TV with Thinus can break the news and reveal that there will definitely be no broadcast of the Royalty Soapie Awards on Sunday on SABC1 although the organisers of the awards, Winnie Modise and Sindile Zulu promised viewers that the Saturday ceremony would be broadcast on SABC1 on Sunday at 20:30.
TV with Thinus reported on Wednesday that there is ongoing uncertainty and confusion regarding the broadcast of the Royalty Soapie Awards, the latest in a string of backstage problems and drama of the embattled soap awards finally taking place on Saturday (today) in Durban at the Durban International Convention Centre.
While the organisers adamantly maintained that the SABC and SABC1 would broadcast the Royalty Soapie Awards with hosts Michael Mol and Hlomla Dandala on Sunday, it is simply not true.
SABC insiders said no agreement was made with the organisers to broadcast the Royalty Soapie Awards on Sunday night on SABC1.
A spokesperson from the publicity company working on behalf of the award show on Saturday morning told TV with Thinus in response to a media enquiry that the Royalty Soapie Awards will "issue an official statement with comment from SABC1" at a later time.
The SABC told TV with Thinus on Saturday that there will be zero Royalty Soapie Awards shown on Sunday on SABC1. It's highly embarrassing since the organisers had already told viewers to tune in on Sunday to watch it, and no new statement or announcement that it won't be the case was made before the end of business on Friday.
There will now definitely be disgruntled viewers who are possibly going to tune in, expecting an awards show instead of a movie, and finding no Royalty Soapie Awards on television as promised.
The trouble-plagued and seemingly disorganised Royalty Soapie Awards saw e.tv pull its soaps from consideration last year, and the organisers refused to say who the judges of the industry event are. The organisers are still not willing to say who judges who (although several judges' names are an open industry secret).
There was also drama behind-the-scenes which saw venture partner Lala Tuku back out and the Royalty Soapie Awards moved from its November 2013 date to March 2014.
Zero information was made available to the press regarding who will appear or perform at the Royalty Soapie Awards, what the style and format of Saturday's ceremony would entail, who would be doing red carpet coverage and there's been no pre-awards press conference before the end of Friday, which is usually organised for events of this type.
