by Thinus Ferreira
The Ellen DeGeneres Show has quietly disappeared from MultiChoice's DStv, the SABC abruptly postponed The Braai Show with AKA, the TelkomONE streaming service failed to start on its promised launch date, e.tv has dropped the Fight Sports channel, and the PBO TV channel is missing from StarSat. Here's what happened to them all:
Here's what happened to Ellen on DStv:
The 17th season of Ellen ended on Thursday 29 October on VUZU (DStv 116) but the 18th season of Ellen that had already started in America didn't continue seamlessly.
Instead, M-Net (DStv 101) that is broadcasting the new second season of The Kelly Clarkson Show, is now rebroadcasting old episodes of the first season of The Kelly Clarkson Show on VUZU in the timeslot where Ellen used to be.
In the United States, Ellen has been engulfed in a behind-the-scenes production scandal that has seen ratings for the new 18th season plunge to series lows, not just in America, but in various countries, with viewers as far away as Australia saying they've been turned off from Ellen and her talk show.
Ellen and her talk show suffered brand and reputation damage since current and former staffers at the Warner Bros. show came forward with their stories of racism, sexual harassment, mistreatment, and the terrible working conditions behind-the-scenes, and how Ellen DeGeneres is not as "nice" as she claimed to be on TV.
The executive producers were fired. When the 18th season of Ellen started in America, the talk show host apologised on-air and said that she has "learned that things happened here that should never have happened. I take that very seriously and I wanna say I'm so sorry to the people affected."
"I know that I'm in a position of privilege and power and I realise that with that comes responsibility and I take responsibility for what happens at my show."
TVwithThinus asked M-Net what has happened to Ellen on the schedule.
Nomntu Mngengi, M-Net spokesperson, in response to the media enquiry says that "the license for The Ellen Show is
currently being re-negotiated with the studio. The Kelly Clarkson Show
season 1 will therefore be scheduled on Vuzu until then".
Here's what happened to The Braai Show on SABC1:
On 26 October SABC1 announced that a new 13-episode series, The Braai Show with AKA would start on Thursday 5 November at 19:30 on the channel.
The Braai Show with Kiernan Forbes, known as AKA, would have seen the controversial rapper braai and get a "glance into the lives of Mzansi's most-intriguing and controversial South African personalities".
Yesterday SABC1 abruptly did a schedule change, quietly removing The Braai Show from its schedule without any explanation a day before it was supposed to start.
TVwithThinus asked executive produced David Phume of Cake Media what happened.
David Phume says "Television
stations change schedules for a variety of reasons. At this stage we do not
know why SABC1 has made changes to their schedule. As such we eagerly wait to
hear from SABC1 about a new time slot for the show."
Phillip Mabitsela, SABC1 publicist was asked why The Braai Show would no longer start on Thursday but in response gave no reason and said a new date will be communicated. On Thursday morning the SABC announced that The Braai Show has been moved to 12 November at 19:30.
Here's what happened to the launch of Telkom's TelkomONE streaming service:
Wanda Mkhize, Telkom's executive for smart home and content, said that Telkom would launch its new TelkomONE video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service in South Africa on Thursday 5 November 2020.
Thursday arrived and TelkomONE failed to materialise.
On Wednesday night at 22:00, DNA Brand Architects abruptly cancelled a TelkomONE media launch event with the press that was set for Thursday without any explanation.
The SABC that plans to have the public broadcaster's linear TV channels added and be available on TelkomONE, also abruptly cancelled pre-arranged interviews with executives that were set up for Thursday, also without any explanation.
So far there's been no official communication or any explanation as to why TelkomONE failed to launch and what issues caused it.
Hi Fans, today we’re bidding farewell to Fight Sports.
— Openview (@openviewforever) October 29, 2020
Stay tuned as exciting news is coming your way! pic.twitter.com/ox8wxXpJ3M
Here's what happened to the Fight Sports channel on Openview:
e.tv quietly removed The Fight Sports channel after just a year on its free-to-air Openview satellite service last Thursday without any announcement to the media.
On 29 October Openview on its Twitter feed suddenly just said "All good things come to an end. Fight Sports". e.tv added the Fight Sports channel to Openview in November 2019.
Here's what happened to Premium BoxOffice Television on StarSat:
On 30 September China's StarTimes pay-TV service, run under the StarSat brand banner in South Africa, announced that it was adding the Premium BoxOffice Television (PBO TV) channel to StarTimes across sub-Saharan Africa, and to StarSat in South Africa from October.
The problem is that the channel from the Nigerian production company Big Idea Mediaworks that was supposed to go live on StarSat channel 184 as a Nollywood TV channel, broadcasting series, films, sitcoms, music and late-night comedy never materialised as promised.
After adding PBO TV to its website as a channel listing and an announcement, StarSat has now removed all traces of it after subscribers kept asking why it was announced and failed to start.
Luyanda Cele, StarSat publicist, told TVwithThinus in response to a media enquiry that PBO TV "is pending approval from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) but it has been launched in other countries for StarTimes. Once we have a confirmed date for South Africa we shall communicate and share".