Why my talkshow is diferrent from others -Nike Oshinowo

Nike Oshinowo

Presently, there is so much going on for former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, former pageant director and Chief Executive Officer of AOE Events & Entertainment Limited, Nike Oshinowo.

After she successfully hosted Season One of her talk show, Late Night with Nike Oshinowo, the entrepreneur is currently hosting Season Two and adjusting some

concepts to make Season Three the best of them all. In this interview with ADA DIKE, the former beauty queen sheds light on the importance of her talk show and why she stopped hosting Miss Nigeria, among others.

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Last year, you started a talk show, Late Night with Nike Oshinowo. Can you tell us how it was conceptualized?

To some people, it’s like I woke up one day and decided to start a late night talk show. I promise you, it was not like that. I took a whole year to put it together. It was a lot of work and as you can see from when you watched the show, you’d see the quality and a lot of work that went into it.

The inspiration for the show really was from television, that is, watching TV and knowing what I would like to be watching on TV, and it was not there.  Let’s face it; Nigerian TV can be quite boring. There is not much interesting programmes after the soap opera and the news. So I wanted viewers to learn a lot and get informed from watching one show as we laugh, dance, sing, have frank conversations (sometimes serious and sometimes not too serious) and so on, on the show.  There should always be something to learn from it. That was the reason I started the show.

Having watched your talk show on two occasions, I felt you only feature celebrities. Who are your target audience?

Yeah! You probably have watched two episodes, and there were celebrities on those episodes. We have had politicians, celebrities. comedians, musicians, fashion designers, women that I admire, children, stylists, sex experts, educationalists, authors and publishers, among others. So we have wide range of people on our show. Depending on the episode you are watching, there can be celebrities or not.

As you have started Season Two, what steps have you taken to make the show more interesting in order to increase viewership?

We have done Season One, which was successful. We are now on Season Two.  Last week Thursday, we did Episode Five of Season Two. We are not even half way through Season Two yet, we have already embarked on the concept for Season Three.

We are going to start raising funds for Season Three soon. It is a process. There are a lot of things I will like to, not change but tweak a little bit because we are about to improve, develop and change the show. So we are going to change things a little bit.

Nike Oshinowo on set with 2Face Idibia

In what area are you changing some things on the show?

The team and I met on Monday last week. We are looking at the set. We are looking at tweaking the actual show. We are even looking at the time for the show, whether to continue with the 30 minutes duration or go for an hour. We are looking at different things to change about it.

The show is presently being aired on one station. Do you have any plan to air it on other channels?

I know it is new in Nigeria. Everywhere else in the world, when you have a show like that, it is attached to a network. In Nigeria, we don’t really think in terms of network. In America, you are either attached to CNBC or ABC. I like to do things properly, so I attached myself to a network that has a huge audience and that is not influenced by government or partisan. That is how I came up with Africa Independent Television (AIT). I needed that reach and that is what they gave me. I am very happy with the station. For the time being, AIT and I do not have plans to divorce (laughs).  We are very happily married for the time being.

What are the challenges you normally face while producing and hosting Late Night with Nike Oshinowo?

In the course of producing the show, there are challenges or hiccups that usually occur, but it is not my job to fix them. Once we start producing, I am the talent. I am not part of the production team who sort hiccups out.

Guests normally show up and we record the show. There has never been any disappointment, though there have been challenges. People are very happy to come on the show.

You studied Politics in the University.

Yes I did.

Nike Oshinowo

Do you have any plans to contest for any elective post in Nigeria in future?

I live in Nigeria. You can’t live in Nigeria and be not involved in politics in one way or the other. Nigeria is a political terrain. Everyday, that you decide which way to turn to, you are doing politics. What I like is that Late Night with Nike Oshinowo gives me a platform to explore the Nigerian political terrain through my view and the views of my guests. So for now, I think that it is a lot of influence. We have a lot of people here, and so many of them are watching my show. When you want to contest in an election, I will happily support you and invite you to the show.

How do you source for fund for your show?

We have sponsors. We put proposals together and sent them to corporate Nigeria. We also do presentations and if they like it, they come on board.

Do you have any new project apart from the Season Three?

Sure! We always have new projects. I always think of new projects. And once I do, I share it with my team and we look at it to see if there is a space for it in our calendar.  If there is, then it goes to the next developmental stage. But Late Night with Nike Oshinowo is here to stay forever.

You are a former Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (won in 1990 but crowned in 1991), people rejoiced when they heard that you have bought Miss Nigeria franchise from its former organizers, Daily Times . What went wrong?

Nothing went wrong. From the start, my agreement with Daily Times was three years, and once you are done, it is over. Within those three years, I was able to host two beauty pageants because it takes a year to do a pageant.

Why didn’t you renew the contract?

I was done with that, that is why I did not renew it.

Do you have any plans to start a new beauty pageant?

You must have a daughter that wants to contest (laughs).

This is because some young girls will want you to mentor them.

There are a lot of ways to mentor the youth. It could be through pageant or show that I am doing. In all the projects that I embark on, I am either promoting Nigeria or mentoring, and it is a very important facet of who I am. In Nigeria, you cannot live your life as if you don’t have the responsibility to mentor people. A lot of people look up to you and it is a responsibility I welcome wholeheartedly.

Do you have a message for your viewers?

I didn’t even know that this was a message I was trying to deliver through the show. Recently, I watched the whole of Season One (13 episodes) in a go and I realised that I had a message I was sending to Nigerians, by extension to Africans and further, to the world, which is, success is a success wherever you find it. You can be a successful reporter, and that should be acceptable to the world. You don’t need to be a doctor or lawyer to be successful. You can be the most successful technician. The message is for parents to let their children be. Let them come out of themselves, discover themselves and embrace different opportunities available for them. Don’t let our youths limit themselves to what their parents want them to be. This “my parents would be disappointed if I am not this” has been a reoccurring theme in Season One and Season Two of my talk show.

Another message that I noticed is that, inadvertently, one important message is that, your destiny is yours, no one can it away from you. That is why an episode with Ice Prince was a big deal for me. After his father had passed on, he got an admission to study in the University but his mother could not pay his school fees. He joined the choir. Then his first musical attempt was a huge success. We danced and sang it on my show. If it is in your destiny to be number one, you will be number one. It is so heartwarming and that is a very important message to push out. It is very encouraging for our young ones to learn from it.

How do you unwind when you are not working?

I unwind, holding my remote control and watching TV.  I love watching TV. I said in the beginning of this interview that the idea to start this show came to me while I was watching TV.  Chatting on the internet is not for me.