Monday, November 26, 2012

TERRIBLE! How bad is SABC2? So bad that it can't communicate a word in advance about a sudden hour long Riaan Cruywagen tribute special.


This is terribly bad: SABC2's lack of communication is shockingly abysmal about a special hour long TV tribute to Riaan Cruywagen which is suddenly following the legendary SABC news readers final bulletin on SABC2 on Monday night.

Fluit Fluit My Storie is Uit, an hour long retrospective TV documentary about Riaan Cruywagen is on SABC2 - but viewers won't know it because nobody was even told.

SABC2 didn't make any attempt to communicate a single word about the reflective and beautiful documentary with Tshegofatso Selahle as director and producer.

"I feel like viewers have been robbed," a furious South African TV critic immediately messaged me who is also flabbergasted to discover the sudden TV special. This TV critic is definitely not the only one.

Riaan Cruywagen read his final TV news bulletin on SABC2 this evening at 19:00 after exactly 27 years - with the news bulletin suddenly and inexplicably followed by the hour long Fluit Fluit My Storie is Uit special.

What a massive failure on the part of SABC2. Hopefully the special will be rebroadcast at some stage, and hopefully SABC2 will communicate that ahead of time.

Maria Wallis did a sterling job putting together a retrospective news story at the tail end of the Nuus om 7 this evening on SABC2 which media observers would have expected to be in, and make the bulletin this evening. It was thoughtful, comprehensive without being boring, and extremely well edited and encapsulated a fitting "farewell" news story from the SABC about Riaan Cruywagen.

 Likewise the SABC2 special hour long documentary Fluit Fluit My Storie is Uit was also must-see television. If only somebody - anybody - at the SABC actually bothered to tell TV critics to tell people to watch that as well.