The MTV Staying Alive Foundation, in partnership with the United Nations’ Every Woman Every Child Partnership, Unitaid: supporting innovation for global health, Viacom CBS Africa, and MTV International have announced a mini-series of MTV Shuga written and directed by acclaimed writer, Tunde Aladese to raise awareness in the global fight to flatten the COVID-19 curve.
According to a statement by the producer of the new mini-series which will be available for streaming and sharing across online platforms from April 20, 2020, it will be totally different in many ways.
First, the MTV Shuga Alone Together will tell the story of how youths across Africa are coping with the coronavirus pandemic. This new season plans to educate viewers on important information about coronavirus, such as hygiene habits, why social distancing is important, stopping the spread of fake news, etc. while it will also address mental health, and how to keep healthy while self-isolating.
Also, the actors of MTV Shuga self-filmed their scenes to protect the safety of cast and crew.
“This sounds weird, but social distancing has become the new normal, and to protect the safety of the cast and crew, and to practice their message of ‘flattening the curve’, MTV Shuga actors will film their scenes by themselves from their homes. This will fit into how the story is being told – through video calls between the MTV Shuga characters. Self-filming this season is innovative, and we’re looking forward to seeing how flawlessly it will be executed” the statement reads.
In addition, despite the mini-series being expected to be different, it will still star all of the viewer’s favourites characters.
“This MTV Shuga series might be different, but we’ll still get to see a lot of our favourites characters from previous seasons, such as Timini Egbuson (Tobi), Nick Mutuma (Leo), Tomiwa Tegbe (Wasiu), Jemima Osunde (Leila), Lerato Walaza as Zamo, Ange Eric N’Guessan as Daniel, and several others”.
The mini-series will also feature an all African cast and will be shot in Nigeria, Côte d’ivoire, Kenya, and South Africa in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The series will feature actors from other African countries. It will be set in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and South Africa in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will depict how the virus outbreak is affecting every aspect of life. The show will also highlight the unique ways the lockdown is affecting people in these countries” the statement added.
The producer of the mini-series also revealed that viewers should anticipate ten episodes
“In case you’re already wondering how long this season is, you can look forward to enjoying ten amazing episodes of the new MTV Shuga Alone Together mini-series” they added.