While a growing number of viewers and TV critics are now openly wondering what's going on with the weekday daytime SABC3 talk show Three Talk with Noeleen - apparently stuck in repeat episodes limbo - the SABC remains quiet as to why it is happening, what is going on, and when the popular local talk show will return with new episodes.
SABC TV publicity head Zandile Nkonyeni has not responded to media enquiries about Three Talk with Noeleen which has entered yet another week of daily repeat episodes on SABC3, some inappropriately mentioning Christmas.
Although the longrunning show prompts viewers to interact on social media like Twitter for instance, talk show host Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu last "tweeted" on 30 December on @Noeleen3Talk and then fell silent.
On screen viewers only see the word "repeat" next to the SABC3 channel logo and has had no explanation from the SABC as to why Three Talk with Noeleen went into repeats, for such a long period, and when it will end.
Viewers are wondering what's going on and the SABC isn't forthcoming with any explanations.
Because the SABC is not talking and communicating as to what is going on and if or when the talk show will return, this has now prompted wild speculation under viewers and TV critics.
A growing number of people are now wondering whether Three Talk with Noeleen is getting cancelled; whether there is contract problems between the SABC and the production in the way that SABC1's Generations had contract problems in 2013; whether Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu is ill, unwell, injured, on holiday or no longer interested in doing the show.
"Why can't the SABC say what is happening with 3Talk and where is Noeleen? Every week is old episodes and nobody is explaining when I can see new episodes again" a reader asked TV with Thinus, summarising the feelings that fans of the afternoon talk show are starting to express.
Three Talk with Noeleen (bar the unexplained weeks of repeats) remains South African television's longest running and only local, daily, hour long television talk show.
The show produced by Urban Brew Studios and which has seen several different timeslots since it started on SABC3, should be celebrating its 11th anniversary in April.
