SABC3 has now not only finally and officially confirmed the news that I broke way back in August RIGHT HERE about trying to move up the starting date of the 25th and final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show, but I can be first to spill about the new complications, why it will probably not be happening, and when South Africa can expect to start seeing the final ''farewell season''. Finally.
As I've already spilled, SABC3 has started to look into the possibility of trying to start the 25th and final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show earlier so as to cash in on the immense hype that the final episodes will surely generate. The season already started in August in America.
''We are in talks actually to see how we can speed up with showing the 25th and final season so that we can catch up with the US,'' says Risuna Mayimele, SABC3's marketing manager. ''We're currently in discussions to see how we can do that. Obviously moving Oprah up will affect our scheduling,'' she says.
But I can reveal there's a new problem facing SABC3: The 25th season of Oprah was supposedly set to start towards the middle (almost-end) of January 2011 on SABC3 anyway. So it's now obvious that SABC3 won't be able to speed up the start of the final season in the normal way by starting it earlier. The broadcaster is basically out of time. Further complicating the matter, according to various trusted insiders, is the Cricket World Cup starting at the end of January on SABC3.
Not only does the cricket run into the Oprah timeslot basically pre-empting it, SABC3 also doesn't want to start the new Oprah season and risk it getting ''lost'' with unpredictable time-adjustments or suddenly having to show episodes when play gets suspended. ''We want to go big with Oprah,'' says a source, ''it's her big must-see season that everyone want to tune in for. We want to show it while it's also still on in America, but also go as big with it as we can.''
''January as the starting date for the 25th season is starting to look more and more remote,'' another SABC insider tells me. ''And then of course there's also the compounding problem of not just starting the season earlier like we want to, but actually now later what it would have started normally. We're already looking at possibly February.'' (Meanwhile I can be first to spill that the 5th and final season of The Tyra Banks Show by the way will definitely start in January on SABC3.)
ALSO READ: SABC3 looking at the possibility of moving the 25th and final farewell season of The Oprah Winfrey Show up to closer to the American broadcasting dates.
