Viacom Africa's Comedy Central Roast of AKA adds Davido, Moshe Ndiki and Pierre van Pletzen as Roast panellists.

Viacom Africa's Comedy Central Roast of AKA on Comedy Central (DStv 121) has added Davido, Moshe Ndiki and Pierre van Pletzen as roaster panellists, in addition to the already announced Papa Penny, Joey Rasdien, Moonchild Sanelly as well as Mark Fish, Nina Hastie and Francois van Coke.

Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) announced the third set of roasters who will be taking on the notorious rapper when the Comedy Central Roast of AKA is recorded on 21 February at The Teatro at Montecasino, Johannesburg with Pearl Thusi as the roastmaster.

The Comedy Central Roast of AKA (real name Kiernan Forbes) will be broadcast on Comedy Central, with the uncensored version going to MultiChoice's Showmax video streaming service.

 The Comedy Central Roast of AKA will be broadcast on Comedy Central on 11 March 2019, with an extended and uncut version that will be released a day later on Showmax on 12 March.

Davido (real name David Adedeji Adeleke) is the first Nigerian to ever join the Africa/South African version of Comedy Central Roast.

"At VIMN Africa we continuously evolve and innovate content to create unique and engaging experiences for our audiences that drive culture," says Alex Okosi, the executive vice president and managing director at VIMN Africa.

"In a continental first, this Comedy Central Roast now transcends boundaries by welcoming Africa's international star, Davido, to the panel."

"This is going to be a hilarious night," says Davido. "I'm ready, Africa are you ready? This is a Roast so nothing is off limits."

Moshe Ndiki says "This wil lbe a platform for me to query aspects of how AKA believes he is the first guy to invent blond hair in December, he might as well have pioneered the passion gap for coloured folk. I mean, he is the first coloured guy on Earth according to his tweets".

Pierre van Pletzen says "It feels wonderful to be part of the Comedy Central Roast of AKA, whom I'd like to address as the non-humble infamously popular rapper, about a few things; his no-show at performances, his knowledge of geography and since he says he loves soccer, I would like to ask if he's practising is technique by kicking fans off the stage?"

Viacom Africa's Comedy Central Roast of AKA adds Mark Fish, Nina Hastie and Francois van Coke as panellists.

The Comedy Central Roast of AKA on Comedy Central (DStv 121) will have Mark Fish, Nina Hastie and Francois van Coke as some of the panellists.

Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) announced the first set of roasters who will be taking on the notorious rapper when the Comedy Central Roast of AKA is recorded on 21 February at The Teatro at Montecasino, Johannesburg with Pearl Tusi as the roastmaster.

The Comedy Central Roast of AKA (real name Kiernan Forbes) will be broadcast on Comedy Central, with the uncensored version going to MultiChoice's Showmax video streaming service.

 The Comedy Central Roast of AKA will be broadcast on Comedy Central on 11 March 2019, with an extended and uncut version that will be released a day later on Showmax on 12 March.

"I'm excited to be on the panel of the Comedy Central Roast of AKA, this may be the only time I can roast him since he's the king of roasting people on Twitter," says Mark Fish. "I can't wait to meet all of the panellists and make people laugh out loud. I think I'm a funny guy but this shall be revealed on the day."

Nina Hastie says "I'd love to see his mom Lynne Forbes on the panel, I doubt there's anyone who knows him better. I would roast him on skipping leg day the most. His whole leg is ankle. Maybe that's why he got a shoe sponsorship - because having a whole leg as an ankle makes a shoe look very special."

Francois van Coke says "I'm super amped to be part of AKA's roast. I hope they fly me up to Jozi business class. I have only been on one business class flight in my life and it was because of AKA".

REVIEW. Third season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net less jack-in-the-box, more tempered; just as much fun as before.

The third season of The Voice South Africa starting on M-Net (DStv 101) on Sunday, 3 February at 17:30 with a rebroadcast Mondays at 20:00 on VUZU (DStv 116) has somewhat less in-show exuberance, the new collection of coaches are less jack-in-the-box, but it doesn’t mean that the reality singing competition isn’t still as much fun and enjoyable to watch.

With both the well-liked swivel-chair music matriarch Karen Zoid, the bouncy and easily excitable puppy-dog like Bobby van Jaarveld, as well as Kahn Morbee gone, and replaced by Riana Nel, Riky Rick and Francois van Coke, with Anele Mdoda replacing the previous presenters, the third season of The Voice SA is more tempered in tone yet still a fun and joy-tension will-they-or-won’t-they viewing experience.

The more mature poise of songstress Lira – the sole returning coach – seems to rub off on her fellow red chaired coaches who are less jumpy, less showy, taking more time to actually listen during the blind auditions.

Unconsciously it’s now very clear that the coaches – although all competing against each other – are now taking their cues from Lira as the queen bee in the new pecking order.

Counter-intuitively but a positive format change, is that the coaches no longer turn at the end if none of them turned. It spares and cuts out the obligatory schmaltz when coaches have to give a pandering “soft-landing” goodbye to people who didn’t make it.

Anele Mdoda is a great addition as new presenter, wonderfully emoting without coming across as insincere, behind-the-scenes with parents and family members of singers. 

Often too stressed to visibly react, Anele Mdoda picks up the slack on their behalf as a well-fused version of the British Ant and Dec and how they visually and cleverly emote backstage at Britain’s Got Talent auditions.

Problematic are the multiple scrapes, marks, and dull surface bits on the supposed high-gloss black stage that are constantly visible in panning shots and detract visually from what is supposed to be a premium, high-definition show. Was the amended stage chunks simply taken out of storage and plonked down with no meticulous producer look-over and touch-ups?

Some other slight format changes are coming, for instance where and how the battle round fit in, but The Voice SA in its third season remain sparkling as a Sunday night TV outing.

While it probably won’t worry or be noticed by ordinary viewers, it’s off-putting that the producers and editors ae deliberately slo-mo’ing the studio audience reaction during performances. While singers sing and perform at normal speed, their backstage walk-in and audience shots are slowed down. 

It’s slightly jarring since a purported reality competition show at least has to present the appearance of unaltered “reality".

As before the performers’ emotional video backstories are well crafted, “wow”-moments are done to great effect, and the on-stage band and musical instruments actually functional in showing how much of a difference a live on-stage band can make to a show like this (“Do you want to use one of their guitars?”).

Third season of The Voice: SA on M-Net sees a change in the line-up of coaches with Riana Nel, Riky Rick and Francois van Coke joining Lira in the red swivel chairs.

M-Net (DStv 101) has announced that singers Riana Nel, Rikhado Makhado (stage name: Riky Rick), Lira and Francois Badenhorst (stage name: Francois van Coke) will be the 4 new coaches for the upcoming 3rd season of The Voice South Africa that will broadcast from Sunday, 3 February 2019 at 17:30.

The pre-recorded Blind Auditions episodes will be filmed from 21 November at the new Urban Brew Studios in front of a live audience, with The Voice SA that has switched production to BlackSwanMedia who are using the expertise of several independent service providers.

Lira is the only remaining coach from the previous seasons of The Voice SA, with the Afrikaans gospel and country singer Riana Nel, the flamboyant male rapper Riky Rick and the Afrikaans rock singer Francois van Coke replacing Karen Zoid, Bobby van Jaarsveld and Kahn Morbee in the red swivel chairs.

"Our new coaches are all movers and shakers in their own spheres, and the mix of unique personalities will bring a whole new chemistry to the show," says Lani Lombard, M-Net's head of publicity.

"At the same time, they're building on the legacy of the superb season 1 and 2 coaches."