VIA adds bilingual Goeiemôre, Good Morning as 4-day live breakfast show from 14 April

by Thinus Ferreira

Media24's Afrikaans lifestyle TV channel VIA (DStv 147) is adding a new morning show in English and Afrikaans, Goeiemôre, Good Morning from Monday 14 April.

Goeiemôre, Good Morning, produced by CoolerBox Brothers with Barry Pretorius as executive producer and director George van Rooyen, will run with four episodes per week from Mondays to Thursdays from 6:30 to 7:30, and will repeat 10:00 to 11:30, and again in the afternoons at 14:00. 

As a bilingual breakfast show, Goeiemôre, Good Morning is joining a very crowded TV market.

The timeslot is already over-subscribed with other shows like perennial timeslot ratings leader Morning Live (SABC2), Expresso (SABC3), The Morning Show (e.tv), Die Groot Ontbyt (kykNET), The South African Morning (eNCA) and AM Report (Newzroom Africa).

Goeiemôre, Good Morning will cover entertainment, lifestyle, world events, sports highlights and entrepreneurship with presenters Rozanne McKenzie, Elsa Esterhuizen and kykNET's former Kwêla presenter Pieter Koen who left for the United States with his family but has returned after just a few months. Thys van Zyl will give financial tips.

George van Rooyen says "I have worked with Rozanne and Pieter before and know them as extremely hard workers with great personalities, and Elsa will round off our trio perfectly. This dynamic team is ready to make a lasting impression."

Elsa Esterhuizen says "Goeiemôre, Good Morning is an interesting and fresh take on a South African breakfast show – especially because both Afrikaans and English viewers will be able to join us in the mornings".

"I remember immediately wanting to be a part of it when the team approached me and told me that their idea was similar to the concept of my favourite television series, The Morning Show." 

She references the Apple TV+ drama series with Jennifer Aniston, not e.tv's breakfast show.

"It's also a first for VIA and I'm therefore looking forward to building on this exciting and fresh concept and being part of its development in collaboration with a phenomenal, dynamic team."

Barry Pretorius says the show's "approach, concept and content are from the outset totally focused on our people, who they really are, what they love and the absolute inclusivity of Afrikaans".

"As our language celebrates its centenary this year, this breakfast programme is a clear beacon that Afrikaans will continue to exist inclusively."

Pieter Koen who is back in South Africa four months after emigrating to the United States, says the presenters' team "bring our unique style and personality to the programme and we hope that viewers will find it appealing".

REVIEW. The mistake-filled Nuusdag om 8 on Openview's eExtra channel doesn't offer viewers anything new but its existence helps broaden the local TV news bulletin business.

The mistake-filled Nuusdag om 8 Afrikaans TV news bulletin that e.tv started on Monday evening on eExtra (Openview 105 / DStv 195 / StarSat 489) didn't provide viewers with anything new or different that they're not already getting from one of the existing Afrikaans TV news bulletins on SABC2 or eNCA (DStv 403) but its existence is good and does help to broaden the South Africa TV news and media landscape.

After presumably several dry runs, Monday evening's first broadcast episode of Nuusdag om 8 was a mess of unnecessary and preventable mistakes, including spelling errors that never should (have) happened.

The mistakes damaged the credibility that Nuusdag om 8 wants to have or presumably tried to establish right out of the gate, and made Nuusdag om 8 look amateurish and like a watered-down, dubbed and voice-overed version of e.tv's eNews but one treated with less care.

The Nuusdag om 8 orange-amber-red-yellow toned studio design looks good (although the studio part used for the companion current affairs desk interview sister show following after, Nuusdag Perspektief, looks excellent and is a much better produced show).

"Echebrt Boezak" (Echbert) is by far the most experienced and best presenter who appeared in the show (he is also the TV news bulletin's news editor), while the actress and Mrs Africa Hemisphere, Lorna Greyling as weather presenter comes across as uncomfortable, awkward and ill-suited. She's not right for this type of TV work and is the worst on-air part of Nuusdag om 8.

Nuusdag om 8 spent the first 11 minutes of the TV news bulletin covering local news, then a sprinkling of international wire service footage with voice-overs, some more local stories, as well as weather and sport.

