kykNET cancels KN Verslag as it looks to change the channel's actuality programming offering in 2022.

by Thinus Ferreira

kykNET has cancelled its KN Verslag weeknight actuality strand with M-Net's Afrikaans channels division that plans to make changes to its news actuality offering from June.

The recently renamed actuality talk show In Gesprek met Lourensa Eckard that was part of the KN Verslag offering from the same IdeaCandy production company will remain on the kykNET (DStv 144) schedule, as will Prontuit, but both shows will be moving to different timeslots.

The KN Verslag anchors Heindrich Wyngaard en Suzaan Steyn who are also the anchors of KLOP! on kykNET & Kie (DStv 145) and Spreekkamer on kykNET, will continue to anchor those two shows.

"kykNET is planning changes to our schedule that includes the renewing of our actuality offering," says Waldimar Pelser, M-Net director for kykNET channels in response to a media query.

"The programme KN Verslag presented by Heindrich Wyngaard and Suzaan Steyn will be on-air until June 2022 on kykNET on channel 144, a business decision of which the production team was recently notified.

"Both Heindrich and Suzaan will still be seen in respectively KLOP! on kykNET & kie and Spreekkamer on kykNET. Prontuit and In Gesprek met Lourensa Eckard will remain on air but will move to better timeslots later this year, which will be announced later," Waldimar Pelser said.

Suzaan Steyn upped as alternating weekly kykNET Verslag current affairs anchor in 2022.

by Thinus Ferreira

Suzaan Steyn has been upped as one of the new kykNET Verslag anchors on kykNET (DStv 144) from 2022 and will start on Monday 24 January.

Suzaan Steyn replaces Lourensa Eckard who is the new anchor of Wednesday's current affairs talk show edition, In Gesprek met Lourensa. Lourensa Eckard replaces Waldimar Pelser who is becoming the new kykNET channel boss from February.

With the musical chairs anchor changes, kykNET and the production company IdeaCandy is also slightly changing the presentation frequency of the anchors of kykNET Verslag in 2022. 

Where Heinrich Weingaard and Lourensa Eckard would alternate as kykNET Verslag anchors on different nights of the same week, Heinrich Weingaard and Suzaan Steyn will now take turns to anchor a week's episodes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights on kykNET.

kykNET Verslag returned this week with Heinrich Weingaard as anchor, with Suzaan Steyn who will debut next week for that week's episodes.

Suzaan Steyn was chosen as the anchor of the weekly kykNET Verslag Pandemie episode during the height of South Africa's Covid-19 pandemic when KN Pandemie was introduced as a limited series show. 

After the conclusion of that show, Suzaan Steyn was moved to Mondays at 17:30 to anchor the weekly medical current affairs show, Spreekkamer on kykNET.

Now she will take weekly turns as the anchor of kykNET's live current affairs late-night strand at 21:30 that is done from Stark Studios in Johannesburg.

ALSO READ: Lourensa Eckhard takes over kykNET's current affairs talk show chair from Waldimar Pelser from 19 January 2022.

Coronavirus: kykNET adds new weekly Afrikaans current affairs show KN Pandemie on Tuesdays anchored by Suzaan Steyn from 7 April 2020 at 9pm to cover Covid-19 pandemic.

by Thinus Ferreira

The growing global spread of the Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic with an increase in cases in South Africa that is experiencing a period of national lockdown has prompted kykNET (DStv 144) to alter its schedule from Tuesday 7 April with a new weekly, Afrikaans actuality show KN Pandemie that will be anchored by Suzaan Steyn.

Produced by IdeaCandy that does the rest of the KN Verslag current affairs strand for kykNET, KN Pandemie will run for at least the next 13 weeks from Tuesday, 7 April at 21:00 on the channel to bring Afrikaans DStv subscribers news, information and insight about the growing pandemic.

In KN Pandemie presenter Suzaan Steyn will talk live via Skype to experts in various fields.

Virologists and doctors will discuss the medical aspects of Covid-19 and give practical advice on how to stay safe and healthy. Psychologists will discuss the psychological impact of the virus, giving practical ways to look after your mental wellbeing in this challenging time.

Viewers will also be able to ask questions that experts will answer live on the show. KN Pandemie will also check in through Skype with various professionals who are in direct contact with Covid-19, as well as with people locally and internationally, to find out more about their experience during the current situation.

Various organisations are also aiding others to overcome the challenges brought upon by Covid-19 – KN Pandemie will focus on such an organisation on a weekly basis. 

The programme will also give practical tips that will simplify and enrich viewers' lives – from easy meals to prepare and arts and crafts for young and old, to physical activities, mental exercises and ways to keep body and mind healthy and calm.

KN Pandemie will give an update on good movies and series to watch and recommend which books to read, while technology used during this time to stay connected with colleagues, friends and family will be explored. Interesting things to do together whilst being apart will be discussed.

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.