INTERVIEW. Katherine Kelly Lang on why Bold - now back in South Africa on Vodacom Video Play - remains beautiful: 'The times and moods and the technology all change and showrunner Brad Bell has done that very well'.

Photo: Gilles Toucas/Bell Phillip TV Productions

South African viewers can once again follow Katherine Kelly Lang, known for her iconic role of Brooke in The Bold and the Beautiful with the American weekday soap that is back - this time on Vodacom Video Play - and she says that she's grateful for all of the fan support and viewers who have kept watching over decades.

In a phone interview with Katherine Kelly Lang timed with The Bold and the Beautiful's return to South Africa and with episodes that can now be watched for free on Vodacom's Video Play streaming service, the star opened up about how the show and she have evolved, her new Beverly Hills store she's opening in November, the show being back in South Africa, its ratings success, and her life beyond the show's studio schedule.


The Bold and the Beautiful remained a hugely-watched show in South Africa over many years. What did you think when the SABC as South Africa's struggling public broadcaster decided to end it?
Katherine Kelly Lang: I know that a lot of people were saying "Please we want The Bold and the Beautiful to come back on the air after it went off the air.

The SABC has been great for us for so many years. But we're glad to be back and that all South Africans can now watch the show again. We're back in people's living rooms to again bring them some joy during the day and we're very glad about that.

Now with Bold being available on Vodacom Video Play and accessible to South Africans again after some months, how do you feel about it?
Katherine Kelly Lang: It's very exciting. I was in South Africa last year and so many people in South Africa are so amazing, just talking about The Bold and the Beautiful and how they love it, and saying that they've been watching it from the very first day.

Honestly most people I've talked to say they've been watching from the very first day. They know all of the storylines, all of the characters.

So when it went off the air in South Africa they were sad but they're happy now and we're happy. We love South Africa - it's so beautiful there and the people are so lovely. It's just great to have Bold be seen there, and really all around the world.

So The Bold and the Beautiful is the most-watched daytime show internationally, and in August I saw that Bold became the most-watched soap opera in the demo after 32 years. To what do you attribute its enduring success? Why do you think it is that Bold remains beautiful?
Katherine Kelly Lang: Well, it's amazing just to get the demo. We've been the most-watched soap opera in the world for so many years, which is really, really incredible on its own.

And then to win the demo in the United States for the first time in all these years - a very important demo - is incredible. So we're all really excited.

I attribute it all of course to Brad Bell - he runs the show; he makes it what it is. He's done such a great job. His father started the show and now he's taken over. He's made the show his own and so it's still going strong today because of it.

You can't keep the show the way it was at the beginning. Bold needs to evolve. The times and moods and the technology all change and showrunner Brad Bell has done that very well. It's not easy to keep a daily show going and keeping it running as number one for so many years.

So I have to say, firstly, Brad Bell, and then everyone involved. I'm not saying me or anything like that, but it's every single person who works on the show - behind-the-scenes, in front of the camera, the producers, the writers, the directors, the crew, the publicity.

I mean, it's incredible what goes into such a huge machine. Everybody puts in 110% and tries to make it the best it can be every single day.


Obviously there's been several weddings and happy moments for her, but viewers have seen, lived with and cried with a long-suffering Brooke. Why is your character of Brooke so popular, why does she resonate so much with viewers?
Katherine Kelly Lang: She's shown that she's a real person. She makes mistakes. But then she is also remorseful. She makes mistakes a few times in order to learn to be better. People like to experience that with her.

Viewers love to hate her, and they love to love her - they feel something. Whatever they feel with or for Brooke, they feel something. That makes me feel good because I feel that I'm doing my job as an actor.

I just try to bring as much reality to her and as much honest emotions to Brooke as possible.


There's a lot of reboots of American series that we see now of shows from the 90s coming back and being very successful, but of course The Bold and the Beautiful started in 1987 and never went away. It's still on and resonates as strongly as ever with its audience. To what do you contribute this resurgence of interest to in shows that started in that decade?
Katherine Kelly Lang: Nowadays there are so many different kinds of shows, so many different channels, so many things to watch.

