BREAKING. Canceled? Maybe not. Carte Blanche Extra on M-Net gone tonight after just 10 episodes ... but could possibly return.

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Carte Blanche Extra on M-Net is possibly not going the same cancellation route as the previous two spin-offs last year Carte Blanche Medical and Carte Blanche Consumer - although the 3rd spin-off attempt did broadcasting its final episode tonight ... for now.

''Welcome to the final episode of Carte Blanche Extra for this season,'' said presenter Devi Sankaree Govender at the start of tonight's 10th and unusually short season. The Combined Artists produced show gave viewers a more behind-the-scenes glimpse of the making of this investigative magazine programme. But Devi Sankaree Govender did say season and not series.  Could M-Net possibly be thinking of bringing Carte Blanche Extra back in the future? ''Keep your stories coming in,'' said Devi Sankaree Govender.

She again reiterated at the end of the final episode that ''that's it for the final episode of Carte Blanche Extra for this season,'' this time with special emphasis on the word season. ''Thank you very much for your stories and invaluable support. We will be back with more. Join Derek on Sunday evenings for Carte Blanche at 19:00 and on behalf of the Carte Blanche Extra team, goodnight.''

BREAKING. M-Net's brand-new Carte Blanche Extra is over. New show will get the boot after just 10 episodes.

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How is this for extra ... short? Following on the heels of M-Net's All Access getting canceled after (story RIGHT HERE) two years on the air I'm told by reliable sources that M-Net is also dumping the brand-new Carte Blanche Extra that will be gone after just 10 episodes.

Carte Blanche Extra on Mondays on the pay broadcaster debuted at the beginning of January this year replacing the weekly Carte Blanche Medical and Carte Blanche Consumer. Both those shows from Combined Artists got the chop and were unceremoniously dumped after just a year on M-Net at the end of last year. Combined Artists also produce the longrunning flagship Sunday Carte Blanche show but that award-winning production is currently in no danger of moving anywhere.

Now I'm told that the local production industry that don't know what to make of this, is starting to get anxious and angry. And nervous. Well informed insiders tell me that ''Carte Blanche Extra will most likely also not be renewed''. Says another source to me exclusively: ''Carte Blanche Extra is only shooting to episode 10. It's sad because our ratings have been good from after the 2nd episode''.

I asked M-Net over the weekend for comment and since then several times this week about the fate and future of Carte Blanche Extra. Similar to All Access M-Net is not saying anything about cancelation. Earlier today, responding about All Access, M-Net said: ''All locally produced content like the Carte Blanche Extra and All Access contracts are for a fixed period of time,'' says M-Net who is now placing an emphasis on local reality shows on the main M-Net channel. ''This does not necessarily mean that All Access and Carte Blanche Extra will fall away from the schedule permanently,'' says M-Net.

ALSO READ: Is it all over for All Access on M-Net?
ALSO READ: M-Net planning to move most of its local content off of the main M-Net channel.

REVIEW. The new Carte Blanche spin-off, Carte Blanche Extra needs something . . . extra.

The new Carte Blanche spin-off Carte Blanche Extra Mondays at 19:00 on M-Net needs something extra besides Devi Sankaree Govender's peripatetic agitprop.

I've waited for the second episode before venturing an opinion on the latest offshoot of the venerable Sunday night investigative magazine show that got rid of last year's Carte Blanche Medical and Carte Blanche Consumer to attempt a 3rd add-on of the premiere brand.

Presented by Bongani Bingwa Carte Blanche Extra purports to give viewers ''more'' Carte Blanche under the slogan ''it's all about you''. However the new half hour Monday edition comes across as too staged, phoney, hokey, and with a limited functionality for the viewer who's in a Monday start-of-the-week mode and watches television with an attitude of wanting to get things done.

The first problem is the timeslot. Why M-Net would schedule Carte Blanche Extra at 19:00 instead of 19:30 makes no sense for 19:00 is ingrained TV news bulletin time across all channels. Viewers getting home will much rather give time to receiving functional information like news, sport and tomorrow's weather forecast than getting entertainment information which is what Carte Blanche Extra largely is, its value entrenched in a contextual curiosity factor rather than news you can use.

