Saturday, July 22, 2017

SABC pulls Generations omnibus on SABC1 follow viewer complaints over Thabi and Smanga's too explicit Fifty Shades of Grey sex scenes.


The SABC has abruptly pulled this past week's episodes of the Generations omnibus on SABC1 supposed to be repeated today from 11:00 following viewer complaints over the alleged explicit sex scenes between two characters involved in a "Fifty Shades of Grey" type storyline that went to far for even primetime.

In a slew of complaints, the SABC was accused of turning the SABC1 primetime weekday soap into soft porn filled with steamy sex scenes while families with children are watching.

The Mfundi Vundla produced soap - the second most watched show on SABC1 and on South African television overall - shocked viewers in the week when the characters of Thabi (Motsoaledi Setumo) and Smanga had their own version of the erotic Fifty Shades of Grey novel and film.

Thabi, in racy black underwear called herself "a slave" and "a very naughty girl" who "needs to be punished", revealed her various bedroom skills to South African viewers as she later also took out a whip and handed it to Smanga to use on her.


Instead of the week's too-hot-to-handle episodes, the South African public broadcaster on Friday decided to replace Saturday's omnibus episodes.

Later today SABC1 will rebroadcast the first five episodes of the "new" Generations that was broadcast when the show restarted in late-2014 after it went off the air following a cast strike a few months earlier asking for better contracts and that saw the SABC fire everyone and reboot the show as Generations - The Legacy with completely new actors.

It's not clear if Morula Pictures will be reworking, editing or changing scenes from next week's episodes in the ongoing storyline that was filmed months ago already in the story from head writer Collin Oliphant and writer Tanya Tiedje.

Earlier Generations said that "We are aware of the complaints but we will continue to show such scenes as the series progresses," but that might change.

The SABC as public broadcaster has a responsibility under the Broadcasting Code to not show programming that's harmful to children or goes too far before the so-called "watershed period" of 21:00 when the likelihood of great that children and families are still watching; and to show adequate parental viewing advisories ahead of time on programmes.

"SABC 1 has taken a decision to pull off the Generations - The Legacy omnibus for this week’s episodes which were scheduled to air Saturday, 22nd July 2017."

"This is due to the viewer complaints the channel has received about the alleged explicit content shown during this week’s episodes of the popular soapie," said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago in a statement.

"The channel will replace this week’s episodes by airing the first 5 episodes of Generations – The Legacy that first went to air on 1 to 5 December 2014, from 11:00 to 13:30."

"We would like to assure our viewers that we take their feedback seriously and would like to apologize for any inconvenience or discomfort this week’s episodes may have caused," said Kaizer Kganyago.




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