You're reading it here first.
''I'm very emotional about the job,'' Derek Watts tells me as South Africa's longest running and multiple award winning weekly investigative magazine show, Carte Blanche (Sundays at 19:00 on M-Net) gets ready to celebrate its 22nd anniversary tomorrow on Sunday with a special broadcast in which viewers will get to choose what inserts get shown.
In an interview - the complete one which TV with Thinus readers will be able to read in full tomorrow on Sunday right here - I asked Derek Watts iwhy he is still with the show after 22 years.
''I really do have a very genuine interest in it. I love it. Carte Blanche is a passion,'' Derek Watts told me. ''Television isn't the best paying job in the world in South Africa but I really enjoy the stories and the team. We have such an amazing team, who don't all work from an office. It's a cottage industry. It's a strong team. You've got to work well together on some of these stories. Of course you're allowed to have different opinions – it is Carte Blanche – but in the end you've got to all be on the same journey to produce the best possible story. And if you're not on that same journey together, it doesn't work. ''
''I think it’s the team and the constant rejuvenation of the show. We've grown so much. I mean, we've got Carte Blanche Medical and Carte Blanche Consumer now. We didn't have those last year. We're now in high definition (HD). So some people go 'Why have I've been with Carte Blanche for so long?' but its constantly evolving and changing. George Mazarakis has been an amazing executive producer who's taken us to new heights over the last 14 years. The people I work with, the stories we do, the team, and of course viewers who respond so fantastically when I walk around. Some of course want to beat me over the head with a baseball bat but that's part of the territory hey? Ha ha.''
ALSO READ: Derek Watts on Carte Blanche's 22nd anniversary: ''I miss Ruda Landman very much.''
