Today's interesting TV stories to read from TV with Thinus - 29 April 2015.

The SABC's famously matricless COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng is allegedly hiding the financial troubles of the SABC.
According to the Sunday Times the SABC faces a loss of R500 million based on documents to be submitted to the auditor-general in May.

SABC News (DStv 404) then puts James Aguma, the SABC's chief financial officer (CFO) on television to say the Sunday Times got the financial statements "illegally" and that its a "stolen document" (the SABC should perhaps go make a case at the police for theft and get a case number?).
James Aguma on SABC TV says its "unfortunate that we're forced to respond to issues in financial statements" which has not been subjected to audit.


Meanwhile, The SABC is stuck in pathological mode.
The public broadcasting civil society pressure group, SOS Coalition, pens an open letter.

After McDreamy is killed off on Grey's Anatomy another big character dies.
Complete with suicide letter.
Speaking of which, there is now a petition going around to get the fired Patrick Dempsey back on Grey's Anatomy.

MUST READ: Dr. Oz (SABC3) and Dr. Phil's (SABC2) gross TV charade.
Dr. Oz continues to be under fire over his "egregious lack of integrity, but he pales in comparision to the fame-whoring of Dr. Phil as they both TV talk shows are a mélange of exploitation, celebrity parasitism and credential mining.

Meanwhile John Oliver of Last week Tonight on M-Net (DStv 101) calls Dr. Oz "the worst person in scrubs who has ever been on television".


BBC Worldwide is fast changing its channels to BBC First, BBC Earth and BBC Brit.
While we're still waiting for BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle on MultiChoice's DStv to change to these three new channels, BBC Worldwide is rolling out and replacing the existing channels with the rebranded new ones across Europe.
BBC First, BBC Earth and BBC Brit are now the new "global genre channels" fast replacing the old ones.
BBC Worldwide says regionalised BBC Brit and BBC Earth channels are coming to Africa and South Africa.


Comedy Central Africa (DStv 122) grabs game show Deal With It.
Of course no announcement from Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa), but the first two seasons of the American game show has been acquired from distributor Keshet International.

MUST READ: Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy explains the fakeness of the movie junket.
After Robert Downey Jr. got up and walked out of a publicity movie junket interview because he didn't like the question, the reporter explains the fakeness of it all behind the scenes - how the real journalist wants "something serious and illuminating, they just want publicity".

Sky is dropping one of its two arts TV channels.
We don't even have any such channels in South Africa on DStv or StarSat or OpenView HD. Sky will now rather create one "super channel" for the arts with a bigger budget and with less repeats.

Nomination period extended for entries for the South African of the Year Awards 2015.
ANN7 (DStv 405) extends the entry period with an additional 4 weeks with 31 May which is now the new deadline for SATY2015.

There is (real) penis in Outlander on M-Net Edge (DStv 102).
The sexual male organ seen in a new episode during sex and arousal was not a "stunt penis" in the episode entitled "Lallybroch".

TV will survive the web and mobile onslaught.
AdWeek says what is replacing television is, television.

Vice on M-Net is becoming its own TV channel.
Vice Media is taking over A+E Networks' 2nd History channel H2 and rebranding it as the Vice channel.

Miles from Tomorrowland on Disney Junior (DStv 309) renewed.
Cute space show picked up for a second season.

Homeland on M-Net is moving to Germany.
After filming in South Africa the 5th season will be done in Berlin.

REVENGE? SABC3 yanks new drama Revenge off of its schedule on the day its suppose to start due to not having received any tapes.

You're reading it here first. 

Revenge was supposed to start on SABC3 on Tuesday evening at 20:30 but on Tuesday SABC3 had to rush to find a replacement for its promoted new American drama starring Emily VanCamp since the public broadcaster's only commercial TV channel didn't have the show.

Viewers tuning in on Tuesday night at 20:30 to SABC3 to watch the first episode of the big-buzz drama which already drew rave reviews when it was shown on M-Net, saw two episodes of the sitcom Hot in Cleveland back-to-back as SABC3 rushed to pad the schedule with temporary filler.

There's been no official explanation so far about why SABC3 advertised and marketed Revenge to start and then suddenly failed to show it on Tuesday.

According to sources the Revenge tapes didn't arrive, and although SABC3 waited until the very day it was supposed to play out episode one before finding a replacement for the Tuesday night hour, there was no Revenge to show.

It's not yet clear whether the non-delivery of the Revenge tapes to SABC3 are related to payment issues as in the past, contractual bungling, administrative content procurement problems, or issues with the international distributor.

The broadcaster has not yet said whether Revenge is permanently off the SABC3 schedule or what will be shown this coming Tuesday at 20:30.

BREAKING. M-Net moving up Revenge second season starting date; Political Animals indefinitely postponed for now.

In a clever-cool move M-Net is moving up the start of the second season of Revenge after M-Net realized through the pay-TV broadcasters own programme acceptance department that the mini-series Political Animals which was supposed to start soon, isn't suitable for the timeslot of 19:30 where it was initially scheduled to start on 10 January.

The second season of the intriguing and hit new drama Revenge with Emily VanCamp will now start on 10 January at 19:30 on M-Net - much earlier than the original starting date of the second season in February and much closer to the American episode roll-out of episodes where the second season started recently.

