There might very well be less written about Downton Abbey on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) in South Africa in general once the third series of the British period drama starts early in 2013 on DStv - and that's just my own humble opinion. Here's possibly why.
I know how TV critics and journalists covering television think (since I myself am one) and a lot of them didn't take kindly to the discourtesy of not even being told beforehand through a simple press alert that Downton Abbey's Rob James Collier who plays Thomas the footman and Sophie McShera who plays Daisy were in South Africa.
Both attended BBC Worldwide Channel's next upfront showcase in Johannesburg held last Tuesday. But it was apparently only for Johannesburg press.
Should (all/other/more) TV critics (have) be(en) told? Well, in my opinion if you're a PR company or TV channel or content distributor and are supposedly in public relations and relationship management and communications (meaning you supposedly specialise in communicating), then I would think yes.
It's not necessarily necessary to ever invite people, but you at least want to keep the playing field, hopefully, level between media outlets when it comes to general news dissemanation within a given industry or trade sector.
Programming upfronts, press conferences and launch events of shows, channels and schedules are not supposed to be for just a specific group. My take is that everyone should at least know about it. And keeping everyone on the same page with the same basic information, advance notices and alerts, is not in my mind a difficult thing to do.
Of course with the BBC's showcase upfront taking place in Johannesburg last Tuesday it's conceivable that BBC Worldwide didn't have the budget or don't care or don't see the need to cater for more or wider than just Johannesburg based TV critics, and media platforms who cover television. No problem with that, although the result was that Cape Town and Durban based TV critics, writers and journalists were left unaware and ... down town.
Of course there's huge irony here behind the scenes. Last Tuesday all of Cape Town and Durban's noted and less noted TV critics, writers and other media outlets - several who have a national footprint and reach but are not based in Johannesburg - were all in Johannesburg since 10:00 the morning, patiently waiting, with nothing else to do for the entire day, for the live Idols finale on M-Net taking place that evening.
It was of course at the Idols afterparty where it wasn't so much Khaya Mthethwa as the BBC's upfront of earlier the day and Downton Abbey which was a point of conversation under various TV critics from across South Africa and which already started during the afternoon.
Some Downton-haves early the evening already shared with the Downton-nots about their day. Some felt dissed, some felt happy, some couldn't care less, and some already knew everything since the afternoon thanks to social media like Facebook. Covering a specific beat as a journalist or a critic, it's not always possible to be everywhere. But it is possible to know everything. And people are always talking - especially journalists.
Knowing who said what, who did what, and who were where, it will be interesting for me to see the third series of Downton Abbey roll around on BBC Entertainment in 2013 and to try and ascertain whether certain people or platforms or publications or columnists maintain or lessen their attention or coverage of the show if they've felt "left out" by last Tuesday's BBC and Downton dalliance, so to speak.
Do TV critics and writers sometimes choose to write about one show because the show they really wanted to feature don't have a nice high-res photo available?
Do TV critics sometimes have more than one TV programme or star or TV channel jockeyeing for the same space and the one which gets the space and editorial exposure in the highlight block on the TV guide page or the half page magazine feature or the Monday supplement print interview or the monthly cover story is where there's been some form of effort to communicate better than the competitor? Undoubtedly.
I can't wait to see how the Downton Abbey talent visit and access and this BBC showcase and how it was perceived by people will be playing out in actual column centimetres of editorial exposure come next year.
