Here's a blindsider: Comedy Central (DStv 122) has grabbed the exclusive broadcasting rights for the latest new season of Saturday Night Live (SNL) away from M-Net Series (DStv 110) which planned to start showing it from 3 March.
Comedy Central will show brand-new one week old Saturdany Night Live episodes on Saturdays from 7 April at 22:15 (South African time), as well as Best of Saturday Night Live classic episodes on Friday nights at 22:15 from Friday 6 April.
Earlier this month I told you RIGHT HERE that M-Net Series planned to start the new season of SNL on 3 March at 22:30 after M-Net Series managed to catch-up remarkably with the American sketch-comedy show over the past two years bringing episodes and seasons very close to the American broadcasting date.
Well, it would appear as if M-Net Series' plans for the new season has been foiled and that it will definitely not start in March but only later in the year. It might even be that SNL is completely gone and lost to M-Net Series permanently as a TV property since M-Net refuses hand-me downs and simply don't broadcast shows if it's been on another channel first.
''Comedy Central has secured the rights to Saturday Night Live in Africa and will now be broadcasting the world's most popular late night show,'' MTV Networks Africa says which specifies it as the very latest new season of SNL. ''Most importantly we get the episode only one week after the US premiere!''
Since there's zero chance that M-Net Series has Saturday Night Live's latest season starting in March and Comedy Central having the latest season start just one month later, it means SNL is lost to M-Net Series.
M-Net Series didn't have a definitive answer on what happened. I asked M-Net Series, MTV Networks Africa and MultiChoice for further clarification of exactly what happened so that I can understand. M-Net Series which told me ''we may only air Saturday Night Live later this year'' promised ''feedback before the end of today'' but nothing materialized.
