Teacha's Pet Gets Boost from Kartels Troubles

KINGSTON (Star)Director Jay Will claims that the incarceration of deejay Vybz Kartel has caused the reality dating show 'Teacha's Pet' to be even more popular than expected. The director claims that the deejay's arrest has caused the show to be the "hottest ting a road". When Kartel was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm, two counts of murder and conspiracy to murder in October, it seemed that his latest project Teacha's Pet would be facing the axe. Shortly after Kartel's arrest, telecommunications giant LIME announced that due to the serious nature of the charges against him, it had made the decision to discontinue its broadcast of the reality series on its mobile TV with immediate effect. But despite this, the show is not only still airing every Friday night on CVM TV, but still creating waves. Speaking with The WEEKEND STAR yesterday, Jason 'Jay Will' Williams was delighted with the progress of the show in which he has had a major hand from the beginning. "The response is overwhelming, I've never seen in history a programme surrounding an artiste that has garnered such worldwide interest," he said. According to Will, the show's page on social networking site Facebook.com, is proof of how well it is doing. "We have 29,000 active users on our Facebook page daily asking about what's going on. People are logging on and interested, the girls are stars. People are sitting down every Thursday night waiting on the sneak peek of the show for the next night to see what's going to happen. It's the new thing on a Friday night, nobody nah go a road anymore, everybody a watch Teacha's Pet," he said. The director said that Kartel's incarceration has assisted the ratings for the show. He said "In my opinion Vybz Kartel's incarceration probably has boosted the controversy of the show especially internationally. People have heard about it and searched for him on the Internet and are running into Teacha's Pet." With the show's popularity on a high, Will says he and his team are planning to do a 'reunion episode'. The reunion episode he says will see all the girls returning to look back on the show and share their experiences. He explained that the original concept of the episode was to have them sit down with Vybz Kartel and the substitute teacher, Milk. While Will hopes Kartel's incarceration will end by the time they are ready to do this, if that doesn't happen he says that the show will go on with Milk and the girls. One of the popular queries from fans Will explained, is whether the show will end properly since Kartel was arrested. He said, "Teacha's Pet is fully filmed and completed. The winner and everything was chosen before Kartel's arrest." According to Will, Kartel and his pet got time together after the filming finished and she has been in communication with him since his arrest. The show consists of 13 fully-filmed episodes of which Episode 8 will be aired tonight. Will also explained that with the pull back of corporate sponsorship from the show, the producers would like to advise persons willing to advertise with Teacha's Pet to email: teachaspet@gmail.com