As spilt by
Pruluv right here, there's a rumour doing gossville that
Media Career Guide presenter
Boity Thulo's been cast as a new presenter on LIVE.
If it's true, it makes the show's current presenter search a glorified publicity stunt.
It isn't the first time an SABC1 presenter search has been surrounded by suspicion. Last year's
Selimathunzi talent search created an
outcry when Lunga Shabalala won a presenting spot after it was rumoured that he'd been pre-selected.
With one talent search following another I decided to find out exactly what's happening with them once and for all. I caught up with SABC1's Publicity Manager Vukile Madlala to get answers:
Tashi: There's a rumour that Boity Thulo's already been cast as a LIVE presenter. Is it true? Has she?
Vukile: Firstly, that's not true and secondly, I think our audiences have seen that we've done it with LIVE before, where we got raw talent from a talent search.
That's what we're doing now - we all know that at SABC1, we create stars, from them not having television experience to making them big presenters and stars. That's what we do.
Tashi: So we
definitely won't see her on LIVE?
Vukile: The Boitumelo thing isn't true - I believe that it comes from a misquote from a certain newspaper. They misquoted, they clearly didn't understand what the press release was saying. So no, Boitumelo isn't the LIVE presenter.
Tashi: What happened with Lunga during the Selimathunzi presenter search? What's the real story?
Vukile: What happened with Lunga was that we base all of our decisions on research. We'd communicated with the production house that Kaos had been there for 10 years and we believe he needed to develop. That's what the research was saying - that audiences believe that Kaos is great but that he should probably be presenting something else.
We took that into consideration and communicated it to the production house. Then the production house went on and did their own search on a small scale. They did an audition process like every production house would do it.
(Lunga auditioned at these auditions). A few months later we decided to give more people an opportunity because that's what we believe in. Let's give more people an opportunity, let's do a talent search - and that's how Lunga came back to us again.
At those auditions, he did well, so that's what happened there - not that we'd chosen him before. If there was somebody better than him at that point in time, absolutely, yes, we would have gone with somebody else.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, the public has the final say. With the LIVE auditions the public's going to vote for the Top 4 - that's when we're going to open it to the public. They're going to choose two presenters from the four.
Tashi: Will they both join Bonang in studio?
Vukile: The format's going to change so there's going to be a presenter on location, different locations, and then presenters in studio. Bonang will stay in studio.
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My conclusion on it is that Boity isn't going to LIVE but that she's in demand for other shows. As you may have seen in the
TVSA Castings section, Media Career Guide's looking for a new presenter.
Boity's still presenting the series but the show's looking for a new presenter to join her in case things change in the future. According to a production insider, she hasn't quit the show and is still very much part of it but the production wants to be prepared in case she does.
The sense I get is that there's been lots of competition for her - that other shows have wanted her and that she's going to have to make a choice soon. One industry mole I've chatted to said that they think it's time for her to move on to a more primetime show.