Revenge has been a hit for M-Net right out of the box - the show immediately made the list of weekly Top 10 most watched shows on M-Net and continues to generate buzz. It therefore makes perfect sense for M-Net - and benefits M-Net subscribers - to keep the momentum going and to continue with the second season as soon as possible.

Not only will ratings for Revenge on M-Net most probably remain high because there will be minimal interruption to the now established viewing pattern behaviour from subscribers, but the time between overseas spoilers and dramatic reveals for the serialised mystery drama will also be dramatically limited. The second season of Revenge will start on M-Net now only a week after the dramatic first season finale.

Because of its age restriction of 16VSNL, Political Animals, the White House based mini-series with Signourney Weaver can't be shown at 19:30, so M-Net is postponing that show indefinitely to a new to-yet-be-determined new starting date later in 2013.

Meanwhile the brilliant Arrow with Stephen Amell, another brand-new drama which also quickly cracked M-Net's Top 10 list, will continue with its first season with new episodes from 25 January on M-Net at 20:30.

MUST WATCH TONIGHT. Revenge on M-Net, starting tonight at 19:30 is an elaborate, intertwined and meticulously brilliant new TV drama.

The very best TV drama South African viewers are and will get to see this year has been and is the first season and current second season of Downton Abbey on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) on Sunday nights - but the second best drama series (and it's superbly excellent!) of the year starts tonight on M-Net (DStv 101) and M-Net HD (DStv 170) at 19:30: Revenge.

Once you start watching Revenge, you will be caught up in an intriguing and brilliant new TV drama that will make you insane for the next episode. Emily (Emily VanCamp) returns to her childhood home - the elusive, exclusive, wealthy seaside community of the Hamptons in America.

Things happened when she was small (too tell more would be giving away major plot spoilers) and now she is out to take Revenge on everyone who've caused her dad to go to jail (he was framed) and destroyed her life.

The joy is of the show is how you as the viewer start to realize how everything has been planned out meticulously. In fact Emily is actually a sociopath I think - the way in which she can predict social reactions and responses based on cues, have developed an elaborate, intertwined and meticulously socially engineered plan over many years like a finely tuned human interaction puzzle, which she is now putting into motion - or in fact has for years!

Revenge is brilliant, the shockers unexpected, the end-of-episode cliffhangers true cliffhangers, the characters new and exciting and people you want to know more of, and when people start to arrive on the scene threatening to derail Emily's finely tuned plan(s), you start stressing and can't watch - but just have to.

BREAKING. Renewed: Grey's Anatomy, Modern Family, Castle, Once Upon a Time, Revenge and Castle for further seasons.

Grey's Anatomy (M-Net), Modern Family (M-Net), Castle (M-Net Series), Once Upon a Time (M-Net Series), Revenge (M-Net) and The Middle (M-Net) have all been renewed for further seasons in America on the ABC network, Deadline first reported.

It will be Grey's Anatomy's 9th season, Once Upon a Time's 2nd season, Revenge's 2nd season, Castle's 5th season and the 4th season for both The Middle and  Modern Family.

BREAKING. The brilliant new drama Revenge coming to M-Net from sometime in August.

You're reading it here first.

In March I broke the news RIGHT HERE that M-Net has acquired the broadcasting rights to the brilliant new drama Revenge, and now I can exclusively spill that M-Net is planning to start showing the first season of Revenge from sometime in August.

Revenge is brilliant and will be a great series for M-Net, with an intricate and elaborate story which viewers will simply have to follow from week to week as a primetime soap.

Described as ''Gossip Girl in the Hamptons'', Revenge has an amazing degree of surprising plotting which will keep viewers begging for the next episode.

A girl called Emily Thorne (she used to have another name before) moves to the wealthy American seaside community of the Hamptons. Something terrible - a great injustice - happened when she was a little girl. Through excellent plotting and brilliant scheming she starts to get revenge on all of the people who wronged her father and through sending him to jail, also wronged her.

BREAKING. M-Net gets Revenge as the pay TV broadcaster grabs the hot new drama show set in the wealthy Hamptons.

You're reading it here first.

I can exclusively break the news that M-Net has grabbed another hot new TV show, Revenge, and I can exclusively spill that the hot new drama with Emily VanCamp will be shown on the M-Net channel (DStv 101) which also means a HD version on M-Net HD (DStv 170).

Although M-Net has not yet scheduled the show, the pay TV broadcaster has acquired the broadcasting rights of this brilliant new show.

I've seen the first half of the first season of the brilliant Revenge, which I can only describe as ''Gossip Girl in the Hamptons''. The show has an amazing degree of surprising plotting which will keep viewers begging for the next episode to see how the events keep unfolding in eye-popping pre-plotting.

In Revenge a girl called Emily Thorne (she used to have another name before) moves to the wealthy American seaside community of the Hamptons. Something terrible - a great injustice - happened when she was a little girl. Through excellent plotting and brilliant scheming she starts to get revenge on all of the people who wronged her father and through sending him to jail, also wronged her.

One by one she plots their downfall as an overall murder mystery will keep viewers guessing. A nemesis or two also shows up who start to interfere in her carefully crafted plans and threaten to derail everything she's crafted over years.