The final episode of Three Talk with Noeleen which will be broadcast today live at 16:00 will take place outside as a live farewell party to celebrate the TV show swan song of talk show host Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu on SABC3.
Today Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu will bring to a close her talk show after 12 years and over 3 000 episodes - a decision she took last year but only announced to a stunned audience in February.
Sources close to the production told TV with Thinus that 90% of the episode is happening outside of the studio today.
The final Three Talk with Noeleen will be taking the form of a "live farewell party" with some of Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu's favourite guests from over the years in attendance; lots of looking back at great Three Talk with Noeleen moments over all the years and fun performances from some of the talk show host's favourite performers.
"It's really a party. We're going with a happy ending. We're going out Noeleen style, dancing," said an insider.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu will not be surprised with today's finale, the planning of which started three months ago already.
An Urban Brew wrap party, the company which has been producing the weekday talk show over the years, took place this past Friday.
"Today is her party and it needs to be done with her in mind. We want Noeleen to say goodbye in Noeleen style. Today's TV farewell has been thoughtfully planned alongside Noeleen to ensure that she gets the farewell that she wants,"said the source.
Joanne Lurie, series producer on Three Talk with Noeleen, speaking on behalf of the crew said "It's been the most incredible ride. I've been here for 8 years. Some of the crew's been here since the very beginning. Nobody's been as blessed as we have been to love every single day of what we do."
"Working with Noeleen - I used to joke saying Three Talk stole my youth - but the truth is it returned the favour by blessing me with a sister. She has become family to all of us. It's been an unbelievable, amazing journey."
"If it's one person's life that got changed through Three Talk, then I'm very grateful," said Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu on Friday's penultimate episode.
"The universe and God had other plans for me," said the woman who went from construction company receptionist in the Eastern Cape to now holding the record of longest running and most successful local weekday TV talker in South Africa's television history.
After today's final episode of Three Talk with Noeleen the crew will stay on with Urban Brew Studios and move on to different projects, while Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu remains tight-lipped about her next chapter, which will likely include a holiday to France.
"On Tuesday I'm going to go buy seeds to grow basil,"said Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu. "I'm going to grow it in one pot."
"Noeleen keeps saying she's growing basil, but the truth is Noeleen kills plants - ha ha - so we're not entirely sure how that's going to work!" laughed a source.
You don't want to miss Three Talk with Noeleen today on SABC3 at 16:00 when the tables are turned on talk show host Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu who ends up in the hot seat when she herself is being interviewed in the penultimate episode of her longrunning local talk show.
On Monday Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu will bring to a close her talk show after 13 years - a decision she took last year but only announced to a stunned audience in February.
Before Monday's finale however, the producers, according to sources, will be turning the tables on Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu in today's live episode with guests that even the talk show host is not aware of.
TV with Thinus knows the names of the South African TV royalty and the famously funny who will be dropping by today on the Three Talk with Noeleen set at Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg, but isn't going to mention names so as to not spoil the surprise for the talk show host.
TV stars who will interview Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu today include a top TV doyenne whose rise to fame was as spectacular, as well as a funny face often missing in action.
When she finally signs off on Monday on SABC3, Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu - who went from construction company receptionist in the Eastern Cape to successful weekday TV talker - will hold two distinct South African television records which won't easily be broken.
When Three Talk with Noeleen ends on Monday, the first record it will hold will be the Urban Brew produced show, as longest-running local TV talk show in all of South Africa television.
It's an exceptional feat made even more special given its position on the SABC's airwaves - known for chopping, changing and cancelling shows at a whim due to the vagaries of public broadcaster TV executives.
Three Talk with Noeleen saw multiple timeslot changes and interruptions over more than the past decade on the air on SABC3 and managed to survive.
The second record which won't be easily shattered will be for the presenter herself, Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu and the sheer number of of-air minutes logged by a single presenter in her own show.
With a five days a week, hour long talk show, Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu racked up more screen time and talk time for a dedicated, locally produced TV talk show than any other person, far surpassing Felicia Mabuza-Suttle who was a guest on the programme last month.
As Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu bids her TV post goodbye, new faces are waiting in the wings.
The reality show Presenter Search on 3 is midway through finding new TV presenters for several SABC3 shows, Claire Mawisa has joined M-Net's Carte Blanche, Simon Witbooi joined SABC2's Pasella, news channel ANN7 (DStv 405) is doing an "anchor search" and Dineo Moeketsi, Pabi Moloi and Phillip Mapela are joining e.tv's talker Ekse.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu tellsTV with Thinusafter deciding to end her local daily TV show that she's sad but that "it's a journey that has to come to an end".
Promising "a beautiful goodbye", thetalk show host of Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 - South Africa's only locally produced daily weekday talk show - stunned viewers yesterday when she announced on her show that she's saying adios on 20 April after 12 years.
On Tuesday morning I spoke with Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu about her decision, what she wants to do next, what she thinks of the the state of local talk TV in South Africa - and how she'll be saying goodbye.
Noeleen, why did you decide that now is the time to step away from Three Talk, because you actually made the decision a year ago? Noeleen: It was a year ago. You know what Thinus, after 11 years I sat down in the chair one day and I was doing what I did every day and I thought: "What more can I add?" And I really believe - and I've said this from day one, that talk is very personal, and you've got to add something to it.