Luckily gone by the second episode and a good change was Derek Watts' snarky voice-over comments that fitted more with that other M-Net TV property Wipeout. Although entertaining, in the first episode it was jarring and did a disservice to Carte Blanche's sense of gravitas. Carte Blanche Extra's ''war room'' scenario where the production team discuss cases, chatter excitedly, and listens intently to victims comes across as fake and staged. Maybe because it completely is.

Trying to impress on the viewer that the cameras are rolling inside the Combined Artists ''war room'' docu-style, this is more clearly more set-up mocu-style. How would viewers spot that? The fake standing around in seemingly random, previously-allocated places. Zombie-like production staff walking methodically in the background as if on the starship Enterprise. Immaculately clean desks on which the camera zooms in for just the computer monitor (journalists desks are never spotless) and random ''I'm-going-to-fetch-a -water-bottle'' traversing across the room in an attempt to add TV dynamism in perfect ''bottle pick-up timing'' to colour discussions and intro links.
If the producers are willing to really be real, leave the pretense and constructed hyper reality and just film the messiness that investigative journalism really is, Carte Blanche Extra has the potential to be a great show.

Carte Blanche Extra has little extra to give viewers. But it can be made better and turned into appointment television. When you tell viewers to check whether a plumber is registered or what kind of lawyer you need when you fall in the gym, flash those consumer oriented names and contact details on the lower 3rd of the screen. That's extra and useful information in keeping with the theme of this show. Viewers don't want to see how the sausage is made but will sit through it if there's a pay-off: Show successfully completed cases. Possibly stick with one journalist and tell a story from that person's perspective, or just have Devi Sankaree Govender narrate a real first-person account of a on location story or incident that was difficult for her. Have executive producer George Mazarakis share production secrets, follow specific production staff and what their role is. Build drama about the narrative about a late story that almost didn't happen but then did. It will all make Carte Blanche Extra a much better Monday show.

BREAKING. M-Net's new Carte Blanche Extra: ''Viewers have never seen the inner workings but now they'll see exactly how its made.''

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I have a bit more on the new Carte Blanche Extra which I was first to tell you is coming way back in December and will debut on M-Net this Monday night at 19:00 and which will be replacing Carte Blanche Consumer and Carte Blanche Medical.

I can exclusively spill that Carte Blanche Extra will mostly take the form of a ''behind the scenes'' show although it will still cover hard-hitting expose stories just like on Sundays. The look and feel of Carte Blanche Extra on-screen will however be a departure and be more ''back-end production revealing''.

I'm told Carte Blanche Extra is ''set up at the Carte Blanche offices'' of Combined Artists that produces both shows ''and it entails them doing a 'walk-through' of all the elements that go into creating a Carte Blanche expose – from receiving a letter from the public, to the journalists who research it, to the final showdown or confrontation with the investigated parties in question. So basically it's an all-inclusive behind-the-scenes look at each story from beginning to end.''

''Viewers have never seen the inner workings of Carte Blanche but now they'll have the opportunity to see exactly how the show is made,'' I'm told.

ALSO READ: M-Net to cancel both Carte Blanche spin-offs, will debut a new spon-off show in 2011.
ALSO READ: Revealed! Carte Blanche Extra will be the name of M-Net's new Carte Blanche spin-off.
ALSO READ: M-Net confirms Carte Blanche Extra as the new spin-off name starting Monday.
ALSO READ: Carte Blanche's executive producer George Mazarakis on his challenging and wonderful but also ''annus horibilis'' year of 2010.

TOLDJA! M-Net replaces Carte Blanche Medical and Carte Blanche Consumer with the new Carte Blanche Extra from this Monday.

M-Net just confirmed the news that I broke last year at the beginning of December RIGHT HERE that Carte Blanche Consumer and Carte Blanche Medical will get canceled to be replaced with Carte Blanche Extra, a brand-new spin-off.

Carte Blanche Extra will start this Monday at 19:00 on the pay broadcaster and this new version of the main Sunday night flagship show that's also produced by Combined Artists will come with the subtitle ''It's all about you''.

Carte Blanche Extra will take a behind-the-scenes look at how this award-winning investigative magazine show goes about investigating its stories. ''Its an interactive show put together in a consumer war room, bringing the viewer as close as possible to the action,'' says M-Net.

ALSO READ: M-Net to cancel Carte Blanche Medical and Carte Blanche Consumer after just a year.
ALSO READ: M-Net's new Carte Blanche Extra spin-off to debut in 2011.