Reality shows have been hitting TV screens big time all over Europe and America, and it seems this phenomenon will hit Malta big time next October.

An overwhelming 117 people turned up yesterday at the Westin Dragonara Resort to fill in an application to participate in a new reality show called L-Ispjun.

Former Miss Malta Graziella Attard Previ, who will be returning to the small screen after an absence of nearly 12 years, will host l-Ispjun, a production of Watermelon Media & Communications. She will be assisted by TV personality Mark Caruana.

Appropriately titled L-Ispjun, 10 people will be chosen by a selection committee mainly made up of the producers with the help of experts in human behaviour,

All the applicants will be interviewed next week, eight of which will surely make it to the penthouse, and two will be kept on standby.

“We are looking for different people – especially people who have an interesting story to tell,” said Pierre Portelli, producer. “An interesting story is one of the most important things – they will come from all walks of life,”

Abigail Mallia and Rachel Cachia leave Where’s Everybody?

Abigail Mallia and Rachel Cachia are the production managers working freelance on the programme. Both were, until this weekend, associated with the Where’s Everybody discussion programme Xarabank, produced and presented by Peppi Azzopardi. However, Ms Mallia explained that they decided to leave Where’s Everybody to form their own production company.

“It is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while – I have been with Xarabank for six years now and I wanted to move on and try something new,” she said.

She pointed out that she learnt a lot while working with Peppi Azzopardi, and that the move was a natural one. “Peppi and I are still good friends – I learnt so much from him,” said Ms Mallia. “We hope to continue working with Where’s Everybody in the future, but on a company to company basis.”

The company will be called 4 People and will be mainly involved in production. “In fact, we already have a contract for a television programme which will be shown next year.”

117 applicants for the ‘Big Brother’-style programme

The large majority of applicants were men, and 85 per cent were young people. The ages ranged from 17 to people in their fifties.

The chosen participants will be locked in a penthouse and kept there for 25 days. They will be given special tasks to perform and every hour something will happen to surprise them and keep them on their toes.

Every evening, participants will nominate two members they like least. Unlike Big Brother, where televiewers vote out their least favourite contestant, L-Ispjun operates on a positive voting principle whereby viewers vote for their favourite participant. The over-all winner is the one who gets the largest number of votes from the public, and will take home Lm10,000

L-Ispjun will be aired on Wednesday next October after the eight o’clock news on PBS.