Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 1 April 2015.


The backlash in America against South Africa's Trevor Noah has started one day after he was announced as the new host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central (DStv 122).

Trevor Noah's social media became a beating stick as people scoured through his Twitter feed - as far back as 2009 -for messages offensive to women and Jews. 
Some more of Trevor Noah's offensive Twitter messages and Comedy Central had to do damage control on Tuesday, calling criticism of Trevor Noah "unfair" and saying that Trevor Noah "has a bright future at Comedy Central".
Why did Trevor Noah become a villain and why did people turn on him so quickly? Should Trevor Noah be held to a higher standard? Trevor Noah finally says it was "jokes that didn't land".

Ad Age says the outrage won't bring down Trevor Noah in its opinion and Variety says Comedy Central should defend Trevor Noah's right to offend.
Meanwhile the younger Trevor Noah could perhaps reverse the aging audience of Comedy Central and The Daily Show.
And how Trevor Noah got The Daily Show job - Jon Stewart played an advisory role.


South African documentary producer drags Sabido and e.tv to the broadcasting regulator.
The Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will hear on 9 and 10 April a fascinating case from documentary producer Kevin Harris alleging that Sabido and e.tv are not fulfilling their broadcasting licence obligations when it comes to supporting the production of independent local documentaries.


Downton Abbey bosses tried to keep the show going...
... without creator and writer Julian Fellowes. TV executives wanted the ITV drama shown on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) to continue for longer and further than the final 6th upcoming season this year.

We can interfere with South Africa and the media's freedom of speech says parliament speaker, Baleka Mbete.
The controversial speaker of parliament has the audacity to argue in court papers that parliament has the "right" to cut broadcasts of the TV feed because because disruptions will damage the "dignity" of parliament.

eNCA (DStv 403) set to fire 40 people.
Forty people at Sabido's 24-hour TV news channel are apparently going to lose their jobs.

The SABC to hear the case against its head of news Jimi Matthews.
After Jimi Matthews allegedly assaulted a female SABC employee there's now a date for the grievance procedure and possible disciplinary process.

The arrival of Netflix in Australia is bad for pay-TV subscribers there.
A price comparison site reveals the best TV shows are already exclusively being shown on other pay-TV providers, and video-on-demand (VOD) services could damage Australia's TV and film industries.

And how Netflix is growing - could be worth a massive $100 billion.

Is Sherlock on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) gay?
TV series creator Steven Moffat says that Sherlock is not gay and not interested in sex.

Nigerians now want to ditch DStv after MultiChoice's price hike from April.
DStv subscribers in Nigeria are furious over the price increase and blame the government for "failing to call MultiChoice Nigeria to order".

Richard Hammond and James May no longer work for the BBC.
After the BBC fired Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) the other two co-presenters are now out of their Top Gear job as well.

Meanwhile the Top Gear Live world tours - including the one in South Africa - will now drop all references to Top Gear and be rebranded and known as Clarkson, Hammond and May Live as it is stripped of all BBC branding by BBC Worldwide.