Showing posts with label Alison Sweeney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alison Sweeney. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 25 August 2020.


Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

■ The TV industry will never recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Advertising and pay-TV subscription fees have been the twin engines driving the growth of media companies for decades and now both are failing.
- Get ready for fewer new scripted shows and more cheap reality on pay-TV, and more of everything else on the internet.

■ FOX News (StarSat 261) insiders  part of a "real resistance" inside the rightwing American channel; no-one in control at FOX News; FOX News management "afraid of the news"; uncomfortable staffers worried about the damage being done.

■ Alison Sweeney returning to her role of Sami Brady in Days of Our Lives seen on e.tv.

■ ViacomCBS is launching its Paramount+ video streaming service through the OSN pay-TV operator in the Middle East and North Africa.

■ Rose McGowan slams Alyssa Milano for making Charmed "toxic AF":
"You threw a fit in front of the crew, yellig 'They don't pay me enough to do this s-!' I cried every time we got renewed because you made that set toxic."

■ New Pandemic: Covid-19 in Africa documentary series to broadcast on M-Net Movies Zone (DStv 139) every 3 weeks.

■ Grey's Anatomy, This is Us, The Good Doctor, NCIS: New Orleans, The Resident, Shameless:
Why are so many American TV drama series now planning to do Covid-19 episodes?

■ Can Ellen DeGeneres' "be kind" brand survive her not-so-nice scandal?

■ Yep, he's gay: Slipping into bed with the former SABC2 Eastern Mosaic presenter Imraan Vagar.

■ Staggering R22 million legal bill for the SABC for disciplinary hearings of the South African public broadcaster.

■ Has the great "re-bundling" arrived?
As pay-TV moves from bundling TV channels to streaming services, guess what's happening in the "second phase of bundling" ...

■ In America video streaming consumption has doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic - driven by Netflix.

■ Netflix's Selling Sunset real estate reality series hit by allegations that it's fake.

■ In an accidentally "DO NOT POST" tweet Disney+ accidentally tweets it and reveals that it plans to launch on 17 November in Brazil and Latin America.

■ KwaZulu-Natal premier, Sihle Zikalala, hilariously claims that eNCA (DStv 403) anchor and reporter Shahan Ramkissoon "disrespected" and "belittled" him during a live broadcast.

■ Netflix's new "Shuffle Play" button designed to rot brains (subscription required).

■ Islamic TV station ITV (DStv 347) shook by court claims of alleged financial wrongdoing, including thousands paid for family wedding and legal fees of provisionally sequestrated founder (subscription required).

■ Ellen Pompeio of Grey's Anatomy, seen on M-Net (DStv 101), on watching herself age from 33 to 50 on TV across 17 seasons: "It's not so fun. It's ..."

■ A live-action series of The Powerpuff Girls is in the works based on the original Cartoon Network (DStv 301) animation series.

■ British television's racism problem laid bare in blistering address at 2020 Edinburgh TV festival.

■ Netflix could lose 2 million subscribers quarterly ... without new content.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 25 April 2015.


Hlaudi Motsoeneng's lawyer Zola Majavu is put on Morning Live on SABC2.
"Unpacks" the court again ordering that Hlaudi Motsoeneng be immediately suspended by the SABC. Zola Majavu tells Leanne Manas over a massive 8 and a half minutes of SABC air time why his client Hlaudi Motsoeneng isn't suspended.

(At 08:29 we find out that Hlaudi Motsoeneng on Friday morning is at work and having a meeting with MetroFM DJ's.)

(Note the total lack of any explainer from the SABC about why there is a court case in the first place; the complete absence of any background or context to viewers about what is being appealed and why - why the Public Protector and Hlaudi Motsoeneng is involved in this court case.)

Meanwhile parliament takes note of the court ruling on Hlaudi Motsoenen'g suspension.


MUST READ: Why criticism and honesty are profoundly patriotic acts.

Alison Sweeney who was Sami on Days of Our Lives on SABC3, talks about her first Daytime Emmy nomination this year.


Dr. Mehmet Oz from The Dr. Oz Show on SABC3 attacked his critics on his talk show.
Dr. Mehmet Oz this past week launched into an on-air attack on the doctors who say people are allegedly being misled and endangered by the allegedly fake products and medical advice ranging from "rasperry ketones" to other dubious treatments he promotes on his talk show.
"Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine," says the doctors. "Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain."
Vox looks at how Dr. Mehmet Oz as an award-winning doctor turned away from science and embraced fame as he is leading people adift who are looking for answers and scientific insight from the world of medicine.
Dr Oz says "I will not be silenced".


Former Top Gear producer attacks the BBC.
Andy Wilman says BBC executives don't care about "the car world". Andy Wilman is a friend of Jeremy Clarkson and resigned a day before then attacking the BBC. Co-presenter James May is also done with Top Gear.

Anger over MultiChoice Nigeria's massive DStv price hike fuels new consumerism.
DStv subscribers are starting to kick MultiChoice Africa, bitter over DStv's huge cost and brands like DStv "should bear in mind that the customer is king".

