Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller
Channel: National Geographic Channel (DStv 181 / StarSat 220)
TX Time: 21h00
Genre: Documentary Series
Takes you on a journey inside the most dangerous black markets on the planet.
Each investigation in the eight-part series embeds with award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller as she explores the complex and often violent inner workings of a smuggling network.
While she dives deeper and deeper into these underworlds, Mariana reveals that the people operating these trafficking rings are often a lot more like us than we realise.
Trafficked offers a mission-driven adventure to places rarely seen, providing an intimate peek behind the criminal curtain.
Mariana spends time with major players from a host of underground economies — from tiger traffickers and international scammers to counterfeiters, gunrunners and fentanyl suppliers.
Along the way, she also meets with law enforcement, ex-cons, fellow journalists and locals caught in the crossfire, all in an attempt to provide a 360-degree view of these poorly understood trafficking networks that contribute to the world's multi-trillion-dollar shadow economy.
In one episode, Mariana uncovers a lethal supply chain of American firearms being smuggled into the hands of drug cartels and fueling record levels of gun violence in Mexico.
A journey filled with jaw-dropping access to gunrunners, mules, cartel bosses and assassins takes an even more terrifying turn when the son of the world's most notorious drug lord, El Chapo Guzman, is arrested and the cartel that Mariana infiltrates decides to violently revolt.
Additional episode topics include:
Counterfeiting
Mariana journeys deep inside the Peruvian underworld to meet the gangster craftsmen who make and sell the world's finest counterfeit US dollars.
Along the way, she learns that many of these counterfeiting operations are run by criminal families in Lima, who are making a fortune despite the anti-counterfeiting efforts of the US Secret Service and the Peruvian National Police.
Scams
Mariana dives into the world of international scamming to understand how it all works and meet the outlaws at the heart of this booming industry.
Her investigation takes her from the streets of Montego Bay to the glitzy neighbourhoods of Tel Aviv as she pursues some of the biggest phone, lottery and financial scammers in the world and learns why Americans are the perfect targets.
Cocaine
Mariana retraces one of the world's most intractable smuggling routes, following cocaine's path from a remote Peruvian valley through Colombia's Caribbean coast, all the way to the streets of Miami.
Despite the decades-long US War on Drugs, cocaine production is at an all-time high, and Mariana meets some of the makers, smugglers, drivers and teenage backpackers who risk their lives to deliver America's favourite party drug.
Steroids
In the age of social media, the demand for illegal steroids is booming.
Mariana searches out producers and users in an attempt to understand the vanity, insecurity and greed that is driving this dangerously unregulated, billion-dollar black market in body-enhancing drugs.
Fentanyl
Fentanyl has turbocharged the deadliest drug crisis in American history. But less understood is how the drug has utterly transformed the black market.
Mariana goes in search of the new bosses, new routes, new risks and the communities paying the price for fentanyl's next wave.
Tigers
Mariana tackles what one of her sources calls "the untouchable smuggling story".
The black market for tigers and tiger parts is so lucrative, so secretive and so dangerous that few have attempted to uncover its ugly details.
Mariana journeys far, and near, to meet the smugglers face-to-face.
Pimps
In an eye-opening journey through her home state of California, Mariana embeds with pimps, victims, undercover cops and private investigators to understand the ugly business of illicit sex in America.
How do pimps recruit? How do they think? Where do they get their power?
And just how far will they go to grab their share of this billion-dollar black market?
Boer Soek 'n Vrou 13
Channel: kykNET (DStv 144)
TX Time: 20h00
Genre: Dating Game Show, Reality, Afrikaans
Boer Soek 'n Vrou returns for a 13th season with new host Marciel Hopkins, who hopes to watch true love blossom between the farmers and the participants.
The series is an international reality format following the fortunes of 10 unmarried farmers participating in the show's campaign to find a partner for everyone.
The 10 farmers were introduced in a special that aired on kykNET on Sunday 19 July, 2020; and as the season gets underway the entire process is laid out and the audience is invited to participate on the show's website.
The show once again travelled across the country to find 10 free-spirited, lovelorn farmers, and to find out what it is they are looking for in a partner.
Now, Marciel is ready to help the Top 5 farmers (the five who received the most letters) to try and find the love of their lives, which is not unlikely - the series has already led to many weddings (and children).
TVSA Show Page: Boer Soek 'n Vrou 13
Restaurant: Impossible 12
Channel: Real Time (DStv 155)
TX Time: 12h00
Genre: Reality Makeover, Food, Reality
Turning around a failing restaurant is a daunting challenge under the best of circumstances. Attempting to do it in just two days with only $10,000 may be impossible.
But Chef Robert Irvine is ready to take on the challenge. He'll use a little MacGyver and a lot of muscle to rescue these desperate places from complete collapse.
Can one man, in two days, with just $10,000, turn the tide of a failing restaurant, and pave the road to a successful future?
Find out as Robert Irvine takes on Restaurant: Impossible.
In the Season 12 premiere, "Ambush: Breakfast Break-In": For his next mission, Chef Irvine ambushes Jodi, the owner of Theresa's Restaurant in Bradenton, Florida, after her friend and banker, Miriam, puts out a call for help.
Robert quickly learns that Jodi is her own worst enemy, and must deal with her micromanaging ways, a kitchen staff threatening a walkout, and the surprises that greet the design team.
The Kitchen 20
Channel: Food Network (DStv 175)
TX Time: 19h55
Genre: Reality, Food, Talk Show
In the Season 20 premiere, "Opposites Attract": Love is in the air for a Valentine's Day filled with out-of-the-box flavour combinations and opposites-attract recipes.
Sunny Anderson and Jeff Mauro share their take on surf and turf with Sunny's Cumin-Rubbed Steak paired with Jeff's Honey Tequila Lime Shrimp.
Katie Lee heats things up with Roasted Beet and Beet Green Salad with Warm Pistachio Salsa Verde, and Geoffrey Zakarian marries two cultures in Penne with Spicy Sun-Dried Tomato "Pesto."
Two 49th Pillsbury Bake-off Finalists share their easy-to-love sweet recipes, and Sunny's Black and White Petit Fours are the perfect treat for any sweetheart.
Laat Die Potte Prut 12
Channel: VIA (DStv 147)
TX Time: 17h30
Genre: Reality Competition, Food, Afrikaans
Three teams compete to see who can make the most delicious potjiekos in the country. Can they finish their feast on time and impress the judges with their tastes?
Contestants must make the following: a main course, with at least two side dishes (as many as they like), and a choice between an appetizer or dessert.
At least one of the dishes must be baked, making a minimum of four dishes in total to be made.
And of course, everything has to happen in a potjie.
The presenters of the show are Alvin Bruinders and Marinda Engelbrecht.
In the Season 12 premiere: Teams Three and a Half Men, Avengers and Klein-Karoo Kobras take on the potjie competition at Middelvlei Wine Estate near Stellenbosch.
The guest judge in the first episode is Moskou du Toit.