TV REVIEW. The shocking TV-trash rubbish dump that was the 13th SA Sport Awards on SABC1 was a horrific cringe-fest that damages the SABC, SuperSport and SA sport - and has no place on South African television.

The utterly incompetent and horrific TV-trash that was the 13th South African Sport Awards broadcast Sunday night on SABC1 and in the week on SuperSport on MultiChoice's DStv was a shocking, amateurly done cringe-fest that damages the SABC, SuperSport, and sport in this country - a tele-travesty that has no place on South African television.

The rubbish dump broadcast done from the Sand du Plessis theatre in Bloemfontein on Sunday night showed how little respect the minister of sport Tokozile Xasa, South Africa's department of sport, as well as the SABC and SuperSport as the broadcast partners, have for the viewing audience who are subjected to watching this trash at home.

The extremely bad and worst-ever SA Sport Awards since it started being shown on South African television was very poorly done, and a disgusting and extremely disrespectful mess from beginning to its long-overrun ending - with the poor hosts Udo Carelse, Thomas Mlambo and Vaylen Kirtley fronting it, who had to take the fall as the faces of this unvarnished TV dung heap.

Horrifically bad organisation and stage management, sound problems and bad sound, awful and abrupt sound breaks, shoddy and shaky camerawork, link gaffes, a large and shocking number of empty chairs (getting loving, panning camera shots over and over to show how empty the auditorium actually is) and weird silences were just some of the cringe-inducing stuff that were visible in this awful spectacle.

Incompetent and bumbling presenters were clearly not prepped beforehand or told what they are supposed to do. Struggling to read scripts, it was clear that the majority - if not everyone - read what they had to say for the very first time.

A failing autocue (or asleep autocue operator), terrible directing, the apparent lack of a floor manager, winners abruptly getting played off mid-sentence, and even Tokozile Xasa standing on stage clueless as to what to do or say, was emblematic of how truly trash-bad the SA Sport Awards was.

A rural primary school prize-giving end-of-year award night is better organised and will look better on handycam that the disgusting awfulness the SABC and South Africa's department of sport saw "fit" to showcase to South Africa's viewers Sunday night.

The two-and-a-half hour SA Sport Awards live broadcast trash-fest that went half an hour over time was an unmitigated cringe-per-minute disaster.

It was peppered with unintentionally hilarious production mistakes, like viewers hearing Thomas Mlambo talk backstage multiple times ("What do we have to do next?"), while ironically multiple people stood on stage when they were supposed to talk, unable to say anything.

What there was of the auditorium audience in attendance couldn't bother to clap as they blatantly laughed and gawked at the multiple awkward trash-moments on stage as presenter after presenter stood there sheepishly, looking clueless and utterly helpless.

South Africa, South African viewers and South African sport deserve much, much better than this terrible trash that is supposed to highlight, honour and promote sport and the sport heroes in this country.

Who besides Tokozile Xasa is responsible for this trash? Why does the SA Sport Awards - instead of improving - keep getting worse year after year?

Even the dumbfounded dear Toko - stunned into silence - ended up asking from stage and looking perplexed after getting laughed at: "The autocue. Where is it?"

Why does the SABC do a live broadcast of a bad sports awards show that is has clearly shown in the past it is not capable of doing, and continue to do even worse after months of planning and organising? How much money was spent on the broadcast of this travesty?

Whoever sit behind this televised rubbish are so incompetent that they broke several codes and regulations for both competitions and for broadcasting in South Africa by running a voting/viewer competition but failing to disclose - as must happen - the cost of a SMS on-screen. It's basics, people.

Online and on social media, the department of sport and the SA Sport Awards couldn't even get simple words like "Dstv" and "vist" right.

It also hilariously undermined the SABC and SABC1 by begging for votes by promising ... a DStv decoder - literally creating the marketing impression that a DStv decoder and DStv is more desirable and better than anything the SABC could possibly give away to entice people to vote.

South Africa, and South African viewers, deserve much better than this - whether on pay-TV or public access television. Being on free television doesn't mean something can and should be "less than" or outright rubbish.

Incompetent producers and people who don't belong in television-making are inflicting damage on the country's TV industry by continuing to make completely unacceptable television like the SA Sport Awards that is not just an embarrassment but that brings shame on broadcasters like the SABC, SABC Sport and SuperSport who are attaching their brands to this trash.

How are sport stars and South African sportsmen and women supposed to feel about this SA Sport Awards mess? Does what we saw make them look good (better) and honour them, their achievements and their legacy, or does it denigrade their achievements?

Do better - please - people doing and involved with the SA Sport Awards, or stop doing it.

At this point, after this shocking TV trash dumped on viewers, doing nothing will be better than doing it this badly.

SABC moves the duelling broadcast of the 6th Crown Gospel Music Awards 2013 out of the way of the SA Sports Awards.

