ANN7 anchor, Lauren Jenae, jumps to... Rhythm City

When a television broadcast journalist decides to call it quits, they usually end up going to print media, radio or even academia. For ANN7 anchor, Lauren Jenae, the jump will be to a soap star, eTV's Rhythm City to be exact.

Jenae, who has anchored various odd shifts on ANN7 like weekends and fill in work, has always had acting at heart. Last year, she took off from her anchoring duties at the news channel to be a contestant on BET Africa's Top Actor SA.

Though news anchoring was not her preferred line of work, she was really not too bad as anchor, being able to hold it down be it  by simply reading the teleprompter or doing big interviews, most recently holding the controversial Pastor Mboro to task.

Rhythm City airs weekdays on eTV at 7pm.

 [Personally I thought she would deservedly have had a larger role on ANN7 in future]

ANN7 Anchor Contestant on... Big Brother?!

I really cannot make stuff like this up.

While watching Big Brother Mzansi this past Friday (don't as why), I noticed a face and a name that was very familiar to me, as a news guy... Mbali Nkosi.

If you do not know who she is, here is a picture:

And this is the banner on her Big Brother profile:

Yes, ANN7's weekend prime time anchor is a contestant on Big Brother Mzansi. Her profile on the Big Brother website highlights her work on Rockville, Zabalaza and Idols, but openly ignores the fact that she has been the weekend anchor on what is a news channel, something viewers are supposed to take seriously, up until a few weeks ago when she left to, well, enter the controversial house.

She is not the first ANN7 anchor to appear on a reality show. Late night anchor Lauren Jenae is a contestant on BET's Top Actor as well, again, something that has nothing to do with journalism or news.

This is also in addition to ANN7's anchor search competition, all of which seem to indicate that ANN7 is actually making an effort to not be taken seriously, which is sad considering that there are quite a few serious reporters and anchors at the channel.

The acting business is a tough business and for these people who are clearly young actors, not anchors, to have this gig on a news channel that pays a somewhat stable wage is helpful when going through that initial struggle phase. But do you know what other people also have to go through a tough initial phase and can do with a anchoring job on a news channel other than young actors? Young journalists. Just saying.

ANN7 Tweaks Late Night Schedule

ANN7, DStv 405, has since the start of this week tweaked their late night broadcast schedule.

The 9:30pm straight news bulletin with Gladys Sithole has been shelved, replaced with a rerun of the day's Buzz @ANN7 with Liezle Wilson, which is an entertainment show that premieres at 2:30pm (and actually deserves a much better timeslot considering that the show has consistently been able to secure A-list stars as guests).

With one news bulletin lost, another is gained, as the longrunning 10:30pm rerun of Total Football (Mondays and Fridays) and Gameon! (Tuesday-Thursday) has been replaced by a live news bulletin anchored by reality star Lauren Jenae.

The 11pm hour of news is no longer using the "Night Cap" brand, though it is essentially the same content.

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.