After production and casting delays filming starts on Dream: The Lebo Mathosa Story for BET Africa; Kelly Khumalo out; 6-episode biopic-series now set for broadcast in November.

After a production and casting delay filming has now started in and around South Africa's Gauteng province on Viacom Africa's Dream: The Lebo Mathosa Story, now set to air on BET (DStv 129) in November, with Kelly Khumalo that is gone and no longer attached to the project.

Dream: The Lebo Mathosa Story is the first in a new format of African star biographical TV retellings that Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) is trying to do for the South African and sub-Saharan African market, closely following the established mold of what A+E Networks has been doing with biopics for its Lifetime channel about American pop culture stars.

Originally set for broadcast in September, production and casting delays behind-the-scenes since April has seen the 6-episode Ochre Media produced Viacom-project pushed back to November 2019.

VIMN Africa isn't announcing the cast yet but Kelly Khumalo is no longer attached or involved with the project. It's not clear whether Kelly Khumalo was fired or decided to quit the production. It's unclear if she was replaced and by whom, or whether her role needed to be replaced.

Kelly Khumalo's manager in a statement says "When she is ready she will tell her side of the story".

Fatima Beckman, VIMN Africa spokesperson, was asked why Kelly Khumalo is no longer involved and why she decided to leave and told TVwithThinus that Viacom Africa has no comment beyond announcing that filming has started.

A set visit is taking place for some media on Monday, 14 October, in Johannesburg.

Dream: The Lebo Mathosa Story will recreate the rise to fame and untimely death of the bisexual kwaito singer, nicknamed "Madonna of the Townships" whose meteoric rise was cut short when she died aged 29 in a car crash in October 2006 when her vehicle hit a tree.

The artist who tried acting in-between a personal life and career filled with alcohol, drugs, partying and scandalous tabloid gossip, made appearances in South African TV soaps in guest roles ranging from Muvhango and Generations to Backstage.

The Lebo Mathosa Story will take viewers on a journey to the 1990s at the beginning of the South African kwaito revolution from the start of her fame as a member of the kwaito group, Boom Shaka, before pursuing a solo career, with various different-aged actresses portraying her through different stages of her life.

"BET Africa can confirm that the cast for Dream: The Lebo Mathosa Story has now been finalised and production, which is on schedule, has commenced across story relevant locations in and around Gauteng," says Monde Twala, the vice president for MTV, MTV Base and BET at VIMN Africa.

"This new biopic format for BET Africa is a celebration of black excellence which proudly portrays an authentic South African legacy story of African female talent."

SABC1 on its new 'quite different' format music competition show The Remix SA that will be taking on Idols: 'For us it's a test actually'.

SABC1 says the public broadcaster's latest bet on a local version of a format music reality competition show, The Remix South Africa, is going to be a new test for the channel.

It comes as SABC1 gears up to do battle with pay-TV channels supplier M-Net and its Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel's long-running juggernaut reality singing competition show Idols on Sundays at 17:30.

SABC1 has scheduled The Remix SA's "performance episode" - the second episode of every week's two-parter edition, for Sundays at 18:00 in a testing-the-waters counter-programming move.

The Remix SA that is not from the United Kingdom or America but from Turkey sees contestants having to "remix" and come up with new versions of popular songs in a different genre.

In The Remix SA - with two weekly episodes on a Friday at 18:00, starting 20 July, and on Sundays at 18:00 with a half hour "performance" episode in front of a live audience - the SABC and SABC1 is hoping to find its own Idols after years of losing all of its big reality competition shows to e.tv and M-Net and not following up initial investments in other format competition shows with further seasons.

The past decade the SABC has seen a flurry of marquee tentpole shows from SA's Got Talent to Strictly Come Dancing SA and others switch from SABC1, SABC2 and SABC3 to e.tv and M-Net, while the broadcaster failed to do further second seasons of show like The X Factor SA on SABC1 that it would mount for a first season but not cultivate further.

Now SABC1 hopes to try again with The Remix SA, with co-presenters Rouge (Deko Barbara-Jessica Wedi) and KG (Kgaugelo KC Mokholwane) with Mo Flava and Kelly Khumalo as the judges, and Relebogile Mabotja as the show's musical director.

"The Remix South Africa for us is part of our continued commitment in unearthing and investing in youth talent and trying to be on par with where the culture is at," says Sane Zondi, SABC1 head of programming.

"It's a different format from all the other talent reality formats that have been in the landscape and that we're used to in that the formation of groups - although I don't want to call them 'groups' since they're not quite groups - that are on the show and competing to be South Africa's next big entertainment offering.

"It is quite different, structurally. It's quite a variety of skills within the entity that we're looking for - there's DJ skills, there's producing skills, mixed with vocal skills, and just general entertainment," says Sane Zondi.

