Breathless reporting from third rate pulpy publications desperate for sensational cover lines but without the actual real journalism to back it up, rumoured that Isidingo actors might be heading out the door - with the gossip rags showing a clueless and crass lack of understanding for how serialised TV shows work.
No production will write out and get rid of several big-name actors for a once-off splash when a production such as a soap in fact derives its longterm value and sustained income based on viewers' habitual return over an extended period of time to see the same faces and be(come) invested in characters.
No (or less) characters means less viewers tuning in daily - and that's something no show can afford. Soaps are in the business of getting people tuning in to characters and ongoing character development as opposed to plot-driven shows.
A show - especially a soap - only writes out a character or characters near the end of an actor's contract, or near the end of a show's contract - otherwise people need to be paid for no investment on that return, for instance paying someone although they're not appearing on screen.
Endemol South African and the SABC are still at the header end of a long term deal for Isidingo signed at the end of last year (although of course trash pulp press similarly blared shamelessly inaccurately last year that "Isidingo is ending" in what was painfully embarrassing coverage.
Isidingo's new head writer Liam J. Stratton calls the latest low-rate check-out stand trash journalism "untrue", saying the rumours are "unfounded" and labelling the trash appearing in print in already credibility-less tabloids "unchecked".
When Isidingo actress Kgomotso Christopher chimed in with: "The pen is mighty sword ... dangerous in the wrong hands, Liam J. Stratton retorted with: "I think this was more a case of a crayon not a pen".
Last week on Thursday I reached out to several sources at the SABC, SABC3 as well as the production when I got wind of the eye-rolling latest tabloid coverage coming. All categorically laughed off the whistful gossip. "There's no rational incentive to let go of current pivotal on-air talent in [the] production at this point in time," a well-placed source told me last week.
"Let me say right here and now that these reports are unfounded and unjust," Liam J. Stratton tells TV with Thinus.
"Heads will not roll and blood will not be spilled and even if this was going to happen, I would have the decency and respect to inform the actors personally first. Face to face. Way in advance," he says.
"Marking my turf? Sensationalist stories? I'm not a gossip journalist ... sorry, I mean writer ... no journalism involved. I guard future stories fiercely and am very protective over all aspects and people that are involved to tell it well, including the actors whom I have the greatest respect for" says Liam J. Stratton.
"I would suggest these gossip journalists ... sorry I mean writers, could learn something from the approach I am applying to my team about telling stories - that the best ones are grounded in reality, research and most importantly getting it right," Liam J. Stratton tells me.
"Big stars leaving in a show's celebratory 15th anniversary year when everybody on it all went through difficult yet bonding times together as a team? Really? Hilarious," said another well-placed longtime source connected to the show who quipped: "If anybody else actually calls about this, I'd tell them the same."
Another strategic source at the broadcaster told me: "Bogus trash not worth breath to voice. More interesting is how Isidingo regained its footing exactly a year after the fire." [The soap was dealt a severe setback and production nightmare a year ago when a blaze destroyed Henley Studios at the SABC.]
"It was an onerous and arduous process to get Michelle [Botes, who plays Cherel] back once she left. Headline talent and people with actual talent willing to commit to the grind of daily drama in South Africa are actually a scarce resource despite how it might look," another informed source told me.
"If talent's gone they're gone and with the proliferation of local [productions] everyone's protective of what they've got - and not just actors, everyone on a show. Its not 'Can you afford to keep them?' it's 'Can you afford to lose and burn them?' "
"There's some actors with various major personal problems on dailies which actually impacts production from time to time. They're not even A-listers and they're kept on because you can't afford to lose the actor and therefore lose the character and therefore lose viewers," said a source. "Even more so your bigger characters."