And you know, I thought, I'm not adding anything. It's time for me to bow out. And obviously I had a conversation with my family, and told the SABC last year, and said :guys I really think I need to leave".
When I entered this arena it was about what am I going to be able to offer? And I just don't think I'm able to offer much more. I think after 12 years, Thinus, you're bored as well of me.
Not really. How did the staff and producers feel when you told them? Noeleen: You have to ask them. I can't. It would be unfair of me to say "so and so said this". I'm sad. It's a journey that's come to an end. But it's a journey that has to come to an end. I'm 48. I don't want to be on crutches and be walking onto the Three Talk set. I can't wear my high heel shoes!
But seriously. For me it has to be about me. As selfish as that maybe sounds and as sad as it is for people who've been watching for 12 years. You know, I could still go on for another year or two years. But then what? It's enough.
So what's waiting for the next chapter for Noeleen? What is there that you want to do next? Noeleen: Do you want to employ me? I could be your assistant.
Ha ha. Noeleen: I'm going to be unemployed.
And with the more time - of not being shackled of having to be at a certain place daily to do an hour long talk show? Noeleen: You know, I've been working since I was 16. So can you imagine. I'm 48 now. For a while I just want to do nothing. I want to wake up in the morning and make my children breakfast, take them to school. I just want me. I just want me time. It sounds very ... but yes, I just want me. I just want to be me.
It's so striking to me that we haven't seen in terms of local South African TV talk more Noeleen's or more daily, weekday talk shows. Noeleen: That saddens me. I really think that we've got huge talent in South Africa. Huge, huge, amazing people. And I would really like to see another run of strong male and female talk doing daily talk. Of exploring different issues and make a difference.
It sounds very insular when I say I want to make a difference. But in 12 years I hope that I have made a difference to a little girl or to a little man, or to a grown-up woman; some kind of difference. And I do think there is ample space - ample, ample, ample space - for really kick-ass talk show hosts.
I have no doubt that they are there. I know that they are there. They just need to be given a chance.
And then the last question, do you yet know how you will say goodbye or who your last guest will be? Noeleen: Oh my gosh I don't know! Oooh. Now that is going to be so bad. When I say goodbye the last day [20 April at 16:00 on SABC3]. I have no idea. I have no idea, Thinus. But I hope you'll be there.
Well, we will definitely all be watching. Is there maybe a favourite final guest? Noeleen: I don't know. It's still how many weeks away? We really haven't decided. But it will be a very fun show. That's all I can say. It has to be a fun show. I haven't been fired. There's no acrimony with anyone. It's going to be a beautiful bye-bye.
She's ending it. But please - please - don't think of Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu ending the long-running SABC3 weekday talk show Three Talk with Noeleen as a sad story, or a TV story, or a fluff, superficial celebrity story.
With Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu who announced yesterday live on South African TV's longest-running and only hour long local, daily talk show that she's ending it after 12 years on 20 April, you can think of it as a triumph. For all of us.
Think of it as a great South African story. A great success story. A great Eastern Cape success story. A great example for women, for black women, for working moms; for local television.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu is an example for all of us in South Africa that even if you're a receptionist at a construction company answering phones in one of the poorest provinces in the country, that you can go forward in life, grow; be successful and end up on television as a talk show host.
Here's what they won't say and what we don't actually realise: That currently Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu is in terms of TV lifespan the longest serving, longest uninterrupted female presenter of the same show on South African television.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu's 12 years on South African television as the face of 3Talk is only surpassed in years by Derek Watts on M-Net's Carte Blanche (who doesn't and never carried the whole hour long show on his own, talking for 42 minutes) and in hours by Leanne Manas of SABC2's Morning Live who's done it for 10 years but on a show that's 2 hours long daily (although the bulk of that period was with a co-host, Vuyo Mbuli).
Take that Felicia, Dali, Masechaba, Penny and the string of South Africans who've had TV talkers: Nobody has talked more in sheer thousands of hours logged minutes by minute over years than Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu.
The celebu-buzz bubbled up when word spread last year that e.tv and eKasi+'s Khanyi Mbau (no shade; I like her and she does great work as a TV talker) surpassed Noeleen to become the most watched South African TV talk show. Uhm, no.
You can't compare a one day or two days a week talk show's ratings with one that's on five days a week. Which is better: The soccer player who consistently scores one goal every Sunday in one match or the one who consistently scores one goal daily five days a week in a match per day?
Quintuple Three Talk with Noeleen's audience (a dedicated audience who got the chance to call in and engage with the show in what is largely a live show - two major differentiators stretching over years from any of the pre-recorded others) and you discover the real numbers and influence of not only what Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu did, but why its actually the real undisputed most watched local TV talk show on South African television.
The legacy of 3Talk and Noeleen Maholwana-Sangu will not be that it was necessarily a great show. Or that it was a bad show. It was a dynamic talk show with and about people.
Just ike people, Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu and her guests and her production crew at Urban Brew had good days and bad days, just like every one of us. It's life and the show mirrored life, because in real life none of us are Oprah.
The legacy of Three Talk with Noeleen lies in its existence. That it existed for 12 years. That it endured with Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu for 12 years, come rain or shine; that is survived on the public broadcaster - notorious as a place where shows disappear without word or trace and where shows come and go according to the often insane and uniformed vagaries and decisions of inept SABC executives.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu I met for the first time more than a decade ago at a SABC3 quarterly press preview (then still done by the dear SABC3 publicist Michael van Dyk and Papa Mbongo) shortly after she took over 3 Talk.
