3rd Degree with anchor Debora Patta is celebrating its 10th anniversary tonight at 21:30 on e.tv with a very special episode looking back at the past decade and some of the highlights of the award-winning investigative magazine show.
Over the past 10 years 3rd Degree has grown to become the number one investigative and current affairs show on South African television with roughly 1,8 million weekly viewers. In an exclusive interview I spoke to Debora Patta about what stories have made her emotional over the years, her hard-hitting on-air persona when she grills people in the 3rd Degree hot seat, and what some of the challenges was when 3rd Degree started out a decade ago.
In my must-read interview with Debora Patta, she has some surprising answers when she talks about when and why she was ''really very stressed'' and ''lived in terror'' during the early start-up days of the show. She reveals what one of her great skills are, what she has learnt and seen from spending time with the dark side of humanity, and what her vision is for the next ten years of 3rd Degree.
For my full interview with Debora Patta, click on READ MORE below.
Looking back to when you started 3rd Degree ten years ago, what was your aim? Did you think the show would last a decade, or was it a more shorter term project? What was your vision then for 3rd Degree?
No, it was never a short term project. I remember thinking: If only we could only last until 2010, I'll be happy. Now that we've got to 2010 I think we've got another ten years in us. Also, if you look at some of the other top current affairs shows on TV overseas, like 60 Minutes in America, they've lasted for half a century. I think it's a good concept, and regardless of whether I'm involved with it or not, it will last. It's a show that South Africa needs. It's part of our democracy – it's part of what makes our democracy tick. The idea was to build a show that was investigative but also a little bit different in that we would also have an interview segment where we would ask tough questions. I really felt that there wasn't enough of that being done on television.
Obviously when you guys started, eNews was also relatively new. A lot of people not in television also don't realize that TV news and current affairs is a very expensive genre to produce and run especially investigative TV journalism. Can you take us back to what some of the logistical challenges were when you started, in terms of the planning and setting up and starting 3rd Degree.
It was a new team, most of whom have never worked in television before. Because we weren't aware of how difficult it was, we weren't daunted. I think if we had more experience, I wonder if we ever would have gotten around to even being on the air. We had a tiny budget and we had a hectic deadline. We had to get a certain viewership number within six months otherwise we'd be taken off the air. I lived in terror that that was going to be the case. We only achieved that target the week before we were supposed to. So I was really very stressed. And we had a tiny team. Even now we have a much smaller team than other current affairs shows. It's always been one of e.tv's strengths which is to work and do your best and be resourceful even when the resources are limited and to focus and spend on quality. That's what we've done at 3rd Degree which is to invest in quality investigations. We've covered a wide range of things over the years. It's a real tribute to the team that we now occupy the number one place in viewership in current affairs. Our ratings are higher than that of our competitors considering that we were the last and the new kid on the block by many years – that's a pretty spectacular achievement.
Especially at the beginning a lot of the public and viewers were not use to your brand – and you're quite a firebrand – and some would say quite aggressive in attacking and tackling certain issues and people. I think a lot of it also came because you're a woman, so maybe there's even a bit of sexism in there as well. How did that feedback affect you that you got at the beginning when some people said things about you that was not nice? Did you ever think of changing or adapting your style?
Look. I still get that feedback. [She laughs.] Nothing's changed actually. [She laughs.] I still get good and bad. Maybe some people have just gotten more used to it. I'm very proud of the fact that we've pioneered a very specific style of doing investigative journalism in this country. Not a lot of people can say that. I think our team has been amazing in that regard. When people attack you personally, it's always hurtful. I mean, I the kind of person who agonizes over criticism and I really take it very seriously. I just had to learn that some of it is useful, some of it is nasty and then its just pointless to even dwell on. I've gotten more attuned to it over the years. The interesting thing is that no matter - whether people are criticising us or like us – they're watching. So, they may not always like what we do, but they're still watching, which is what television is all about: to get the story out and get the viewership. I think what I've learned over the years is that you can be more nuanced. Different styles work differently with different people. I may do a grilling interview but the style can be different depending on the kind of person that I'm dealing with. I've learned to adapt more. The fundamentals don't change. There is one thing that's fundamental to the type of interviews that we do – investigative journalism kind of interviews – which is to ask difficult questions. To ask the questions that the person sitting at home think: she should ask that and then feel relieve when we go ahead and do that.
Can you tell me a bit how the extension of 3rd Degree, 3rd Degree Plus on the eNews Channel (DStv 403) is going and what the reaction has been?
