"Unbelievable stuff here tonight," said Robert Marawa as co-host during the course of the evening of the simply terrible live broadcast of the SA Sports Awards 2012 which took place Sunday night.
And he was right: the live awards show was unbelievable - unbelievably bad in the totally amateur, completely unprofessional, shockingly awful and just plain cringeworthy way this outside broadcast production was done by the SABC's Outside Broadcasting division from the Sandton Convention Centre.
The two hour trash show laid bare how shockingly inept the SABC is at making even a passing grade on a live awards ceremony. The shockingly lowrent production values of the SA Sports Awards 2012, with an appearance in person by the SABC CEO Lulama Mokhobo and the acting COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng (who also didn't read very well) was hopelessly pathetic and a mockery of what something like this is supposed to be.
Is the SA Sports Awards now South Africa's most embarrassingly bad televised awards show ceremony? For the millions of rands this makeshift looking awards show must cost to stage, why is it so totally trash?
The SA Sports Awards 2012 with its seedy music, bad stage acts including a tired looking and inappropriately dressed for her age PJ Powers (with windblown hair) belting out old music, simply felt like a third rate late night Hillbrow nightclub where both establishment and patrons have long since seen better days.
The Soweto Gospel Choir looking like ghosts in inappropriate white robes sang as Somizi, adorned with ostrich feathers, writhed in front of them on the floor. Bless.
Warren Bleksley was the director, with Jerry Mokgopo and Melinda Lombard the executive producers of this inadequate and sad live TV mess coming to viewers courtesy of the SABC and the department of sport and recreation. Diane Stanton-Lourens was head of production.
Like last year, when the SA Sports Awards 2011 was a horror to watch, the SABC again showed the live awards ceremony on SABC1 while SuperSport likewise again damaged its brand by inflicting the completely amateur production on viewers on SuperSport 4 using the SABC's visuals.
SABC1 viewers who recorded it on their DStv PVRs would (thankfully!) only have gotten the first half hour recorded. The EPG supplied by the SABC and used by MultiChoice was entirely incorrect.
The only point of excellence was co-host Carl Tshabalala, impeccably dressed and wonderfully warm and well-spoken: a real TV presenter. Presenter Tarina Patel right at the end, with her wonderful presentation and elegance was another bright sparkle. The rest of the SA Sports Awards 2012 was again a massive disaster and a shameful local television embarrassement. Surely, surely South Africa's TV industry and the SABC can produce a better live awards ceremony than this?
Sound fading in and out incorrectly and which was noticeably incorrect constantly during the broadcast should get all the sound operators fired. This was unforgiveably bad. There was no sound in suddenly silent moments (awkward). Sound feedback was audible for viewers at home during some songs. The mic sound from presenters was laughably and horribly fading in and out inappropriately; not on when it should be and with terribly fluxuating sound levels. It gave this mess of a ceremony show a shockingly amateur atmosphere.
A laughable menagerie of totally inappropriate presenters to introduce and announce category winners, coupled with erratic camera work from camera operators who seemed as if they're filming home movies in their own backyards, ensured enough material for lecturers of film students on what not to do.
Basically none of the presenters for any of the categories came across as being able to read. The set design (with little railings) and of mostly white perspex plates seemed primary school. Speaking of primary school, the South African children ceremonially holding guns with blades on stage fitted right in.
A camera crane operator ("jimmy jib") who doesn't seem to know what he's doing, ending up with high overhead shots (and the director then inappropriately actually cutting to it and using it), the incorrect pronunciation of names, presenters struggling to read, presenters wasting time by asking the audience to guess the winner (unbelievable!), presenters struggling to open envelopes, multiple glaring lighting problems, a 25 minute wait before the first category announcement ... the list of gaffes and terribly production decisions and production mistakes during the SA Sport Awards 2012 were absolutely endless.
Why did some presenters and people on stage get a descriptive name and title banner in the lower third on screen, while others got nothing? Did the vision controllers and SABC Sport graphics technician fall asleep from the confusing tedium of this drawn-out pain which viewers were made to suffer through?
Even bad nightclubs close at some time when the last stragglers get kicked out. Although this TV trash was supposed to stop at 22:00, it also again ran over time just like a year ago. SuperSport 4 eventually cut away at 22:03 from the SA Sport Awards 2012. SABC1 kept going until 22:07.
