SABC3's Presenter Search on 3 kicks off its nationwide auditions in Port Elizabeth as dreamers come and queue since very early, and cancer survivor Yolanda Bukani says: 'I see myself on Top Billing'.

At SABC3's Presenter Search on 3 nationwide auditions that kicked off in Port Elizabeth, the 29-year old Yolanda Bukani arrived complete with a sash draped over the gold-and-white frock on her slender body. But she wasn't there to fit in with anyone's stereotypical idea of the empty-headed beauty queen seeking TV fame.

"I am a Survivor," read the words on her sash and when TVwithThinus noticed and went to go and speak to her, she eloquently spoke 5 simple, powerful words to explain why she entered: "I am a cancer survivor".

"I decided to enter SABC3's Presenter Search on 3 to show all of the strong, powerful, brave and beautiful people fighting cancer that there is life after cancer," said the beautiful woman from the small town of Alice in the Eastern Cape who woke up at 06:00 to come and do an audition at SABC3's Presenter Search on 3.

"You can go through chemo and you can go through radiation, and you can still live a full life. Look at me. I survived stage 4 cancer and I'm alive and living to share my story and to inspire people fighting cancer," said Yolanda who was 21 when she was diagnosed with cancer.

"I love glamour. I love travelling, and I see myself on Top Billing - right there next to Bonang and travelling the world," she said.

Last weekend a massive number of people showed up - a lot more than what even the producers expected - and patiently queued at the Nelson Mandela Stadium for their chance to appear before the regional judges Phiwe Nozewu known as presenter Pastor the DJ from Umhlobo Wenene FM, SABC3's Expresso presenter Zoe Brown, and the inimitable Michael Mol.

With the huge response to the Port Elizabeth auditions, people in the cities still to come - Cape Town this coming weekend on 7 and 8 April at the Newlands stadium, Durban on 14 and 15 April at the Durban Exhibition Centre, and Johannesburg on 20 and 22 April at the Wanderers Cricket Stadium - will have to make sure they arrive very early and bring their A-game.

At the Port Elizabeth auditions Mibuyo Rantsane was first right in front of the line with her aunt who accompanied her, of the two very long queues that stretched all the way along the side of the inside of the Nelson Mandela Stadium. She arrived at 05:00 on the Sunday morning.

"I just felt the excitement and that this is what I've always wanted to. I woke up at 03:30, and I got here at 05:00. I prepared - I was auditioning around the house, trying to get everything right. I've always been in love with the entertainment industry from a very young age, so I'm so excited to come here and try this."

Ziphozihle Ntlanganino from King William's Town woke up at 04:00 and said that she sees the Presenter Search on 3 as a great opportunity. She's extremely happy that SABC3 and the presenter search decided to also include Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape.

"It's so great especially for including the Eastern Cape since all these things are always happening in Johannesburg. This is something I was waiting for." She saw about the competition on social media and decided to enter.

Robin St Clair-Marks said he woke up one day watching Expresso on SABC3, "and then it just spoke to me that I should do this Presenter Search on 3". He woke up at 06:00 and said TV presenting is something that he would love to do. "It's always interested me to become a TV presenter."

Buhle Jikwana from East London and studying LLB in Port Elizabeth who also writes poetry, said he has a passion for drama and theatre beyond just the law.

He woke up at 05:00 and said he decided to enter the Presenter Search on 3 to "stretch my limits"."I don't know what I'm capable of, but I know I'm capable of more than what I've been doing currently. So I think this is an opportunity for me to show myself." For his audition he did a lot of voice exercises.

Michael Mol, one of the regional audition judges, shared what he's looking for in contestants and what people need to bring to their Presenter Search on 3 auditions.

"I'm not looking for someone who can walk and talk - that's a given. I'm not looking for someone who can communicate. Anyone can learn to communicate. The show is looking for someone who can connect with audiences and who has authenticity and presence - that is the secret sauce of being a great TV presenter."

Any South African older than 18 can enter by showing up at the auditions, fill in the audition form where you get a number, and then wait for you chance to do a short TV presenting link. The Presenter Search on 3 will be broadcast on SABC3 from Thursday 10 May at 19:30.

Remaining auditions for The Presenter Search on 3:
- Cape Town: Saturday, 7 April and Sunday 8 April at Newlands Rugby Stadium
- Durban: Saturday, 14 April and Sunday, 15 April at Durban Exhibition Centre
- Johannesburg: Friday, 20 April and Sunday, 22 April at Wanderers Cricket Stadium

Top Billing on SABC3 celebrates its 25th silver anniversary with a special nostalgic look-back episode with Michael Mol and Basetsana Kumalo back as presenters.

