It’s saddening to see that Ultimate Love, a brilliantly produced reality TV series, has failed to hit the sort of traction and viral trend we are accustomed to seeing from its elder cousin Big brother Naija, and this is as a result of the unrealistic benchmark people have placed for the show. 

Responses from most people reveal that they almost always immediately allude to the fact that it is not Big Brother, so they refuse to invest their time. The conversation almost always goes something like this; 

Do you watch Ultimate Love?

No, is it like Big Brother?

Not only is this an unnecessary comparison, it is also an unfair one. Big Brother has years of positioning, trusted production quality and a steady fan base to pull from.

Only similarity between both shows is that they are reality shows. Outside that, they operate under different parameters and defer both in underlining theme and purpose. Big Brother Naija sought to test people’s character within the house, while Ultimate Love is designed to test the resilience of partnerships in the house. So here are five differences between Big Brother Naija and Ultimate Love, and why you should be interested in the show;

For starters, in the Big Brother house, it’s every housemate for themselves, while in the Love Pad, everyone is hitched to a partner. Their strength and weaknesses are attached, and stay in the house is dependent on combined strength as opposed to individual strength. This makes for interesting TV, as fans are forced to vote based on how they feel about the strength of love between a couple, and complexities arise if fans like one person in the pair and they feel iffy about the other.

Secondly, Biggie is a ghost character- never to be seen, only heard. Aunty, on the other hand is visible to the audience and housemates. Both are relevant and interesting to the respective shows, so it’s hard to consider this an edge, but it is definitely interesting.

Thirdly, under no circumstance are housemates in the Big Brother house allowed to interact with the outside world. It is a complete no! One is only allowed to see the outside world once evicted, but for the guests in Ultimate Love Pad, housemates are allowed to leave the house for whatever reason Aunty deems fit. For example, Monday Missions which are a contest between two housemates, mostly physical in nature are held outside the house, and housemates are allowed to leave the house for video shoots and outings.

Fourthly, nominations in the Big Brother house are an undisclosed process within all housemates. Nominations are kept secret between Big Brother and the housemate, but in the Love Pad, nominations are revealed to all the housemates. In my opinion, this is the show’s most interesting twist as it creates the sort of atmosphere that exposes the housemates true character. 

Lastly and most obvious difference is that Big Brother’s ultimate purpose for the housemates is to create stars, while Ultimate Love’s purpose is to create the perfect celebrity couple.

As a bonus fact, one of the ways Ultimate Love defers from Big Brother is that, Ultimate Love, for the most part, is an original idea, indigenous to us here in Nigeria, while Big Brother is a show that existed internationally before coming to Africa, we simply adopted its exact model.