I think people kind of want to go back to basics. I don't know - for me, I love the 80s. I miss those. I would love to see some of that again.

We'll see which ones are successful and how all of these turn out - usually nothing is as good as the original. So I'm glad that The Bold and the Beautiful is still the original, and we're still going strong!


It's so unusual and you don't get a lot of people in this industry who out of principle or whatever reason stick with a role or character or a show and who is clearly in it for the long haul with a project. Why did you stick with Bold and how has Bold evolved, and you with it over the years?

Katherine Kelly Lang: First of all, I love the show. And I did from the very beginning. I love my character. I don't know what I would do without her.

The Bold and the Beautiful has evolved a lot, including our schedule. The studio schedule allows us ... we shoot so much in a short period of time, that we still have one week off after every few months.

That has allowed me to have a whole other life outside of the show. I have a fashion business. I'm opening up a boutique store in Beverly Hills in November, I travel and do Home Shopping Network, I do movies in Italy and now some TV in Greece. I travel and do a lot of things outside of America and it's a lot of fun.

But it's The Bold and the Beautiful that has done this for me. The show has opened up all of the avenues for me to see and do and to experience and I'm really grateful for that.

Without the show I wouldn't have been involved in things in other countries and all of these opportunities. The schedule has allowed me to go out there and do that but my number one job is The Bold and the Beautiful so I always come back and do that. I'm allowed to go out and do other things and my life is so full because of it.


What is your store's name?
Katherine Kelly Lang: The store will have a brand that's made in Tuscany - leather jackets, and shoes and belts and we're bringing it to Beverly Hills, and I'm very excited about it, it's called Benheart and that's happening in November!

Who do you just love working with on the Bold cast?
Katherine Kelly Lang: We are so lucky. We get to work with people who we genuinely enjoy being around, who are good people and who give 100%.

So, I can say who my favourite is because it depends on what the storyline is and who I get to spend time with, but now it's Annika Noelle (Hope Logan, Brooke's daughter). I spend a lot of time with Heather - I love my TV-sisters, Jennifer Gareis (Donna) and Heather Tom (Katie) - all the girls on the show are so incredible. We are all very supportive and we all have each others' backs. I can't pick just one or two people, I want to say everybody.

And I just want to say thank you to all of The Bold and the Beautiful fans in South Africa, and I truly appreciate all of your love and support.


Vodacom Video Play at www.videoplay.co.za now carries The Bold and the Beautiful in South Africa where the show can be watched on a free subscription, with new episodes from season 31 added daily, continuing on from where it stopped in March 2019.

Long-running American TV soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, seen on SABC3 celebrates its 8 000th episode with event 'sending shockwaves though the lives of the Forresters'.

JPI Studios Inc.

The long-running American TV soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, seen in South Africa on SABC3 on Friday celebrated the broadcast of its 8 000th episode on television with Bradley P. Bell, the executive producer and head writer who promised in a press release "a story arc around an event so profound, it sends shockwaves throughout the lives of the Forresters, Spencers, Avants, Spectras and Logans for years to come".

The Bold and the Beautiful that had its first episode on American television on 23 March 1987, created by Bradley P. Bell's parents, William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, still has two of the old original cast members - John McCook playing patriarch and Forrester Creations co-founder Eric Forrester, and of course Katherine Kelly Lang, who portrays Brooke Logan Forrester and who visited South Africa in September 2018 in a terribly botched SABC publicity blitz.

"It's astonishing to look at the script we're working on today and see episode 8 000. We're grateful that you've allowed us into your homes for over 30 years," says Bradley P. Bell.

Produced by Bell-Phillip Television Productions, Inc., The Bold and the Beautiful remains the most-watched daytime TV soap in the world.

The Bold and the Beautiful, currently in its 32 season, released the following statistics about the soap on the milestone of its 8 000 episode:

35 million Approximate number of viewers who watch every day in over 100 countries.
4 000 Number of hours of television produced by ‘The Bold and the Beautiful.”
360 000 Number of pages of dialogue memorized by cast members.
19 Number of babies born on-screen.
90 Number of weddings that have taken place.
2 Number of actors who have been on the show since the first episode. John McCook and Katherine Kelly Lang are original cast members!
3 Number of actresses whose real-life babies/children portray their fictional children. Those actresses are Katherine Kelly Lang, Lauren Koslow and Heather Tom.

TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. A Tale of Two Press Tours: Taraji P. Henson and Fox Africa, compared with Katherine Kelly Lang and the SABC - and the very striking difference between them.

They're both American actresses, known to South African TV viewers, they both portray iconic characters in American dramatic series, both their shows are seen on both pay-TV and on free-to-air television in South Africa and Africa, they both visited South Africa this year, both went on safari - and both did press tours with the media.

Yet the stark, big and very visible difference between how bizarrely bad the SABC went about the visit of Katherine Kelly Lang of The Bold and the Beautiful on SABC3, and how excellent FOX Africa went about the visit of Taraji P. Henson of Empire of FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201) couldn't be more striking.

The incredibly well-organised South African visit of Taraji P. Henson resulted in great media interaction between Fox Networks Group Africa (FNG Africa) and the local and international press during her time in South Africa.

That however just once again underscored what a shoddy, apparently clueless, botch-job the SABC did with Katherine Kelly Lang and the South African public broadcaster's unwillingness to do what's normal and actually expected (or possibly not knowing what to do) when it comes to an international TV star's visit.

I've remarked in September on the SABC's failure to properly communicate and it's utterly bizarre and inept Katherine Kelly Lang press tour so I won't go into the details again.

However, Taraji P. Henson's visit of the past week just again made it possible to directly compare the two.

The direct comparison - because both tried to do the same thing - underscores just how big the difference is between what is "normal" and "standard" when it comes to TV channels and broadcasters doing press events with international talent, and how far away the SABC is from knowing, doing or adhering to what is actually the international basic standard, and what is expected in and from the industry, as well as from the press.

The SABC's lack of doing proper (in fact, basically any) communication and its failure of working out and following a carefully thought-out strategy of unlocking value and exposure through engaging talent and press is what is the big, big problem standing between the SABC and getting what it wants, and what the press needs.

With Taraji P. Henson's visit to South Africa this week - and experiencing and peeking behind-the-scenes to see the precision, professionalism, speed, always-available, specifically targeted, rational and multi-dimensional approach of how FOX Africa's marketing and publicity machine operates - it was again painfully obvious how the SABC's marketing and publicity didn't do (or doesn't know how to do) any of that.

Because the SABC publicity team couldn't bother to properly communicate with media regarding Katherine Kelly Lang's visit, Fox Africa was so normal and did everything so properly and correct, that FOX seemed far above-average and brilliant in comparison with their Taraji P. Henson media blitz, although they actually just did what goes for normal and what is expected.

Even before Taraji P. Henson jetted to South Africa, and even before any public announcement, or media advisories or invitations to the press conference for general media, or invitations to the "A Night with Taraji" dinner were emailed out, or even before interviews were set up, Fox Africa already reached out to strategic press and media to communicate, to tell them about it, and to keep them in the loop as to what was being planned and what is likely to happen.

The result was that the media was informed. Fox Africa worked with the press as media partners beforehand and throughout the press tour.

In contrast the SABC with Katherine Kelly Lang and BBL did nothing remotely like this.

After Taraji P. Henson's Monday press conference this week, media who didn't attend, it physically immediately got an emailed dropbox with images for download, followed by quickly transcribed Taraji quotables from the media event.

Despite doing similar press events in Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg, an Isidingo set visit and on-set appearance on several SABC3 TV shows, the SABC and SABC3 never once bothered to send out even a single photo of any of it, nor any rush-transcript of what happened or quotables, or what Katherine Kelly Lang did on the Isidingo set.

Naturally, photos and information are available of Taraji P. Henson's Friday "A Night with Taraji" media dinner organised by Fox Africa, with national media from outside of Johannesburg who were also invited, knew weeks beforehand that it's being planned, and attended.