Tonight South Africa’s longest-running, uninterrupted lifestyle magazine TV show will celebrate its 25th anniversary on South African television with Top Billing doing a special, nostalgia-laden look-back episode as current and former presenters, and the show's executive producers, do revealing and personal oral histories of their time working on the show.

Former presenters – a now greying fox Michael Mol, and ever-youthful Basetsana Kumalo are back as tonight's special presenting duo.

Top Billing's silver anniversary is a phenomenal feat for not just the show but also for the South African public broadcaster where the now iconic programme, as TV arbiter of the "good life" on SABC3 has managed to captivate audiences for two and a half decades of weekly episodes telling and showing inspiring South African success stories with a revolving roster of glambod presenters over the years, widely admired and often imitated.

Keeping up appearances for 25 years in South Africa's TV industry, Top Billing, has managed to pull off an incredible production record, only equaled by M-Net's long-running investigative magazine show, Carte Blanche that will turn 30 in 2018 – both shows bravely travelling internationally, working unrelentingly at getting exclusive interviews and access to eye-popping visual stories.

Now iconic for its hobnobbing with the rich and famous locally and abroad, exotic travelogues, fashion and movie junket inserts, jaw-dropping mansion features and presenters walking (and talking!) in designer evening wear, the Tswelopele Productions show has spawned colloquial phrases like "that's definitely a Top Billing house", "it's a Top Billing wedding" and its sign-off "goodnight and God bless!" that has become synonymous with this South Africa TV royalty institution.

More than any other local South African TV show, Top Billing has successfully spawned a bevy of presenter beauties – people South African viewers don't just love to see, but want to be.

Over the years, their names have inextricably become linked with any event – anything – "top billing" since 1992: from Neil McCarthy, Ursula Chikane, Janez Vermeiren, Jeannie D, Simba Mhere and Jo-Ann Strauss to Bonang Matheba, Nico Panagio and lately names like Jade Hubner and Chris Jaftha.

While viewers drink in the beautiful and carefully curated "Vanity Fair on television" type content weekly – sometimes criticised as empty calorie glam-TV – they're oblivious to the immeasurable production focus, energy, man hours and stressful navigation of often-impossible inserts behind the scenes and the gargantuan achievement of Top Billing that has kept it up for 25 years.

In fact, it's not just Top Billing's longevity of 25 years on the cash-strapped and often-erratic SABC (the show that started on TV1, moved to SABC2, then SABC3 and saw an untold number of day and timeslot changes) where programmes are subjected to the whims and vagaries of an ever-changing echelon of TV executives that is extremely impressive, but that it has been able to establish and keep up very high production values week after week after week, unequaled by any other local show on South African television.

What viewers don't see on Top Billing are producers constantly pushing forward and navigating through the byzantine maze of difficult publicists and gatekeepers for access to A-list stars from the worlds of entertainment, sport, business, music, film, and news - the rushed editors working late, insane global travel logistic arrangements often changing last minute and exasperated cameramen valiantly trying to still frame stars looking their best even though someone like Kim Kardashian would refuse to put down her cellphone and look up during an exclusive one-on-one interview.

Still aspirational

As fleeting styles, fashions and viewer interest all blossom and fade, Top Billing has smartly managed to adapt, change and constantly evolve over the more than two decades not just with its audience but staying carefully always just slightly ahead of them. 

Nothing is more tragic than anything old in pop culture that's lost its relevance, attraction and reason for being – yet Top Billing with agile pop culture agility, remains ahead of the pack.

Viewers keep tuning in because Top Billing, even after 25 years, remains inspiring. 

Viewers don't just want to see the spectacular house – the show makes them dream that they can maybe one day have it too. 

Viewers don't just tune in for the celebrities – they watch the interviews, although sometimes too sweet, that are carefully orchestrated to make famous folk come across as accessible, ordinary and relatable.

The glitz, glamour, décor, design, exotic cuisine and luxury travel appearing on Top Billing are at heart not show-off pieces; viewers keep watching because they see things and people they want to emulate.

For 25 years, Top Billing has continued to give South Africans on public television – in a country pummelled by a barrage of negative and disturbing news headlines – an escapist out: a passport saying that it is okay, even if just for an hour a week, to have a dream.     

Thursday night’s must-watch episode at 20:30 on SABC3 will look back with Michelle Garforth-Venter, one of the original presenters, now living in Atlanta in America, reminiscing with her family about her Top Billing years. 

