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The 24th season of The Oprah Winfrey Show started a little while ago on SABC3 and already the O's faithful flock is getting restless. Some viewers are starting to murmer about the multiple Oprah repeats on the schedule weekdays at 17:30 on SABC3. But don't blame the TV channel. Guess what? Just like the queen of talk's favourite things episodes, not even SABC3 themselves really know what they'll be getting!
SABC3 insider sources told me they schedule Oprah Winfrey as they receive it. ''Every year there's less and less Oprah,'' a source tells me. ''And the available episodes have to last a whole season for SABC3, so there have to be repeats to make the timeslot last all year long.'' Says another: ''We schedule Oprah as we receive it. Actually we get even less episodes than in America because of strict contract clauses for some episodes. Some celebrities appear on Oprah's show but sign contracts that their interviews are not allowed to air outside of America. The international distributor can't legally send that episode to South Africa although it was produced by Harpo, so then it's one episode more we have to do without.''
Another SABC3 insider with knowledge of the TV channel's Oprah scheduling tells me that when they receive repeat episodes, they have to schedule them - in addition to the repeat slots that SABC3 works in themselves. ''And then there's the viewers requesting specific repeats themselves,'' quips this source. ''We got so many requests from viewers - we were inundated actually - by viewers who wanted to see the Oprah-Whitney two part interview again and again. So that's why we repeat that. We try to repeat the more popular Oprah episodes that viewers strongly respond to and really like to see.''
