Mursty Adinoyi is the producer/presenter of the TV programme, Hitlist N Cruzin, which won the Best Entertainment Programme on TV award at the Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards (NBMA) 2016.
Hitlist N Cruzin aims at celebrating Nigerians by taking them on a shopping spree when they answer questions correctly on the show. And now, as Adinoyi continues to travel all over Nigeria to celebrate winners, he opens up on his challenges while also talking about his future plans.
What’s the latest about your award-winning TV programme, Hitlist N Cruzin?
Right now, we are trying to expand to places we’ve not been before and we’ve now added Oyo State. Last year, we added Ogun, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Benin. Now, we’ve added Ibadan and plan to add even more states.
Is it easy or stressful going to all these states from Lagos?
The only thing that can keep you in business is when you go the extra mile. Going the extra mile, of course, takes time. Like we were in Ibadan, don’t forget that Ibadan happens to be the largest city in West Africa. So, from the map, because we follow Google map, where we were going seemed close. But lo and behold, we kept driving for like three hours to go and pick the winner. Of course, we were not happy going through that stress. But what matters is that at last we got to the winner and she prayed for us. When she wanted to play, this is a woman that has grand children; her kids were like, ‘Mama, do you think these people will come from Lagos, or Abuja because of you, because it was an Abuja episode that they were watching that day?’ But she wasn’t dissuaded, because she loves the programme. Now you can imagine a woman of such age loving my programme, a retiree. But like I told my team, ‘let’s not look at the stress but put our minds on the results’. So, no matter how challenging or stressful, our goal of celebrating every Nigerian is what matters to us, and we’ll go through anything to achieve it.
Are you vindicated that a woman whose children didn’t want her to play eventually turned out a winner?
I happen to know her story and that’s why I shared it with you. But there are lots of people out there who have their own stories that we don’t know because they haven’t won. It’s because she won that her story now becomes interesting. Someone else might be sending text messages week-in, week-out but hasn’t won. And we hadn’t been to Ibadan before, but we went in and that woman won. Meanwhile, we might have someone in Lagos, Abuja sending text messages and haven’t won. So, it’s like that. When a winner shares his or her testimony, it looks juicy and interesting.
In Benin, there was this lady who has been watching Hitlist N Cruzin for a long time and sending text messages and we have never been to Benin. But luckily, when we got to Benin, we looked at our log and discovered that this person is up for cruise. So, it’s just by luck. That’s what I keep on telling people. Some would call me and say ‘I’ve been sending text messages and I’ve not won’. It’s not how many text messages you send that matter. A single text message can make you a winner. It’s not about sending a hundred text messages before you can win. The interest you have to be on Hitlist N Cruzin is what matters most and it is what will get you on the programme, even with just a single text message.
Is there a particular state or region that you get the most text messages from?
Hitlist N Cruzin is a weekly programme and sometimes more text messages come from Port Harcourt and sometimes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. So it’s not fixed. Sometimes many come from Kaduna, Kano and other states that we are yet to get to but reach through AIT Network, TVC and other stations. The love that Nigerians are showing us is spurring us to do more, but we are limited by funds. However, we pray that God will make things better for us so we’ll be able to touch every part of the country. Hitlist N Cruzin is capable of employing more hands, that is, have people in every region recording and cruising for us.
What are the innovations you plan to add to the show?
Yeah, there was nothing like ‘60 Seconds’ on Hitlist N Cruzin. But it’s now there for the stars and creative people in general to talk about themselves in just 60 seconds. We don’t really have enough time for all the ideas we have on ground; we are only waiting for a better time to unveil them all.