Current presenter Jonathan Boynton-Lee will relive the Top Billing Presenter Search reality show that he won, while Michael Mol’s family will look back on their life over the years with Top Billing.

The one wearing the Top Billing tiara in real life is Patience Stevens who started Top Billing for the SABC 25 years ago with a dream and a lot of guts in one small editing suite, and who is still the executive producer of this glamarama TV train steaming ahead a quarter of a century later.

In another insert on Thursday the show charts the friendship between this indefatigable uber-producer who noticed and roped in Basetsana Kumalo years ago – first as a presenter and then as a production partner – and their incredible producing partnership and friendship working on Top Billing all these years.

Michael Mol, Hlomla Dandala named as hosts for the Royalty Soapie Awards now set for 8 March 2014.

Michael Mol and Hlomla Dandala will be the hosts of the Royalty Soapie Awards which has now been moved to the new date of 8 March 2014 at the Durban International Convention Centre in Durban.

The Royalty Soapie Awards will likely be broadcast on SABC1 but it's not yet clear whether it will be a live broadcast or be shown at a later date.

The Royalty Soapie Awards - not representative of South African TV soap opera industry since broadcasters such as M-Net and e.tv are not allowing some of their soaps to be voted for - caught flack from the TV industry for the way it's organised, for judges being kept secret, and broadcasters saying they don't know and have not been told how the judging works.

The list of soaps in the category for Most Popular Soap which viewers vote for, excludes certain TV soap which makes it a hollow, credibility-less victory for whichever soap wins.

The new awards show production has also already seen its fair share of drama behind the scenes.

"We will focus our energies on producing a top-class event that reflects the excellence of the work done by South Africa's burgeoning television soap industry," says Sindile Xulu, the Royalty Soapie Awards project director "As a team we are relieved to have a firm date".

PAIN MEDICATION. Credibility shattered, authenticity gone: 'I hope to be able to build on what Michael has achieved,' says Riaad Moosa replacing Michael Mol in Doctor's Orders.

South African TV viewers are now supposed to take seriously, trust, and watch a stand-up comedian who until recently made jokes about politics with a naked skeleton (oh sorry, it had undies on) on The Dr Mol Show Doctor's Orders on SABC3.

Yet the great lifestyle and edutainment show The Dr Mol Show on SABC3 not just suddenly and without warning or any explanation lost the headline presenter it's named after - but also its entire credibility, its entire authenticity, and its feel for genuine medical help and advice which always radiated a truetone and warm teleglow feel.

How are viewers supposed to trust the advice, trust the people making the show, or trust or have any credibility in anything now related to what was The Dr Mol Show after the sudden and jarring disappearance of Michael Mol when neither the production, the SABC or SABC3 were willing to talk about it or answer any questions or media enquiries?

Does any viewer really want advice, or will viewers really feel they can trust or have any credibility in a stand-up comedian like Riaad Moosa when something so secretive happens and is executed by the very same people who refuse to talk or do any explaining to the press whatsoever, but then want to carry on telling viewers to "live your best life"? Not likely.

Yesterday I explained how The Dr Mol Show on SABC3 on Fridays at 15:45 is suddenly without Michael Mol who has been replaced by Riaad Moosa - although SABC3 insist on still calling it The Dr Mol Show on schedules whilst it's actually Doctor's Orders.

Adding insult to injury, everybody has refused to answer even the most basic questions made numerous times since April when I first reached out immediately and approached everyone and said that I was told Michael Mol is leaving and is that true, and if it is, what is happening?

Now SABC3 is responding, saying "laugher is the best medicine" (because the truth I guess is a bitter pill to swallow).

SABC3 is simply telling TV with Thinus that Riaad Moosa "has taken taken over from Dr Michael Mol who has left the show to pursue his passion for broader health education".

Michael Mol has, according to a statement "set his sights on giving every South African individualised health education, care and advice through direct and affordable access to healthcare professionals through Hello Doctor, a mobile healthcare company."

The Dr Mol Show, produced by Tswelopele Productions, was at episode 19 of 26 of the current 5th season when the behind-the-scenes shake-up occured.

It's highly unusual for a presenter to leave and for a new presenter to suddenly step in halfway through a programme's run. It's also unusual for a TV show and a broadcaster to not explain at least the basic details of how something like this happened and why it transpired.

On Doctor's Orders Riaad Moosa is a qualified medical doctor but he is definitely not Michael Mol who has honed his telegenic skills and warm and authentic on-air personality through decades of hard work on Top Billing.before branching out to Expresso and then started Hello Doctor which morphed into the well-produced, informative and entertaining The Dr Mol Show.

