Four judges of TLC Entertainment's Next Great Presenter search looking beyond 'fake smiles, fake laughs and fake accents' to find new African TV star.

The judges for the TLC (DStv 172) channel's Next Great Presenter search are Lee Hobbs, Carol Tshabalala, Aletta Alberts and Cosmo South Africa's editor, Cathy Lund.

The winner will become the presenter of TLC Top 10 – a new programming strand on TLC Entertainment which will start on Thursday 3 December at 20:55 and rebroadcast some the most popular programming on the channel since 2011.

The top 12 finalists from across Africa will be narrowed down to a top 3 after a bootcamp of two days next week where they will get mentoring from various industry experts to help them prepare for the next round and to possibly avoid elimination.

The TLC's Next Great Presenter search follows roughly the same pattern as Top Billing and SABC3's successful Presenter Search on 3 and Disney Africa's recent I Love Violetta Presenter Search which bypass the traditional agent, casting and auditioning system and which allow surprising new on-air TV talent to emerge with new telegenic stars that otherwise would not have been discovered.

Viewers will get to choose the presenter out of the three shortlisted finalists.

The judges for TLC's Next Great Presenter search are Lee Hobbs (the vice president of channels for emerging business for Discovery Networks' Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region), Carol Tshabalala (SuperSport presenter), Aletta Alberts (general manager of content at MultiChoice) and Cathy Lund (editor of Cosmopolitan South Africa).

"We're extremely excited to get going with the next phase of this competition especially because we have some absolutely fantastic minds with proven track records helping us decide who Africa's new face of TLC Entertainment will be," says Lee Hobbs.

"I will be looking for someone who's confident, vibrant, enthusiastic and engaging with a real passion for the channel. TLC is known for its diverse array of entertaining presenting talent – from Oprah and Iyanla, to Buddy and Randy – so in order to stand alongside these famous faces and become TLC's Next Great Presenter, my advice for our 12 semi-finalists is to be yourself, be bold and most importantly be TLC!"

Carol Tshabalala says "the TLC Next Great Presenter has to be someone who is unique, engaging but not forced; someone natural with an oozing zest for life."

Aletta Alberts says she will be looking for someone who represents the future of the media and television industry, who is well-spoken, who can think on their feet and someone that the camera loves.

Cathy Lund says she's looking "for a presenter who's charismatic, positive, emotive, articulate and polished. But most of all they need to reflect their authentic selves. Gone are the days of fake smiles, fake laughs and fake accents."

"I think the TLC Next Great Presenter needs to represent a continent of talented and genuine young people whose feet are firmly planted in African soil but whose sights are looking to the stars".

SuperSport adding several new dedicated magazine shows during June for the 2014 FIFA World Cup for DStv subscribers.

At a reportedly lavish launch SuperSport yesterday evening announced its coverage plans for the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil at a Samba-styled media event at the the Beverly Hills Hotel in uMhlanga in Durban.

The SuperSport 3 HD (DStv 203) and SuperSport 4 HD (DStv 204) channels on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform will be used to broadcast all of the matches live from the tournament in Brazil during June.

SuperSport also announced some of the presenters and analysts like Manchester United star Ryan Giggs.

SuperSport also plans several dedicated magazine shows around the 2014 FIFA World Cup - Ola Brazil, Master Plan, Fan Fest and Insights - that will be covering the soccer action, the stars, provide additional analysis and involve fans.

Here's the information I've been able to parse on what SuperSport magazines shows there will be from June, what it will entail in terms of presenters, content and focus, and from where it will be done:

Ola Brazil
A lifestyle magazine show packaged in Brazil. It will be broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays in June at 13:00 (South African time) during the World Cup Live slot.
Links for the show will be shot at various locations, for instance the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro.
Ola Brazil will be anchored by Carol Tshabalala and will be 26 minutes in duration. It will repeat at 16:00.


Master Plan
In-depth analysis from a coaching perspective.
This show will be done live from the Randburg Studio 6 every Sunday at 14:00 (South African time).
The aim of the show is to give viewers a technical understanding of the game of play, and will be anchored by John Dykes.
Guests will include Jay Jay Okucha, Ernst Middendorp, Andre Arendse, Stuart Baxter, Gavin Hunt and Shaun Bartlett.
Master Plan will make use of advanced touchscreen technology, augmented reality and tactical camera angles.


Fan Fest
This will be a viewer participation show for fans. Fan Fest will be broadcast live on Saturdays at 14:00 (South African time) as part of We Are Brazil.
Fans will be able to engage with this show through Skype, Facebook and Twitter and Fan Fest will also make use of a love studio audience.
There will be in-studio competitions with prizes for best contestant.
This hour long show will be anchored by Kamza Mbatha and Nandi Mngoma.