"When you watch the show on a Sunday, which is the live performance, entertainment aspect of it, you'll see that there's quite a big production value that's expected of each of the ensembles that are entering and who are competing."

"So it feels like a concert that is being delivered on-air, on television, week in and week out."

"We're very excited about how it's actually going to be received. For us at SABC1 it's a test actually. Traditionally we've looked for formats in the typical territories of the TV world which is the United Kingdom and the United States, and we've gone and we've done something different."

"The Remix South Africa is a format that comes from the Asian part of the world, from Turkey specifically, and when we found it, we automatically and instinctively, we knew The Remix would make sense for SABC1," says Sane Zondi.

"This is where the trend is at. It's been a 2-year journey to have this thing on air so we're very excited about that."


'Have you ever heard that song this way?'

"You see groups of very talented people in groups of 3's and I look at these groups and think, 'Man, you can literally be the next best thing in South Africa," says co-presenter KG. "And that takes me back to my auditions standing in long queues where you're hoping to be the one".

"The contestants will have to remix songs that are already big and they have to come and go, 'Hey man, have you ever heard it this way?' Like you get a soul song and have reinterpret it as a gqom song."

His co-presenter, the hip hop artist Rouge says she can empathise with the contestants that viewers are going to see on The Remix SA.

"It's really, really tough purely because you are trying to do something that's almost impossible by remixing songs that are really out there and massive and making them yours so that people can really find your sound".

"So we let them know that it's really not easy, but when you get it right, you really get it right. Everyone's got to take songs that are original right now - whether it be hip hop, gqom or whatever genre - and they have to remix it within the genres that we tell them to remix it into."

"The beautiful thing about it is that the contestants are so talented. We have guitarists, we have people who play saxophone, we have amazing vocalists. We have amazing rappers. It just goes from one genre to the next."

M-Net apologises for trans-shaming of Idols contestant on Mzansi Magic: 'Judges' dialogue was an attempt to understand the contestant's identity'.

M-Net is apologising to DStv subscribers for Idols' on-air transgender shaming that kicked off the latest episode of the reality singing competition on Mzansi Magic when the judges and presenter mocked a contestant and showed viewers how to make fun out of guessing what gender someone might be.

M-Net says it "apologises unreservedly for any offence the comments may have caused".

The pay-TV broadcaster's apology comes after the [SIC] Entertainment produced show of the FremantleMedia format that is currently in its 13th South African season, kicked off Sunday night's episode with an episode-opener audition by Arshen Madlopha (22).

In a body-wrapping purple dress and matching purple high heels, the contestant traveled all the way from the small timber producing town of Piet Retief in Mpumalanga to audition for the show.

Unlike The Voice South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) where the coaches have their backs turned to singers and judge them only on their vocal abilities, in Idols where it's also only the singing that's supposed to matter, the judges often have fun by judging appearances.

It was Arshen Madlopha's second try at Idols, and judge Unathi Msengana primed DStv subscribers watching, by perusing her notes and saying "It doesn't say if Ashen is a lady or a guy".

That is when Sunday night's episode of Idols on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161), executive produced by Gavin Wratten and ProVerb and covering the Johannesburg auditions, shocked viewers for how it trans-shamed contestant 11014.

"You're body is banging girl," judge Somizi Mhlongo, who happens to be gay, told Arshen Madlopha. "Walk like a lady."

Once the contestant had left the audition room, the whispering started.

"Is it a girl or boy?" asked a perplexed Idols guest judge Kelly Khumalo who was roped in to judge singing talent for the episode but who couldn't be bothered to ask the actual contestant directly.

"Boy," said Somizi.

"No, it's a girl," countered a surprised Unathi Msengana.

"It's a boy," said an adamant Randall Abrahams. "There was action," he said, motioning his Adam's apple. "I am confused, but it's such a beautiful boy though," said Kelly.

They all laughed heartily and fun was had by all speculating whether the contestant who sang Beyonce's "Halo" is really male or female.

Outside ProVerb, whose real name is Tebogo Thekisho and doubles as presenter, deadpanned by added another zinger: "Arshen had let both the ladies and the guys down."

It's not clear why Sphumelele Sibeko, M-Net's head of reality and entertainment and Reneilwe Sema, M-Net's director for local entertainment signed off on the trans-shaming content and okay-ed it for broadcast.

After [SIC] Entertainment producers failed to ask the contestant's gender and left it to the judges to speculate as a funny joke for Mzansi Magic viewers, Lindiwe Dlhamini, founder of Injabulo Anti-Bullying Project (IABP), called on Idols and the judges to apologise to Arshen Madlopha.

TVwithThinus asked M-Net what Mzansi Magic's view is when it comes to media shaming of transgender people and the bullying of people as it relates to gender and gender issues, and why people in power - supposed TV role models - are making fun by mining what gender someone belongs to for comedy.

