For years, The XYZ Show did what few television programmes in Kenya ever managed by making presidents, ministers and MPs the butt of the joke, while giving ordinary Kenyans a chance to laugh at politics.
But behind the award-winning satire was a business that, according to co-founder Marie Lora Muingai, was never built to survive on its own.
Reflecting on the show’s journey on Instagram, Muingai said The XYZ Show was born in the aftermath of the 2007/08 post-election violence, and renowned cartoonist Gado believed comedy could help Kenyans process the pain left by the crisis.
“We never made the show for the money. We made it because Kenya had just gone through the trauma of the 2008 post-election violence, and we believed that if Kenyans had had an outlet to express their frustrations, ideally with humour, things might have gone differently, ” she wrote.
Although the show became a household name and aired on television, radio, DVDs and online platforms, its finances never added up.
Over five years, the production received about $7 million in donor funding.
But each episode cost around $15,000 to produce, while broadcasters paid only about $3,000 per episode. Every latex puppet cost roughly $7,000 and took three weeks to make.
Muingai says Kenya’s media market was simply too small to sustain such an expensive production. Online audiences also brought little income because platforms such as YouTube and Facebook had not yet introduced monetisation for Kenyan creators.
The show’s fearless and loud criticism of politicians created another problem where brands stayed away, leaving the production without sponsorship despite its popularity.
Its news-based format also meant episodes quickly became outdated, making it difficult to earn revenue from older content unlike dramas or sitcoms that can be resold for years.
Despite the financial challenges, Muingai says producing The XYZ Show remains one of the proudest achievements of her life.