Insights
This show will be a preview of upcoming matches with expert analysis from Andy Townsend and Sunday Oliseh. Insights will be broadcast from Brazil.

REVIEW. The SA Sports Awards 2012 broadcast on SABC1 and SuperSport resembles a third rate late night Hillbrow nightclub.

"Unbelievable stuff here tonight," said Robert Marawa as co-host during the course of the evening of the simply terrible live broadcast of the SA Sports Awards 2012 which took place Sunday night.

And he was right: the live awards show was unbelievable - unbelievably bad in the totally amateur, completely unprofessional, shockingly awful and just plain cringeworthy way this outside broadcast production was done by the SABC's Outside Broadcasting division from the Sandton Convention Centre.

The two hour trash show laid bare how shockingly inept the SABC is at making even a passing grade on a live awards ceremony. The shockingly lowrent production values of the  SA Sports Awards 2012, with an appearance in person by the SABC CEO Lulama Mokhobo and the acting COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng (who also didn't read very well) was hopelessly pathetic and a mockery of what something like this is supposed to be.

Is the SA Sports Awards now South Africa's most embarrassingly bad televised awards show ceremony? For the millions of rands this makeshift looking awards show must cost to stage, why is it so totally trash?

The SA Sports Awards 2012 with its seedy music, bad stage acts including a tired looking and inappropriately dressed for her age PJ Powers (with windblown hair) belting out old music, simply felt like a third rate late night Hillbrow nightclub where both establishment and patrons have long since seen better days.

The Soweto Gospel Choir looking like ghosts in inappropriate white robes sang as Somizi, adorned with ostrich feathers, writhed in front of them on the floor. Bless.

Warren Bleksley was the director, with Jerry Mokgopo and Melinda Lombard the executive producers of this inadequate and sad live TV mess coming to viewers courtesy of the SABC and the department of sport and recreation. Diane Stanton-Lourens was head of production.

Like last year, when the SA Sports Awards 2011 was a horror to watch, the SABC again showed the live awards ceremony on SABC1 while SuperSport likewise again damaged its brand by inflicting the completely amateur production on viewers on SuperSport 4 using the SABC's visuals.

SABC1 viewers who recorded it on their DStv PVRs would (thankfully!) only have gotten the first half hour recorded. The EPG supplied by the SABC and used by MultiChoice was entirely incorrect.

The only point of excellence was co-host Carl Tshabalala, impeccably dressed and wonderfully warm and well-spoken: a real TV presenter. Presenter Tarina Patel right at the end, with her wonderful presentation and elegance was another bright sparkle. The rest of the SA Sports Awards 2012 was again a massive disaster and a shameful local television embarrassement. Surely, surely South Africa's TV industry and the SABC can produce a better live awards ceremony than this?

Sound fading in and out incorrectly and which was noticeably incorrect constantly during the broadcast should get all the sound operators fired. This was unforgiveably bad. There was no sound in suddenly silent moments (awkward). Sound feedback was audible for viewers at home during some songs. The mic sound from presenters was laughably and horribly fading in and out inappropriately; not on when it should be and with terribly fluxuating sound levels. It gave this mess of a ceremony show a shockingly amateur atmosphere.

A laughable menagerie of totally inappropriate presenters to introduce and announce category winners, coupled with erratic camera work from camera operators who seemed as if they're filming home movies in their own backyards, ensured enough material for lecturers of film students on what not to do.

Basically none of the presenters for any of the categories came across as being able to read. The set design (with little railings) and of mostly white perspex plates seemed primary school. Speaking of primary school, the South African children ceremonially holding guns with blades on stage fitted right in.

A camera crane operator ("jimmy jib") who doesn't seem to know what he's doing, ending up with high overhead shots (and the director then inappropriately actually cutting to it and using it), the incorrect pronunciation of names, presenters struggling to read, presenters wasting time by asking the audience to guess the winner (unbelievable!), presenters struggling to open envelopes, multiple glaring lighting problems, a 25 minute wait before the first category announcement ... the list of gaffes and terribly production decisions and production mistakes during the SA Sport Awards 2012 were absolutely endless.

Why did some presenters and people on stage get a descriptive name and title banner in the lower third on screen, while others got nothing? Did the vision controllers and SABC Sport graphics technician fall asleep from the confusing tedium of this drawn-out pain which viewers were made to suffer through?

Even bad nightclubs close at some time when the last stragglers get kicked out. Although this TV trash was supposed to stop at 22:00, it also again ran over time just like a year ago. SuperSport 4 eventually cut away at 22:03 from the SA Sport Awards 2012. SABC1 kept going until 22:07.