My colleagues detest it. Tete a tete. Fetted by the TV folk who buy and schedule and make the stuff and then sell it to us as TV writers to (hopefully) sell it to our readers. But I love it.
Always some lekker skinner and some or other skandaal behind the scenes I get the chance to catch up with or find out about! Last Tuesday it was time for SABC2 to unveil their latest (and they always use the word ''exciting'') line-up for the coming months ahead.
Turns out - bar one or two surprises I'll tell you about in a second - to be more of the same. At the previous quarterly preview the head of the channel actually stood in front of the group of media hounds and proclaimed - or is it apologized? - that her channel is no longer ''vibrant, exciting or filled with must-see TV''.
A lot of big name people (in government) had just died and besides asking all of us to stand for a minute of silence for a family member who unexpectedly passed away - which we did - she explained that SABC2 is usually the channel to showcase the big national funerals with all the pomp and circumstance accompanying it.
But back to the latest quarterly preview where SABC2 brand managers all told me when I asked for more information (those who didn't scurry away and try to flee when they saw me approaching!): ''I'll get back to you. I'll get back to you.'' (Just so you know, it's been more than a week and not one has ''gotten back'' to me.)
The latest quarterly preview was held in the lovely ArabellaSheraton hotel in Cape Town's foreshore and of course the venue and food was great and wonderful. But what we really, really want is the information. That's what we live for and what we're dying to get so we can tell others! Unfortunately information was in somewhat short supply.
One of the most exciting things we got a sneak peek at? It's a talk and variety show coming soon by none other that our own tannie Evita Bezuidenhout that SABC2 touted as the next big laugh-a-second-show we'll see later this year. Turns out it might not be so big after all.
I got tannie Evita on the line as soon as I got back to the office to express my excitement and congratulations and to get the hot scoop. Duh! The grande dame and former ambassador to Babetikoswetti told me she is personally still very much in negotiations with the channel and that nothing has been signed yet. Yet we as the press were already shown lusmaker clips! A channel selling a show it doesn't even have yet? Crazy.
By now you also know the contestants who will strut their stuff in the second season of the local version of Strictly Come Dancing (that lifted the channel's viewership by as much as double on some Saturday evenings in the timeslot!).
All I was wondering about was whether Vuyo Mbuli would be one of the celebs, since he - very publicly at the previous quarterly preview where he was the MC - dissed the show when he was told that he would be approached as perhaps one of the next batch of dancing celebs. ''Never,'' was his stinging single word answer.
The latest quarterly preview's most interesting news came right at the end when several journos have already eaten, given up looking at shows that are already on SABC2 and left. (How long will you sit when shown a very special 50/50 ''Remember when they helped save St. Lucia," nostalgia reel when what you're coming for and giving your time for is to find out what's coming up in the following few months?)
7th Heaven that just finished is doing so well, instead of waiting a year, the tenth season will actually be back on 30 September on SABC2.
The fourth season of Gilmore Girls will start on SABC2 on 31 October.
Kompleks - groener weivelde is a new local Afrikaans show with subtitles that shows promise. Not much was unveiled but it's set on a golf estate and deals with the interaction (comedic and dramatic) between a group of residents.
7de Laan: look out for the return of some old faces and the introduction of some great new ones! Permanent new ones. And the permanent return of an old one. No, not the baby. Storywise poor little Aubrey is really very dead.