Urban TV's Rated Next: And the winner is… Mwiyeretsi

By Martin Kanyegirire

A combination of applause and derision! That’s what tore through the air Saturday  evening at Ndere Centre in Kampala when the minute Charlie Denzel Mwiyeretsi, 25, was announced winner of Rated Next, a reality Urban TV contest that has been on since November last year, having enlisted more than 2000 hopefuls at audition level.

Out of the 13 finalists that had survived eviction until the finale, Mwiyeretsi, a radio presenter, came out tops, winning himself a lucrative contract with Urban TV and a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

He beat off stiff competition from an assortment of such talents as television presentation, anchoring, production, scripting and field reporting among others, beats that the different hopefuls harnessed to sell themselves to viewers and the judges.

Mwiyeretsi’s beat was presentation, a thing he did with convincing disposition and playfulness in front of the camera, according to judges Sophie Aniku, Bush Baby and Isaac Kudzu, who had a 60% decision on who would win, while the viewers’ vote represented 40%.

The venue, Ndere Centre, was packed family, friends and fans of the fi nalists. While some got sad as the judges dropped the contestants they supported, others’ got more excited with every elimination, as their own got closer to the crown.

When show host, X FM’s Rudende fi nally announced the Top Three, applause and booing took centre stage – the applause coming from supporters of the winners, while the booing came from supporters of the losers. But the vote and judges had spoken.

Musicians Big Trill, Peter Miles, Menshan and Navio however cooled the tensions that came with losing on the side of many.

Zoe Liz Kastiro, 21, a student of Human Resource at Makerere University Business School, came first runner-up, winning herself a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Lens Vivasi, who describes himself as a genius of sorts, came third, taking home a 32 inch plasma TV screen, while the remaining 10 fi nalists took home a Nokia Asha each. All the winners will soon grace your Urban TV viewing.

“Watch out for me, coming soon on Urban TV with all sorts of television concepts, you will not be disappointed,” said the eccentric Mwiyeretsi, and Information Technology major from Sikkim Manipal University, whose win actually didn’t surprise him, for he has been on television before.