Of course the SABC and SABC3 couldn't bother to take or issue a single photo of Katherine Kelly Lang's Johannesburg media dinner or issue any press release about what she said and did at the dinner, that only Johannesburg media were invited to, with no information or anything shared with  national media from outside of Johannesburg.

Fox Africa - being strategic and forward-thinking to maximise value and to create a win-win for everybody, even before setting up and organising interviews - already started asking print media doing one-on-ones and sit-down interviews with Taraji P. Henson if they could please bank and slot in and run interviews only around March 2019.

In this way, when the broadcast of the 2nd half of the 5th season of Empire actually starts, the show gets more exposure when it's on the air, and media get more interaction with media consumers than now during the end-of-year period.

Who knows that the SABC and BBL's plan was with Kelly.

During her South African time, Fox Africa set up a carefully chosen set of phone interviews between Taraji P. Henson with international press for the Africa, Europe and Russia region; as well as specifically picked local radio, TV and print interviews.

Taraji P. Henson, her team and Fox Africa who know that less is often more, deliberately didn't do every media it could foist Taraji on, going for a strategic approach and seeking out interviews and appearances that would reach a cross-over audience and those media consumers who would know of and be interested in Taraji but also potentially already have been watching, or be interested in watching Empire.

In contract the SABC that basically almost completely ignored non-SABC media with Katherine Kelly Lang's visit, went for a seemingly spray-and-play approach, hilariously pushing Katherine onto almost every conceivable SABC regional radio and SABC TV show platform it could, whether Katherine Kelly Lang and The Bold and the Beautiful was an actual fit with that specific listenership like Umhlobo Wenene, and viewership or not.

Fox Africa publicity was constantly available during Taraji P. Henson's visit and communicated, responding to media's emails, calls and whatsapp messages.

During Katherine Kelly Lang's visit the SABC didn't bother to respond to all whatsapp, emails or calls from the press asking about it and wanting to know what is going on and happening.

Fox Africa's top marketing director and communication boss was directly involved in organising, was on the ground, hands-on, and involved with Taraji P. Henson's press tour and knew exactly what was going on.

With Katherine Kelly Lang's visit the SABC's top marketing and communication boss was not.

During Taraji P. Henson's press tour, Fox Africa marketing and publicity people didn't plaster photos and selfies with the star and themselves in public. They were, and kept behind-the-scenes, constantly working to get the star the exposure, which is what the job entails.

With Katherine Kelly Lang the SABC didn't miss opportunities to deliberately publicly push out on social media, by choice, images with the star.

Beforehand Fox Africa and Taraji P. Henson's team worked out in the finest detail the times and schedule of her diary for her whole visit of what she'll do.

When Katherine Kelly Lang got to Cape Town where she only did interviews with SABC radio and a few inserts on SABC3 TV shows, the SABC told the press waiting and wondering what's going on after not hearing back from the SABC, that "Katherine Kelly Lang is now tired".


ALSO READ: Taraji P. Henson at Fox Africa's 'A Night with Taraji' dinner event talks embracing change, Hollywood pay disparity, looking for solutions - and playing Cookie on Empire with 'the why'.
ALSO READ: IN PHOTOS: The exclusive, invite-only, golden delicious - and absolutely beautiful - 'A Night with Taraji P. Henson' dinner event of Fox Networks Group Africa.
ALSO READ: TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. Outfoxed: How Fox Africa surprised South Africa's TV biz as it surged to first place with the best TV party of the year in mid-December and Empire's Taraji P. Henson.
ALSO READ: THE EMPIRE COMES BACK: Empire's Cookie, Taraji P. Henson is jetting back to South Africa for her second week-long visit.

TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. Brooke, Brooke! As the SABC fawned over American soap star Katherine Kelly Lang, spare a thought for the local talent the public broadcaster can't bother to give the same media exposure to.

When her alter-ego Brooke strutted into the Flames Lounge at the Four Seasons Hotel in Johannesburg's Westcliff last week as she soaked up the adoration by the bold and the beautiful, Katherine Kelly Lang had no inkling of how the South African public broadcaster's fêted fawning over her as an American soap star once again etched a sharp contrast with how little similar effort the SABC actually puts in for local talent media exposure.

From Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg, from Soweto to Cape Town, the SABC fell over its feet to create and shape public and media exposure opportunities for the American actress Katherine Kelly Lang, better known as Brooke in BBL's The Bold and the Beautiful soap on SABC3.

Not to take anything away from Katherine Kelly Lang, but it was sad and disappointing to to see the past two weeks how she got whisked from Umhlobo Wenene to being given a walk-on guest appearance on SABC3's Isidingo; went from sitting down on #WTFTumi, to interviews with Good Hope FM and given a Top Billing insert.

Between interviews on Real Talk with Azania, Radio 2000, Metro FM, 5FM, Expresso, Maponya Mall and Menlyn Mall meet-and-greets, as well as a special media dinner, two thoughts kept re-occuring in my mind.

Firstly, why is the SABC going with a play-and-spray approach, foisting Katherine Kelly Lang onto every conceivable SABC media platform it can, as if she's of importance and has relevance for apparently every audience under the SABC sun?

What the point of having so many different SABC media platforms if they're all the same and if Katherine Kelly Lang is just perfect for all of them irrespective of target audience? (Of course they're not.)

Secondly - and much more importantly - why is the SABC giving such an unbelievable lot of exposure to just one woman, on just SABC on-air properties, who is a soap star on a American TV production, in a show that the South African public broadcaster didn't really even want anymore and did it best the past three years to undercut, destroy its ratings with insane timeslot changes, and get rid of?

It makes no sense.

Not even for Safta winners of SABC shows or its biggest stars from shows like Uzalo or Generations or Skeem Saam, or Muvhango and Isidingo for their 20th birthdays, or Top Billing for its 25th birthday has the SABC ever given even half the publicity blitz on SABC platforms it gave to Katherine Kelly Lang in just the past two weeks - and that is actually shameful.

Why is the SABC - and again, not taking anything away from Brooke - able to mount such an obsessed publicity effort with Katherine Kelly Lang and giving her so many opportunities to speak to and to be seen by SABC audiences, when the public broadcaster cannot do the same for big local stars?

Where are the same effort and SABC opportunities by the SABC for worthy TV show's local moments and local stars when they rightly deserve to shine in the spotlight? Where are their flowers? Where are their mall "activations" to meet the adoring crowds?

With Katherine Kelly Lang and the SABC's TV head publicist Zandile Nkonyeni hovering around on her national publicity tour, the SABC through its optics, once again showed its unhealthy and unbalanced reverence for American shows and stars above local ones.

When last did the SABC invite media to the Four Seasons Hotel in Westcliff to meet lets say a Leleti Khumalo when she returned to television for Uzalo?

Or to toast the presenters of Top Billing celebrating a quarter of a century on the SABC at the moment as the broadcaster's longest running TV show?

Of course the answer is never.

Why are they not interviewed on every SABC radio station, making appearances on every SABC show, and being showcased at the Maponya Mall?

It's tragic that the SABC still jumps - and jumps higher - for America's blond, bold and beautiful, than for South Africa's local brilliant on-screen talent.

What's even worse is the (wrong) non-spoken message the SABC is communicating to everyone who saw this: When it comes down to it, an American soap star is more important, and deserving of more effort, of the coverage, of the fawning, and of opportunities to be on SABC shows and being interviewed on radio than South Africans.

Can the SABC name one local talent it's ever given even half in a week of what the SABC gave Katherine Kelly Lang?

Someone once said it's not what I say is important to me that is important, but what I do and who and what I give my time to, that truly reveals what is really important to me.

It's not a problem, or wrong, to fawn over Katherine Kelly Lang or an American star who happens to be in South Africa. A lot of them are here often and they get interviewed and do media appearances.

Other broadcasters like M-Net and other channels or MultiChoice's DStv like FOX are used to it, experienced and well-versed in it, and behave normally without going overboard.

What is wrong however, is the level of total ga-ga fixation the SABC displayed when it showed how much coverage on SABC platforms it's willing to give (and can actually give) to an American on-screen talent on the public broadcaster - something that makes you wonder why the SABC isn't doing this, and hasn't been doing this, for our own.

