kykNET adjusts Sunday evening schedule, eNuus moved earlier.

by Thinus Ferreira

kykNET's (DStv 144) primetime line-up changes from this evening, for Sundays, with the channel's daily Afrikaans TV news edition of eNuus switching from 19:00 to 18:30 on Sunday nights.

While eNuus will remain at 19:00 from Mondays to Saturdays, the Sunday night edition is changing to 18:30. The entertainment and lifestyle magazine show Bravo! shifts to 18:00 on Sundays, with the magazine show Kwêla which will now start at 19:00. 

Since eNuus is simulcast on the kykNET & Kie (DStv 145) channel, the eNuus timeslot change also means slight changes for this sister channel. 

Koortjies met Jonathan Rubain on kykNET & Kie is moving from 18:00 to 17:30 and starts its fourth season today, followed by eNuus at 18:30 only on Sundays. The magazine programme Klop! will now be shown at 19:00.

kykNET's current-affairs programme Prontuit on Tuesdays at 21:00 goes on a break from 4 July and being replaced by a new late-night talk show Laataand by Rian, with Rian van Heerden doing interviews with various people. Prontuit will return on 3 October.

"Schedules should serve viewers by adapting to their needs," says Waldimar Pelser, M-Net director for premium channels.

"Sunday evening is the one evening of the week when a news bulletin in an earlier time slot makes sense for many of our viewers. After the news at 19:00, Kwêla follows in the strongest time slot this popular programme has ever had."

"At the same time, DStv Premium subscribers now have a choice between Kwêla on kykNET and the current affairs programme Carte Blanche on M-Net (DStv 101) at 19:00."

Marciel Hopkins joins kykNET's Bravo! as presenter.

by Thinus Ferreira

The Boer Soek 'n Vrou presenter Marciel Hopkins who has crisscrossed South Africa for three years interviewing farmers and their potential love interests has joined the Afrikaans magazine show Bravo! on kykNET (DStv 144) as a presenter.

kykNET issued no announcement or press release but Marciel Hopkins made her first appearance on Sunday night's edition of the Homebrew Films produced entertainment magazine show.

Marciel Hopkins replaces the spot left vacant by Tracey Lange who exited Bravo! in March, with the show that also makes use of Ewan Strydom and Reynard Slabbert, which has one vacant spot left after the exit of Robbie Kruse in May 2022.

Tracey Lange exits celeb magazine show Bravo! on kykNET after 11 years: 'It's time to dream again'.

by Thinus Ferreira

TV and radio presenter Tracey Lange has exited the weekly Afrikaans celebrity magazine show Bravo! on kykNET (DStv 144) after 11 years, saying that "it's time to dream again".

Her final interview was in January with the singer Jean du Plessis, known as Jan Bloukaas, battling brain cancer.

"It blows my mind that it's been 11 years since starting this journey on TV that allowed me in the homes and hearts of so many in South Africa," Tracey Lange says who was also a co-host on M-Net's Dancing with the Stars SA, a panellist on the Afrikaans female talk show Tussen Ons on kykNET, and hosted the talk show Studio 3 on kykNET & Kie.

Tracey Lange says Bravo! was "11 years of countless flights, some of the best hotels, early mornings and very late nights" and "chilling with people I'd only ever seen on TV".

She says that since 2022 she felt that "God had ticked off everything on my bucket list where South African TV is concerned" and that for her, it is now "time to dream again" and the reason for exiting Bravo!.

"I will never forget the people, the events, the spectacular dresses and most importantly, the lessons I'd learnt in this 11 years." She thanks "everyone for allowing me into their homes every week and for every kind word on the street or social media".

Ewan Strydom returns to SABC3’s Expresso after 3 years: ‘I missed that rush of live TV’.

by Thinus Ferreira

After exiting SABC3 in April 2019 to appear on kykNET for the past three years, Ewan Strydom is back at Expresso as a TV presenter saying that he missed the rush of live TV.

Ewan Strydom who lives in Blouberg and turns 40 on 8 March, will now appear simultaneously on two TV channels - in the mornings on SABC3's breakfast show produced by Cardova Productions in Tokai, Cape Town; as well as on Sunday evenings on Bravo! on kykNET (DStv 144), which is produced by Homebrew Films in Montague Gardens.

