When the News Anchor is a Contestant on a Reality Show

By now it iss known that DStv will be launching a second BET channel in April (though by naming convention it is technically the first) with its own locally-produced reality show, Top Actor, premiering on April 2nd.

But what is less known is that one of the contestants on the show, Lauren Jenae, wont be seen for the first time on South African television when the show premieres. She is, of course, known to ANN7 viewers as the anchor of the 11pm Night Cap as well as The Week in Review on Sunday evenings.

Lauren Jenae on ANN7

I must admit, I do not know the finer details of what the winner of Top Actor gets, but judging by the fact that Lauren is still anchoring the late night news, I doubt she won (Does that count as a spoiler?).  She is quite a decent anchor though.

So now ANN7 can add reality show star to their anchors' list of accolades, along with another movie star as correspondent, tv drama star as weekend anchor and an anchor search competition to find yet another anchor. Add this to the fact that so many of the other anchors are trying to get mainstream fame if one looks at their Twitter accounts and are only using the channel as a stepping stone on their journeys to stardom. It is as if the channel is going out of their way to not be taken seriously.

KykNET Details Plans of Scaled Back Actuality Programming

The good times are over guys

KykNET (DStv 144) has finally announced the programming information of their restructured, and heavily scaled back, actuality strand of programming.

At 9:30pm on Mondays  through Thursdays, viewers can look forward to Die Kyknet Verslag (The Kyknet Report), which will be a summary of the days main news stories. This seems to heavily resemble the current eNuus bulletin that is currently broadcast Monday to Friday at 22:30, which means even the actual news bulletin part of the broadcast has been scaled back.

Verslag will also be repeated in the morning at 6am in the timeslot of the now cancelled Dagbreek breakfast show. 

On Monday evenings, viewers can look forward to Insig (Insight) with Rapport editor Waldimar Pelser, which will continue to feature its current news magazine format. It will now air 30 minutes later from 10pm to 11pm.

On Tuesdays, Winslyn (Bottom Line) will continue to be the business-centric broadcast viewers are used to, though it is being cut to just 30 minutes starting at 10pm. It will be presented by young entrepreneur Divan Botha, with Santie Botha being cut as cohost.

Wednesday  evenings will see Prontuit (Bluntly) with Kabous Meiring airing at 10pm for 30 minutes (Mariëtta Kruger is cut as cohost). The current talk show format remains.

Arts, fashion and entertainment news is in the spotight on Thursday evenings when Flits (Flash) will be on the air from 10pm for 30 minutes. Huisgenoot's Gauteng editor, Yvonne Beyers will continue to co host along with Bouwer Bosch joining her (Fanie Cronje gets the axe here).

The Friday evening programme, Vrydag Nag Laat (Friday Evening Late?) gets cancelled completely, meaning that there will be absolutely no live actuality programming on KykNET on a Friday, other than the eNuus bulletin. 

In their press release released earlier today, the channel tried to spin these changes as being  "exciting" and to strengthen and streamline the content, stating that 'audience research' is what prompted the changes. But viewers saw past this and the comments on the changes have been largely negative. The 'audience research' referred to is also probably just viewership figures, which have been rather disappointing for the actuality strand.

The 7pm eNuus bulletin remains unaffected by these changes.

What is unkown, however, is how Dagbreek/KykNuus anchors like Riaan Cruywagen are affected by these cuts and cancellations.

These changes come into effect on April 6th.

[Writer reflection: As a news head, hearing things like this would usually make me very sad (because I take it that seriously) and yes losing 2 hours of daily live news and actuality content, 3 hours on a Friday, would usually sadden me, I think not this time. The whole actuality and news movement at KykNET was way too much way to quickly. When the 90 minute block of news programming starts at 9:30pm, KykNET's daily entertainment schedule comes to an end, which is way too early for a channel that is supposed to be a premium entertainment, not news channel. The way they have now restructured their prime time programming is more likely to succeed than the overload of news and actuality they launched 6 months ago. Yes, it is also sad that the country's only Afrikaans breakfast show is hitting the road, but then again good riddance, watching it in the morning put me back to sleep. The energy was never there. The whole purpose of even launching that breakfast show was not right in the first place: The sole goal that the show was launched with was to compete with SABC3's Expresso, which is only partially Afrikaans. That being said, with news scaled back at one MNet property I hope we will soon see news being rolled out on another property: Mzansi Magic. South Africa is, after all, under serving the African-language audience greatly at the  moment.

