INTERVIEW. Derek Watt's on Carte Blanche turning 22: ''People say, 'You can't do that. Then I say 'But it's Carte Blanche, of course we can.''

The longest running investigative magazine show in South Africa - Carte Blanche on M-Net on Sundays at 19:00 - is turning 22 years old today.

I spoke to Derek Watt's, Carte Blanche anchor since its inception in 1988 on the pay broadcaster a year after M-Net started and has since been the top or second most popular show on the channel over more than the past two decades. I asked Derek Watts what he likes most about the job he's now had for 22 years, if he misses his former Carte Blanche co-anchor Ruda Landman, what he ascribes the perennial popularity of Carte Blanche to, why he himself is sticking with the venerable live Sunday night broadcast and what stories he personally likes to do.

Click on READ MORE below for my complete interview with Carte Blanche's Derek Watts.

Hi Derek, thanks for your time. What do you like most about your job at Carte Blanche?
The main thing is the variety because you get environmental programmes, you get medical programmes but Carte Blanche does everything on earth. Above the earth, underneath the earth, the sea and the sky. We do every kind of insert imaginable. I think the name Carte Blanche has been part of the reason for its success because when you hear it and people say ''You can't do that'', I say ''But its Carte Blanche, of course we can!''

Do you miss Ruda?
I do indeed. She was just such a wonderful person to present Carte Blanche with for 19 years and we had a very close bond. I still have lunch with her and she was such a wonderful part of Carte Blanche for so many years. Of course she helped launch it and she has a wonderful integrity and a wonderful depth and a sense of humour and empathy. She is just wonderful.

Of course we've got a lot of new presenters now. Devi Sankaree Govender has stepped into the breach and she's a little tiger and she's really helped to promote Carte Blanche to what we do best, and Bongani Bingwa is also just such a fantastic reporter and person. He also has such depth and character with the ability to ask very decisive questions.
Chantal Rutter is absolutely stunning. What a wonderful presenter she is. And Annika Larsen of course is stunning. She's such a great presenter and with one of the best voices of all of us. I think she's got a lovely voice. So we've got a very strong cast of presenters which has helped me get over the loss of Ruda but ja, I do miss Ruda to answer your question.

Why do you think Carte Blanche has remained so well liked, popular, relevant and became such an iconic show?
Because we bring something to the table that – to put it blatantly – no other programme in the country does. I think we're not just hard-hitting but we can be hard-hitting.

I think we delve into topics and issues to a degree that many others don't but also because its not just all about investigations – although we do them very well. We might be doing a medical story, we might be doing an entertainer. We might be doing an actor, or an opera singer. I think when people settle in on a Sunday evening they don't know what they're going to see and I think that's why they enjoy it so much – they just don't know what we're going to show them and they know it's going to be great.
We transport them on a journey they didn't imagine was possible. I think it's also part of our integrity to report on what is really happening in the country for good and for bad and mixed with that, we also have a lot of infotainment. Its not just investigations its something to make you think and something to make you talk about on a Monday morning I think.

I won't ask you about great moments, you obviously have way too many. Instead I want to ask you what you would ascribe your own longevity on the show too? Why do you stay? Why are you still with Carte Blanche?
Simply because I'm very emotional about the job. I really do have a very genuine interest in it. I love it. Carte Blanche is a passion. Television isn't the best paying job in the world in South Africa but I really enjoy the stories and the team. We have such an amazing team, who don't all work from an office. It’s a cottage industry. So many people that I work with, work from their homes. It's a very strong team.
You've got to work well together on some of these stories. Of course you're allowed to have different opinions – it is Carte Blanche – but in the end you've got to all be on the same journey to produce the best possible story. And if you're not on that same journey together, it doesn't work. I think it’s the team and the constant rejuvenation of the show.

We've grown so much. I mean, we've got Carte Blanche Medical and Carte Blanche Consumer now. We didn't have those last year. We're now in high definition (HD). So some people go: ''Why have you've been with Carte Blanche for so long?" but its constantly evolving and changing. George Mazarakis has been an amazing executive producer who's taken us to new heights over the last 14 years. The people I work with, the stories we do, the team, and of course viewers who respond so fantastically when I walk around. Some of course want to beat me over the head with a baseball bat but that's part of the territory hey? Ha ha.

Then Derek, I think the whole hour of Carte Blanche every week would just be sport of you were in charge, but what what are the best type of stories you personally like to do?
[He laughs.] The stories that I like to do - well there is obviously adrenalin when you do a sort of a real, investigative piece. It really gets the heart racing. Apart from that I like cutting edge medical stories, new inventions, and I also like the eco stories, going out into the bush and seeing people trying to preserve this planet and meeting people doing extraordinary things. I was up in the Himalayas the other week. I like stories that take you on a journey to somewhere different.

Carte Blanche, Sundays on M-Net at 19:00 (special 22nd anniversary broadcast tonight, September 12)
Carte Blanche Medical, Mondays on M-Net at 19:00
Carte Blanche Consumer, Thursdays on M-Net at 19:00