Ewan Strydom made his surprise Expresso return on Wednesday 8 February last week. It happened without any fanfare and no press release like when the disgraced relationship cheater Katlego Maboe unexpectedly returned to Expresso in August 2022 after two years with a sit-down on-camera interview.

kykNET confirms to TVwithThinus that Ewan Strydom remains part of the presenter team of the Sunday night Afrikaans celebrity profile magazine show Bravo!, the series he left Expresso for three years ago. 

Last year, Ewan Strydom who is married to Adrienn (38) and has two sons Kèan (9) and Dominic (6), was also the presenter of the first season of the Afrikaans reality competition show Plaasjapie on kykNET.

Ewan Strydom tells TVwithThinus that "the best way to describe being back is 'refreshing'. I have missed my feel-good family tremendously, and that rush of live TV."

"After nearly 3 years, a lot has changed. I grew in so many ways, yet returning to Expresso, I feel familiarity….and I'm excited. Stepping back onto the Expresso studio floor brings back so many feel-good memories, and I'm looking forward to making a lot more."

Patience Stevens, producer, says "We are delighted to welcome back Ewan Strydom as a regular presenter on Expresso on S3. Viewer response has been very positive – with the comments being that it is as if Ewan had never left, and how seamless and natural it is to have him back on the show again."

Presenter Robbie Kruse out at Homebrew Films' magazine show Bravo! after 11 years.

Photo: Rapport

by Thinus Ferreira

Presenter Robbie Kruse is out at Bravo! on kykNET (DStv 144) after 11 years, telling Rapport newspaper on Sunday that he's quit the Homebrew Films magazine show on Sunday nights.

A disheveled and unkept looking Robbie Kruse, currently one of the new morning presenters on the SABC's RSG Afrikaans radio station, slammed RSG radio listeners in the Rapport interview for daring to criticise the new "Op en Wakker" timeslot.

Robbie Kruse described media consumers who are criticising the RSG show that he is part of for its bad quality - with the show that has done away with the more in-depth offering of news and actuality that featured in the timeslot before - as poison tongues.

"If you haven't listened to us you won't be able to make a good judgment - how can you say we have this useless programme?" he told Rapport.

RSG and "Op en Wakker" continue to be slammed by an avalanche of complaints from existing and former listeners who are extremely upset with the format change, weakened offering, cheapened production values and crass commercialisation of the public broadcasting service's morning show.

Robbie Kruse said that he resigned from Homebrew Films' Bravo! in April. There's been no announcement from kykNET regarding his departure as a presenter.

TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. Just another white wedding: MultiChoice and M-Net do hollow lip-service and PSAs about Covid-safety - but show DStv subscribers a whole other reality where a coronavirus pandemic apparently doesn't exist.

by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice and M-Net claim that the South African pay-TV service is doing Covid-19 safe TV productions; broadcast Covid-19 education and vaccination public service announcements; and say that social distancing and mask-wearing are important ...

... yet MultiChoice is constantly undoing and undercutting those very messages by showing DStv subscribers morally wrong, so-called "aspirational" entertainment content in which South Africans are seen doing the exact opposite of what is being preached.

What does MultiChoice and M-Net channels like kykNET (DStv 144) and Mzansi Magic (DStv 166) think DStv subscribers are more likely to do? 

Social distance and mask-up like MultiChoice says should happen in its PSAs, or going to mingle during Covid-19, partying it up and having a great time in close proximity to each other like MultiChoice and M-Net show them that the rich and famous are doing?

It's really beyond shocking that MultiChoice can't even bother in the slightest to even pretend to do masks and social distancing at it's own media events in South Africa and in other African countries where MultiChoice Africa does press events.

On Tuesday' at MultiChoice's atrocious media launch event for its DStv Internet service, people posed for photos, drank, laughed and apparently had a good time during Covid in Soweto - without masks and without any evident social distancing from the invited social influencers and others. 

As shocking, is that this is what MultiChoice wants the public to see.

There's no Covid in Soweto, people, just DStv Internet!

There were no masks and absolutely no social distancing between Nyiko Shiburi, MultiChoice South Africa CEO, and actress Nomsa Buthelezi at the media launch event of DStv Internet as if they themselves and MultiChoice don't have any role to play in the public to help model Covid-19 safe behaviour.

