No-one's laughing over at eNCA and Diprente Productions as negotiations between the two have reached a stalemate and there's no going back.
eCNA has announced that the channel has canned long-running satirical news show Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola as a result of creative differences between the channel and Diprente, who have produced the show for 12 seasons.
Both parties have spent months debating the format of the show, which eNCA wanted to change. According to eNCA Managing Director, Patrick Conroy, eNCA wanted the LNN format to change to short satirical inserts on a more regular basis instead of a weekly once-off show. Diprente didn't want to change the format so eNCA cancelled the show.
Word from the channel is that they plan to continue including satire on the channel but in a short format form. *Cue: other production companies rushing in to grab the spoils.*
TVSA spoke to Diprente Productions who confirmed the situation. LNN series producer Tamsin Andersson told us that Late Nite News is definitely over and won't be back on any channel. The laughs aren't over for Loyiso Gola though because there's a new show in the pipeline.
We can confirm that Diprente are working on a new satirical series, also starring Loyiso, different from Late Nite News but with the same signature appeal. There's no word on what channel it will be on yet. What a joke it would be if it's ends up on eNCA or e.tv. Which of course it won't.