Sky News announces a raft of new programmes for 2022, Sophy Ridge returning mid-March from maternity to resume Sunday show and adding Wednesday night show.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Tuesday afternoon Sky News (DStv 402) announced a raft of new programmes

Following the announcement that the Sky News political editor Beth Rigby willhost a new prime time interview show Beth Rigby Interviews from 10 March, Sky News is also returning The Great Debate with Trevor Phillips from Monday 7 February at 23:00 (South African time).

The weekly discussion programme will, once again, give viewers the opportunity to question the decisions that are made about their lives and interrogate the people who make them. 

In addition to this, from early March on Tuesdays at 23:00, Trevor Phillips will try to find Common Ground between two protagonists with entrenched opinions on a topic in the news. 

"At a time when opinion seems noisier and more extreme than ever, Phillips will work to find the middle ground to see what can unite the two opponents," Sky News says.

Sophy Ridge is set to return to Sky News from maternity leave mid-March and will once again welcome viewers at her regular slot of 10:30 every Sunday for her weekly political talk show Sophy Ridge on Sunday. 

Later in 2022 she will also host a new show The Take with Sophy Ridge at 23:00 on Wednesdays. 

Sky News says that The Take is designed to take a mid-week political pulse "As well as hearing from members of parliament, the show will also invite viewers to give their take on the political headlines."

John Ryley, head of Sky News, says in a statement that "Sky News prides itself on its impartial journalism. We see it as our responsibility to present our viewers with dynamic, engaging and balanced programming, offering clarity in an uncertain world".

"These new programmes are designed to highlight the lively debate, discussion and opinion that is a vital part of the Sky News brand. From holding politicians to account to hearing directly from the people at the heart of the stories, our news organisation puts the British public at the heart of what we do."

eNCA can't care less if viewers know, or if nobody watches, The Great Debate; eNCA can't care to promote or publicise special debate.

eNCA (DStv 403) clearly apparently doesn't care if people know, or even if viewers tune in or watch, the joint eNCA and Daily Maverick The Great Debate - the e.tv and eNCA publicity department did nothing to promote The Great Debate or tell TV critics about it.

Sadly DStv viewers can't even record The Great Debate moderated by eNCA anchor Jeremy Maggs at Wits university - the electronic programme guide (EPG) on MultiChoice's DStv shows half hour segments of NewsNight at 20:00 and 20:30 - instead of the hour long The Great Debate that eNCA is in fact broadcasting.

It defies belief that eNCA, as a South African TV news channel, would invest anchors, energy, resources and time to produce content like a stage debate, and then completely fail to not even muster the bare minimum requirement of a basic publicity programming note to TV critics and people covering television, to say that a broadcast like this will be on.

If eNCA and e.tv can't even tell the press who will in turn tell readers about shows and special programming about something like The Great Debate, one has to wonder why they're even doing it in the first place and why they bother with something which they themselves don't value or see as important enough to even promote or inform people about.

It is disingenuous of eNCA to have a special election debate like The Great Debate with Daily Maverick and then say it has to do something like as a substitute because all the political parties are not willing to come to the table - meanwhile eNCA itself doesn't come to the party to even tell viewers that it will be on and when to watch.

eNCA and Daily Maverick's The Great Debate can just as well be - as far as viewers are concerned - The Non-Existent Debate.

eNCA is a news channel - supposed to really excel and specialise in the disemanation of information. Sadly when it comes to the channel's own news regarding its programming, it doesn't.

Embarrassing.