US Sitcom ‘Superstore’ Gets An isiZulu Makeover

"For Barkers Media, it's an amazing opportunity to show what we can do in terms of content creation and adaptation. We're gonna add South African nuances and localize it while also keeping a sense of [what] people loved about the original," said Reneilwe Sema, executive producer at Barkers Media, to OkayAfrica.

Hannah Mabruk, vice president of format sales for NBCUniversal Formats, said that the show's format is unique in how it resonates with audiences across the globe. Shecredits this to its, "undeniable humor, heart, and universal themes of community and friendship flourishing in the workplace."

This is not the first time Showmax has created a South African adaptation of an American show. Last year, the streaming giant's parent company, Multichoice, partnered with Comcast's NBCUniversal and Sky, resulting in some of the most impressive television programming in the history of South African broadcasting.

Last August,Showmax announced it had acquired the rights to produce a South African adaptation of the wildly popular American mockumentary sitcom The Office, which also concerns itself with the politics of the workplace and was created by showrunner Justin Spitzer, who is responsible for Superstore.

Re-makes are commonplace in the television industry. Reality franchises like The Real Housewives have succeeded in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. At the same time, the South African adaptation of the British show Pop Idols was all the rage until it was taken off-air in 2023. Kenya also had its adaptation of Dragon's Den, a reality television show where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of venture capitalists.

Across the continent, there has been a trend of adapting African shows for different regions. For instance, Mzansi Magic'sThe River, produced by Tshedza Pictures, has found another life in Kenya asKina and asWura in Nigeria.Crime and Justice, conversely, is a Kenyan Netflix original adapted for Nigerian audiences under the same working title.

Details regarding the cast are yet to be revealed.