What happened was that SABC3 lost The Oprah Winfrey Show to e.tv. SABC3 - with Hannelie Bekker then as programming manager (now back in SA as managing director for FOX International Channels Africa) - decided to rather start its own local TV talk show.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu was roped in quickly for the talk show (which originally started out as a live broadcast in the 18:00 timeslot and has shifted timeslot many, many times since) without a lot of time to prepare.
You might not know it because you're too young, or you might have forgotten: SABC3 actually launched 3 Talk with Bertha Charuma the "Boogie Babe" who was unceremoniously dumped just nine weeks later when things just didn't work out. Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu was the step-in quickly replacement.
And she never looked back.
If there's a "South African dream" in the way that American's believe in the "American dream", then Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu is surely on the list of South Africans who exemplify it for us.
The woman from Umtata who eventually rose to become news editor at Talk Radio 702 and had her own show, "Noleen at 9", was at the time that 702 offered her her first three month contract, only the second black woman on-air there after Zandile Nzalo.
In the years since she became a TV personality, I've interviewed Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu a few times while working at different newspapers and publications and I've always got the sense that she was in it not for the fame, adulation and "TV" but for the long haul and to try and make a difference.
As a TV critic and a journalist covering the TV industry I was never on Three Talk with Noeleen (although I did appear once in a pre-recorded clip) but I've been on the set for a set visit a few years back.
When I look for great television, I also look behind it - at the people who make it. During the set visit of Three Talk with Noeleen I saw the same dedicated, very in-tune, clever and committed producers I've met a few years earlier. Passionate people who really believe in Three Talk and what it represents, and really like and believe in Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu.
Once after a press conference I made a bee-line for Noeleen as the rest ran for the food to ask her about something she said. "You listen way too closely,"she said as she laughed at me.
If there's a lesson for South Africans from Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu's TV tenure its how to keep smiling, laughing, and doing what you're doing. To carry on, regardless of what people and bullies say.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu as TV talk show host was just like us. And for a lot of people that just wasn't enough (although ironically the perfect TV talk show host is supposed to be the "everyman" or "everywoman").
For a lot of TV critics and viewers over the years Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu wasn't big enough (like Oprah!), or thin enough (like Tyra!), or informed enough (how dare she bring back Sharon Glass and know-it-all Prof. Harry Seftel to talk about bladder infection and Dr. D again and again and again?)
For all the badness of, and on, the SABC, Three Talk with Noeleen was actually part of the goodness - a solid public broadcasting television programme, on free-to-air public television, aimed at people who didn't know and wanted to know more; a TV vehicle that was able to be a lot of things to a lot of people.
Three Talk with Noeleen was for petrol attendants and private bankers alike. For stay-at-home moms who wanted some entertainment and someone to relate to. A place to make a connection.
It was for a scared pregnant 16-year old too scared to go to a doctor to anonymously call on a Medical Monday to ask a question and get help.
It was a place in daytime where one day Celine Dion would do an interview, and the next you could see open heart surgery be shown live as a South African TV first.
It was on Three Talk where Kenny Kunene showed up with five girlfriends, and where Noeleen could read embarrassing personal problems - with unexpected hilarity - like a reader's email asking for medical advice about her vagina which is "sounding like it's having a conversation" every time she's intimate with her husband.
And who can ever forget one whole episode just about poo? Oh Noeleen. I think we will miss you.
Whether real or perceived - and whether viewers ever even realised it or not - Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu and Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 was part of what democracy and the media and freedom of the press and public broadcasting television at its core all really is about and should be about: the exercising of the freedom to talk about anything.
Panned or adored or indifferent, you could watch an episode of Three Talk with Noeleen and easily forget that you're watching it in Africa - a local TV talk show in South Africa addressing issues and handling topics so matter-of-factly which would never ever be done or said elsewhere in Africa, sometimes with guests who would never be given even a second of airtime anywhere else on television on the continent.
I've watched Three Talk with Noeleen over the years as young people with faltering voices call in who are abused. As women call in who are crying. As depressed, suicidal, lonely and distraught callers reach out one last time and reached out to Noeleen - usually keeping her composure but herself sometimes being visibly overcome by emotion. Heartbreaking stuff.
A lot of those TV moments over the years changed me and perhaps changed South Africa.
In 2014, on one afternoon, without even knowing the topic, I tuned in to Three Talk with Noeleen.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu spoke with rape survivors. Not rape victims, rape survivors.
Ordinary South African women from all walks of life spoke - as if its the most natural thing in the world and with brutal honesty - about how they were raped, how the South African Police and several institutions and service failed them, how they literally (on foot and by car) and through court pursued the rapists themselves and got them sentenced and locked up behind bars.
It wasn't a special day. It was just another day of Three Talk with Noeleen.
It was also a bold and empowering hour of the best of what public access local television is capable of being and doing - not just for the women who spoke, but for all South Africa women, and in the end, all South Africans.
The episode was informative and powerful, giving voice to the voiceless and showing women on public television that there's other women who are not ashamed to show their faces and who simply won't stand for heinous atrocities and violent sexual crime.
Ask yourself: On what other TV channel anywhere else in Africa, on what possible local TV talk show, would you ever see this? None.