Nuusdag om 8 comes across as not having enough actual people and producers doing the show - with certainty it's clear that absolutely nobody is checking the Afrikaans syntax and spelling of the bottom-screen news scroll and names, or is incompetent or unqualified to do so.

In a Cape Town dam levels story with Suzaan Steyn doing voice-over work, the insert package halfway suddenly switched to English on Nuusdag om 8, revealing that it was originally done in English for eNews with badly done Afrikaans language soundtrack layering that wasn't properly checked by whoever, possibly nobody.

Both Rozanne McKenzie and Echbert Boezak as standing anchors made too many mistakes reading from their scripts and Lorna Greyling is out of her depth and comes across as someone who suddenly got nominated to speak publicly and do announcements at the local church bazaar or when a low-cost carrier flight is delayed but doesn't have the experience, confidence or skill.

Several of the stories had "vox pops" interviews (no problem with that) but then had no actual carry-through with no explanation or indication to the viewer of why the story matters, or what it really means - which is what a TV news bulletin at 20:00 at night should contain after people already consumed the basics of news and the headlines during the day.

It's fine to show angry Westbury protesters at 20:00 emoting on camera, but where's the agenda-setting "next chapter", the explainer, the contextual, expert add-on?

The sport section is good enough but the weather needs an overhaul and looks primary school class "let's do show-and-tell" bad.

The production values of Nuusdag om 8 suffer because of all of this, making it difficult to see the TV news bulletin's relevance or its reason for being.

Openview, e.tv and Nuusdag om 8 did nothing beforehand to tell TV critics or journalists covering TV why it's starting a TV news bulletin or the raison d'être, and it's difficult from merely watching to ascertain why this Afrikaans TV news bulletin is on, what it wants to achieve, why it's at 20:00 specifically and what it's trying to imbue in its content that's different.

Nuusdag om 8 that had a run-up to prepare for launch, had no "exclusive", no story of importance not featured anywhere else for the day, and no "get" or short interview to distinguish itself for its first episode that you'd think it would have worked on beforehand to showcase how it's setting itself apart.

The result is that it seemed the same as eNuus on kykNET and kykNET & kie and the Afrikaans nuus on SABC2, with no difference in its value proposition or the reason it offers as to why viewers should watch it and not one of the other competitors.

Openview's Nuusdag om 8 needs more people to ensure a more tighter, more professionally finished/furnished product, more staffers who have experience and can give proper attention to detail since this is a news product where accuracy and credibility matter, and more reporters doing stories with their own new/unique takes.

While the actual "insides" of Nuusdag om 8 need work, it's mere existence as a programme however adds to the media plurality of the Afrikaans TV news bulletin business in South Africa and is welcomed.

e.tv adds Afrikaans TV news, Nuusdag, and the dubbed Turkish telenovela, Gebroke Harte, to eExtra on Openview.

e.tv is rolling out more Afrikaans content from today in a 2-hour programming block between 19:00 and 21:00 on the eExtra channel in the form of Afrikaans news and a Turkish telenovela dubbed into Afrikaans, before the launch of its new 24-hour TV news channel OpenNews on 1 November.

e.tv will launch its second daily Afrikaans half hour TV news bulletin, Nuusdag om 8, this evening at 20:00 on eExtra (Openview 105 / DStv 195 / StarSat 489) on its Openview free-to-air satellite TV service.

Nuusdag om 8 will be followed by a companion show at 20:30 in the form of a new half hour Afrikaans current affairs show, Nuusdag Perspektief.

Nuusdag Perspektief will do interviews with newsmakers and discuss big news stories and issues.

The 20:00 Afrikaans news and current affairs block will be preceded by the hour long Gebroke Harte, a Turkish telenovela dubbed into Afrikaans that will be broadcast on weekdays on eExtra.

Nuusdag om 8
The veteran broadcaster and sports journalist Echbert Boezak has been appointed as Nuusdag news editor who will also do sports reporting.

