Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 11 September 2015

eNCA's (DStv 403) Iman Rappetti talks.
The eNCA PrimeTime anchor talks to The Media - reveals how she thought she was going to die giving birth in the desert (in a military hospital), shares her views on womanhood, being a "fierce and loyal friend", and how she had to knock on doors in South Africa media.

ABC News' David Muir is an "anchor monster".
"Cranky" David has apparently been "lashing out at staff" and screams at the crew because "David is still losing to Lester".

M-Net's Zambezi Magic on DStv is now looking for music videos.
After M-Net dumped Channel O outside of South Africa, it now wants to try again from scratch, looking for music videos from Southern Africa in preparation for Zambezi Magic's first two music video shows, Zed Top 10 and Zim Top 10 - but artists need to be registered with RISA and SAMRO in South Africa.

"Mini crabs are quick to hide in their holes. MultiChoice and Mauritius do have some similarities." 
Another belated story about the MultiChoice Content Showcase of last week, this one a bad, blatant press release cut and paste job, infused with some tropicalness. Let's cry for this continent's journalism.

Steve Harvey on why there will be no more Oprah Winfreys.
The talk show host of The Steve Harvey Show on etv. and SABC1 explains why he isn't - and why there won't even be - another Oprah Winfrey.


Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogery
In Britain, the Channel4 weatherman Liam Dutton goes viral after he perfectly says, well, the basically impossible - a small town's name in Wales. Perfectly.
And then Iman Rappetti on eNCA also tries to say it on Thursday night.


Brian Williams wills start on MSNBC (StarSat 263) on 22 September.
The damaged and disgraced former NBC Nightly News anchor is shipped off to MSNBC

Meanwhile CNN staff are furious with their boss Jeff Zucker
over his obsessive Donald Trump coverage. "We are not perfect," CNN boss tells staffers at meeting.

FOX says it won't interfere editorially after buying National Geographic
and uniting Nat Geo's media platforms under one platform that will now be going for profit.

In a wonderful long-piece, more about how David Gregory was fired at Meet the Press Sundays on CNBC Africa (DStv 410).
And what it says about television news: the nasty internal sabotage, TV-size ego's clawing to climb, terrible bosses - and the high priority to constantly be breaking news in a saturated media environment.

A terrific look behind the scenes of the special effects to create Game of Thrones' environments and different landscapes.

Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 10 September 2015

Ellen says being a judge on American Idol was "one of the worst decisions of my life".
Admits she hated American Idol. "I'm like everybody else at home. So I thought. I'm gonna represent those people at home that have opinions. But then I just thought, I can't break this person's heart. Let somebody else do that."


David Gregory speaks publicly for the first time about getting fired from Meet the Press.
David Gregory who was fired as moderator of Meet the Press Sundays at 20:00 on CNBC Africa (DStv 410) talks about his abrupt departure and the animosity behind the scenes.
"Things happen in television news. It's a tough business. It was handled in a way that was unnecessary." And: "Rather than get into the nastiness of it, I just tried to internalise what I take away from it, what I could have done a little better in terms of how I treated people so that people might have been rooting for me a little more."


"People are starting to realise there's too much TV."
Steve Burke, NBCUniversal CEO says the explosion of scripted TV across Netflix and pay-TV channels have become too much. "People are starting to realise there's too much here."

The new TV season's most likely hits - and failures.
Marketing research predicts that Scream Queens on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) is going to be a hit - the same with Code Black coming to M-Net (DStv 101) and Quantico coming to VUZU AMP (DStv 114).
Blindspot starting next month on M-Net is going to struggle - and so is Minority Report coming to FOX in South Africa.

The New York Times introduces Jamie Poniewozik as its new TV critic.
He replaces the often contentious Alessandra Stanley after 12 years and writes his first review of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Meanwhile this TV critic says sorry for his initial review of You're the Worst.

How American soap The Young and the Restless on e.tv manages to survive.
While the soap genre is slowly dying.

Yusuf Stevens talks about 2nd season of She's the One.
Executive producer of the advertiser-funded production for Edgars talks about the new season of the show which is jumping from SABC3 to e.tv.