REVIEW. 2011 MK Awards an epic fail in kiefness; badly produced show that overran was riddled with technical mistakes, problems.

M-Net, kykNET and music channel mk needs to seriously rethink what it's purpose is with the MK Awards since a proud showcase it is definitely not and with the deplorably shoddy production values on display at the 2011 MK Awards I attended last night, it's either being short changed by a lack of money, attention and focus by channel execs or not given proper production support by the Magic Factory that produced this low budget mess. Or all of the above.

The 2011 MK Awards broadcast live on mk (DStv 324) on Saturday night was not the Parow kus of Kiefness. The badly-run, badly-produced, award show that ran longer by more than half an hour was riddled with mistakes, errors, empty seats, incoherent production, barely there musicians to accept awards and technical sound and light problems which is more on par with the kind of award shows that you'd actually expect from a SABC produced award show like the Saftas or the Metro's. In a big sense of irony the 2011 MK Awards contained sketches during ad breaks denoting sardonic ''epic fail'' situational comedy moments that actually, unintentionally, could refer to what this award show itself was: an epic fail.

How bad is it when you win an award like Die Tuindwergies did, and you can't get to the stage because the security don't know who you are and weren't briefed to let you through and grab you, and you try to break free (viewer's didn't see him flip the moronic security guard the bird) to just get to the stage?
How bad is it when a model (like for instance the one with the ''antler branches'' that was also the brand image of this year's awards) bringing the trophy can't get back through the door opening (not shown on TV) which shows there clearly haven't been a dress rehearsal with their avant garde creations on?
Is it normal for presenters having to struggle to find the winners' names since they haven't been told its on the trophies themselves? And can you blame the empty seats and the audience leaving when they realized that basically none of the winners are there in person to accept their awards (which is why people showed up in the first place - to see the winners in person) but are reduced to watching pre-taped acceptance speeches?

The lighting and sound was bad but since I sat in the audience I have no idea whether like Idols, its better when watched from home. The 2011 MK Awards that was broadcast live was supposed to end at 21:30 but went over to after 22:00. Where is the director of this mess and wasn't this show scripted, dry-runned, plotted and timed before hand? Why did presenters struggle to read the autocue and several blatantly reading it so badly that it was clear that they didn't get their script before and was reading it for the very first time during the live show? Magazine shows Jip from kykNET (DStv 111) and Studio 1 from mk attended and will probably gush with sinergistic praise about this award show that deserves more than the shoddy production that marred it.

Getting 550 000 votes in total shows that there definitely is an audience for something like the MK Awards, but it doesn't seem as if M-Net/kykNET/mk wanted to actually put a decent amount of money, or attention into this show to at least produced a passing grade show. Producing a low-rent award show like this but aimed at actually trying to show how good local Afrikaans rock video production is, is just not Die Antwoord. Having a black carpet is a great idea though and a unique selling value proposition for this award show. Corne and Twakkie as hosts of the 2011 MK Awards were funny and did a remarkably good job of entertaining the audience both during the show and during ad breaks but even they couldn't hold up the limping production (and can't be expected to). Rock band Die Heuwels Fantasties - clearly a big draw in terms of the live audience who showed up and were probably their fans - performed admirably in the live performance at the 2011 MK Awards that had the least mistakes. If the passed away former MK presenter Herman Pretorius were invoked in barely everything, why did the producers not have a pre-taped tribute insert?

You can be low-cost without coming across as low-budget and that's how the 2011 MK Awards looked: Zef but sadly not cool zef. Somewhere Jack Parow cannot be thinking that this mess was quite piele.