2023 Silwerskerm Film Festival | Day 3: How too controversial reality TV literally becomes a turn-off.

by Thinus Ferreira

As more producers globally as well as in South Africa are enticed by the lure of especially the reality TV genre to create real-life drama on the small screen, they are being warned not to push in-show controversy too far since on-screen fights and uncomfortable viewing don't always lift ratings and in fact could alienate viewers who flip to another channel.

"In the current climate of the golden age of television and where feature films don't make the money at the box office that they did before, it's likely not such a bad idea to consider reality television as an additional income," says Marguerite Albrecht, a commissioning editor for reality content at MultiChoice and M-Net.

She was one of the panellists at a discussion about the new era of reality TV at kykNET's 11th Silwerskermfees film festival currently taking place at The Bay Hotel in Camps Bay, Cape Town where the pivot from traditional reality TV, reality competition television and docudrama were discussed.

Marguerite Albrecht said that producers who previously never would have considered this genre, are not warming to what used to be TV's "stepchild".

Terja Beney, senior manager for reality and entertainment for M-Net's premium channels, said that "any filmmaker at their heart is a storyteller and storytelling - whether in the genre of documentary, whether in the genre of scripted. Story is at the heart of reality as well".

"If you can tell a story and if you love telling stories, then you can flourish in the unscripted genre as well, especially in the reality space".

Marguerite Albrecht said that M-Net and kykNET are first and foremost TV platforms "and our budgets first and foremost go towards making television. For that reason reality is a good option for any filmmaker."

Terja Beney however warned reality TV producers and said they should be careful with how they present real-life drama, since buzz over certain moments or televised events, might not actually lead to ratings.

"It's an interesting conversation to have about talkability versus ratings. Sometimes 'talkability' is talkable because it has a push-factor. People are talking because they're uncomfortable about things. Sometimes uncomfortability however extends to a drop in your TV ratings and not necessarily a push in your rating."

"In what you're putting forward is: How controversial are you being, and what really is the appetite for that controversial content that you're putting out?"

Marguerite Albrecht says the new era of reality TV is just an evolution of what producers, broadcasters and viewers already know.

"Internationally we're starting to see a nice blend of different mechanics from different reality formats coming together. They're blending in a logical way."

"It's not like 'I want a tribal council thing at the end like Survivor. I want a bit of Wipeout in the middle. And the whole first section is just docu-reality.' No. That makes no sense."

Marguerite Albrecht said it's an open question as to whether the news media, like broadcasters, should adopt what the industry calls a "duty of care" in their approach of reality show participants, after the negative media coverage that engulfed the women who chose to take part in kykNET's Die Real Housewives van die Wynlande which had its first season on DStv earlier this year. 

M-Net revives MasterChef South Africa for a 4th season from February 2022 as comfort food television this time with Homebrew producing in Cape Town as a Covid-19 safe bubble production.

by Thinus Ferreira

After 7 years M-Net has revived the cooking reality competition series MasterChef South Africa with a fourth season that will be broadcast from February 2022 on M-Net (DStv 101) as "comfort food television" during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic era.

The Cape Town based Homebrew is taking over production of the revived MasterChef South Africa from Quizzical Pictures with the new 4th season that will be taking place in Cape Town, very likely utilising the existing test kitchen complex at Atlantic Studios in Milnerton during October and November where kykNET's Kokkedoor series is produced from.

MasterChef SA will be produced as a Covid-19 safe so-called "bubble production" with contestants from across South Africa that will have to isolate for a period before filming starts in Cape Town and for the duration of their participation in the series.

M-Net's dusting off a retrieval from the TV pantry of MasterChef SA for a 4th season follows shortly after its decision to set the TV table again for the similarly themed My Kitchen Rules South Africa for a third season.

M-Net ran three seasons of MasterChef South Africa from March 2021 until May 2015 including a short celebrity edition at the Nederburg wine estate in Paarl the Western Cape after which the test kitchen was dismantled and the South African version cancelled.

After its cancellation, M-Net told TVwithThinus that the show, produced by Lucky Bean Media and Quizzical Pictures, could one day return.

Speaking about why it returned My Kitchen Rules SA and commissioned a new season of that show, Terja Beney, M-Net commissioning editor, recently said that it decided to revive that show within the "comfort food" genre specifically because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic since it creates a sense of community under DStv subscribers who feel isolated sitting at home.

The same reason holds true for why M-Net decided to bring My Kitchen Rules South Africa back.

The judges for the new iteration of MasterChef SA has not been confirmed and there will be 20 episodes, broadcast 4 times per week, from Mondays to Thursdays from 28 February 2022 at 18:00. 

M-Net is now looking for 20 cooking contestants who can enter until 8 September on the M-Net website and who will have to be available for filming during October 2022. The winner gets R1 million.

"Within the current landscape of the Covid-19 virus, we wanted to give our audience something familiar and comforting that felt like home," says Jan du Plessis, director of M-Net channels.

"MasterChef SA was the perfect choice as both the local and International versions have proven that the format is a firm favourite with our viewers. It's heart-warming and welcoming content."

The MasterChef format and finished programmes are represented internationally by Banijay Rights.

MasterChef SA will be available to DStv Premium subscribers and will be live-streamed on the DStv app and on DStv Catch.

TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. When the TV execs go and sit in the back of the house when they actually run the house: A shout-out to the exemplary zookeepers of South African television who keep showing up - and showing up.

The majority of the people who filed into and took their seats inside the Silverline Studios set of Survivor South Africa: Phillipines to be part of the live studio audience for the season finale on M-Net (DStv 101) this week would have had no idea who, quite unassumingly, sat right next to them.

On Thursday evening, both Nkateko Mabaso, acting M-Net CEO, and Kay Ann Williams, head of local content and independent films for the M-Net channels, unpretentiously slipped inside on the rain-soaked night.

Even though they could have chosen or have demanded better seats - in fact they completely deserved front row seats - both of them literally went and sat in two of the worst seats in the house: right behind the back-end of the techno-crane to its immediate right, basically obstructing their view of the centre stage and blocking probably about 70% of what you can see in the front.

They seemed unperturbed.

Both stayed seated here for the full 2 hours of the Survivor SA: Phillipines finale, produced by Afrokaans - and for the first time from Cape Town - until they, together with M-Net commissioning editor Terja Beney exited stage left.

They then all mingled at the music, drinks and food-filled adjacent stage on the Silverlines Studios lot with media, guests, contestants, sponsors and ordinary fans.

Remarkable? At first glance, possibly not. But in reality, within the context of South Africa's TV industry, it's hugely significant and exceptional.

As they and their predecessors have done for years, and quite remarkably continue doing, M-Net's top level executives - similar to America's HBO, CBS, FX and a few others - keep showing up at things where they don't, at first glance, appear needed or having to be.

These executives literally show up on set and at events and they personally visit their channel's TV productions even though they strictly don't have to.

This continued, personal and hands-on approach, is quite different from how execs at the SABC, e.tv, and several of the other pay-TV channels carried on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform for instance, behave.

Although this hands-on behaviour is exhibited by several high-ranking American TV channel executives who remain intimately involved in, and in touch with shows even though they don't have to physically be there in person, it's not something that's really seen or experienced in the South African biz outside of M-Net.

The majority simply just don't do it.

It's also why a production like Uselwa on SABC1 "suddenly" implodes with SABC execs only then starting  to scurry to set for the first time after months, get held "hostage" and don't know what to do or how to resolve a production crisis or gridlock. It's because they've never been there.

In almost two decades of covering South Africa's TV industry, this TV critic has never attended the final episode of a local SABC1, SABC2 or e.tv reality competition show where at least one or more of that channel's execs were also in attendance. Ditto for an episode recording.

For the end of SABC3's The Apprentice SA back in September 2005 I spotted some SABC executives who bothered to show up for this. SABC1's channel head was at the launch and filming of Uzalo.

It's not that they're bad. They're busy.

Beyond M-Net's executives, a precious few other high-ranking executives however perpetually show up and show up although they're very busy too.

They're there for their local shows during filming, for media events, for finales, at channels' upfront presentations and at things where their participation and presence are not strictly required, but that they personally deem to be important because it clearly really matters to them.

Count under them BBC Africa boss Joel Churcher. MultiChoice's head of content, Aletta Alberts. Director of M-Net channels, Jan du Plessis. Or someone like MultiChoice content bouquet manager Alet Bench.

The Walt Disney Company Africa boss Christine Service is equally at home doing a set visit at ABC's Cape Town filmed TV series Of Kings and Prophets as she is attending a film biz investment seminar or doing a presentation to journalists about the gains and reach of the Disney Junior (DStv 309) channel herself.

Viacom Africa boss Alex Okosi actually goes to things - to things where he's not talking and where he, if he didn't show face, wouldn't be missed. And yet he goes.

Earlier this year Yolisa Phahle, CEO of general entertainment at MultiChoice set-visited HBO's Warrior being filmed in Cape Town. Don't mistakenly think that she had to.

And when she sits in the audience for Dancing with the Stars SA in Johannesburg on a Sunday night, after hours it's not because of a lack of  work or better things to do.

The interesting thing about South Africa's bold type execs who go far above and beyond the call of the job description and who continue to step away from their ever-full inboxes more than they have to, are that they maintain a much better grasp on what's really going on, who's doing what, and what the current industry challenges and movements are.

Instead of only peering through the gauze of middle-men PR, they also know the media directly and very often directly interact with members of the press when they spot them.

Although they run the zoo, they've learnt and know the times the hippo takes a snooze and when it's safe to peek inside. They know personally where the master key to the lion's cage is kept and has no problem to go and get the key themselves when something needs doing.

Seen in isolation, South Africa's 42-year old TV industry is big and continues to expand - the most sophisticated on the African continent by far - but compared across a wider perspective it's much smaller and younger compared to the United States or the United Kingdom where also more of an institutional history within companies and broadcasters reside.

As the country's local TV biz continues to mature, grow and add capacity, it's encouraging that there are TV executives - mostly within the fold of pay-TV - who really take their work seriously, and who really set an example of continuously going beyond the basics and bare minimum of what they need to do.

They're the people who not only show up at work every day because they have to but are TV execs who constantly journey ever further - showing up where they don't have to be because they really want to, inherently recognising the long-term dividends it unlock.

They're the indefatigable handful of TV executives who not only truly live their brands, but their work - and who, incrementally, all in their own unique ways, help to make the television you're getting to watch, better.