Abigail Visagie finishes short in E! Presenter Search

ANN7 anchor, Abigail Visagie, finished in second place in the inaugural E! Presenter Search South Africa competition.

She lost to former Mzansi Insider presenter, Katleho Sinivasan, in the finals of the six-week talent search competition (Not much of a talent 'search' actually considering everyone on the show was already 'found' and at least half famous already). the final challenge was a traditional red carpet interview setup, something Visagie has done at least twice before, and live at that, for ANN7's South African of the Year Awards.

Visagie joins ANN7 anchor, Lauren Janae (Top Actor SA), and former anchor, Mbali Nkosi (Big Brother Mzansi), in competing in other channels' talent contests, doing well, then coming up just short in the end. But if precedence is anything to go by, she will probably get good opportunities due to the positive exposure she has received.

Sinivasan won a year-long contract with E! to be its South African-based correspondent. He will also go on a trip to Hollywood to meet the E! team on that side. His first gig for the channel was today actually, representing E! (which is part of the NBC Universal group) at the Multichoice Upfronts. His first major on-air role will be to cohost E!'s red carpet coverage of the SAFTA Awards later this month with Bonang Matheba.

Picking her chin up after the defeat, Visagie was back anchoring her Express Lunch bulletin today on ANN7. But then again, is it a defeat considering ANN7 is available in more than double the homes that the E! channel is available in and has a higher viewership in South Africa?That and the fact she is on air about fifteen hours a week compared to maybe an hour a week for the E! gig, if that even.

ANN7 Anchor Shake Up (Yet Again)

With Nzinga Qunta out as ANN7 Prime anchor, ANN7 has taken the opportunity to shake up their anchor line up.

Sebenzile Nkambule and Candy Harris. ANN7 Prime, June 22nd 2015

Firstly, and most importantly, mid morning anchor, Sebenzile Nkambule, who joined the channel late last year from Radio 702 makes the giant leap to ANN7 Prime.

Following the success of the double anchor format of Vuka Africa with Peter van Onselen and Abigail Visagie, ANN7 Prime now too becomes double anchored. Sebenzile is joined behind the desk by ANN7 original, Candy Harris, who most recently anchored weekends.

I think their first broadcast together today, June 22nd, was a bit messy and can be cleaned up going forward. Then again that is what I have come to expect with ANN7 recently: things getting better with time. [I don't want to come across as old fashioned or anything, but two female anchors anchoring a news bulletin is not what I am used to, but will allow it to grow on me]

Chante Jantjies (ANN7's youngest permanent anchor), an ANN7 original who anchored the mid-morning slot before Sibenzile then moved to weekend breakfast because of her studies, takes over from Juliet Newell on Express Lunch, a bulletin Chante has occasionally anchored on Fridays. Express Lunch also changes from airing from 12pm to 2pm to airing from 12pm to 3pm, adding an hour. On leaving weekend Vuka Africa behind, she tweeted: "After a year .. my @ann7tv  @VukaAfrica Weekend journey has ended. Thank you to all the early birds who tuned in :)"

The channel's late night block, 10pm to 12am, is now anchored by a rotation of trainee anchors, most of whom are from the ANN7 Anchor Search

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.


 

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

ANN7 LINEUP SHAKEUP: Abigail Visagie To Vuka Africa

In an unexpected move, ANN7 (DStv 405) will be shaking up its early day schedule by moving current Express Lunch (and Mid Morning Prime) anchor, Abigail Visagie, up to the breakfast show, Vuka Africa.

At Vuka Africa, which airs daily between 6 am and 9am, she will sit alongside longtime Vuka Africa anchor, Peter van Onselen. This now means that Vuka Africa becomes the only ANN7 show to feature two anchors as hosts (which will be interesting to see how the squeezed behind that odd table).

Though both of them may be pushing the move as if it is a promotion, what is actually going on is that Abigail now clears the lunchtime slot, meaning that there will now no longer be anchors that anchor only a mere half an hour show due to the channel having too many weekday anchors and not enough time.

Abigail has, of course, been with ANN7 since inception as one of the many young females the channel had try out on air and has moved around slots a few times before settlingon what is now known as Express Lunch.

It is ecpected that Juliet Newell would be announced as the new Express Lunchhost, though that is not set in stone yet.