Riaad Moosa now seems like a desperate, last-minute Cape Town-based replacement for a TV show suddenly in a massive identity and credibility crisis - we won't know that for sure because nobody even bothered to answered questions and media enquiries and simply instituted the change last month which looks schizophrenic from an outsider and viewers' perspective.

I can certainly never look at The Dr Mol Show Doctor's Orders in the same way again. It feels like a lobotomised show. Everything about it now seems fake, contrived and disingenuous. Nobody was honest with me as a journalist and a TV critic, and I don't feel the show is authentic anymore.

The Dr Mol Show represented some of the best local television South Africa's TV industry produced. Now it feels hollow.

If doctor bedside manner is so important, why did the show and the broadcaster completely fail to be open and honest? Why was there zero percent bedside communication the moment when whatever started to happen behind the scenes, happened? Trust and credibility are earned; with Doctor's Orders, for me, that is all gone now, and it's sad.

"I am going to be stepping into the shoes of a role model of mine," says Riaad Moosa in a press statement from SABC3. "I have the utmost respect and admiration for Michael and hope to be able to build on what Michael has achieved."

"I have enjoyed every single minute on The Dr Mol Show and know that Riaad is going to break new ground and build on the show's success," says Michael Mol in the statement which was issued today.

HELLO? DOCTOR? Michael Mol gone without any explanation; Riaad Moosa in as The Dr Mol Show on SABC3 changes to Doctor's Orders.

In an extremely shocking, highly embarrassing and dramatic bait-and-switch exercise with no announcement, advisory, press statement, explanation, answers or any information to the South African press and TV critics either before it happened on-air (I asked) or since, SABC3 and the production company behind The Dr. Mol Show suddenly has Riaad Moosa in as the new doctor and Michael Mol gone, for the show which is now in fact called Doctor's Orders.

Even stranger: SABC3 is still calling it The Dr. Mol Show on all schedules for two weeks now. Although Michael Mol is completely and inexplicably gone and with no explanation whatsoever to me as to why he suddenly left or where he went, there is no "Dr Mol" anymore on The Dr. Mol Show. 

On 4 April TV with Thinus reported of dramatic going-ons behind the scenes of The Dr Mol Show on SABC3.

At that time I was told that Michael Mol has informed the crew that week that he is leaving the show. Although the news to me came from highly credible sources, I did not report that at the time - the news seemed that incredulous. I wanted more facts and verification, although my sources on record were already sterling.

I immediately reached out to the production, the SABC, as well as SABC3 as well as people directly involved with the show. I asked repeatedly and made multiple media enquiries.

I asked specific questions and asked specifically for clarity and relayed exactly what I was told and whether anything is true and accurate. I phoned. I phoned again. Several people from several places told me I would get answers and that they would respond. Several people said there isn't news but that relevant information would be communicated should there be anything.

Now - shockingly - The Dr. Mol Show has indeed morphed into Doctor's Orders with Riaad Moosa, yet there has been no word to the press or to me from the production company, no word from the SABC or SABC3 or any PR company, no official publicity photo of Riaad Moosa issued for what is essentially a "new" show, and no clear explanation of where Michael Mol suddenly went and why he upped and left The Dr. Mol Show in the middle of the 5th season.

Equally embarrassing for everyone involved - including all TV critics and editor's in South Africa - is that the show is still called The Dr. Mol Show on SABC3's schedules in printed newspapers and magazines in South Africa although ...


... when viewers tuned in since 17 May they've actually been seeing not Michael Mol and not the The Dr. Mol Show. There is no more "Dr Mol" on TV, just as if Dr. Phil suddenly took over Dr. Oz but kept calling it Dr. Oz. Did anyone even pick up the change?

Michael Mol suddenly gone from The Dr. Mol Show marks yet another extremely high-profile South African TV personality suddenly gone from South African television screens in a jarring way this year. The show joins 3rd Degree which abrupty ended when Debora Patta last month unexpectedly announced it will no longer continue and Vuyo Mbuli who died last month and was the co-anchor on Morning Live on SABC2.

I again reached out today to almost everyone involved with this show. Why the abrupt changes? Why the complete lack of transparency in my opinion and the eye-popping lack of communication? Why exactly did Michael Mol leave and so suddenly and not when the season ended? Why is the show still called The Dr. Mol Show on paper?

Here is what I've been told - and in the total absence of any responses to my multiple media enquiries since April, it is all that I have to go on for now. If there are any responses from anybody working in media involved with this issue (where it is ironically all about communicating and communication) I will of course bring those answers.

