Vuzu AMP adds new 'late night' chat show to schedule

Vuzu AMP (DStv 103)today announced that addition of a new 'late night' talk show to the channel's schedule. The words 'late night' are in quotation marks because the show airs at 9:30pm, hardly considered to be a late night slot.

The show, called The V-Table, will be hosted by probably the foundation of the '#Vuzu5,'  Nomuzi Mabena, who will be joined by YouTube sensation Moshe Ndiki, and entertainment king Larry ‘Larryngitis’ Nhlane.

For now, the show will air for 30 min on a Monday evening from November 7th and aims to look at the week’s breaking and trending news, along with gossip and varying perspectives on popular culture. Its format will include celebrity interviews and commentary that is entertaining and unfiltered, focusing on past and current events in the form of a late night roundtable discussion.

In other words, it wont be much different to SABC3's late night show, TrendsSA.

“We feel that it’s important for us to engage with our fans on what’s trending and making news, in a way only we know how – with that unmistakable VUZU AMP twist. Each presenter brings their own unique flair to ‘the table’, so this, combined with the hot topics each week is bound to make for fun, always provocative, viewing.”

All of Vuzu AMP's domestically produced content either simulcasts with Vuzu or airs on Vuzu, which is available on DStv's smaller bouquets compared to Vuzu AMP's Premium-only footprint, a few months after its premiere airing. It will be interesting to see what will happen to this show in this regard as news, even if it is pop culture, has a very limited shelf life.

Vuzu shakes up presenter lineup

Vuzu yesterday (March 18th, 2016) announced that they have added three new presenters to their lineup. At the same time, the channel announced that Denise Zimba and Shelton Forbes will both be leaving the channel to 'pursue other interests.'

The three new faces on Vuzu are as follows:
Nomuzi Mabena
Earlier this year MTV announced a VJ search to replace Nomuzi, who has decided to pursue other things. What we now know is that those other things is a stint as part of the Vuzu family. Interestingly, Nomuzi, who is also a singer, departed from her record label earlier this week due to differences in their creative direction. [I find it strange that someone as established as Nomuzi would join Vuzu which has always been a platform for young up and coming talents.]

Dash
Member of hip hop trio, Dreamteam. Dreamteam also presented Friday's edition of V Entertainment as part of the programme's ongoing series of guest presenters on Fridays.

Shane Eagle
A former contestant on the channel's talent search show, The Hustle.

Interestingly, all of these new presenters are singers trying to make it in the industry, while now also reporting on the entertainment industry. You don't expect politicians to report on politics for obvious reasons so why Vuzu insists on having musicians report on the entertainment industry is weird.

The three new presenters join Lalla Hiriyama (who has been with the channel since inception) and DJ Speedsta (who has been with the channel since earlier this year). the five of them will split presenting and reporting for V Entertainment (Monday to Friday, 6pm on Vuzu and VuzuAMP) and V Prime (Monday to Friday 6:30pm to 9:30pm on VuzuAMO) between them.

Commenting on the decision to include more faces to the brand, Head of Reality and Entertainment at M-Net Local Entertainment Channels, Sphumelele Sibeko says “VUZU AMP is a young , innovative brand that is synonymous with all things fresh. We understand that we need to keep reinventing the brand through its people.”

The new lineup, known as the #Vuzu5, officially debuts on April 1st to coincide with the new season of V Entertainment.

The reaction to the new lineup has been largely negative, with many on social media complaining about viewer favourite, Denise Zimba, who has been a presenter since 2013, being cut. Since the announcement was made, Denise has been retweeting viewers' complaining about her being cut without directly mentioning it herself. Late last year Denise was cut from the soap Generations as well.

Vuzu Adds new Presenter to Line Up

Vuzu (DStv 114, 116) today announced that DJ Speedsta (Lesego Nkaiseng) will be joining their presenter lineup.

Since Cyprian Ndlovu left Vuzu for etv last year, Siyabonga Ngwekazi and Sammy Sosa have been filling in until the appointment was announced today.

Nkaiseng joins long time presenter Lalla Hiriyama, along with Shelton Forbes and Denise Zimba.

“I want to be a personality and a brand. I want to do more than I’m doing now; I want to do a whole bunch of things.”

DJ Speedsta debuts on V-Prime this Wednesday, February 3rd 2016.

REVIEW: Vuzu Relaunches Flagship Daily Entertainment News Show, V Entertainment

Vuzu presenter Shelton Forbes in the channel's new studio

M-net's youth-centric brand, Vuzu, today launched the "amplified" version of its daily flagship entertainment news shows, V Entertainment. The relaunch of the show coincides with the launch of the second Vuzu channel, Vuzu Amp, which is available exclusively to DStv Premium subscribers.

As part of the show's relaunch, the show finally moved into a real studio, dropping the green screen that was used for the greater part of its history (They did have a dull real studio at launch in 2009, but it was dropped at the end of their first season). The new studio, mostly in glossy black with pink elements and with multiple cameras, is a welcomed upgrade from the single camera green screen format that had been used in the past.

The new graphics is also more well done than previously though nothing very special.

For the relaunch, the show was hosted by three presenters instead of just one, the three longest running presenters on the show. In order of length as a presenter, they were Siyabonga "Scoop" Ngwekazi, Lalla Hirayama and Dineo Moeketsi. However, Siya's appearance was billed as a special appearance since he officially left the show a few months ago when he moved to Channel O to launch Turn Up. Vuzu does, however, say that Siya will be appearing on the show sporadically in the future.

New graphics, a new studio, being broadcast in High Definition and having three presenters instead of one did not save what was a terrible show, content-wise at least, when compared to what viewers had come to expect from V Entertainment. Instead of being the jam packed entertainment news show viewers had come to expect, the show seemed to be filled with more banter between presenters and the promotion of what will now become a daily poll on the show than anything else. By 22 minutes after the start of the show, it was all over and they played out with a new music video from singing sensation, Bucie.

They just spent way too much time talking about a poll that does not belong on this show. Yes, social networking integration is good, but that should have remained on the V Prime segments.

Reviews on social networks for the new V Entertainment are mixed. The only thing people are complimenting from the show is its set, while those that critiqued the content side of the show, what the show should really be about, described it as a "yawnfest," and rightfully so.

The manner in which the channel promoted the relaunch of the show, though not giving specifics, made it seem as if, heck, the show was being improved, but that was definitely not what happened.

As a tv channel (a medium of communication), one would expect the channel to communicate details about the relaunch ahead of time, but that was totally not the case. Before today, it was not known whether the show would remain in the 6pm time slot or change time slots. The show's timeslot became even more questionable this past Sunday when on Idols, Proverb said that it would air at 5pm instead. Up until today it was never confirmed whether the V-Prime segments that air throughout primetime would air on Vuzu or Vuzu Amp with the channel only today announcing the finer details of the whole situation. It is even unclear as to how many presenters will be presenting the show from tomorrow. One? Two? More?

Going forward, V Entertainment has a lot of room for improvement, the only sad part about that is that the room for improvement after today's show is greater than that of prior episodes of a show that wasn't in need of a fix now being broken.