Arguably the most successful series to ever air on Nigerian television, Tinsel, a Yinka Ogun creation has been around since 2008. We say arguably only because we have faint memories of the greatness that shows like Dominos, Village Headmaster, and Everyday People brought to the game. Which is probably the reason that Tinsel, the MNet version of doing justice to the void that those other shows left, has been loved for almost 8 years by viewers – they have met the standards and in more ways than one even surpassed them.

With well over 1,500 episodes, the show first warped us into the dramatic web of rivalry between the fictional Reel Studios and Odyssey Pictures. At a time when many TV soaps were dying out, Tinsel wowed us when the show hit 1000 episodes on Thursday, May 24, 2013.

Shooting from a studio location in Ojota, Lagos, Tinsel started by airing on MNet twice a week in its first season and then progressed to showing every weekday. So that meant all the drama, romance, betrayal, confusion, suspense that Victor Olaotan and Funlola Aofiyebi’s rival world of production could churn out Mondays to Fridays. The fans loved it. The only thing close to its competition at some point was the South African soap, Jacob’s Cross, but even that could not compete with a show that had a cast made up mainly of every actor that Nigerians loved.

Nigerian (on to a very large extent, Africans0 love to pick sides so the rivalry between Odyssey Pictures and Reel had an audience that was born ready to love it – especially when the battle between the two got dirty and out of control. It also had enough romance to keep the easily bored fans engaged. So real were the romance inserts that Tinsel has actually managed to produce three real life couples from its cast so far –  Iyke Okechuckwu and Florence Uwaleke went first in 2013, then Ghanaian hunk, Chris Attoh stole our flower girl, Damilola Adegbite’s heart in 2014 before Osas Ighodalo and Gbenro Ajibade finally convinced us of the realness of Tinsel in 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tinsel has survived its production studio burning down in 2013, a scandal about actors leaving the show because producers could not increase their per their demands. When the studion burnt down, they had to shoot outdoors and at other locations for a while before moving to another studio in Ikeja. Despite these setbacks, the show has manged

Despite these setbacks and probably more that have never made it to public domain, the show has managed to keep viewers interested and core audience satisfied for about 9 years while maintaining the best quality available on Nigerian TV.

However, what it has not maintained is the kind of talkability that it once had. And that’s why we are wondering where Tinsel is.

Probably wondering like we are now, the producers of the show took its cast and crew into town in three 3 different states last year. The events saw cast of the show sign autographs and meeting with fans in Lagos, Abuja and Portharcourt.

There was also a Charity Ball where the cast went to visit a popular hospice and also raised money for charity in Nigeria

Yet we still haven’t as many #Tinsel as a show of this quality should be getting. Maybe it’s the move from TV to web or maybe it’s something else because really, where is Tinsel?