Thinus Ferreira
The iconic weekly South African lifestyle magazine show Top Billing will return to SABC3 from March 2026 with several of the former famous presenters, six years after it was cancelled in October 2019.
Returning within a social saturated TV era, Top Billing also plans to do a TikTok Top Billing Presenter Search to find new presenters and will interact and engage viewers by adding a Top Billing shorts format as a second-screen experience.
Talking about experiences, besides the weekly TV show, Top Billing also plans to branch out into finely-curated "Top Billing Experiences" where viewers, fans and VIP guests will be able to physically get together in unique locales and settings, together with the presenters, around certain experiences and curated lifestyle celebrations with sponsors.
The Top Billing announcement was made on Tuesday evening at the Chefs Warehouse restaurant at the Tintswalo Atlantic hotel near Chapmanspeak in Cape Town, where an exclusive gathering of 90 people, including several former Top Billing presenters, feasted on a specially curated 7-course dinner, in true "Top Billing"-style.
Also in attendance were Patience Stevens and Batsetsana Kumalo, the original executive producers who steered Top Billing under the Tswelopele Productions banner, and who will once again run the show, this time as a Cardova Productions show, together with Bradley BalsamoVan Den Berg.
Top Billing will kick off with a special Top Billing reunion episode on Thursday 27 November on SABC3 with several of the former presenters back to do a special episode, after which the regular season will start from March 2026 on the channel.
In attendance on Tuesday night were various producers, influencers, SABC executives, Patience Stevens and Basetsana Kumalo, along with the SABC's head of local productions Lala Tuku, as well as former presenters like Michael Mol, Janez Vermeiren, Jonathan Boyton-Lee, Fezile Mkhize, Ryle de Mornay, and Harmony Katulondi.
