To say that SABC3’s scheduling is out of control would be a colossal compliment in television history. Ever since Hannelie Bekker (the former acting SABC3 General Manager) left the channel, things have gone down the drain. I will focus on the year starting 2007 ending 2008, just to make sure this blog is short...LOL!.
What I hate the most is that, you would be watching a show and all of sudden you realize it’s a repeat with no prior information or promotion to the fact. Sometimes I think the channel is run by three people who really don't know what they are doing. You never get a feeling whilst watching the channel that there is focus from the broadcaster. Everything looks like a mess and it is a mess.
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Let’s review shall we:
Las VegasAnyone who is a fan of the show already knows that the series was cancelled by its original broadcaster NBC due to a slew of reasons, some of which are “Delinda and Danny becoming a couple”, “Danny not marrying childhood friend and ex-fiancée, Marry”, "Danny punching Ed", “Ed Deline and Marry” leaving the series. Now, with SABC3, we will never know when and if this show will return. Maybe it will take an additional three years before Season 5 (the final) could make an appearance. Alternatively they run the show as a strip like they did The O.C. It’s not like the good old Ally McBeal, The Practice and Will Grace days which occupied the same Monday night slot that offered consistency and encouraged loyal viewers. Only the Lord knows when the idiots at SABC3 are going to return the show… maybe its going to return on Sundays; who knows.
PS: NBC recently hinted at the possibility of putting Mike Cannon “Danny’s friend” into a spin-off of the Las Vegas series. But let’s remember that Sean Hayes who played Jack on Will and Grace refused an offer to do a spin-off after Matt LeBlanc’s “Joey” show got canned in its second season without airing the remainder of the episodes. It’s the same season being broadcast on SABC3 at 07h30pm formerly on Mnet. Lesure (who plays Mike) will also be seen in the short lived Lipstick Jungle.
SupernaturalIf you have Dstv, you can skip this part, but if you don’t… read on. How does a person or channel explain cutting a show midseason due to schedule changes and when normal programming returns, they don’t return the show to its original time slot but puts it back to storage. Only later on, do they remember, “we still have Supernatural on our shelves!…maybe we should run it because the licence period is about to end”. That was season 1, the show is now on season 4...if you’re a fan, you have a better chance getting a Dstv subscription than trusting SABC3 to return the show intact. These guys at SABC3 are truly idiot’s that are guaranteed impunity by SABC.
Nip/TuckIt had a 10pm time slot on Fridays which offered viewers a breather from a boring Friday night line up on free tv, well lets face it… etv is the only free channel, with SABC we pay tv licenses, so it cant be free. Anyway, months later…wait I think it’s a year later… the show returns. It gets better. It only returns mid week. I guess the dagga they smoke at SABC3 is really strong. Makes midweek feel like Fridays…..
HeroesBesides the fact that this show was such a hit on its season premier, it took a long time to return. I now find it to be boring and very slow. Don’t get me wrong “I was a fan”, as for now, I think I will stick to a DVD copy of the entire season 2. Most of its fans have gone the DVD route because trying to argue with idiots is always a lost course. Now the show is facing a possible cancellation. Although the matter is entirely unrelated to SABC3, I do believe the show is loosing its grip… too slow, no point at times and very frustrating.
Prison BreakI wonder how long this one is going to stay away. Again if you have Dstv you have nothing to worry about because Mnet provides very well. I think it may just return towards the end in 2009 or if free-to-air viewers are lucky it will return in 2010.
TyraAlthough my television set is much happier since the Tyra left our television landscape, I have a sneaky suspicion that she may return in yet another unfriendly hour. Also I don’t think our lovable idiots at SABC3 will inform us of such a detestable return. She is just going to pop up, like a teenager’s erection. Not appropriate and always awkward.
The ViewIt premiered and offered a much pleasant replacement to the awful Tyra but within weeks of its premier…. SABC3 could not help but begin running repeats. One day Elisabeth Hasselbeck is pregnant and announces she is living the show to go on maternity leave. Then we see replacements and then all of a sudden we see her again pregnant on the show. They then start repeating the show and it has not even gone through half of its season…. Please guys stay away from the Cannabis it’s messing up your brains.
The Oprah Winfrey ShowLet’s face it, etv had a better repeat pattern and broadcast schedule for the show than SABC3. You would think when SABC3 got the show back, they would learn from history and schedule it appropriately. No one expects Oprah to have great shows like in the 90’s, she is old and tired. Hence the “I feel good, am rich, life is great, join my cult, buy this, read that, vote Obama, and look at how I’m spending my money in Africa” type shows. The actual scheduling of shows is really bad to a point where I can't stand to watch and it has nothing to do with the fact that Oprah is boring at times. Take “Favorite Things” for example, it was supposed to be followed by the Macon behind the scenes episode. Worst case broadcast it a week after the premier of Favorite Things. But no, they had to broadast it months later.
Amazing Race; SurvivorWe knew that ever since the premier of these two shows that they ruled Tuesdays but now I don’t understand why The Apprentice joined this slot, which undoubtedly pushes either one of those Tuesday offerings back. I swear the ganja is coursing havoc. Yes, its not the first time The Apprentice premiered on Tuesdays and it’s also not the first time one of the regulars got pushed back.
And, finally
Top TravelThere is nothing about this show which is different from Top Billing in fact it looks like a 5minute segment stretched out to the limits. But hey, if you are friends with the channel boss, any idea you have will be shown to us even if we don’t like it. It’s not like Janez speaks as if he has something stuck somewhere. No, everything is perfect in fact the show is amazing! Wonderful, a great program South Africa needs in order to feel connected to the world of top travel, its not like they can’t afford to go to those places.
What’s with the short lived series acquisitions?As if things can’t get any worse, SABC3 is busy trying to acquire short-lived programs from the US. I mean really….
Big Shots in the
Lipstick Jungle that want to have
Sex In The City whilst enjoying the
Big Give! Firstly we know what happened on the Big Give, that is if you watch Oprah.. here is a hint … its nothing different from Oprah. But am sure more people would want to watch the Big Give than repeats of Oprah. As for Big Shots and Lipstick Jungle they are just variations, bad one at that, of Sex In The City. Only a looser can find it exciting to have those shows on their line-up.
Its really sad that one of the most progressive channels on our screen has been turned into a very bad example of television programming, planning and management.
The Observer’s ReviewsSABC3 Sucks!
Get your ACT together!
By The Observer
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