that the reality TV show, which originated in the UK and has since expanded to 28 countries, is coming to Nigeria.

This is the show’s second African edition after South Africa (2021). While some audiences are excited about its arrival, others are sceptical of how the show's format will translate into the country's cultural environment.

Besides these, there is a more interesting one. Nigeria already has Big Brother Naija (BBN), a reality TV franchise with an established audience. Could Love Island overtake BBN in the Nigerian space? And if so, why? If not, what could stand in its way?

We spoke with people who follow both shows and the reality TV scene to understand what they make of its arrival and whether the two franchises can coexist.

Peeling it back

The discussion around whether Love Island will survive in Nigeria may have answered itself. Think back to the advent of Gulder Ultimate Search, the return of Big Brother Naija in 2017, The Real Housewives of Lagos, cooking shows and other reality TV formats.

These shows have attracted audiences willing to participate and join the conversations around them. There are even other local versions, such as Framma House Experience, a low-budget BBN-style reality show that took place in Akure.

Oreoluwa, a Love Island fan of three years, believes both shows can have their own audiences. She says younger viewers may be spread between them, while more millennials and older viewers are inclined to stay with Big Brother. For Love Island, she believes there is already an established market.

Tobiloba, who has voted since the second edition of BBN, is less convinced about the show's staying power. He says, "Everyone is tired of Big Brother, especially Season 11 that ran recently, with hardly anybody being able to point out the housemates that were in the house, unlike previous seasons where a considerable number of housemates are known.

Even the finale was anticlimactic, with interesting tapes from previous seasons resurfacing instead. Remember that in 2020, when Laycon won the fifth season, the show gathered about 60% of the votes for the guy alone; I'm sure that was the organizers' biggest hit in terms of engagement and votes. Their time is fast spent, and with Love Island [about to launch here]? Bye bye."

Another BBN devotee, Esther, has a different concern. She fears Love Island's international profile could give its participants an advantage over BBN housemates, particularly when it comes to brand deals and other opportunities. She worries that people may eventually lose interest in applying for Big Brother, suggesting that the show should go back to the drawing board or find a way to collaborate or do a crossover.

Another layer

Aside from the likely competition, there is also the issue of cultural acceptance. There will always be differences between how Western audiences see certain things and how we, as a country and continent, approach them.

When viewers watch Love Island's international editions, they may accept certain dressing choices, a wide range of relationship dynamics, and the freedom with which contestants participate in different activities. But when it comes to watching people who share their race and cultural background, the reaction can change. Some viewers are more willing to judge, attack, and even shame contestants for similar behaviour.

Will Nigerian contestants be held to a different standard because they are being watched by people who share their cultural environment?

"There will definitely be ridiculous takes from different angles. I need the participants to have extra thick skin, thicker than ex-BBN housemates even," says Josephine, another BBN fan. Oreoluwa insists that nobody cares what people think, whether they watch or not. As she puts it, “No one is forcing their camels to the pond.”

Love Island's Nigerian participants may therefore have to navigate expectations that differ from those placed on contestants in its international editions. The same viewers excited about the show could also become its harshest critics.

The conversations surrounding its arrival also extend beyond the show itself. Nigeria's elections are fast approaching, with January 16 set as election day. Concerns have been raised about the timing of the application process, the show's launch and its eventual broadcast, with some questioning whether a major entertainment production around an election period could draw attention away from civic participation.

The BBN fans we spoke to read it differently. Tobiloba finds the idea grossly ridiculous, while Josephine points to voter apathy as the main reason people stay away from the polls. For both, the reasons behind political disengagement were there long before Love Island.

That does not make the timing question go away. Whether or not a reality show moves turnout, it will compete for attention when public attention is already divided.

The core

Love Island will find an audience in Nigeria, but it is unlikely to overtake Big Brother Naija. The more likely outcome is that the two coexist. Even Tobiloba, who thinks Big Brother's time is running out, is a reminder that being exhausted and still maintaining loyalty can work.

Eventually, Love Island will have to do more than introduce a familiar international format to local screens. It’ll need contestants viewers can connect with, conversations that keep them interested, and a format that can hold its own in the Nigerian entertainment space. It does not need to replace BBN to succeed. It needs to give audiences a reason to make room for it.

🎵 PRESSED BY THE JUICE