I'm told by sources that The Dr. Mol Show (which I've always liked and which was good local television) can't officially be changed to Doctor's Orders because Michael Mol left from episode 19 of 26 and the show which has been sold to advertisers as such has to be called that by the SABC's advertising sales arm and programming, until the end of the fifth season's run.

Why did Michael Mol leave? I'm only given a vague "to pursue other business interest" - no real specific reason. I'm also told he has mobile clinics and are focusing on those according to a source. I don't have anything more specific than that.

In the meantime it remains very strange for an on-air personality whose name is attached to a specific show to suddenly not be seen on-air midway through its run -  but for the show to continue on as half of a new thing, and half of what it was.

Why is the SABC and SABC3 and the production - none of them officially communicating to the press, not talking or even answering the most basic questions I had in media enquiries? They have a responsibility to the ordinary viewer who watches, who is perplexed and who wants to know: Where did Michael Mol go? Why did The Dr. Mol Show change? Hello? Doctor?

How bad is it to suddenly change the main presenter of a show named after the person, not change the name of the programme on the actual schedules of a TV channel, and then not even answering questions or providing basic details as to why it happened to the press?

What is happening behind the scenes at the Dr Mol Show on SABC3?

What exactly is happening behind the scenes at, and with, The Dr Mol Show on SABC3?

I heard from people today who relayed to me information about the excellently done local health magazine talk show with Dr Michael Mol.

I hope to have more soon and bring clarification as I seek confirmation of what I've heard of what supposedly happened - or not - on Wednesday at the production, or is happening at the show.

Meanwhile The Dr Mol Show on Fridays at 15:40 on SABC3 - which was a very-well deserved finalist for the South African Film and Television Awards and more than absolutely deserves/ed to win - continues to shine.

The show is a great example of local South African television done not only right, but a health consciousness show which embodies entertainment value, diligence, as well as intent and purpose.

I've reached out to various people, including SABC3, today for a response on what was told to me in regards to The Dr Mol Show by insiders; I didn't get responses. If or when what I was told today is confirmed as facts, I'll report it.

HELLO, DOCTOR! The brand-new Dr. Mol Show on SABC3 trots out a studio audience ... and a half-naked male model!

Add a live studio audience, allow the real Michael Mol to be completely himself as a talk show host and to interact with them, and whoa-la: the new The Dr. Mol Show on SABC3 (Fridays, 15:45; repeat Sunday 16:00) is suddenly very funny, energetic, dynamic and interesting television - and exactly what the doctor ordered.

The magazine show Hello Doctor with Michael Mol just turned into The Dr. Mol Show on SABC3 and is suddenly - and very cleverly - employing all of the tele-techniques of successful afternoon talk television. Same theme song (different opening title), same intent (health education), same set and same doctor, but suddenly The Dr. Mol Show is wonderfully "alive".

The entertaining talk hour with the funny telegenic host is immediately making for you-gotta-watch-this television. The Dr. Mol Show is now playing perfectly to its afternoon audience, cleverly incorporating all of the talk show genre's ''best practice'' production secrets - the main aim being: wow the crowd.

With a live studio audience, audience members who also ask questions, more banter, jokes and quips, The Dr. Mol Show is suddenly a whole new beast - just like the half-naked male model, Ryan, which Michael Mol unexpectedly trotted out in the first new episode to demonstrate, hands-on, the best sleeping techniques.

Yes, you could use boring diagrams, but if your studio audience is made up largely of women of all ages in an afternoon slot, why not teach and make them and viewers remember by making it both educational and entertaining?

It's exactly the funny show-and-tell technique The Dr. Mol Show immediately incorporated by trotting out some guy candy when a hunky male model, who Michael Mol only identified as Ryan, suddenly walked out - dressed in only pajama pants.

The studio audience audibly purred approvingly. Michael Mol also smiled. Because when you have the audience's attention, you can tell them anything.

Michael Mol, with the help of his male ''sleep mannequin" and a bed, proceeded to show the studio audience exactly how the different sleeping positions impacts the body. "I was going to do this, but then we got Ryan who looks way better than I does,'' said Michael Mol.

If a hunky barebod guy is the spoonful of television sugar you need to make the medicine go down and to prevent your TV audience from tuning out, The Dr. Mol Show got it instantly right. Tswelopele Productions produces the show with Michael Mol, Patience Stevens and Bradley van den Berg as the 3 executive producers.