Three Talk with Noeleen broadened the perspective and TV limits of what's "talkable" - imperceptible, but definite. Fame is a strange thing and used well, it can make a real difference.
Kilimanjaro was something Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu, together with her producers, wanted to climb, but never got to. Instead the mountain they climbed and conquered was television.
Once I was in a minibus on a media day with Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu.
Moronic traffic police pulled us over, wrongly thinking we're a minibus taxi, unable to understand and comprehend it's a rental vehicle from Avis or somewhere. They were ready to pounce with a fine for transporting passengers without a permit. I sat right at the very back, quietly listening and observing.
Eventually, after about 10 minutes of the driver and producers arguing and trying to explain that it's not a taxi, Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu opened her side window, wanting to start to explain what the situation is herself.
Suddenly it dawned on the traffic cop woman who she was talking to. Her rigid, borderline-rude and arrogant attitude instantly changed and melted away and she started to laugh as she pointed. "Hi! It is Noeleen! But I know you!"
"We're doing the show. The people are for the TV. These people are not paying sisi!" said Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu in mock admonishment but humour in her voice. Off we went on our journey.
Thank you Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu. Thank you for the ride.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu of Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 stunned her TV audience on Monday afternoon at the top of the hour by telling her viewers that she is ending it after 13 years because she decided to bring the show to a close.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu stressed that she was not fired, but decided to "hang up my 3Talk shoes".
Three Talk with Noeleen has been, and remains, South African television and the public broadcasters only local daily TV talk show, and was in that sense unique.
No other free-to-air TV channel or pay-TV channel in South Africa has a local TV talk show running with new episodes five days a week, and Three Talk with Noeleen saw several morning, afternoon and even late night attempts at weekly talk shows on public and pay-TV come and go during her past 12 years on the air.
Insiders told TV with Thinus earlier on Monday that an announcement would be made on Monday's show.
While tabloids said that Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu was fired and cancelled, insiders told me earlier on Monday that Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu - turning 48 this year - was getting tired of the daily grind of the show.
Three Talk with Noeleen has seen it moved to several different timeslots over the past decade, with various set, format changes and hair styles over the years.
In the end it was Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu's decision to walk away and end it.
"After coming to you live every afternoon live for 12 years, the show will be ending on 20 April," said Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu on Monday afternoon, making the announcement the moment after the opening title played.
"After giving it a lot of thought, I let SABC know early last year that I had decided to hang up my 3Talk shoes and bring this amazing adventure to an end at the end of this season. The botton line is I was not fired. Do not say it again," said Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu shaking her head.
There's been no announcement from the SABC or SABC3 regarding Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu's departure and neither SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago nor SABC TV head publicist Zandile Nkonyeni responded to any media enquiries during the day on Monday seeking confirmation and comment on the talk show host's decision.
Three Talk with Noeleen is produced by Urban Brew in Johannesburg.
At the end of 2013 and in early 2014 Three Talk with Noeleen also unexpectedly went into hiatus and shut down production, with viewers who had to watch repeats for months and wondered what is happening behind the scenes and where Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu went.
The show restarted on 8 April 2014.
It was before this return - early in 2014 - where there was no explanation about what had happened to the show - that Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu decided to re-up for one more season to continue to do the daily talk show for one more year but to end it after that.
The announcement regarding the end of Three Talk with Noeleen was supposed to have been made on the talk show by Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu on 27 February - but didn't happen.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu during her live on-air announcement on Monday at 16:00 acknowledged that the show got the timing wrong.
Just after her announcement on Monday afternoon SABC3 issued a statement at 16:15.
"When we started the show, I could never have imagined that we would have such an enduring relationship with our viewers," said Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu in the press statement.
"I've had the most fabulous 12 years on 3Talk. It's been an amazing adventure which has brought so much fun and meaning into my life, but after a lot of thought, I think it's time for me to bid farewell".
"We are sincerely grateful to Noeleen for her incessant support, commitment and professionalism over the last 12 years," says Aisha Mohamed, SABC3's channel head.
Noeleen has moved, inspired and empowered our viewers through the many episodes of 3Talk. It is the end of an era."
Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 will be replaced by a new lifestyle magazine show from the end of April.
Successful multi-year TV talker usually announce their departure at the beginning of their final season but for some reason the SABC, Urban Brew and Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu waited far too late, pushed it too late and then, as she said "got the timing wrong".
A timeous announcement when talk shows end helps to boost ratings and gives producers the chance to plan flashback episodes and vintage clips from the vaults, and gives proper time to not only plan a farewell show, but to round up celebrities for showstopping performances, as well as goodbye clips.
It will be interesting to see what Three Talk with Noeleen can put together in the time that is now left.
The SABC is silent over the reported cancellation of Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 after 13 years - South African television's only local weekday TV talk show.
3Talk on SABC3 with Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu has reportedly been canned, with March which will apparently be the last month on air for the longrunning TV talk show.
According to an insider however the show isn't cancelled but it is Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu who has decided to step away from the talk show since she's been getting tired of the daily grind after 13 years.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago and SABC TV head of publicity Zandile Nkonyeni didn't immediately return calls on Monday seeking confirmation and comment regarding the fate of the afternoon talk show produced by Urban Brew.
At the end of 2013 and in early 2014 Three Talk with Noeleen also unexpectedly went into hiatus and shut down production, with viewers who had to watch repeats for months and wondered what is happening behind the scenes and where Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu went.