SABC News Airs Exclusive Interview With President Jacob Zuma

SABC News last night (Thursday March 26th) aired an exclusive interview with President Zuma.

The interview aired in the 9pm hour as part of Your World, the channels after prime time news bulletin. The interview ran without ad breaks for its duration. It also aired on SABC1, the country's most watched television channel.

SABC News contributing editor, Vuyo Mvoko, conducted the interview and asked about topics like the crises at Eskom and the criminal agencies, among others.

If you missed it, you can watch it in its entirety below:

ANN7 To Air Exclusive Interview With President Zuma This Sunday

ANN7, DStv 405, will be airing an exclusive interview with South African President, Jacob Zuma, this Sunday, 29th March, at 7pm (airing in place of ANN7 Prime).

The interview is being called "Straight Talk With President Zuma," insstead of being billed as just an interview. It is unknown at this point whether the "Straight Talk" name will be used for future interviews, but it would be silly to use it considering that BBC World News has a programme by that same name.

The interview was conducted by ANN7 Group Editor Moegsien Williams (which, though is a good and safe bet, is odd for a channel that desperately needs to be building up someone to fill the void left by Hajra Omarjee when she left the station). The
Below is the three promotional videos the channel sent out late Friday, which seems as if the President will be talking about the Nkandla debacle:

ANN7 Launches... Anchor Search?

ANN7 (DStv 405) is doing something I have never seen any other news channel in the world do, nor is it something I ever want to see any other news channel in the world do, an anchor search.


Yes, that is correct an anchor search.One thing news channels are always fighting for is to be "the most trusted name in news." But how can one trust a news channel, let alone take a news channel seriously, ifthe person reading the news to you is just some guy taken off the street.

Then again, many of the channel's on air anchors are not on screen for their prior work in journalism. In the banner above Liezle Wilson, Abigail Visagie and Nzinga Qunta were not doing work in journalism before joining the channel. Abigail, for example, was allowed to do a screen test on the channel following a very simple "audition:" sit on a chair in the middle of a very busy newsroom and tell the news.

That is not to say though that a Presenter/Anchor Search can't bring forth a very talented person that just needed a chance. Some of the success stories of presenter searches in South Africa include Sizwe Dhlomo (MTV Base), Lady Rugga (Supersport) and Dineo Moeketsi (Channel O, now on Vuzu).

Even if the channel finds a diamond in the rough, the next challenge is to somehow find a slot for a anchor search winner on a channel whose schedule is quite cramped as it is.

Details of the Anchor Search is in the included banner above.

SAFTA Highlights: Puppet Nation ZA Makes Clean Sweep, Again

The South African Film and Television Awards took place this past weekend and, as seen last year, ZA News: Puppet Nation cleaned up yet again, bagging a whopping 7 awards.

The jewel in struggling pay-tv platform, Starsat's crown received top honours in the following categories:

• Best Achievement in Hair and Makeup (Franci Van Den Heever)
• Best Achievement in Art/Design Pruduction (Franci Van Den Heever, Matthew Sanna)
• Best Achievement in Costume Design (San-Mari Calaca)
• Best Achievement in Sound (Lyle Bennett)
• Best Achievement in Original Score (Lyle Bennett)
• Best Achievement in Directing (Thierry Cassuto, Alex Fynn)
• And, of course, the big one: Best Comedy

Its only competitor in the South African satirical news genre, Late Nite news With Loyiso Gola, did not bag any awards, though Loyiso hosted.


The sad part of it all is that the show can only be viewed by Starsat's approximately 100 000 subscribers, and viewers on Youtube, which are usually quite few. I'm surprised another  channel bigger than Star One  has not yet made a play for the show that has made a name for itself in being of award-winning quality.


Other notable SAFTA wins for they newsy/actuality categories include Safe Haven winning Best Actuality/Current Affairs Programme and Think Big winning Best Educational/Factual Programme.


The Vula Connection, which aired multiple times on eNCA bagged two awards. As you know, Sabido is closing its documentary division, so the wins mark a sort of end of an era.


Expresso's Katlego Maboe took home the viewer-voted Best Presenter category. 