On Sunday night M-Net's kykNET channel once again covered a lovely white wedding on its Afrikaans Top Billing-esque Bravo! show produced by Homebrew Films - this time with presenter Willem Botha attending the oh-so-lovely "second" wedding and vow renewal ceremony of Kwêla presenter Pieter Koen.

Looking at the prism through which MultiChoice, M-Net and kykNET presented this wedding, you'd think it took place in a Covid-free alternate reality instead of Sasolburg. Apparently none of these lovely people at the wedding has Covid, could get Covid-19, or could give it to anyone else. It's a lovely white wedding, after all.

Broadcast and television executives at MultiChoice, M-Net, kykNET and Mzansi Magic are not stupid.

They've smart, extremely experienced people, very well versed in media theory. They know that when you create and broadcast aspirational content like Top Billing-type shows, that viewers watch those for entertainment but that viewers also emulate the behaviour, styles and the zeitgeist on display that is being shown to them.

DStv subscribers not only see Pieter Koen's wedding - they remember it and it influences their behaviour. 

If the rich Afrikaans white people from Pretoria are wedding it up en masse without masks or social distancing on kykNET, it is not just signalling that masks and social distancing are apparently not important, it is signalling that when I have a party with my people or my family members that we don't need to take any of that stuff seriously either.

A wedding, and attending a wedding, now becomes a place to show that you're not wearing a mask and don't have to social distance because as a DStv subscriber you've seen that that is how the people on TV apparently does it whom you aspire to.

The DStv subscriber is being influenced to behave in the same highly irresponsible way - instead of being told that any wedding at this time in South Africa is a potential super-spreader event.

Unfortunately, MultiChoice doesn't seem to do more than lip-service about Covid-19 when it comes to what is actually shown on DStv screens or at its events. 

It looks like a case of "We want you to do what we say, but meanwhile we're going to actually show you something completely different on TV".

This is wrong. It's irresponsible.

There can't apparently be one set of rules for "people on TV" - those who get to live and conspicuously show off a carefree Covid-less existence - and the rest of the the TV watching consumers who should please wear masks, keep their distance and not get together in big numbers for gatherings and group photos. 

If you're wondering why Covid isn't ending - look no further than ourselves and media companies like MultiChoice. 

Nobody thinks they're the problem. Nobody thinks they contributing to the spread of Covid. Nobody thinks they need to change their behaviour, change what they're doing, or to be much more mindful about what is being shown on television if you run a TV channel, or how. 

Wear a mask! Keep your social distance from people who you are not living with. Please, PLEASE get a Covid vaccination. 

Yes, even if MultiChoice or M-Net or whatever TV channel shows you "inspirational" and "aspirational" entertainment content where you're not seeing people actually doing it or keeping to the rules.

Why on earth is MultiChoice doing media events where people are hanging on each other without masks and without social distancing as medical experts are warning about a looming fourth Covid-wave?

What on earth happened to @MultiChoiceGRP being a responsible corporate company and its policy of Covid-19 safety protocols? Where are the masks? Where are the social distancing? Shocking #DStvInternet media event. What message does this send? @DStv staff Died from Covid. https://t.co/SY6A0jhrno

— TVwithThinus (@TVwithThinus) September 28, 2021

MultiChoice couldn't bother to tell a lot of media that it would be doing a DStv Internet media launch on Tuesday in Soweto, but those who were invited had so much fun posing for pictures with social media influencers, without masks and without any social distancing observed.

These images were then posted for public consumption for their adoring masses. How selfish, when DStv staff and executives have literally died from Covid over the past year and a half. It's misguided, bad and sends a very bad message.

As a powerful medium, South African television and MultiChoice can and should be way more mindful - not just about what it's communicating around Covid-19 safe messages, but also how it's actively actually sabotaging its own Covid-safety messaging.

Wrongly depicting a fantasy-like, post-Covid lifestyle in lifestyle magazine and reality shows when we're all definitely still very far from really living that, is the wrong television to make and show.

ALSO READ: SHOCKER. MultiChoice Africa and M-Net claim it's practising and adhering to Covid-19 TV and film production regulations - but shocking photos show a lack of mask wearing and flouting of social distancing on set.