The debut episode of the new The Dr. Mol Show was in a sense "classic Oprah"-  from when she started with her talk show out and still sat and stood in the audience, took their questions with a hand-held mic and was visually "one of them".

Michael Mol's new talk show not only immediately popped visually (sleep model Ryan; a bed in the studio; studio audience shots); but had interesting inter-related topics all well conceptualised for television, as well as credible experts whom Michael Mol gently guided but kept on a short lease to extract their medical advice in a short and sweet way.  

A visit to New York and Dr. Oz to interview him and included in the episode as a separate insert, was well produced and very well done. It was also producing genius.

The Dr. Mol Show simultaneously paid homage to the American talk show that was the inspiration for the Hello Doctor transformation, as well as clearly positioning - and immediately solidifying - Michael Mol's place as South Africa's talk show host version.   

Earlier this month dr. Nadia van der Merwe, TV expert from the department of Journalism, Film and Television at the University of Johannesburg told me that she considers Hello Doctor to be one of the best local shows on South African television, using the words "current, well-researched and informative".

The Dr. Mol Show has not only managed to become an enhanced and a more entertaining version of the Hello Doctor magazine show, but did it whilst keeping its core characteristics and intent in tact and skillfully adding the bells and whistles from the notoriously difficult talk show genre.

The only way this show could possibly have been any better? If Michael Mol personally handed out paediatric pillows to the studio guests.

For unlike Dali Thambo and The People of the South, handing out comfy cushions at the end in this talk show would have been the perfect (and here actually for once the appropriate) parting shot to camera.

BREAKING. Dr Michael Mol getting his own TV talk show, The Dr Mol Show, on SABC3 with a live studio audience from 6 April.

Dr Michael Mol of Top Billing fame and the medical magazine show Hello Doctor on SABC3 is getting his own TV talk show, The Dr Mol Show on the same channel with a live studio audience when the show also moves from Sundays to Fridays from Friday 6 April at 15:45 with a repeat on Sundays at 16:00.

Hello Doctor which started a year ago on SABC3 will change to The Dr Mol Show with Michael Mol still dispensing medical and healthy lifestyle advice as well as talk to personalities, but from now on in front of a live studio audience and with more specific topics.

I can reveal that Michael Mol recently visited Dr Mehmet Oz in New York - his talk show also shown on SABC3 and which will be reduced from 5 days a week to 4 to make space on Fridays for The Dr Mol Show - to hear from him how to do a successful medical talk show.

''His advice to me was - and he said he was told it by Oprah herself - is that people respond emotionally. Instead of a lot of charts and diagrams and lots of points - rather focus on less points and lists, choose one or two things, explain it visually and tell a story around it, since that is when people remember it,'' Michael Mol says.

The Dr Mol Show will be recorded in Cape Town sharing studio space with SABC3's morning breakfast show Expresso in the same Seapoint building. He jokes that he will deliver the pregnant Kia Johnson's baby live on air who is currently an Expresso presenter.

The Dr Mol Show will basically be more dynamic as Hello Doctor changes from a full magazine show to a talk show with magazine show elements.

''The interesting profiles of people sharing their own stories, struggles and challenges will still be there as inserts but having a studio audience brings a liverier dynamic to the show and people to interact with,'' says Michael Mol.

BREAKING. Michael Mol returning to SABC3's Top Billing from October with a regular brand-new weekly insert focusing on high-end gadgets.

You're reading it here first.

I can exclusively break the news that Michael Mol, somewhat absent from Top Billing on SABC3 the past year, is returning to the weekly SABC3 magazine show from October with a brand-new insert in which he will be looking at gadgets and high-end consumer techonology products and innovations.

TV with Thinus broke the news RIGHT HERE last month that Top Billing is moving its timeslot to 20:00 from October.

With that Top Billing timeslot changes comes another new addition: a gadgets feature that Michael Mol will be doing.

Here's the background: Yes, Top Billing has done in the past, and has recently ramped up, inserts on consumer technology products and gadgets. Michael Mol has not completely disappeared from Top Billing, although the presenter this past year did move on to focus more of his energy and time on Expresso, SABC3's new morning show, as well as his own weekly show, Hello Doctor (Sundays, SABC3, 16:00) which started shortly after Expresso did last October.

Now Michael Mol has in fact scaled down his appearances on Expresso considerably the last few months, firstly to have enough time to devote to Hello Doctor - but now also to regularly help Top Billing again from October - although not in the full-time jet-setting foreign destination way of before.

From October Michael Mol will be back at Top Billing and will head up the new gadget section, which involves limited travel, can be pre-planned and -produced and can be scheduled to fit in around the weekly production deadlines of Hello Doctor.

