I can break the news that the cancelled magazine show All Access Mzansi is "uncancelled" and will return to Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) after M-Net dumped the weekly glamarama magazine show at the end of last year because according to the channel it had run its course.
M-Net and Mzansi Magic axed All Access Mzansi after just two years on the air on the channel, after it was revamped from being All Access on M-Net (DStv 101). All Access got dumped from that channel initially and was retooled for a black urban TV audience and renamed All Access Mzansi.
Mzansi Magic blamed budget contraints and said it was moving towards "more exciting content". Now the "more exciting content" for its future is apparently more of what Mzansi Magic had in its past.
Mzansi Magic channel executives have now apparently had a change of heart and decided to make a U-turn on last year's decision.
I can reveal that All Access Mzansi, produced by Homebrew Films, is now set to suddenly return to Mzansi Magic on Thursday 20 June at 19:30 to once again cover celebrity news, interviews, music, sport and social events across South Africa.
It's not clear whether any of the former All Access Mzansi presenters such as Pabi Moloi, Bridget Masinga and Jason Greer will return.
ProVerb however will be back according to sources and All Access Mzansi interestingly also gets revived just in time to tie in again as a behind-the-scenes on-air exposure vehicle for the new 9th season of Idols which will start on the M-Net and Mzansi Magic channels in July of which ProVerb is of course also the presenter.
It's not clear in what way All Access Mzansi will be revamped in terms of look and feel and logo and presenter corps in order to serve Mzansi Magic's black viewership better or more in the way channel executives now have in mind when it debuts in a new way in June. Mzansi Magic's publicity person refused to answer the most basic questions about All Access Mzansi last week after a media enquiry.
I wanted to know why All Access Mzansi is resurrected after Mzanzi Magic said it was cancelled. What was the process behind deciding to return All Access Mzansi to the air, and what happened to bring it back? These and several other questions Mzansi Magic doesn't want to answer.
"We have revamped the show and further details on the new look will be made available to the media in the next few weeks," a Mzansi Magic rep tells me.