Is this something Mzansi Magic endorses and why did Idols do this?

"South African Idols has a history supporting the LGBTQIA community, a fact which is illustrated in the make-up of the Top 16 over the past few seasons, our judging panel," says M-Net in response.

"In respect of this specific case, the Idols judges were judging the contestant's voice."

"All contestants are treated equally and judged on their singing, irrespective of who they are, where they come from or what their orientation is."

"The judges' dialogue was an attempt to understand the contestant’s identity and was not intended to offend, however we apologise unreservedly for any offence the comments may have caused."

It's not clear why the Idols judges in their attempt to understand the contestant's gender identity didn't ask the contestant or the show's producers.

Music biz set soap Rhythm City from Quizzical Pictures on e.tv celebrates a decade on South African TV; promises 'more gripping storylines'.

Rhythm City on e.tv is celebrating a decade on the air since the weekday soap set inside South Africa's music business started on the red letter channel on 9 July 2007, promising "more gripping storylines".

With some of the soap's original cast like Jamie Bartlett, Sethabi Taunyane, Mduduzi Mabaso, Mpho Molepo and Tebogo Khalo still seen in the popular local weekday drama, the actors and crew last week celebrated the 10th birthday with a lavish Johannesburg birthday bash.

In June 2007 e.tv cancelled the low-rated youth soap Backstage that failed to lure viewers, but to the channel's credit, e.tv believed that the channel must have a local weekday soap and gave it another try with Rhythm City, produced by Quizzical Pictures (formerly Curious Pictures).

The soap, its characters and its intrigue - set against the backdrop of the fast-paced South African music industry with drama taking viewers from the streets and clubs of Soweto to the recording studios and radio stations of Johannesburg - instantly found bigger appeal under e.tv viewers.

Moved from 18:30 to the 19:00 timeslot in January 2015 opposite SABC3's Isidingo that remains in a ratings struggle, e.tv's Rhythm City now commands a sizeable audience of 3.5 million viewers. It perennially remains the second most watched show on e.tv just behind e.tv's other soap, Scandal, as a lucrative half hour of prime time programming for the channel.

"Rhythm City is one of e.tv's flagship shows, drawing audiences to the channel who are looking for their dose of daily drama," says Marlon Davids, e.tv's managing director. "We are delighted with the way both the show and e.tv have evolved over the past 10 years and look forward to reaching more milestones together".

"When we started working on Rhythm City, we didn't think that we would still be going this strong 10 years later," says Harriet Gavshon, Rhythm City executive producer at Quizzical Pictures. "Creating gripping storylines for a daily soapie is challenging, but it's a challenge that we take on with gusto."

Besides stories revolving around the struggles as well as the glamour and excess of the local music biz, Rhythm City touched several sensitive and controversial subjects besides the backstabbing and in-fighting that characterises the serialised nature of a soap, ranging from abortion, homosexuality, rape, HIV/Aids and drug addiction to violence against women.

Some of it did land Rhythm City and e.tv in hot water, like last year when the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) found the soap "shockingly inapprioriate" with woman abuse and a strangulation scene without warning in a timeslot too early for the visuals.

Over the years Rhythm City incorporated several real-life celebrities and musicians into its fictional universe, ranging from Kelly Khumalo, Khuli Chana, HHP, Khanyi Mbau, Kwesta, Slikour and Freshlyground to DJ Cleo.

In the past decade Rhythm City has seen its series of cast exists like Pam Andrews leaving after 7 years, backstage unhappiness,  a new opening sequence and look since October 2014, firings like Kelly Khumalo in 2009 over diva behaviour and other, more brutal firings like Connie Chiume  - even a real-life studio lot fire at Sasani Studios in 2014 that temporarily shut down production.

Watch the first episode of Rhythm City on e.tv here:




Editor's note: 
I'm one of the very few journalists and TV critics in South Africa - literally 4 at most - who was there then when e.tv still showed Ricki Lake and who covered Rhythm City when it started a decade ago, covered it ever since, and who are still around 10 years later to report on it.

It feels disappointing and distasteful that e.tv and Quizzical Pictures couldn't bother to invite, or even just tell, the few longest time media about Rhythm City's 10th birthday celebration at the soap's set on Wednesday.

So, sorry about it but not being able to hear what e.tv execs and the show's producers and cast have to say unfortunately means I can't cover more of the soap's milestone and report who said what.

Who knows where the world will be in another 10 years? I don't know.

What I do know is this: If Rhythm City happens to still be on the air on e.tv by 2027, irrespective of how it looks and who happens to be in it and making it behind-the-scenes, I and some of the few other stalwarts will still be around to report on it, to cover all the news about it, and to chronicle every aspects around its place in and on South African television.

Congratulations to e.tv and Quizzical Pictures on the Rhythm City 10 year TV milestone.