ALSO READ: Programming note: Top Billing's upcoming, jet-setting international travel adventures include Hong Kong, Croatia and Britain.
ALSO READ: SABC3 on Top Billing's latest timeslot change from October: ''Top Billing is a perennial treasure; will be around on SABC3 for a long, long time.''

Hello Doctor on SABC3 with Michael Mol a medical advice magazine show that's 'not preachy'.

Hello Doctor, the weekly medical magazine show on SABC3 on Sundays at 16:00 with Michael Mol is one of the year's notable and popular new additions in local magazine shows on South African television, with the programme saying its successful recipe is thanks to being ''not preachy''.

''The health and lifestyle show aims to educate while it entertains,'' says the Hello Doctor producers. ''Preventative health is the key focus here; we encourage viewers to become advocates of their own health through seeking balanced lives. Far from being preachy and dishing out do-as-I-say advice, we debunk the myths and demystify the truths about what makes us tick and how to keep you ticking for longer.''

''Hello Doctor explores the latest and most popular innovations in the health field, covering everything from esthetic medicine to at home emergencies. The goal is to empower people to make informed choices about their health. We showcase the latest cutting-edge surgical producedures that's changing the face of medicine. We also meet the many medical practitioners dedicated to healing our nation.''

ALSO READ: Michael Mol returning to SABC3's Top Billing from October heading up a new section looking at high-end gadgets.

BREAKING. Michael Mol gets his very own TV doctor show, Hello Doctor, on SABC3 from Sunday 3 April for 26 weeks.

You're reading it here first.

The doctor is in the house. As in Doctor Michael Mol. In yet another Tswelopele Productions TV show for SABC3, the channel is giving the iconic Top Billing, then Expresso presenter his very own show in the form of the brand-new Hello Doctor that will start on SABC3 on Sunday 3 April at 17:00.

The new hour long Hello Doctor with the telegenic Michael Mol will ''debunk the myths and demystify the truth about what makes you tick and look at how to keep you ticking for longer''. Hello Doctor will answer lifestyle, health and vitality questions says the producers. I can spill exclusively that Hello Doctor will be running for 26 weeks, or in other words, have been commissioned to run for half a year.

Michael Mol in his own hour long TV show doesn't mean that he will be disappearing from SABC3's perky new morning waker-upper Expresso. TV with Thinus can reveal that the doctor will be doing double duty. He will be doing both shows at the same time.

Did the Top Billing presenter search happen because Michael Mol left for SABC3's new Expresso? ''The timing was just good,'' he says.

You're reading it here first.

Did Top Billing decide on doing the Top Billing presenter search because the Top Billing presenter Michael Mol decided to move over to the new weekday morning show Expresso on SABC3? Or would the Top Billing presenter search have happened anyway to find and add a new presenter (I can tell you it will be announced om December 9) even if Michael Mol didn't change his TV routine from primetime to early mornings?

''It wasn't done to co-incide with each other,'' Top Billing presenter and Top Billing presenter search judge Jeannie D tells me. ''Michael Mol isn't replaceable anyway.''

''I think the timing was just good,'' Michael Mol, tells me. ''But I think also the Top Billing presenter search generates huge interest and it does give somebody new the opportunity to be on this amazing show.

ALSO READ: Top Billing presenter and hot doc Michael Mol set to join SABC3's new breakfast show Expresso.
ALSO READ: The Expresso presenters on the highrise set of SABC3's new morning show Expresso.

FIRST LOOK! The Expresso presenters on the Cape Town highrise set of SABC3's brand-new morning breakfast show.

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They're bubbly, beautiful, totally telegenic and naturally expressive: Liezel van der Westhuizen, Ewan Strydom, Michael Mol and Kia Johnson who are the presenters of the brand-new morning breakfast show Expresso. Expresso kicks off today, Monday October 4 at 05:30 to 07:30 on SABC3 and only I have the first on-set photos of the Expresso presenters.

I was the first TV writer to get access to the Sea Point chic set yesterday, a mere day before today's Expresso launch broadcast. Construction on the Expresso set is currently about halfway done on the 7th floor penthouse of The Equinox Building in Cape Town. Its from here that Tswelopele Productions will be doing the lifestyle orientated Expresso for SABC3 on weekdays, starting today.

