TV3 is doing well lately as a local entertainment content provider, banging out a talent hunt reality TV series, Mentor, that has scored big with their audience across the nation. The latest show is a very ‘domesticated’ version of a beauty pageant. It is known as Ghana’s most Beautiful, which is not doing badly at all. The grand prize is a sleek Peugeot 207 and all the girls who thought it was another fluke product gone commercial, will have to wait next year for a shot. The good news is, people are getting to see a beauty pageant that is not tailored for a Caucasian audience, and the bad news is, somebody is claiming ownership of the concept and is preparing to sue the station.
An event strategist for Adeshi Consult, Nana Mintah is claiming ownership of the show. According to Nana, Adeshi Consult launched the original concept at Coconut Grove Regency Hotel some time last year and it happened to coincide with TV3’s Mentor 2 launch at the same venue. Mintah says he sent invitations to some staff of the network to come see the show before it starts airing on a slot they were discussing for the show.
“When we launched the show, TV3 was launching Mentor 2 in the other conference room in the hotel and some of the staff apparently came and watched the show,” he says. “Next thing we realize was that the same concept was running on their channel with a different name. Our lawyers are working on it and we’ll soon be going to court.”
On the other side however TV3 public relations manager Janet Carboo-Danquah says most of TV3"s programmes are tailored on the format of the parent company's programmes, i.e. TV3 Malaysia.
“Programmes such as Mentor are from the parent company in Malaysia also called TV3 Mentor and we here in Ghana only modify the show to suit the Ghanaian audience. Ghana's Most Beautiful on TV3 is also a concept from the parent company which was held about two years ago dubbed Malaysia's Most Beautiful.”
She said the Ghanaian version was changed to add a different dimension to it and that the cultural/traditional touch was to give it a Ghanaian outlook. She said no programme runs on TV3 without thorough appreciation of its merits to the audience and that it will be outrageous for anyone to accuse them of stealing an idea.
Mrs. Carboo-Danquah challenged Nana Mintah to make his concept available and they will also do so if need be. “It will be difficult for you to say that your idea has been stolen by other people because whiles you were thinking other people were working on the final touches to the same idea or programme.” She described Mintah’s allegations as unfounded and said he can please himself.
