Strangely (or maybe not) SABC2 failed to promote or publicise the new on-air property to press, TV critics and viewers with not as much as a single word communicated about it.
It's completely and utterly insane.
The Talk's first season is supposed to only have one episode every Friday on SABC2 - but this coming Friday it will be off and gone again after only one episode shown today.
It's true. SABC2 is showing live election results coverage on Friday 9 May.
Why on Earth start a new show, broadcast only show one episode, then suddenly shelf it?
Why then not rather keep it and start it on 16 May when you can do it as an uninterrupted run for a daytime talk show which you're already going to struggle with since you only have one episode on a Friday that viewers will have to remember is different when every other weekday in that timeslot it is Dr. Phil?
How as a programming manager do you run a TV channel and a schedule and an on-air property like this by burning off expensive, foreign content acquired from CBS Studios International with not Monopoly money but SABC licence payers money, and then schedule it in such an erratic and crazy way?
It's no wonder that American and international content distributors have become weary of the SABC.
But very little that SABC2 has been doing and planning with The Talk makes sense anyway.
The Talk first popped up on SABC2's preliminary schedule a year and a half ago - and it would just not materialise and start when SABC2 would say it would. The day and time would come and then SABC2's schedule would be retro adjusted with other filler or content.
Then, The Talk would be placed back on the SABC2 schedule by the programming department, only to again not start. Several false starts occured - the same as Dr. Phil, suddenly back on SABC2 since this past Monday.
The Talk first season - the season which debuted today on SABC2 - started on M-Net (DStv 101) in April 2011 - three years ago.
The 4th season of The Talk currently shows on weekdays at 13:00 on M-Net.