ANN7 Announces 2015 South African of the Year Awards

ANN7 (DStv 405) yesterday launched their South African of the Year Awards campaign for 2015.

This follows the unexpected major success of the inaugural edition of the awards, held last year during September to coincide with the channel's first anniversary on the air.

The Awards has a theme for this year as well, "Unity in Diversity," which will celebrate the rich heritage, history and diversity of South Africa.

The channel's SATY daily companion show, I Am South African, will also return in July in the buildup to the awards. It is slated to air daily at 5pm. At this stage it is unknown whether Hulisani Ravele will return to host the show or if it would be hosted by someone within the channel's ranks (It is also unknown how the addition of the show will impact shows currently airring in that hour, like Rands & Sense with Nastassia Arendse, for example).

I Am South African will be telling the story of everyday South Africans and South Africa itself as it tries to weave a narrative on the history of the country in the buildup to the awards show.


The SATY 2015 Categories are as follows:
1. Trendsetting Celebrity of the Year
2. Campaign of the Year
3. Sportsperson of the Year
4. Entrepreneur of the Year
5. Spirit of Humanity Award
6. Young ANN7 South African of the Year
7. ANN7 South African of the Year

Like last time, viewers can make nominations through SMS or email, the details which can be found on ANN7's website (Deadline is 30 April). 

The South African of the Year Awards premieres live on ANN7 (DStv 405, www.ann7.com/livetv) on the evening of September 26th, 2015.

Details can be found at ann7.com/saty

Michelle Craig Replaces Bhavna Singh On News Day

Michelle Craig is now officially the female co anchor on eNCA's News Day. This follows the sudden departure of Bhavna Singh from the channel after more than five years.

Michelle is of course not new to eNCA viewers. She has been a Cape Town based reporter and anchor for a while now, anchoring the now cancelled eNews Late Edition and eNews Prime Time on weekends for eTV, while acting as a fill in on News Day when both Andrew Barnes and Bhavna Singh were out.

Uncle Thinus is reporting that the cuts at eNCA is due to financially tough times that the channel is currently experiencing and that when an Bhavna's contract came up for renewal, the country's most watched news channel simply opted to not renew. 

Meanwhile, Bhavna just doesn't seem to be adjusting to life without covering the news. Though she may no longer be on television regularly, she live tweeted today's vote of no confidence motion that played out in parliament.

BREAKING: Bhavna Singh Out At eNCA's News Day

Today, Friday the 13th, marked eNCA anchor, Bhavna Singh's last day at the channel.

She cried as she signed of from News Day for the final time after being Andrew Barnes' co anchor for about three years, since early 2012.

Absolutely no reason for her sudden and shocking departure has been announced and the channel has not made a statement about it either, nor is it known who will sit alongside Andrew Barnes on News Day between 1pm-4pm on weekdays.

Bhavna was,  of course, not Andrew's first co anchor on the show. Prior to the launch of the then eNews Channel, Andrew Barnes solo anchored a 30 minute bulletin called Lunchtime Live on eTV that premiered on the 4th of October way back in 2007. Little over a year later, the eNews Channel launched and Lunchtime Live bulletin was rebranded to News Day (presumably to fit be uniform with News Night and Morning News Today), moved to a new set, was expanded to 3 hours (3 minutes on eTV and 3 hours on what is now eNCA) and Andrew got a co anchor in Robyn Smith. Then in 2010, Robyn, for reasons still unknown left News Day and later appeared on eNews Prime Time on weekends and eNews Late Edition in the week. Robyn was replaced by Scheherazade Safla who co anchored with Andrew for the entire 2011 before leaving the channel after just one year as anchor to be with her husband who was working for Al Jazeera in Doha.

She was then replaced with Bhavna Singh, who has sat in the chair next to Andrew Barnes up until today. Prior to co anchoring News Day, Bhavna was a late night, fill in and weekend channel for the then eNews Channel before relocating to Cape Town for the position of News Day co anchor (News Day is the only news bulletin on eNCA not anchored from Cape Town).

The first hint of a departure came only this past Monday when she Tweeted, "Almost ready to go for my last week on #NewsDaySA Hope you can join me, if you never have before."