Neither the SABC, SABC3, or the production company offered viewers and the public any explanation as to what was going on. Three Talk with Noeleen suddenly resumed months later with new episodes from 8 April 2014.
It now seems as if the talk show which is once again nearing April will not see another year after that.
According to insiders "Noeleen isn't cancelled", telling me that "Noeleen has just been getting tired".
"There is a plan to address whatever the situation is on an episode of Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 itself as soon as possible - perhaps even on Monday - so viewers should probably just watch the show itself. SABC executives or an SABC executive could appear soon to talk directly with Noeleen about whatever is happening," said an insider.
Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu "is so excited about going live again" insiders say about the new season of Three Talk with Noeleen, South Africa's only local, hour long and live, weekday television talk show starting again today in the new timeslot of 16:00 on SABC3.
"The studio is her home as it is to everyone who works on the show," insiders at the Urban Brew production told TV with Thinus today as the production gets ready to broadcast the first live episode of the new 13th season on SABC3 at 16:00.
"It's a homecoming for us today," said one. "Noeleen is very excited about kicking off the new season," said an insider.
Three Talk with Noeleen went into an unusual repeat cycle for months since the end of 2013 with no explanation from SABC3 as to why or when a new season would start.
It gave rise to various rumours - from Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu leaving the show, being in ill health, possible contractual problems, and Three Talk being cancelled - none of which is true.
Insiders told TV with Thinus "there were a lot of rumours but there was nothing going on behind the scenes". "There's no issued with the SABC," said one.
"The show is carrying on as normal. There was never an issue," said an insider. "There's been a relationship of 11 years. There is a good relationship between the SABC and the talk show," added a source.
The live studio audience concept which was introduced a while back on Three Talk with Noeleen will remain but for special occasions where it is appropriate, insiders tell TV with Thinus.
A studio audience will be included on Three Talk shows where "there is something for the audience to take out - if there is a special performer in or a show that allows for studio audience participation".
There also won't be any set changes for the new season.
Regular faces like Sharon Glass and other Three Talk guests - the "core regulars" as they're referred to - the people who viewers have come to know and trust, will be back and the weekday talker will be introducing some new ones later in the year.
"They're part of that show's family; that won't change," quipped an insider.
Three Talk with Noeleen will remain heavily integrated with social media during the weekday talk show which is done live - and which today's first new episode will be.
"Live interaction has become very much a part of the show's format," said a studio insider. "People can't always get through on the telephone lines. Twitter is a great way for the audience to be a part of the conversation that is happening in studio".
TV with Thinus also reached super producer Joanne Lurie by telephone this morning.
"Really this season is all about being current and relevant and fresh," said the senior producer on the show.
"We're sticking with a lot of celebrity profiling but we will also be continuing with the conversations which are happening nationally. Anything that's relevant to the people of the country we carry forward as a conversation," she said when asked what awaits in the 13th season.
"We're a talk show, so a lot of entertainment but we will remain current and relevant and will be discussing what will be happening on the day. We want Three Talk with Noeleen to be a place for South Africa to continue the conversation, whatever that conversation happens to be".
Also asked about the set, Joanne Lurie also confirmed that the set will remain as it is. "We feel that it is the right environment for Three Talk at the moment. And you know, if its not broken, don't fix it. The set is really working".
"It's very important for us, after being on air for many years, to constantly be fresh. It's important for us to never get stale. It is important to stay relevant. We always want the show to be fresh," said Joanne Lurie.
"The show is a challenge for us and it is fun and we love it and we never get bored of it and it is a lot of fun for us to be starting the new season".
While a growing number of viewers and TV critics are now openly wondering what's going on with the weekday daytime SABC3 talk show Three Talk with Noeleen - apparently stuck in repeat episodes limbo - the SABC remains quiet as to why it is happening, what is going on, and when the popular local talk show will return with new episodes.
SABC TV publicity head Zandile Nkonyeni has not responded to media enquiries about Three Talk with Noeleen which has entered yet another week of daily repeat episodes on SABC3, some inappropriately mentioning Christmas.
Although the longrunning show prompts viewers to interact on social media like Twitter for instance, talk show host Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu last "tweeted" on 30 December on @Noeleen3Talk and then fell silent.
On screen viewers only see the word "repeat" next to the SABC3 channel logo and has had no explanation from the SABC as to why Three Talk with Noeleen went into repeats, for such a long period, and when it will end.
Viewers are wondering what's going on and the SABC isn't forthcoming with any explanations.
Because the SABC is not talking and communicating as to what is going on and if or when the talk show will return, this has now prompted wild speculation under viewers and TV critics.
A growing number of people are now wondering whether Three Talk with Noeleen is getting cancelled; whether there is contract problems between the SABC and the production in the way that SABC1's Generations had contract problems in 2013; whether Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu is ill, unwell, injured, on holiday or no longer interested in doing the show.
"Why can't the SABC say what is happening with 3Talk and where is Noeleen? Every week is old episodes and nobody is explaining when I can see new episodes again" a reader asked TV with Thinus, summarising the feelings that fans of the afternoon talk show are starting to express.
Three Talk with Noeleen (bar the unexplained weeks of repeats) remains South African television's longest running and only local, daily, hour long television talk show.
The show produced by Urban Brew Studios and which has seen several different timeslots since it started on SABC3, should be celebrating its 11th anniversary in April.
Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 on Friday with the cast and crew of Isidingo, SABC3's weekday soap which is turning 15 years old, was hugely revealing.
The arresting, extremely revealing and insightful Three Talk with Noeleen hour on SABC3 was thanks in a huge part to talk show host Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu's very frank, very straight-forward, very engaging, intelligent, open-ended and very real questions.
Where Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu sometimes comes across as over-rehearsed with too scripted questions or looking like she is parroting control room questions through her earpiece, the Isidingo episode on Friday came across as "true Noeleen".
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu asked real questions which real viewers wanted to know, and which opened the studio guests from Isidingo up to really give insightful and interesting answers in an amazing way.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu lived herself in to such a degree with Friday's topic and guests that she even called Robert Whitehead "Barker" - his character's name - before apologising later.
It was a clear clue that Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu subconsciously - just like millions of viewers - has come to equate his image with the name Barker. It's something which only happens when you actually really watch a TV show in which the characters make a very strong impression.
It was clear that Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu herself watches Isidingo.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu asked several real and want-to-know but "difficult" questions which made the Isidingo cast and crew on the beige couches squirm and didn't yield definitive answers - from whether Isidingo is going to have a 15th birthday party, to where is Cherel (Michelle Botes)?
Noeleen Maholwana even asked about the difficult subject - still a deeply emotional issue for the Isidingo cast - about Ashley Callie, the actress who shockingly died in a car-crash in February 2008. ("I miss her dreadfully. It's never ever been quite the same for me," said Robert Whitehead.)
It allowed the Isidingo guests to share extremely heartfelt stories and moments and to give a real glimpse behind-the-scenes of not the show - but the tightly-knitted "family" the Isidingo cast and crew really is.
"How do you deal behind the scenes and creatively with an actor who's been on the show and says I don't want to be here anymore?" asked Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu. It was an amazing question - and one of the many surprising, real and 'wow journalism' questions from the talk show host who was on a roll and didn't hold back.
"Oh gosh, we've had a couple of those," exclaimed Pumla Hopa, the executive producer of Isidingo. "You know we've written the story already, it's ready to shoot, and the person comes and says, 'look I have other plans.' "
"And you beg and beg and beg. But when they've made their decision they've made their decision. There's nothing else you can do. Now you have to go back and rewrite the story," said Pumla Hopa.
"It's very challenging. It can be fun," said Liam Stratton, Isidingo's head writer, "creating solutions for problems. It's fun and it's part of what makes the job cool and really worth doing. But when you've got three month's of story and you have to go back and unpick ... Because if you write the story correctly, it's all interconnected."
"So as soon as you start to pick at one bit, the whole things pulls apart. So you have to set it all up again," said Liam Stratton. "It can work really well - but it's just a pain."
Later Arno Marais who plays Benjamin le Roux said he's been with Isidingo for three and a half years and not been bored one day. Thema Sebopedi who portrays Lerato Tsotetsi on Isidingo said she doesn't mind her fans thinking and expecting her to be Lerato when they run into her. "I don't blame them. It's who they meet in their living rooms every day. I have to meet them half way and tolerate it irrespective of how I'm feeling on any given day."
Isidingo director Stembiso Mathenjwa revealed how Isidingo is able to work in additional scenes (called "transmission scenes" to make an episode the exact duration required for playout) on a particular day to bring in current-to-the-day news events such as cricket scores and the exact petrol price hike into the show.
Isidingo delivers new scenes to the SABC for playout on the same day on those days where they knew beforehand news events will be taking place.
Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu, the weekday talk show host of Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 at 16:35 is now putting her credibility on the line, shilling in TV commercials for the new Ariel washing powder.
There's already a credibility problem right from the beginning of the Ariel TV advert. Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu's first words are: "I came across this flyer. It's from a new washing powder called Ariel that's now available in South Africa." Really? Came across it? And a flyer on carton?
Why does the man in the white coat speaking with a thick German accent to come across as a scientist, appear to have had his voice dubbed? Weird.
At the same time two of the 7de Laan soap on SABC2's actors/characters are also appearing in a cleaning product's TV commercial, although they appear as their characters, making the possible impact on their personal credibility somewhat less should a consumer feel that the product is perhaps not working as they expected or were led to believe.
As all celebrities, TV personalities have to be very careful - especially when they hold a certain position, perceived media credibility or aspirational status - as to what commercial products they endorse, adverts they appear in and what impact that brand has on their own brand as a person.
The next three months on Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 will be filled with even more information, inspiration and entertainment, says Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu, the host of the longrunning local weekday talk show on SABC3.
After an absence during the latter part of last year, Three Talk with Noeleen and Noeleen Mahlowana-Sangqu was back at SABC3's latest regular quarterly press screening with its usual video message to TV critics, journalist, writers and advertisers about what the Urban Brew produced afternoon talk show has in store the next few months.
"We will continue to bring you a variety of shows to lift your spirits, make you laugh, help you to impress family and friends with your culinary genius, motivate you, and inspire you to overcome any obstacles you may face," said Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu.
"We'll be keeping our regular appointments with the doctors on Mondays, we'll carry on debating some of the hottest current topics in the country, and in-between we'll be discussing the issues which are shaping your life or are weighing on your mind."
