The SABC on Saturday afternoon confirmed what the upcoming SABC3 schedule has showed for a month and said it's cancelling and removing the American weekday soap The Bold and the Beautiful after 21 years from Monday and stocking the troubled channel's schedule with repeats and rebroadcasts of old programming.
After doing a big countrywide publicity blitz with The Bold and the Beautiful star Katherine Kelly Lang in in September 2018 who got prime placement on a flurry of SABC TV talk and magazine shows as well as SABC radio stations, the SABC said Saturday that The Bold and the Beautiful which has been shown on SABC1 and later SABC3 since 1997 has been canned because "of the property's poor return on investment whilst the financial investment to acquire the property kept increasing".
The Bold and the Beautiful, produced by Bell-Phillip Television Productions Inc., is the last remaining American soap opera left on the SABC's channels and has remained a very strong performer on SABC1, as well as with its move to SABC3.
Bold finally getting scrapped from the latest March SABC3 schedule come two years after SABC3 lost Days of Our Lives in September 2017 to rival e.tv.
Exactly as previously reported by TVwithThinus, The Bold and the Beautiful in its 17:30 timeslot is being replaced by a show called Democracy Gauge from Monday 4 March in the timeslot.
SABC3 is also stocking up on rebroadcasts and repeats to pad the channel's schedule, including Taryn and Sharon at 18:00 on weekdays that was first shown in October 2017, a rebroadcast of the SABC2 telenovela Keeping Score on weekdays at 18:30; and yet another repeat of these two shows in the mornings at 09:30 and 10:00.
Neo Momodu, SABC spokesperson, said in the Saturday statement that "in response to the current financial challenges facing the SABC, SABC is implementing a programming strategy which seeks to ensure that it provides compelling and entertaining programming that resonates with audiences".
"The SABC would like to thank all the viewers who have shown unwavering support to the show since its debut. SABC3 would like to assure the public that with the channel's evolution, viewer and stakeholder needs remain important".
The SABC didn't respond to the media's stakeholder enquiries the past week and was asked multiple times when the decision was taken to remove The Bold and the Beautiful from the SABC3 schedule, why SABC is showing rebroadcasts of old content during prime time and whether old content won't lead to lower viewership, as well as what the new direction is that SABC3 is taking.
Despite multiple disastrous timeslot changes in successive do-over relaunches and schedule changes on SABC3, The Bold and the Beautiful has remained a strong performer for the channel over the past three years, despite being moved from SABC1 where it was also a big hit.
Although The Bold and the Beautiful did suffer a knock because of all of the ill-advised moves, it remained one of SABC3's most-watched shows, luring 635 000 viewers in December 2018 as the second most watched TV show on all of SABC3, and 484 067 viewers in January 2019, just below local magazine show Top Billing.
David Gregg, vice president of international publicity for The Bold and the Beautiful at Bell-Phillip Television Productions Inc. in Los Angeles was asked multiple times the past few weeks, including this week for comment about the SABC dumping the show but didn't respond to media enquiries.
Meanwhile concern is also growing around stalwart SABC3 titles like Survivor and The Amazing Race.
The SABC was asked what the situation is regarding these legacy American programming and some of the last remaining rating-grabbers on SABC and whether any of these programmes will continue to be shown on SABC3 after March 2019.
The SABC didn't respond with any written answers.
The Bold and the Beautiful is running on EVA (DStv 141) but with episodes that are two years behind SABC3.