Then today she tweeted the following as she hung up her boots, or lapel mic, if you want:

Last #NewsDaySA Let's roll.
— Bhavna Singh (@bhavsingh) March 13, 2015

Then, on her breakdown at the end of the show she tweeted:

Sorry guys, I thought I'd be able to get through that without losing my composure. I really will miss spending lunchtime with you all xx
— Bhavna Singh (@bhavsingh) March 13, 2015

Before finally ending it off with:

It's been a tough day and I'm humbled by the love you've shown. Thank you everybody.
— Bhavna Singh (@bhavsingh) March 13, 2015

Details to follow as they develop...

eNCA to Scale Back African DIvision While Sister Company Scales Back Documentary Units

eNews Channel AFRICA is to scale back its African operations as parent company, Sabido Investments, decided to cut its loss making ventures, of which eNCA's Africa division is one.

The reasons for the scaling back of the Africa division are that the eNCA Africa Edition bulletins have been cut by the UK's Africa Channel (which eNCA produced), along with eNCA being pulled off the SKY platform in the UK a while ago (which itself was a cost cutting measure because the channel was paying to be on the platform and not the conventional deal where the platform pays the channel for carriage).

It is unclear how far these cuts will go or how it affects on air reporters like the Chief Africa Correspondent, Robyn Kriel, but it is speculated that the bureaus in the rest of Africa, like the ones in Kenya and Nigeria, will be closed.

It is also unclear what will happen to Africa 360, the channel's pan African weekly magazine show, though it is expected that the on the ground reports will disappear in favour of just being a debate programme.

Though eNCA is looking to cut back on African news, don't expect African news to disappear from the channel though. Viewers can still see African news on eNCA, but it will instead just be a voice over narrating a story that some news wire is reporting with video someone else has gathered (or archived video) as opposed to seeing someone hold the iconic blue mic with the 'e' on it in some other African country.

Another business unit that will be affected is Sabido's factual division and Natural History, both of which are being closed.

If you think the loss of Sabido's factual division is minor because you have never heard of them before, think again. Some of the documentaries they have produced include the award winning 1994-The Bloody Miracle and The Vula Connection (which is nominated in three categories at this year's South African Film and Television Awards ), both of which have aired on eNCA multiple times, as well as documentaries that have aired on FOX Crime (DStv 126) under the Case Files: Africa banner.

On the closure of the factual and Natural History Unit, the statement from Sabido says, "These operations have been incurring sustained losses for many years and do not appear to have the potential to turn around in the future."

eNCA, SABC News Channel, ANN7 and Parliamentary TV All Carry Presidential Q&A Session Live From Parliament

Vuyo Mvoko Robbed While Preparing For Live Shot

SABC Contributing Editor, Vuyo Mvoko, and his crew were mugged outside Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg while getting ready to go live on the SABC News Channel.

He was covering the arrival of Zambian President, Edgar Lungu at the hospital (Mvoko, of course, regularly covers continental stories for the news organisation).

Late on Tuesday evening he tweeted that he was "safe and sound" and linked to the video of the mugging, which shows the faces of the perpetrators, who were later identified (and ridiculed on social media). 

UPDATE: The South African National Editor's Forum sent out the following statement on March 11th:
 The South African National Editors’ Forum notes with concern the mugging of SABC Contributing Editor Vuyo Mvoko and several senior staffers, captured on camera outside Johannesburg’s Millpark Hospital, as he was about to cross live for a 7pm television news segment on Tuesday night.  One of Vuyo’s muggers is clearly heard exhorting his colleague to “shoot the dog”. The SABC crew were robbed of their cellphones and a laptop, but thankfully were not harmed. Every South African lives with the reality of crime, but to see thugs brazenly ignoring television cameras and robbing media workers in the course of their work, yet again brings home the level of criminality in our society. The muggers are clearly identifiable on camera and we hope that arrests and prosecution will occur soon. Sanef appeals to members of the public who recognise the men to do the right thing and alert the police to their identities and whereabouts so that the law can take its course.

Abigail Visagie [Finally] Shifts to Vuka Africa, Juliet Newell Takes Over On Express Lunch

Abigail Visagie and Peter van Onselen having fun on the ANN7 Set [pic from @AbigailVisagie_]

Abigail Visagie has now finally made the jump from ANN7's Express Lunch to Vuka Africa, where she now anchors alongside senior anchor Peter van Onselen between 6am and 9am.

The move comes just over a week since the move was first announced, then delayed for a week, before finally happening today, March 9th.