"We'll also be chatting to lots more of your favourite South Africans, giving you the opportunity to get to know them a little better - whether it be comedians, entertainers, sportsmen, moguls or musicians, you'll hear their story like never before. You can't afford to miss my phenomenal guests every day on SABC3 at 16:35. Do join me!"
Three Talk with Noeleen, SABC3's weekday talk show with Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu has finally - and suddenly - added a live studio audience on Tuesday at the same time as it unceremoniously dumped its new white set and unexpectedly replaced its red and white on-air imaging with translucent blue.
Neither SABC3 nor Urban Brew Studios which produces the daily chatfest for the channel made any announcement about the addition of a live studio audience and also didn't announce the new set.
The new set, still by Michael Gill Designs and constructed by Sets Drapes Screens has now returned to a more claustrophobic look as seen in some previous years, with the Three Talk with Noeleen set now having a dark-toned, fake mahogany and circular aquamarine look with bland tan wall panelling.
The back panels are interspersed with a faux aquamarine swirl design and an overhead perspex blue neon sign with the show's logo has been added. A shaggy carpet has been added although the square glass coffee table has been retained as well the concave raised corner - possibly the same white one now just given a mahonagy coloured tint.
Studio audience seating - 18 seats in total although some seats were embarrassingly shown as empty with cushions towards the end of Tuesday's episode - are the same light tan colour as the two new main couches.
The studio audience - the seating arrangement very strangely placed perpendicularly to the raised dais on which Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu and her interviewees are seated (as if they're supposed to be part of an "on-stage play" together with the talk show host, as opposed to being onlookers) clapped and some were given a handheld cordless microphone to ask questions.
Urban Brew Studios told TV with Thinus that Three Talk with Noeleen will now be hosting a weekly studio audience. "There won't be a set day for this as we will determine which shows will include audiences depending on the subject of the day. We want the audience to have a fantastic experience so we'll ensure that when they do join us in studio, they'll be in for a treat with great entertainment, inspiration and information."
Viewers and fans of Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 who want to be a part of the in-studio audience can send email to 3talkinfo@urbanbrew.co.za in order to be included as studio audience members in upcoming shows.
About the new set and on-air look Urban Brew Studios tell me that "in the world of live TV, nothing should be permament. We're always tweaking, developing and striving to better our show."
"After 9 years on TV, we never want to get too comfortable, so we always see Three Talk as a work in progress. Yesterday we went on air with a new look that reflects where we're at right now. It's sophisticated and clean with a touch of sparkle. It provides us with more space, and of course, the fantastic opportunity to have a live audience."
Regarding the sudden set change after just a year, Urban Brew Studios says that "the same way our content is always evolving, our set should too".
"Although we loved our white set, it had been 13 months and it was time for a little makeover. Our new look, like our subject matter, reflects current trends. Our wide variety of looks over the past 9 years shows that we aren't afraid to move with the times and change things up and we hope to continue to keep surprising our viewers for years to come."
A visibly livid Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu just lashed out at a viewer's ex mother-in-law, chiming in with her own advice on Three Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 with some choice words for the meddling grandmother making a woman's life hell.
Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu, with her regular panel of experts on her couch in the Tuesday episode of her weekday talk show at 16:35 gave a tongue-lashing of note to a medding ex mother-in-law.
It started when Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu read out the letter from a woman with a child begging for help, saying that her ex mother-in-law "who calls me all the time and to tell me that I'm a very bad mother, and that I should be ashamed, that I'm abandoning such a young baby. I feel that all I'm doing is for the baby. Now I can't decided if I should go or stay."
"You know what," started Noeleen, "I think that youe ex mother-in-law really is something else. Because you're ex mother-in-lawnever said to her son "Why are you abandoning a woman that you made pregnant? Who you left at 5 months pregnant? Your mother-in-law didn't say anything then? Did she?" said Noeleen. "Now she's talking about abandoning. Anyway ..." and Noeleen sat back looking at her panel, "I'm not the expert."
The experts on Three Talk with Noeleen all agreed with the talk show host.
"You know what, at the end of the day your son and this woman made this baby," continued Noeleen Maholwana Sangu as she looked straight into the camera. "Your son was very, very present and I don't see anything wrong with him looking after the child during the week, and she comes back over weekends. I see nothing wrong with that."
Three Talk with Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu this afternoon on SABC3 very quickly turned very racy for an afternoon TV talk show with the topic of pornography in South Africa - and it didn't take long before a shocked Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu, saying she's suffering from hot flashes - had to tell her guests to immediately tone the talk down.
On the Three Talk couch for the live episode on SABC3 with a PG rating, were the clinical sexologist dr Elna McKintosh and Gigi, the co-owner of Lollipop Lounge.
Quickly talk turned to Gigi who recently was apparently a judge on a porn reality show, Porn Idols in South Africa and Noeleen asking her about it. ''We had so many guys who want to be porn stars - its really very hard work - especially for the guys. When you've got all the cameras there, and some guys couldn't keep an erection, some came to quickly, some were too small. It's very hard for a guy,'' Gigi said.
That's when Noeleen's eyes went wide and started to roll with Noeleen shooting a sideway glance to the camera.
''They always employ freaks of nature I always think,'' said dr Elna McKintosh, suddenly swinging her right arm down like an elephant trunk, mimicking a certain part of the male anatomy.
