Only in South Africa can you go from being part of a Big Brother reali-trash show to suddenly being a presenter on a current affairs TV show as Leigh Bennie just did by becoming a presenter on M-Net's acclaimed weekly Sunday night news magazine show.
On Sunday night Leigh Bennie suddenly popped up, fronting a story about Grahamstown's water supply in the Eastern Cape, inquisitively asking residents about their dirty water.
Everything a respected TV show such as Carte Blanche does, or doesn't do, reflects on such a programme's overall credibility.
It's therefore strange that a former Big Brother contestant is roped in to present an insert such as the one produced Sunday night by Liz Fish, when there's dozens of students graduating TV and film studies at schools and departments at tertiary education institutions across South Africa every year who've actually studied journalism.
Leigh Bennie, a former air traffic controller, became famous after her stint as a contestant on the first season of the lowbrow reality format show Big Brother South Africa in 2001, after which she went into radio.
Her radio show was axed on 702 at the beginning of this year and now she is suddenly on television and on Carte Blanche.
Does having a former reality TV contestant on your show -and more specifically an investigative news magazine show - build and enhance, or detract from such a show's public perception, reputation and brand standing?
