Pascal Oparada
Despite its popularity, the ongoing Big Brother Nigeria, codenamed BBNaija Season 6 Shine Ya Eyes, is nowhere near the English Premier League (EPL) in popularity.
According to data from Google Trends, BBNaija fell flat to EPL in terms of search and popularity among most Nigerians.
In absolute search terms, the English Premier has 100 per cent search compared to BBNaija with no search.
From July, interest in both shows picked up with BBNaija going almost neck-to-neck with EPL until August when the EPL dusted the Nigerian show and zoomed off with 74 per cent search, leaving BBNaija sprawled with 24 per cent.
At the height of BBNaija’s popularity in September, as the grand finale approaches, EPL still towered above the show with 93 per cent.
More Nigerians are talking about the EPL in places like Akwa Ibom, Enugu and Abia states while states like Osun, Edo, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Plateau, Lagos and Delta states are interested in BBNaija.
It is not clear the reason why BBNaija, which has been a talking point in Nigeria recently, performed so woefully in comparison to a foreign show, but analysts believe that EPL is more popular because of the betting involved.