We needed to give people something extra on the eNews Channel. We had a good brand, so it was extending that. Also, we have so much material every week that we often desperately battle to decide what to cut out. To have another half hour per week where we can put that stuff on is very good. We do make it a bit different. The second half hour is more focused on solutions and what can be done and those kinds of interviews. Sometimes we just have spill-over footage. With the Julius Malema interview we had so much stuff we just couldn't fit it all into a single half hour so we ran the rest in 3rd Degree Plus.
At what times were you privately scared over the past decade when you guys were filming?
I don't get scared easily and it's not because I'm brave, it's because I'm stupid. [She laughs.] I think I'm very good at discerning when things are going to get bad. I think it's one of my great skills. I don't think there's any story that's worth dying for. If I sense that something is going to be awkward I walk away from it. I don't think there's any point in being stupid. I drum that into my journalists all the time. At times you get anxious when you do a story about RDP housing and it's getting late in the township. You don't then want to hang around there. Sometimes I've run after people, then I've watched it afterwards and think to myself: ''What!? What was I thinking?'' Once I ran down this deserted alleyway in Alexandria in my heels. And I went afterwards: ''What was I thinking? Why did I do that?'' I think when you're in the moment, you don't think. I've also always thought that the best place to hide is under the light. Once you're out there there is nothing much you can do. There's not a lot to worry about. With a lot of people their bark is worse than their bite. The people to worry about are the ones who say nothing. The quiet ones. You never know what they're thinking. The only person to have ever walked out of an interview was Eugene Terre'Blanche and it was very funny, you'll see that in our anniversary show. Some people threaten, they may say they will never talk to us again. But you know what, ten years on they're coming back onto the show.
Is there someone you've interviewed who disturbed you're emotional equilibrium where while you did it or afterwards when you edited or watched it, made you emotional?
We did this story on Debbie Adlington who's husband killed her kids and axed them to death and tried to kill her and she remarkably survived. That was traumatic having to listen to her tell that – having children of your own. I just couldn't imagine how someone could live after something like that. We did a story on the worse case of child abuse that South Africa has ever seen where three children were used for target practice and sexual orgies by their father. It was just diabolical and that was deeply, deeply disturbing. Deeply, deeply upsetting. So ja, stories that involve the abuse of children, people who suffer. I want to say something Thinus. I spend a lot of my dark in the darkness – in the darkness of humanity. Despite what I've seen, the darkness of people - and probably more than most people - I've seen the very best of people. For every bad person I meet a good person – or more good people . . . people who do remarkable, remarkable things. Unsung heroes. It's an incredible privilege of my job. I think it was Dennis Beckett who said that for everyone holding out a gun, there's ten more holding out a hand of friendship. That's definitely been my experience in South Africa. This is a country made up out of good people. And it's the few rotten ones that are the exception.
How do you decide from week to week what topics and stories you are going to tell on 3rd Degree and whether you have enough time to produce it and get the right people to talk?
If there's a big issue bubbling and we can get it done in enough time – we always have to judge it with the Sunday newspapers – if it's going to be done to death before Tuesday then we don't bother, unless we have something new to add. If it's a big current issue in the week of our show, we usually would go with it. And when we do, we get great viewership. But if it's past the time then we battle. We always have a few stories bubbling and we act quickly if something big breaks like Caster Semenya but at the same time we'll have longer investigations that's not time-bound and are our own stories that we can always use and plan around. Sometimes we work on a story that's into something that is happening and then we think: Let's go with it now and then we rush to get it done.
What's your vision and hopes and dreams for the next ten years of 3rd Degree and 3rd Degree Plus?
I think we live in an amazing country. I think the one thing South Africa has taught us is that as an investigative TV show we'll never be short of stories. Journalists in Canada, with a moose crossing the road and holding up traffic, will probably be a lead story. We're not short of stories. And it's very important for democracy that we have shows like 3rd Degree and all the other ones that exist. I think fine investigative journalism needs to continue in this country. My vision is that we continue to excel and that we don't rest on our laurels and that we continue to push the boundaries, continue to find new ways of doing things, to experiment with different ways of telling stories and to most importantly tell the stories of South Africa as it unfolds. It's such a privilege to have a front row seat to South African history and I want to keep doing this for as long as I can.
3rd Degree, Tuesdays, e.tv / eNews Channel (DStv 403), 21:30
3rd Degree Plus, Tuesdays, eNews Channel (DStv 403), 22:00
