kykNET has dumped the fake-over show Oulap se Rooi with the K2 twin presenters Alex and Charlie Kotze and immediately removed the sham show from its schedule after the bombshell revelations that instead of improving viewers' homes the show redid rooms in the executive producer's home using "actors" as stand-ins, pretending it's rooms in their homes.
kykNET (DStv 144) says its apologising to viewers for Oulap se Rooi, has immediately removed the show from its schedule and is committed to producing quality Afrikaans TV content "with integrity".
Neither kykNET nor sponsor Builders Warehouse was aware that the show, produced by Seven20 Entertainment, was redoing homes at executive producer Francois van Wyk's own house in Emmarentia, Johannesburg and using friends to pretend that it's rooms in their homes.
Seven20 Entertainment says in a statement "not everything on television is 100% real" and that Seven20 Entertainment "made the decision to use stand-in actors for the makeover of some rooms" because of "time constraints and quality."
The producers say that although actors were used, "the actors' reactions to the made-over rooms were genuine".
In crisis mode, executives at M-Net's Afrikaans language channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform scrambled to yank Oulap se Rooi from its schedule after what insiders called "bombshell" revelations and told the producers their show is getting dumped pending an investigation.
"The case is seen in a very serious light," kykNET told TV with Thinus on Monday evening.
"A decision was taken to no longer broadcast Oulap se Rooi until there's clarity. The investigation is handled as a matter of utmost urgency by kykNET's auditors," says the channel, saying that it's committed to quality Afrikaans content with integrity.
Builders Warehouse said it's "very disappointed" with the shocking and damaging revelations. "We thought the concept was a nice one where the public got involved and their homes get renovated. But when we found out that actually it was the producer's house, we are very disappointed."
So far there's been no statement from the presenter twins who've remained silent over the controversy now swirling around their first TV presenting gig in the show that duped viewers by filming the majority of episodes at the executive producer's own house.
"We simply decided to shoot the episodes in one space because it was logistically easier - we were running behind schedule and we wanted to save production costs and time," says Francois van Wyk, executive producer in a statement, saying the show ran out of time to redo just rooms in actual viewers' homes.
"We could either stage some of the episodes, or end up with no content at all. We decided that the former was the better option".
Co-producer and well-known Top Billing presenter Ursula Chikane says Oulap se Rooi has "always been committed to excellence and accountability".
