As the baton gets passed tonight on Thursday 15 August 2019 from Johan Stemmet to Emo Adams as the new host of the longrunning Noot vir Noot, Emo says taking over as the presenter of the Afrikaans game show on SABC2 feel to him “like Trevor Noah taking over from Jon Stewart”.
After 29 years, the 44th season of Noot vir Noot, produced by Stemmburg Television, kicks off tonight at 19:00 with Emo Adams as the new host, the Musiekfabriek replaced with DJ Shelly (Rochelle de Bruyn), and a new techno-infused set as well and revamped and pacier games as contestants compete with their music knowledge and singing karaoke to try and win money.
Noot vir Noot that lost audience shares and viewers over the past few years is one of the longrunning prime time shows that SABC2 decided to rejuvenate to attract new and younger viewers.
“I’m humbled that Johan Stemmet and the production team reached out to ask me to do this. It’s hands down a dream come true,” says Emo Adams.
“The day Johan called me and they explained to me the new way that they would like to do Noot vir Noot and with DJ Shelly – at first you have your reservations because Noot vir Noot is an institution. Now here comes Emo as a coloured boytjie from Mitchells Plain and throws all the toys out of the cot and everybody is thinking this bra is going to mess everything up”.
“But they gave me so much assurance to say trust the process, trust us, this is going to work. It’s one of those things that happens in your life – like Trevor Noah taking over from Jon Stewart at The Daily Show – the fact that this man acknowledges the talent out there and what’s going on."
"Johan has his hands on the pulse of what’s happening all the time and knew exactly who he wanted.”
“The reason why I feel very blessed is when I visited my mom, after the first recording, she said ‘My son, I’m very, very proud of you. Your work, if you do it with sincerity and truth, your work speaks for itself,” says Emo Adams.
Johan Stemmet: Not retiring
“They say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. But this doesn’t work in television. In television, even if it ain’t broke you’ve got to continually fix it. You’ve got to continually fine-tune it,” says Johan Stemmet from Stemmburg TV who remains a producer and a director of the longrunning show behind-the-scenes.
“We also have to renew. But you don’t bring a new motor car model onto the market and all you change is the steering wheel.”
“You’ve got to rethink it, you’ve got to recreate it, you’ve got to remodel it because you’re sitting with a public property which is already in the public domain so you have to work very, very carefully. You’ve got to admit, and you’ve got to accept, that you’re renewing – so familiar to the viewers, familiar things in the programme have got to be renewed. Everything we do, we do for the viewers.”
“In the case of Noot for Noot we said there’s a trade-off between the familiar and the new,” says Johan Stemmet.
“We traded upward. Not sideways and you definitely don’t trade downwards.”
“We traded the analogue familiar set for a modern high-tech set. We also traded the one-man host presenting approach for duo presenters approach where you have two presenters playing off each other, interacting with each other – and this results in a much more dynamic presentation of the content.”
“We also traded off the resident band for 14 individual music acts – 14 artists brought to the Noot vir Noot stage.”
“We added a specialised DJ and we can now use original music and original soundtracks where in the past we had to rely on instrumental versions of songs. Now we can do the original ones. We have a new team of presenters who will take Noot vir Noot to new heights for the now-generation and the generation to come.”
“Emo brings to the show his unique charm that he has, his special fun way, his entertaining way of presenting and Rochelle brings her specialised knowledge of being a DJ and her fun personality to complement Emo.”
“To everyone who remained with us for 29 years, I still remain very much a part of the show. People say to me ‘so what are you going to do now that you’re going to retire?’ But I’m not retiring. In my 52 weeks of a year for one week I’m not presenting Noot vir Noot, I’m directing it now.”
Game show rejuvenation
Gerhard Pretorius, SABC2 channel head, says “fortunately and unfortunately, the SABC is the home to 50/50 and Noot vir Noot and according to people, these are old programmes".
"So we had to decide what we’re going to do to rejuvenate since people are asking where are we taking things, and that’s exactly what happened”.
“We threw the ball back to Stemmburg TV, had conversations, they came back last year with a presentation including a video, and I was bowled over and I think the management team at SABC TV was quite impressed.”
“I was very nervous when they called and said ‘Come and see the first episode’. To the new presenters, Emo and Rochelle, welcome to the SABC2 family.”