ALSO READ: CORONAVIRUS. China's StarTimes behaves as if Covid-19 doesn't exist, throws Nigerian launch party in Lagos for new comedy series Okirika.

Ewan Strydom joins kykNET's weekly Bravo! magazine show as a new presenter.

Ewan Strydom has joined the weekly Afrikaans entertainment magazine show, Bravo! on kykNET (DStv 144) as a new field presenter with his first insert that will be broadcast on Sunday 26 May.

Ewan Strydom left SABC3's morning show, Expresso, on 30 April this year where he was one of the co-presenters since the show, produced by Cardova Productions, launched in October 2010.

No reason was provided by Expresso or SABC3 for Ewan Strydom's exit but it's now clear that it was because he left to join a broadcast competitor of the SABC.

Ewan Strydom is returning to Homebrew Films and the M-Net stable with Homebrew Films that used to produce the original version of the magazine entertainment show, All Access, for M-Net (DStv 101) where Ewan Strydom was one of the original presenters.

"So exited to announce that as of 26 May I am joining the Bravo! team on kykNET," he announced on social media. "Looking forward to yet another unforgettable journey with you".

Ewan Strydom will now switch from English TV presenting to Afrikaans.

kykNET moves Kwêla to yet another timeslot just 5 months after the last change, adds Oppi Kassie documentary series looking at the history of South Africa's television.

kykNET (DStv 144) is moving its weekly Afrikaans magazine show Kwêla to a new timeslot again from this weekend - now to Sundays at 18:00 - and is adding a new documentary series, Oppi Kassie, looking at the history of South African television.

Just 5 months after inexplicably moving Kwêla in mid-July 2017 from its longtime weekday berth on Wednesdays at 20:00, to Sunday nights at 20:00, kykNET is now moving the show to an earlier timeslot on Sundays from this weekend where it will now be shown at 18:00.

The 20:00 timeslot on Sunday nights have had a negatively impact on Kwêla ratings the past 5 months with kykNET that gave Afrikaans viewers a lot of weekend "viewing homework".

Besides Kwêla that moved to Sunday nights, kykNET also shunted its other weekly entertainment magazine show, Bravo! from Thursdays to Sunday nights in July. Both shows are produced for kykNET by Homebrew Films.

With both interview-heavy shows that moved as part of broader kykNET schedule changes in July, having two Afrikaans entertainment magazine shows both doorstopped on the TV schedule on the same Sunday night, created a lot of "watch work" from the same genre for viewers, coming at the end of a week when viewers want to relax with less taxing fare.

Courting a highly similar audience as M-Net (DStv 101), the kykNET programming also started to directly compete with its sister channel on DStv in terms of viewership overlap, with a lot of viewers who would usually watch Bravo! and Kwêla on kykNET, but also Carte Blanche and the Sunday night 20:00 movie on M-Net, who have been forced to make difficult choices or channel hop from the one to the other during ad breaks.

kykNET now says Kwêla is moving to 18:00 from Sunday evening with "the new 18:00 timeslot giving viewers the opportunity to approach their Sunday evening's more leisurely".

The format of Kwêla remains unchanged with anchor presenter Hannes van Wyk and field presenters Johnny Davids, Therese Benade-Bam, Minki van der Westhuizen, Willem Botha, Pieter Koen and Andre Weideman.

Kwêla will be followed by the Afrikaans eNuus at 19:00 and Bravo! at 19:30.

The Afrikaans film slot shown on kykNET on Sunday nights is also gone but is likely a temporary change.

kykNET ran the fliekNET pop-up channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform over December 2017 and January 2018 that saturated Afrikaans viewers' appetite for films and required the acquisition of a lot of film broadcasting rights.

Instead of Sunday night films kykNET is starting a new half-hour documentary series on Sunday at 20:00 entitled Oppi Kassie looking at the history of South African television.

The first season of Oppie Kassie will see double episodes broadcast and filling the 20:00 hour.

The first episode on Sunday will look at how television and TV technology first arrived in South Africa and was finally "allowed" after years of political resistance.

The second episode looks at the big broadcasting challenges that came after the government gave TV in South Africa the go-ahead. How would the SABC find and train enough people in doing TV broadcasts in a very short time, and would the SABC be able to create enough quality material to put on the air?