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South African TV viewers will still be able to see The Oprah Winfrey Show until mid-2012 on SABC3 before the queen of talk takes her final bow in 2011, but I can exclusively first reveal that SABC3 is already talking about and discussing what to replace The Oprah Winfrey Show's highly coveted weekday hour with.
What is SABC3's talk show strategy for when Oprah finally bows out? Any long term planning for when Oprah ends? That is what I asked SABC3.
''Yes and no,'' Buli Siwana, SABC3's acting marketing manager, tells me. ''We are looking what to replace Oprah with, but as you know we've had a lot of trouble with our finances and how SABC mishandled its money. That is what Solly Mokoetle has come to fix. And he'll be resustitating our relationship with the international distributors that has been damaged when we didn’t correctly handle our money. I know that he is looking,'' she says. ''He's a man who understands broadcasting and he's a man who understands that we need to – SABC3 especially – be commercially competitive. In order for us to compete properly we need to have great content like Oprah, so that is his plan to get us back there - for the entire SABC's TV channels.''
