Marlon Davids/Ziyanda Mngomezulu
On Thursday night (27 October) e.tv hosted the press at the swanky Saxon hotel in Sandton to give insight into what we can expect from the channel in 2017.
e.tv's new MD of Channels Marlon Davids gave an overview of the future as a whole and e.tv's Head of Local Content Ziyanda Mngomezulu spoke about their local plans.
TVSA was in the action to bring you the lowdown so we've put together this guide of what we think you'd want to know:
What e.tv wants to deliver
1. Entertainment
2. Entertainment for
everyone
3. Quality over quantity
The channel wants to achieve these by blending local and international content, which they started focusing on this year.
International content
Since the start of the year we've seen the premieres of Empire, Ray Donovan, Devious Maids, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Mistresses, Zoo and most recently black-ish. These will continue for more seasons (along with Modern Family) and other internationals will be introduced including
The Blacklist and
How to Get Away with Murder.
More movies
The channel's done a content deal with NBC to complement
the deal they made with Disney in June this year.
A new 20h00 local telenovela (the channel's calling it a daily drama)
The Gold Diggers have dug their final dig. The series will end when Season 2 wraps in April next year and a new series will follow that will last a year. 256 episodes in total.
It will start and finish and won't continue afterwards.
It's being produced by Clive Morris Productions, which e.tv chose because of their track record. Marlon told us that they've chosen them because they trust their work and their relationships with their casts and crews. This has become crucial for the channel after a crisis struck one of their shows this year when the production company turned foul.
Marlon was very hush-hush about which production company was involved but it turns out one of their shows hit chaos behind-the-scenes when the production company didn't pay their crew, including the editor so there was footage but no show. e.tv had to get involved to sort it out to ensure the show was saved.
New local dramas at 21h30
The 21h30 local drama spot will continue on Mondays and Tuesdays with dramas suitable for later primetime i.e. not for kids.
According to Ziyanda, e.tv's overall mission isn't to compete with local content on other channels but rather to entice audiences to stay on e.tv.
Related flash fact: Season 2 of Heist premieres on Tuesday, 8 November at 21h35.
Reality
SA's Got Talent has already been renewed for Season 8 next year. Let's hope they improve the quality once and for all!!
Few to no celebrity or general talk shows
Ever wondered why Khanyi Mbau's talk show Katch It with Khanyi was cancelled? Turns out it's because of celebrity overload and too many talking heads.
Khanyi's show aired at a time when e.tv was airing The Close Up, Eksê Zwakala and Hush, which were all talk and celebrity shows. Word from Marlon is that they felt there was too much talking and not enough drama and other entertainment which is why they've changed their focus with this.
Another big reason was the fact that the same celebrities ended up being on loop, appearing on one show and then another and then another, similarly to what's happening on SABC3 at the moment.
They also found it difficult to find more celebrities who had extensive past biographies to feature on Katch It and The Close Up. It doesn't mean The Close Up won't be back but no new season has been ordered.