After TV with Thinus reported yesterday on the insanity of the South African public broadcaster scheduling the delayed live broadcast of the SA Sports Awards and the delayed live 6th Crown Gospel Music Awards 2013 both for Sunday 17 November at exactly the same time on different channels, the SABC moved the 6th Crown Gospel Music Awards 2013 today out of the way to another date and time.

The SABC planned to show the SA Sports Awards on Sunday 17 November at 20:00 on SABC1, and the 6th Crown Gospel Music Awards 2013 on Sunday 17 November at 20:00 on SABC2.

A day after yesterday's report the SABC announced that it is moving the 6th Crown Gospel Music Awards 2013 not just back to SABC1, but also to a new broadcast date of 22 December at 22:00.

CLASH OF THE TRASH: Only at the SABC would schedulers do this: Schedule one local awards show directly against another.

At the SABC the incompetence never ceases (to amaze): The South African public broadcaster has just decided to broadcast this year's South African Sports Awards 2013 on SABC1 whilst showing at exactly the same time The 6th Crown Gospel Music Awards 2013 on SABC2.

It defies belief but that is what the SABC is choosing to do - to split it own available audience by placing and creating duelling awards shows blocks on the same date, at the same time.

The SABC is itself ensuring that the maximum possible audience which the South African Sports Awards 2013 could have gotten, and the maximum possible audience The 6th Crown Gospel Music Awards 2013 could have gotten, go head to head for a combined smaller viewership on the night, compared to if the two awards ceremonies were broadcast on different evenings.

Both the South African Sports Awards 2013 and The 6th Crown Gospel Music Awards 2013 will be now be shown on Sunday 17 November between 20:00 and 22:00 - on SABC1 and SABC2 respectively.

The SABC is in fact also sponsoring both awards shows. It means the SABC is financially invested in both awards ceremonies, but not maximising the overall capital input and the maximum possible return on each individual "investment" its making in the sponsorship of each show.

With the high overlap in demo's and interest, the SABC is forcing viewers in the LSM bracket the channels cater to, to choose either the one or the other, as opposed to scheduling them on different nights and maximising individual viewership for each show.

Both the South African Sports Awards 2013 on SABC1 and the The 6th Crown Gospel Music Awards 2013 take place on Sunday 17 November and the SABC has opted to broadcast both awards shows delayed live.

It is something the SABC has now proved it isn't able to pull off anymore with any semblance of professionalism or of passing standard broadcasting production values - and that's just doing one live awards show at a time.

How the SABC will fare and cope doing two awards shows, both produced delayed live, is anyone's guess.

The SABC is not just splitting the audience, the audience might very well be splitting with laugher as in previous years, gazing wide-eyed at the incredible on-air snafu's and bad production values.

REVIEW. The SA Sports Awards 2012 broadcast on SABC1 and SuperSport resembles a third rate late night Hillbrow nightclub.

"Unbelievable stuff here tonight," said Robert Marawa as co-host during the course of the evening of the simply terrible live broadcast of the SA Sports Awards 2012 which took place Sunday night.

And he was right: the live awards show was unbelievable - unbelievably bad in the totally amateur, completely unprofessional, shockingly awful and just plain cringeworthy way this outside broadcast production was done by the SABC's Outside Broadcasting division from the Sandton Convention Centre.

The two hour trash show laid bare how shockingly inept the SABC is at making even a passing grade on a live awards ceremony. The shockingly lowrent production values of the  SA Sports Awards 2012, with an appearance in person by the SABC CEO Lulama Mokhobo and the acting COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng (who also didn't read very well) was hopelessly pathetic and a mockery of what something like this is supposed to be.

Is the SA Sports Awards now South Africa's most embarrassingly bad televised awards show ceremony? For the millions of rands this makeshift looking awards show must cost to stage, why is it so totally trash?

The SA Sports Awards 2012 with its seedy music, bad stage acts including a tired looking and inappropriately dressed for her age PJ Powers (with windblown hair) belting out old music, simply felt like a third rate late night Hillbrow nightclub where both establishment and patrons have long since seen better days.

The Soweto Gospel Choir looking like ghosts in inappropriate white robes sang as Somizi, adorned with ostrich feathers, writhed in front of them on the floor. Bless.

Warren Bleksley was the director, with Jerry Mokgopo and Melinda Lombard the executive producers of this inadequate and sad live TV mess coming to viewers courtesy of the SABC and the department of sport and recreation. Diane Stanton-Lourens was head of production.

Like last year, when the SA Sports Awards 2011 was a horror to watch, the SABC again showed the live awards ceremony on SABC1 while SuperSport likewise again damaged its brand by inflicting the completely amateur production on viewers on SuperSport 4 using the SABC's visuals.

SABC1 viewers who recorded it on their DStv PVRs would (thankfully!) only have gotten the first half hour recorded. The EPG supplied by the SABC and used by MultiChoice was entirely incorrect.

The only point of excellence was co-host Carl Tshabalala, impeccably dressed and wonderfully warm and well-spoken: a real TV presenter. Presenter Tarina Patel right at the end, with her wonderful presentation and elegance was another bright sparkle. The rest of the SA Sports Awards 2012 was again a massive disaster and a shameful local television embarrassement. Surely, surely South Africa's TV industry and the SABC can produce a better live awards ceremony than this?