SABC denies that it's paying for 'Brooke Logan's' flowers, spa treatments or anything else around Katherine Kelly Lang's South African visit while multiple local producers are still owed millions by the broadcaster.

Did Katherine Kelly Lang buy flowers for herself to be handed to her at her airport arrival? The SABC is denying that it's paying for "Brooke Logan's" flowers or anything else around The Bold and the Beautiful actress' South African visit, saying the public broadcaster "did not incur any costs".

It comes amidst the basically bankrupt South African public broadcaster still owing a litany of local production companies millions of rands owed for content, with shows like Uzalo on SABC1 that has completely shut down production with cast and crew that downed tools due to non-payment by the SABC.

The SABC, a R7 billion corporation, has only R26 million left in the back and owes 27 times more - R694 million - to producers and other service providers who haven't been paid as the broadcaster awaits a another possible government bailout.

SABC viewers, the public, actors and producers are now wondering where the SABC gets the money from to participate in the nationwide marketing blitz of the iconic The Bold and the Beautiful actress visiting South Africa this week and next week with the American weekday soap that is broadcast on SABC3.

While SABC TV head publicist Zandile Nkonyeni welcomed Katherine Kelly Lang at the airport with flowers and joined her for spa treatments, Katherine's team or someone else is apparently paying for the flowers and everything else, not the SABC, according to the broadcaster.

Katherine is making several public appearances together with the SABC and banner-headlined by SABC3 in cities around South Africa.

After a game reserve safari and spa treatments this week, Katherine Kelly Lang will appear on SABC3's Real Talk with Azania on Tuesday, film scenes for SABC3's local soap, Isidingo, and do a profile interview insert on Top Billing following a flurry of brunches, radio interviews and viewer meet-and-greets.

Vuyo Ngcukana, an actor in The Queen on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) crystalised the thoughts of many onlookers this week, wondering "who is picking up Brooke Logan's bill for being here, I see she's getting royal treatment with spas and flowers but Uzalo actors are fighting for money they've worked for that hasn't been paid, so who brought and paid for Brooke?"

The SABC says it's not paying a cent for Katherine Kelly Lang's visit.

Quick question, who is picking up Brooke Logan’s bill for being here, I see she’s getting the royal treatment with spas and flowers but Uzalo actors are fighting for money they’ve worked for that hasn’t been paid, so who brought and paid for Brooke?

— Vuyolwethu Ngcukana (@vuyomse) August 28, 2018

Neo Momodu, SABC spokesperson tells TVwithThinus in response to a media enquiry that "the SABC did not pay for, nor sponsor Katherine Kelly Lang’s visit to South Africa."

"The Bold and Beautiful and Katherine paid for the visit as part of long standing plans for Katherine to compete in the 2018 Ironman World Championship taking place in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, 1 September. SABC3 piggy-backed on this visit and therefore did not incur any costs."

BREAKING. Susan Flannery who've played Stephanie Forrester, now also leaving The Bold and the Beautiful after more than 25 years..

Susan Flannery who has been playing matriarg Stephanie Forrester is also leaving the soap The Bold and the Beautiful after more than 25 years.

Susan Flannery is dumping the soap just a week after the sudden and shocking departure of Ronn Moss who've played Ridge Forrester and who left the soap over reportedly salary issues.

CBS Soaps in Depth broke the shocking news that Susan Flannery - who is one of the last remaining original cast members - will remain long enough for the writers and producers to create a storyline for her character to exit the show.

She graciously agreed to a very short term contract extension for head writer Bradley Bell to write the character out instead of Stephanie disappeearing abruptly. Meanwhile the production has not commented or issued any statement.

Someone who has issued a statement is Katherine Kelly Lang, the remaining original cast member playing Brooke saying in a statement that she is staying with The Bold and the Beautiful. "I'm very happy to tell you that I have resigned my contract with The Bold and the Beautiful for two more years. Brad has come up with an exciting new storyline for Brooke that I think the fans are going to love."