Nuusdag om 8 will be anchored by Rozanne McKenzie previously from kykNET's Kwêla, Flits! and Nasie in Gesprek, along with the former SABC2 Afrikaans TV news anchor Suzaan Steyn, and the former Pasella presenter Charlene Lackay.

The actress and Mrs Africa Hemisphere, Lorna Greyling will be the Nuusdag om 8 weather presenter.

Nuusdag with its studio done in amber and red tones will not just compete with SABC2's Afrikaans TV news bulletin at 18:30 but also itself - eNuus on kykNET (DStv 144) and kykNET & kie (DStv 145) at 19:00 that is produced for M-Net's Afrikaans TV channels on DStv by eMedia Investments that is also responsible for Nuusdag.

To differentiate from the heavy Johannesburg news bubble of other shows - although the Nuusdag om 8 studio is located in Johannesburg similar to the others - the TV news bulletin will add, beyond a look at international and national South African news, a flavouring of regional reports from some South African provinces, done from Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and the Northern Cape.

Reporters like Craig-Lee Smith from EWN, Sue Pyler from RSG, Elvin Presslin and others have joined Nuusdag.

"We are committed to producing an independent Afrikaans TV news bulletin that South Africans can really trust," says Marlon Davids, managing director of e.tv channels. "We have put together a very talented and experienced team of reporters, producers and anchors and have no doubt that Nuusdag om 8 will keep our Afrikaans-speaking viewers informed".

Gebroke Harte
At 19:00 from today on weekdays, eExtra will play out Gebroke Harte, an Afrikaans dub of the Turkish telenovela, Paramparça (Broken Pieces in English) produced by Endemol Shine Turkey.

Unknown to them, two women Gülseren and Dilara, have had their babies accidentally switched at birth and .

Gülseren (poor) lives with her "daughter" Hazal, and Dilara (rich) lives with her "daughter" Cansu - and then their paths meet again.

South African actors like Carmen Maarman, Marcelle van Heerden, Desiré Gardner and Abdu Adams are part of the voice cast. Gebroke Harte is the first prime-time drama series to be dubbed into Afrikaans in 20 years.

Gebroke Harte will have an omnibus broadcast on eExtra on Sundays at 14:00.

Shemane Harris, Susan Booyens both back on Kwêla on kykNET from Wednesday as guest presenters for the next few months.

Both Shemane Harris (right) and Susan Booyens (below) will both be back from this Wednesday at 19:30 on Kwêla  as regular weekly guest presenters on the weekly Afrikaans magazine show I'm told.

Of course it most probably in part has to do with Rozanne McKenzie who will in all likelihood appear a bit less with the sudden increase in her daily workload as from Monday 5 November since she will then appear as one of the weekday presenters of the Afrikaans satellite channel's new morning breakfast show, Dagbreek.

Shemane Harris who've moved mostly behind the screen, but still working for kykNET the past few years, has been the producer and presenter of show's such as Wat's die Storie? for kykNET.

Susan Booyens has spent the past five years in Scotland where she's been the online content editor for the community websites for s1 in Glasgow at The Herald & Times Group.

Both Shemane Harris and Susan Booyens will appear on Kwêla again regularly over the course of the next few months.

FIRST LOOK. Dagbreek dawns with its first publicity shot of the sextet presenters before it starts on 5 November on kykNET.

Here's the (over-photoshopped) first look at the new presenter sextet of kykNET's (DStv 144) new Afrikaans weekday morning show Dagbreek which will start on the Afrikaans satellite TV channel from Monday 5 November, daily between 06:00 and 08:00.

The Dagbreek presenters are (exactly as I said they would be) Elma Smit, Harald Richter, Rozanne McKenzie, Pierre Breytenbach, Bettie Kemp and Dalen Lance.

Dagbreek on kykNET joins a quickly crowdening morning breakfast television market where the morning TV wars are surely hearing up as shows scramble to hook and keep viewers, as well as advertisers and sponsors: Morning Live on SABC2, Expresso on SABC3, and Sunrise on e.tv.

Will Afrikaans viewers who've felt left out and neglected by any of the other three morning shows (Expresso has a smattering of Afrikaans from time to time) switch once Dagbreek dawns on South African television?