Sound fading in and out incorrectly and which was noticeably incorrect constantly during the broadcast should get all the sound operators fired. This was unforgiveably bad. There was no sound in suddenly silent moments (awkward). Sound feedback was audible for viewers at home during some songs. The mic sound from presenters was laughably and horribly fading in and out inappropriately; not on when it should be and with terribly fluxuating sound levels. It gave this mess of a ceremony show a shockingly amateur atmosphere.

A laughable menagerie of totally inappropriate presenters to introduce and announce category winners, coupled with erratic camera work from camera operators who seemed as if they're filming home movies in their own backyards, ensured enough material for lecturers of film students on what not to do.

Basically none of the presenters for any of the categories came across as being able to read. The set design (with little railings) and of mostly white perspex plates seemed primary school. Speaking of primary school, the South African children ceremonially holding guns with blades on stage fitted right in.

A camera crane operator ("jimmy jib") who doesn't seem to know what he's doing, ending up with high overhead shots (and the director then inappropriately actually cutting to it and using it), the incorrect pronunciation of names, presenters struggling to read, presenters wasting time by asking the audience to guess the winner (unbelievable!), presenters struggling to open envelopes, multiple glaring lighting problems, a 25 minute wait before the first category announcement ... the list of gaffes and terribly production decisions and production mistakes during the SA Sport Awards 2012 were absolutely endless.

Why did some presenters and people on stage get a descriptive name and title banner in the lower third on screen, while others got nothing? Did the vision controllers and SABC Sport graphics technician fall asleep from the confusing tedium of this drawn-out pain which viewers were made to suffer through?

Even bad nightclubs close at some time when the last stragglers get kicked out. Although this TV trash was supposed to stop at 22:00, it also again ran over time just like a year ago. SuperSport 4 eventually cut away at 22:03 from the SA Sport Awards 2012. SABC1 kept going until 22:07.

BREAKING. SA Sports Awards 2011 broadcast on SABC1 a cringe-inducing, terribly bad, shocking and amateurly done production.

The SA Sports Awards 2011 live broadcast on SABC1 was a marred, scarred, badly produced tele-vent, shockingly showing exactly how far the South African public broadcaster have fallen when it comes to botching a live event broadcast for which the SABC no longer appears to have the skill, resources, know-how or capacity to do at least passing-level right.

If you use the word shocking it implies that something is unusual or wasn't expected (and by now shoddy broadcasting production values when its the SABC should be expected as de rigueur), but the SA Sports Awards 2011 broadcast live on SABC1 on Sunday night from the Sun City Superbowl was shockingly, atrociously bad. Looking at the broadcast very little seemed planned; very little seemed professional.

The SA Sports Awards 2011 that took place on an extremely amateur-looking green stage and with an audibly hollow podium platform, could have done with a rehearsal to start with. People struggled to read the teleprompter, clearly showing that they were reading what they had to read, for probably the first time. The minister of sport and recreation Fikile Mbalula seemed dazed and perplexed - he didn't know how to or perhaps haven't practised pronouncing names, and seemed completely flummoxed when he too couldn't read the teleprompter (or perhaps the words didn't scroll up fast enough). No wonder the seated crowd laughed at him.

The SA Sports Awards 2011 co-hosts Carol Manana and Colin Moss were either unprepared, completely out of their depth, or perhaps they just suffered the massive burden of the avalanche of the poorly executed production which even the best of hosts can't make up for. Their presentation came across as erratic, unpolished, angsty and very unprofessional - but who knows what went on behind the scenes and what they had to deal with.

The SA Sports Awards 2011 broadcast - back for the first time after an absence of two years - was done by SABC Sport with sponsors like SuperSport, MTN and SAA and was in my opinion as a TV critic a breathlessly bad production. The live show was marred by continuous sound and music problems, erratic cameras and shaking handicam shots, no on-screen naming titles, unprofessional breaks and no sound in several places throughout as well as sound disappearances. It all made for akward, highly uncomfortable television to have to watch. Neither Ernie Els who received a Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement Award, nor Hashim Amla who won the big, final award of Sports Star of the Year, were physically present to accept their awards.

The SA Sports Awards 2011 echoed the horrible ineptness and visual cringe-inducing amateurism of the unorganized and shambolic 17th Annual MTN SA Music Awards (Samas) - an event which was widely criticised in May. It's ironic that minister Fikile Mbalula said before the awards that it might just be as big as the Samas. Turns out the SA Sports Awards 2011 is not as big ... it's as bad.

The amateur TV spectacle that was horribly produced, was supposed to end at 22:00 but ran shockingly, unprofessionally far over time. It was only 38 minutes later at 22:38 that the SA Sports Awards finally ended - with no end credits.

No gold medal for this mess. The 2011 SA Sports Awards was an embarrassement to watch.