''They're always looking for someone with an enormous ... Like you say, they're too small - they're probably normal sized men but ... ''
''If they are too enormous,'' interjected the always helpful Gigi, ''then sometimes they can't get a hardon. That's what I've learned now as well.''
Noeleen, who've heard enough by this point, started flapping her hands wildly. ''Just ... just ... just ... I'm getting hot flushes here. Lets just tone it done a little bit,'' said Noeleen Maholwana-Sangu and quickly changed the topic.
''What we wanted to do is to turn 3Talk on its head. We wanted to make the show's set fresher, cleaner, more stylized and something that completely pops.''
So says Michael Gill from Michael Gill Designs, the South African set designer extraordinaire, responsible for the new look and feel of the brand-new set of 3Talk with Noeleen (SABC3, weekdays, 15:30) that was unveiled live on air today. Plans for a new set for the 8 year old talk show produced by Urban Brew Studios for SABC3, started in earnest a year ago.
The new 3Talk with Noeleen set simply breathes white.
But white is actually a no-no colour when it comes to television. White easily washes everything else out, can come across as glaring and harsh, and you don't want to be in the final control box to hear the language of technical production staff when white plays havoc with their colour, brightness and especially contrast levels. The fantastic feat that South Africa's foremost set designer pulled off with great success, is probably something that only Michael Gill could - and more importantly, would, attempt.
''Twenty years ago we couldn't have done this,'' says Michael Gill. ''But television on a technical level has evolved to the point where it's finally doable. You can have white on television and have it look great. With better contrast control that's possible, you can have white that creates wonderful sharp contrast on the TV screen,'' he says.
Besides the ox blood red couch, the new 3Talk with Noeleen set (henceforth known as and referred to as Three Talk) also has an interchangeable anthracite grey couch which looks as amazing on the gleaming white set that's infused with plasma screens on the sides and one in the middle that can handle a split video feed.
Viewers will soon see additional set pieces: the new 3Talk with Noeleen kitchen for food preparation as well as a multi-purpose area for demonstrations. ''We had to come up with a brand-new 'everything' for what the 3Talk producers require,'' says Michael Gill.
The new 3Talk set looks a lot bigger but the white is only a part of the secret. ''We've opened it out,'' says Michael Gill, ''and we've put in wide open spaces. For TV we need to cheat. This studio isn't big, but we make it look a lot bigger. We make it look more layered that what it really is and we added plasma TV screens on either side. The look is clean and fresh.''
Most women want a little touch-up as often as possible, and they quickly do it during intermission and then again after the concert. But if your television symphony stretches eight years with no end in sight yet, you'd be forgiven for wanting to do a little more from time to time than just a powder dab here and there.
The longrunning 3Talk with Noeleen (SABC3, weekdays, 15:30) (henceforth known as and referred to as Three Talk) with Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu unveiled its brand-new set today, the show's 4th at Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg since the local talk show started eight years ago.
''Good afternoon. I'm Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu and I'm glad to welcome you to 3Talk with a difference,'' said the jovial TV host that South African viewers have come to know for almost a decade with her boistrous teletalk personality who's ready to yap about anything from medical Mondays to celebrity Fridays and all kinds of Sharon Glass cooking segments in between. ''For almost a year we've been working to bring you a new look and feel,'' she said in the live episode on SABC3 that revealed the new white and red set (the ''ox blood'' couch interchangeable with a grey couch) by Michael Gill from Michael Gill Designs.
Of course Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu hammed it up for the production and crew and the selected press in attendance. ''I was told ... I demand 12 dozen red roses!'' And later: ''I've never had a coffee table! This is my new home.'' A bit later she turned reflective and pensive. ''There will be no more circular floor, no more orange; no more brown,'' she said as she walked around her new set in centimetre high red stilettos that defied not just belief, but gravity.
''We drove Michael Gill mad,'' says Joanne Lurie, 3Talk with Noeleen producer about the new set design. ''We were sitting in the boardroom. Creative director Freddie Louw had an idea and he held it up and said 'here it is'. It had the configuration and the plasma TV screens and he came up with the basic look in a moment of brilliance and Michael Gill took it from there.''
''I'm still petrified that people are going to say it's ugly,'' says Joanne Lurie, ''and that they're basically going to say my child is ugly.''
Beyond the new set Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu said she plans on continuing to give all her energy to making a talk show that connects with South Africans. ''Every show I do, five days a week, is really special. Everybody's got a problem. Everybody's got an issue to overcome. But it's once we talk to each other that we discover that there's many people who are going through the same exact thing.''
Come look at her hair! I've asked and have the details about what exactly viewers can expect (besides a new set; besides a new look and intro) when 3Talk with Noeleen on SABC3 relaunches this Monday 4 July (SABC3, weekdays) with a live episode at 15:30.
SABC3's acting channel head Ed Worster will definitely be present at Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg where the weekday local South African talk show originates from for its biggest make-over since it started. 3Talk with Noeleen turned 8 years old in May.
The show will take a hilarious look back at the many hairstyles Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu has had over the past 8 years, and will show a treasure-trove of the quirky, funny and unexpected moments, snafu's and bloopers of 3Talk with Noeleen over the years.
Also on the special 3Talk with Noeleen relaunch episode of Monday will be a look back at the best guests over the years, ranging from funny to poignant, heartbreaking to hilarious, as well as the new set, how 3Talk with Noeleen started and how the show will be changing as well as the new features it will be incorporating.