Katlego Maboyi wasn't there yesterday when I visited the set, but an infectious exuberance and excitement among the presenters and crew of Tswelopele Productions were palpable in the afternoon Cape Town sun where they all lounged around on the roof of the building. The friendly and longtime Tswelopele Productions producer Bradley van den Berg was on hand keeping an eye on things. I also ran into the always pleasant uber producer Patience Stevens who's also the managing director of Tswelopele Productions. As always Patience Stevens is very hands-on with all her TV shows and  Expresso will clearly be no exception.

Chris van Niekerk from The Fold Architecture in Cape Town who's responsible for the look and design of the sleek, multi-use and high end Expresso set graciously gave me a tour of the penthouse area. Here the presenters would be able to move seamlessly from the lounge to the gleaming kitchen, to a roof terrace, a gym (not completed yet) and a performance area.

For more exclusive first photos of the Expresso presenters on set, click on READ MORE below.

BREAKING. SABC3's brand-new morning breakfast show will be called Expresso.

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I can be first to break the news that SABC3's brand-new morning breakfast show will be called Expresso.

Expresso is the current ''to go'' name that SABC3 will likely be going with for the new Tswelopele Productions breakfast show that is set to debut on SABC3 on Monday, October 4, at 05:00. The original working title was Op & Wakker. Then, when the show changed from being 100% Afrikaans to being bilingual (Afrikaans as well as English) the producers decided on a viewers' competition to choose the name that had to work in various languages.

Sources now tell me Expresso is what will most likely be used for the morning show that will be more lifestyle centered than SABC2's Morning Live or e.tv's Sunrise. Espresso is of course perfect. The Italian moniker for that jolting black brew perfectly conveys what the show will be about: Espresso = Expresso. Expresso won't be just concentrated coffee to wake up to, it will be a slightly upscaled morning show that's literally getting Italian stuff like kitchenware and designer things fitted and it's all about the style of it all.

Expresso as the name of the breakfast show has not yet been officially confirmed by SABC3, neither that the show will be done from The Equinox building which I scooped, that Top Billing's Michael Mol (same production company) will appear as the resident doc to give health advice, or of course that Liezel van der Westhuizen, Ewan Strydom and Katlegoe Maboe will be presenters. I've also showed the first conceptual art designs of how SABC3's Expresso will kind of look like.

Oh . . . and what's this I hear about e.tv now also wanting to do a morning show from Cape Town?

ALSO READ: A first glimpse of the conceptual art design of SABC3's new breakfast show.
ALSO READ: Ewan Strydom leaving M-Net's All Acces for SABC3's new morning show.
ALSO READ: The Equinox building in Sea Point, Cape Town is where SABC3's Espresso will be filmed
ALSO READ: Top Billing's Michael Mol set to show up on SABC3's new morning show as the resident doctor giving health advice.
ALSO READ: M-Net's Idols host Liezel van der Westhuizen and SABC2's 50/50 presenter Katlego Maboe set to join SABC3's new breakfast show.

BREAKING. Top Billing presenter and hot doc Michael Mol set to join SABC3's new morning breakfast show from October.

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What sexy TV doc will be doing house calls in your home come October? I can exclusively reveal that Top Billing presenter Michael Mol is set to join SABC3's brand new lifestyle morning show when the as-yet-untitled (viewers will get to choose the name soon) show debuts on weekdays from Monday, October 4 at 05:30 on SABC3.

Sources close to the production tells me Michael Mol, the suave and funny jetsetter on the weekly primetime lifestyle magazine show Top Billing, will start to do double duty from October. Top Billing as well as the new show (with the working title Op & Wakker) are produced by the Cape Town based Tswelopele Productions and Michael Mol - a qualified doctor in real life - will appear on both shows from October.

''Michael Mol is going to have a  regular medical spot on the show,'' quips an on-set source to me exclusively. ''Medical reviews will form part of the SABC3 breakfast show and who better than Michael Mol to talk to viewers about medical matters who himself is actually a doctor?'' Says another source to me: ''Michael Mol will basically become South Africa's Dr. Oz. He will help viewers with all kinds of medical advice and be discussing medical matters in the morning in a way that ordinary viewers can not just relate to but will actually enjoy watching.'' (The source is referring to the Oprah Winfrey resident doctor on her talk show who branched out with his own talk show recently.)

ALSO READ: Idols host Liezel van der Westhuizen and 50/50 presenter Katlego Maboe set to join SABC3's new morning show from October.
ALSO READ: Ewan Strydom leaving M-Net's All Access to join SABC3's new morning breakfast show in October.
ALSO READ: SABC3 set to start a brand-new lifestyle focused morning breakfast show in October.
ALSO READ: SABC3's new morning breakfast show will now extend to 07:30 when it debuts in October.