M-Net: Carte Blanche to continue amidst retrenchments as DStv's longrunning current affairs show axes last of its internal producers.

by Thinus Ferreira 

M-Net's venerable Carte Blanche on Sunday nights will continue on DStv amidst retrenchments which are seeing the show do away with the last of the investigative magazine show's remaining internal producers, as well as a few other staff.

John Webb, Carte Blanche executive producer, in response to a media query from TVwithThinus, confirmed that Combined Artists, the production company responsible for the long-running Sunday night magazine show had taken "a very difficult decision to restructure".

TVwithThinus understands that Carte Blanche is doing away with its last three internal producers whose names are shown weekly on the end-credit roll, as well as cleaning staff and handling social media activities.

"As part of this process, it is considering making several roles redundant impacting the internal research/production and social media teams, as well as two positions among our support staff.  In total, six members of our team will be affected," John Webb says.

"This decision was not arrived at lightly nor without due consideration of alternatives.  Difficult as it is, we believe this process is both necessary and correct."

According to the show "Most of our inserts will continue to be produced by our external team of freelancers.  We are encouraging the three affected members of our internal research/production team to pivot into freelance roles – a process we intend facilitating."

Nadine Moonsamy, M-Net spokesperson, says Carte Blanche will continue in its Sunday night timeslot as usual. 

The iconic current affairs magazine show which made its debut in 1988 on M-Net will reach its 35th year on the air in September 2023.

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''We used Randlords for 26 June and 3 July because of the great view,'' says Peter Griffiths interactive editor for Carte Blanche at Combined Artists that produces the long running blue chip weekly investigative magazine show for M-Net. ''Johannesburg has a stunning skyline.''

''We like the view of the central business district very much for now. We plan to use the venue when we can. The skyline is a great piece of 'real estate' and it'd be good to see more of it on TV,'' he says.

''In our search for a spot, we identified several buildings in Johannesburg. Practically, it is easier to get to know a location, but there may be other buildings we make use of in future,'' he says. ''South Africa has other pretty cities too, so it would be nice to present Carte Blanche from them, but for now there isn't an easy solution to get all the support we need from city to city to ensure we retain quality.''

Peter Griffiths says something viewers might not realize is how ''branded'' the Johannesburg skyline actually is, which requires some creative production solutions. ''The city is quite heavily branded - so we need to shoot 'around' that.'' In terms of how easy or difficult it is to secure rooftop rights to broadcast from he says ''the strength of the Carte Blanche brand makes these kinds of things easier.''

''It is pretty cold on the roof at night at the moment. On 26 June we kept Derek Watts warm by giving him a jacket to put over his shoulders between links. The problem was that no-one on the team is nearly as tall as him so the jacket didn't get far passed his shoulders!''