E! Entertainment (DStv 124) is lifting the ban on negative coverage of the Kardashians.
E! Entertainment and E! News which has been under a ban and strict mandate to only cover the Kardashian family favorably according to insiders is now reportedly set to "lift the ban" as Bruce Jenner changes from a man to a woman. E! meanwhile officially denies that there is such a ban.


NBC staffers are opposed to Brian Williams returning to anchor NBC Nightly News.
In a contentious and "very raw" meeting staffers lashed out, according to The Washington Post, and says he has damaged the reputation of the news broadcast seen nightly on CNBC Africa (DStv 410) across Africa, and that he shouldn't be allowed to return.
Reporters are "embarrassed" to deal with their sources due to his on-air lying which damaged the news broadcast.
The New York Times reports on Saturday that the inquiry into Brian Williams'' lying is set to expand to previously unknown instances of false statements.

Sky is getting ready to fire production staff.
Sky News (DStv 402) as well as staff in sport and entertainment are worried before a meeting schedule for this coming Tuesday and have not been told what is on the agenda.

No more live UEFA Champions League on e.tv.
e.tv no longer has the live free-to-air broadcasting rights. UEFA Champions League semi-finals are moved to OpenView HD's eKasi+ channel and e.tv viewers will have to tune in at 22:00 for delayed broadcasts.

Jake Tapper is the new anchor of State of the Nation.
Announced as the new face of the Sunday show on CNN International (DStv 401).

Netflix is eating into TV viewership.
Ironically by providing rebroadcasts and repeats of old TV shows it acquired from TV channels, which then gives Netflix money to make brand-new, buzzy shows. Another story on ita 3rd one and a 4th one based on the industry report, "Is Netflix Killing TV?" from MoffettNathanson Research.

MultiChoice is looking for Southern African TV content and films.
What it actually is for, is for the new, yet-to-launch Zambezi Magic TV channel which I haven't yet had time to write about, but which M-Net will be launching later this year on MultiChoice's DStv as a Southern Africa movie channel with African content from several Southern African countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe and others.

South Africa is trying to limit the fallout when we miss the DTT deadline.
South Africa will miss the deadline to complete the ITU's switch from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting (DTT) by 15 June 2015. Now the desperate department of communications and minister of communications Faith Muthambi is trying to talk to other Southern African countries to please not interfere with their broadcasting signals in South Africa's space.

India bans Al Jazeera (DStv 406 / StarSat 257) for 5 days.
The Qatar-based TV news channel is banned after showing an incorrect map of (the highly disputed) Kashmir and India. India says Al Jazeera isn't using the government authorised mapsof India, China and Pakistan.

Trevor Noah's biggest problem is becoming clear.
Bloomberg reports on the "increasingly poisonous atmosphere" around The Daily Show on Comedy Central (DStv 122) as Trevor Noah is set to take over from September and why it has become less about being funny and more about people who are into so-called "left-wing" politics.

Deadliest Catch on The Discovery Channel (DStv 121) renewed for a 12th season.

Watch FOX's Wayward Pines globally 2 weeks before it starts.
FOX (StarSat 131 / DStv 125) and FOX International Channels (FIC) is allowing viewers across 126 countries and territories, including South Africa, to watch the first episode of Wayward Pines two weeks before it starts showing internationally on FOX through Facebook, FOX.com, Google Play etc.

Joss Whedon wasn't happy Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. brought Agent Coulson back to life.
"That really came from the television division".

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

BREAKING. Alison Sweeney - Sami from Days of Our Lives - leaving the American soap after 21 years.


Alison Sweeney (37), Sami from Days of Our Lives on SABC3, just announced on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (seen on M-Net Series Reality (DStv 114) in South Africa) that she is leaving Days of Our Lives after 21 years.

Alison Sweeney, a mother of two, who became the host of the reality show The Biggest Loser in 2007, joined Days of Our Lives in 1993 when she was just 16.

Alison Sweeney is done with the American daytime soap when her contract expires later this year and she told America's Soap Opera Digest in a cover story to co-incide with today's announcement on Ellen, that "my passion for working at Days has kept me there, obviously, for 21 years".

Alison Sweeney told Ellen DeGeneres that she is done with Days of Our Lives after 21 years because "my daughter just turned 5 and my son is 9. And I just want to be with them and enjoy my last year. I'm really just excited to be with my kids and be with my husband and have fun. I write. My second book's coming out, and I love directing."

"I have never had more than a two-week vacation [since starting in Days of Our Lives] in that whole time and it's awesome. I love Sami, I love Salem, I love my job, I love daytime, I love the fans, I love everything about it," Alison Sweeney said.

On how she wants her then-good, then-bad Sami Brady character to be written out of that town where anything is possible Alison Sweeney told Ellen that "I mean it would be awesome to have some kind of happy ending, but then I also think Sami probably deserves somthing sort of very twisted like a Breaking Bad ending, I don't know."

She said the "Days' writers have amazing imaginations. Sami has certainly caused he fair share of drama over the last 21 years. It will be 22 and I don't even know what happens next!"