From Drama to Game-Based Television: Re-mystifying 'God' in The Gods Are Not to Blame and Big Brother Naija"

Abstract This paper presents a cross-disciplinary discourse of the concept and functionality of 'god' from drama and theatre to game-based television shows. Despite attempts by some Western philosophical traditions to dismiss the presence of the divine in human affairs, the idea of 'god' remains central to contemporary entertainment culture. A variety of television entertainment programmes like drama, soap operas, season serial dramas, sports, and game-based television shows have continued to redesign and present ‘god’ in various forms. Using the ‘Big Brother Naija’ reality TV show and Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not to Blame (henceforth BBN and The Gods), this paper examines how god-like figures are re-imagined through different media. Through discourse analyses of The Gods and 'Big Brother Naija', the characteristics of a re-mystified god in drama and game-based TV shows in Nigeria are examined. It is concluded that the idea of ‘god’ will continue to be represented in different artistic genres for contemporary audience, particularly through technological Innovations in media content productions. Keywords: Game/reality TV, Drama, Television, God, Technology