BREAKING. SABC3 privately pissed off about Oprah!

You're reading it here first. SABC3 is in total shock, and taking in the news about the demise of The Oprah Winfrey Show - after the earlier announcement this morning that Oprah will bail out of her talk show on 9 September, 2011. Oprah will announce it officially on her show later today in America.

I've learned that SABC3 is privately very pissed off about it all - not that Oprah decided to quit her lucrative TV property but about the WAY they had to hear about it.

I'm doing the phones since early the morning.

''Why couldn't they tell us first?'' a staffer told me.

''It's so embarrassing that we had to hear it over the radio,'' another high level SABC3 staffer told me.

''It's incredible that this news comes out and that they can't tell a TV station like SABC3 that has the show, news like this first,'' another one said.

''I hear it this morning on the radio. I came into the office and everyone went: 'What??'' They went: ''You must be joking.'' said another.

The Oprah Winfrey Show is a big money spinner for SABC3, builds audience in its timeslot that it then passes on for the early primetime block on the channel.

The show is distrubited by CBS Distribution International to 140 countries around the world, of which South Africa and SABC3 is one.