TVwithThinus can reveal why the SABC botched the playout of the new season of Survivor on SABC3 for the third consecutive time, and why this past Saturday's supposed rebroadcast in the weekend repeat slot mysteriously disappeared without any explanation.
Last Monday night SABC3 once again mangled the broadcast of the start of a new Survivor season for the 3rd consecutive time, without explaining why it happened yet again.
SABC3 completely removed the entire immunity challenge, switching straight to tribal council after an ab break, and had to play music videos to fill the empty airtime on the channel until 21:00.
Angry viewers vented their anger and confusion against SABC3 for once again botching the broadcast of the show distributed by CBS Studios International.
On Tuesday morning last week the SABC3 decided to reschedule the botched episode and then broadcast it on Tuesday evening, pre-empting the night's programming and showing the episode for the first time correctly.
Then, this past Saturday, SABC3 failed to broadcast the repeat of Survivor Cambodia Second Chance on Saturday afternoon at 15:00 - once again leaving a lot of SABC3 viewers angry and confused.
When 15:00 arrived there was no Survivor Cambodia Second Chance on SABC3, with the channel broadcasting Married to Medicine with no on-screen explanation and SABC3 silent on social media after it told viewers on Saturday morning that Survivor would be on at 15:00.
On Saturday TVwithThinus asked the SABC spokesperson Neo Momodu why the Monday episode was mangled and what technical issues led to the problem, and why the show wasn't repeated on Saturday.
On Tuesday this week the SABC was asked again asked in a follow-up to last week's media enquiry what happened with the Monday episode and the missing Saturday repeat.
The SABC said it would respond on Wednesday. By 12:00 there were no answers as to what happened 9 days ago and for which the SABC has existing playout log entries on what took place and the reasons why, and for which an approved schedule amendment was signed off last Tuesday.
If there's a response from the SABC, it will be added below this story.
Meanwhile sources within the public broadcaster gave their explanations as to what actually happened on Monday night, as well as Saturday's disappeared repeat.
It turns out that the Survivor Cambodia Second Chance tape unexpectedly contained a long black film strip that the SABC tried to remove.
"There was a long black film on the original tape that was corrected, but when it came time to broadcast, it was back in," explained a source. It means that that section of the first episode containing the immunity challenge couldn't be shown on air.
About the missing Saturday repeat on SABC3, a source told TVwithThinus that the public broadcaster technically used up its repeat when it re-showed the first episode on the following night.
Although last Tuesday's broadcast of the first episode of Survivor Cambodia on SABC3 was technically the first time that it was broadcast correctly, according to the broadcaster's playout loglines, it strictly counted as the repeat.
"SABC3 played Survivor Cambodia again on Tuesday and because the SABC acquired only two runs according to the licensing rights, the Saturday repeat could not be aired".
SABC3's mangled Survivor history
SABC3 has an ongoing, embarrassing history with mangling Survivor and alienating viewers.
In September 2009 SABC3 messed up the order of the episodes for the Survivor China finale which led to massive viewer outrage.
As advertisers and the sponsor demanded money back, the final control worker was immediately sent home, and later disciplined; and the issue was even addressed in parliament where the mistake was lamented as indicative of the worrying state of the public broadcaster.
In December 2010 SABC3 abruptly delayed the start of Survivor Gabon. Weekly South African entertainment magazines that ran exit interviews worked according to SABC3's planned schedule and already put Christmas and New Year issues to bed.
The result was that multiple magazine covers gave away who was getting voted out before SABC3 showed the episode because the broadcast schedule no longer synced up with magazines' on sale distribution dates.
In Aprl 2012 SABC3 played a wrong promo during the 19th season showing a contestant already sitting in the tribal council jury although he was still very much part of the competing group of the show - giving away that he is getting voted out.
