Three cast members of the American daytime soap The Bold and the Beautiful will be visiting South Africa, with their visit coming as viewership of the soap has nosedived on the SABC's SABC3 channel the past few months.
The South African public broadcaster over the past year had nothing good to say about the American programming on its schedule, getting rid of sister American soap Days of Our Lives that jumped to e.tv, and constantly making disparaging remarks about foreign content and "American soaps".
The past few years in South Africa's parliament and in press conferences, the SABC also only spoke bad about The Bold and the Beautiful, with the highest ranking SABC executives and board members calling The Bold and the Beautiful "outdated" and saying the SABC can't get rid of it since the broadcaster is locked into a "forever contract".
Viewership of The Bold and the Beautiful in South Africa fell off a cliff the past few months with massive plunges in ratings, luring 495 287 viewers in September for its most-watched episode,
It will be interesting to see to what degree the SABC and SABC3 heaps lavish and awkward praise on The Bold and the Beautiful when the soap's stars and publicists are in South Africa between 21 and 26 October as part of a global tour of the Bell-Phillip Television Production Inc. produced soap.
The Bold and the Beautiful soap stars visiting South Africa are Heather Tom (Katie Logan), Jacob Young (Rick Forrester) and Karla Mosley (Maya Avant Forrester) as part of the soap's global publicity tour to celebrate the 30-year anniversary.
The soap stars will visit Johannesburg and Cape Town. The visit also includes appearances at the Mall of Africa and Maponya Mall in Johannesburg and Table Mountain in Cape Town. The itinerary also includes a private event and a meet-and-greet with contest winners.
As part of the celebrations in South Africa, SABC3 will re-introduce the Saturday omnibus rebroadcast of The Bold & The Beautiful from 14 October between 09:00 and 12:00.
"It gives us great pleasure to set the SABC3 stage for The Bold and the Beautiful cast in South Africa," says Aisha Mohamed, SABC3 channel head.
"We are happy to bring our content closer to our viewers, and in this case the fans of The Bold and the Beautiful who will get a chance to experience the cast while they are here. We welcome The Bold and the Beautiful cast and crew to South Africa and we look forward to the interaction with our viewers."
Bradley Bell, executive producer and head writer of The Bold and the Beautiful says "I'm so thankful that after 30 years, our South African viewers and our broadcaster, SABC3, remain an integral part of our extended television family."
"To celebrate this occasion, we're sending Karla, Heather and Jacob in person to convey our warm greetings and gratitude to our fans."