The move also makes Vuka Africa ANN7's only co anchored news bulletin, as everything else is solo anchored.

Vuka Africa was, at inception, a two anchor show with Gerry Rantseli Eldson as the main anchor that did all the interviews while Avumile Qongqo read the headlines. Then, as we all know, Gerry left and Avumile became a full time reporter and Vuka Africa became a straight news bulletin anchored by Peter van Onselen.

With Abigail in the mix, it is expected that there will be more 'soft' news topics on the programme's schedule.

Juliet Newell now takes over Abigail's old slot of Express Lunch, and keeps her own slot, a 30 minute bulletin at 2, as well. Karabo Yibe stays in her late afternoon slot.


 

Is This A First?

Last Saturday evening was the annual Metro FM Music Awards, which was broadcast on SABC1 and MetroFM.

Though the event is likely to draw millions of viewers, it was Twitter that caught my attention during the event. Take a look below:

If you don't notice it, let me tell you: Not only was the MetroFM Awards the Number 1 trending topic on Twitter, it was number two, AND three, AND four, AND, well you get where I'm going, all the way to the top ten.

Yes, the MetroFM Music Awards occupied each and every position in the top trending topics in South Africa for the entire broadcast, and a few hours after as well.

Could this be the first time this has ever happened?

What makes the feat more impressive is that the broadcast itself did not have to constantly remind viewers about social media or have a constant hashtag on screen throughout the event to 'force' the event to trend the way other broadcasters do.

eTV Cancels Sotho Bulletin, eNews Late Edition and eKasi+ Zulu Bulletin

When eTV announced a shakeup of their primetime lineup earlier this year, they announced many new local scripted shows. One thing they did not mention that the addition of the dramas and the telenovela would come at the expense of a large portion of the channel's prime time news output.

First on the chopping block: The Sotho news bulletin that was moved to 5:30pm late last year when Katch it with Khanyi and Ekse Let's Talk With Masechaba Lekalake were moved from struggling channel eKasi+ to the main eTV channel.

Next, the exclusive live Zulu news bulletin that aired on eKasi+ daily at 8pm has been cut as well, with that channel now simply simulcasting eTV's 6:30pm bulletin.

With these bulletins cut, it is not known what will happen to the anchors of those shows: Mabutho Ngcobo, Segametsi Moiloa and Vusizwe Langa. Mabutho and Vusizwe are both Zulu anchors, but when eNews announced the anchors of the new Zulu bulletin, these guys were not even mentioned, instead being replaced by Khanyisani Nhlangulela and Zama Zungu.  

The eNews Late Edition bulletin? Yip, canned. The bulletin that is, or was, broadcast from Cape Town has also been cancelled. I am not sure when the bulletin started broadcasting on eTV because it seems to have been on air for as long as I can remember, but I do know it was expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes in September of 2008 when the now also cancelled Sotho bulletin started. It most certainly is the end of an era in this regard.

Though eTV may have given up on Sotho in Prime Time, one language they have not given up on is sign language, which is now moved to the 6:30pm Zulu bulletin after the cancellation of eNews Late Edition, the bulletin it had been seen on before.

Other current affairs and actuality programming at the channel is also suffering due to the new schedule. Checkpoint with Nkepile Mabuse now moves to the late 10pm slot on Tuesdays.

With eNews Prime Time now at 8:30pm, that bulletin will now suffer regularly from something it has literally only suffered from a handful of times: sports pre-emptions. With UEFA Champions League matches starting at 8:45pm at certain parts of the year when the Northern Hemisphere observes Daylight Savings, eNews Prime Time will either be very short on a Tuesday or cut completely if they plan on having a buildup for the match.

Re-Launch of Vuka Africa Postponed

Viewers tuning in to ANN7's Vuka Africa this morning, Monday March 2nd, expectin to see Abigail Visagie as co anchor following last weeks announcement that she would be joining the show were left wondering as to where she was.

Well, according to her tweet seen below, the relaunch has been postponed for now with no new date for the change announced. Viewers can, for now, still see Abigail anchoring Express Lunch on weekdays between 12 and 2pm (and the preceding hour).

So seems like I'll be spending a little more time on Express lunch! 😊 Will release details of the launch of the new Vuka Africa asap! #ANN7

— Abigail Visagie (@AbigailVisagie_) March 1, 2015