e.tv dumps The Morning Show after 7 years as it backs out of original production for the timeslot and replaces it with simulcast of eNCA's The South African Morning

by Thinus Ferreira

e.tv has dumped its low-rated breakfast show The Morning Show after seven years and is replacing it from today with eNCA's The South African Morning between 06:00 and 08:30 to save money.

eMedia cancelled its long-running Sunrise in mid-2018 and replaced it with The Morning Show - not to be confused with the American drama series The Morning Show on Apple TV+ set behind-the-scenes of a breakfast show.

The Morning Show, produced for e.tv by Cheeky Media, went through several iterations and multiple on-air changes over the past seven years

It's viewership struggled against SABC2's Morning Live, SABC3's Expresso, and several other cheaply done live morning shows across several of MultiChoice's DStv pay-TV channels.

The Morning Show was cancelled with Lee-Roy Wright, Carla McKenzie, Kgosi Rankhumise, Bolele Polisa and Brighton Mhlongo as the last set of presenters.

Neither e.tv nor eNCA have issued any press release to the media about either the cancellation of The Morning Show on e.tv or the simulcast of The South African Morning on e.tv from September. 

Two years ago eNCA (DStv 403) and e.tv courted controversy when it decided to drop producing an original morning show for its pay-TV news channel and to simulcast The Morning Show on both e.tv and eNCA.

It meant that DStv pay-TV audiences who pay for television and by implication a better product, suddenly got free-to-air content on a pay-TV channel, that they already got access to anyway.

eNCA and e.tv dropped the bad plan and returned The South African Morning to the eNCA schedule after just four days and kept The Morning Show on e.tv.

Now eMedia is doing the reverse and will be using an eNCA programming strand to fill a timeslot on e.tv's schedule that it no longer wants to do original content for. 

It will now work the other way around: Content that DStv subscribers are paying for to see, will now be made available for two and a half hours for free-to-air viewers on e.tv - in other words, original TV content produced for a pay-TV audience will be shown for free on a terrestrial free-to-air TV channel.

The South African Morning that also constantly goes through presenter line-up changes now has Dan Moyane and Masego Rahlaga as the anchors. eNCA hasn't said or explained anything to the media about the latest simulcast plan.

eMedia Holdings in its integrated report for 2025 alluded to the coming change when Khalik Sheriff, CEO, said about eNCA that "In the near future, The South African Morning, the vibrant show aired on eNCA every morning at 06:00, will also be simulcast on e.tv".

eNCA in May revamp with yet another new logo and schedule changes, Shahan Ramkissoon makes anchor return as channel dumps own show to simulcast e.tv's The Morning Show, will stay live until midnight.

by Thinus Ferreira 

On Monday eMedia's South African TV news channel eNCA (DStv 403) is poised for yet another rebrand less than 5 years after the last one - with more schedule changes and anchor shifts which will see the channel dump its own morning show output to simulcast's e.tv's The Morning Show, the return of anchor Shahan Ramkissoon and the channel now staying in live programming until midnight.

The Hyde Park-based eNCA had a channel rebrand in July 2018 that was accompanied by a dramatic overhaul to its schedule, programming and anchor line-up. It was followed by another eNCA schedule shake-up in July 2019.

Now eNCA, under John Bailey as managing editor - and feeling the increased heat and competition from rival local TV news channels like Thabile Ngwato and Thokozani Nkosi's Newzroom Afrika (DStv 405) and the public broadcaster's SABC News (DStv 404) - is once again revamping its look, programming structure and content output.

The eNCA logo is changing again from 1 May 2023, sticking with blue and red, but delineating the blue "e" from the red and flipping the blue and white between letter and background colour.

eNCA will no longer produce its own morning show, The South African Morning, with its anchors Tumelo Mothotoane and Gareth Edwards shifted to anchor NewsLink from 09:00 to 12:00. NewsLink which used to end at 11:00 and is now being extended to a 3-hour block.

In the space of The South African Morning, eNCA will now show DStv subscribers a simulcast of e.tv's The Morning Show, meaning that pay-TV viewers and free-to-air viewers will now see the same show on two TV channels.

What eNCA saves in production costs by dropping the in-house production of The South African Morning it used to do from its own studios, it will now use to stay in live broadcast programming until later.

From May eNCA will now broadcast live until midnight, nightly, whereas it used to switch to repeats and rebroadcasts at 22:00.

According to the new eNCA schedule, the All Angels daytime block which ran from 11:00 until 14:00 will now run from 12:00 until 15:00. Today which ran from 14:00 until 17:00 will now start at 15:00 until 18:00. South Africa Tonight which started at 17:00 on eNCA will now start at 18:00.

NewsNight on eNCA which used to start at 20:00 and ended at 22:00, how shifts to start at 21:00 for three hours until midnight.

Shahan Ramkissoon who left eNCA a year ago in May 2022 to work in South Africa's corporate public relations industry is returning to anchor the new eNCA show The Last Word on Thursday and Friday nights at 20:00.

"From 1 May, viewers will see an updated logo and fresh look for the channel," eNCA confirms in a press release. "As part of the refresh, viewers can expect some updates in the daily broadcast schedule," the news channel says.

"Viewers will still see the familiar faces they've grown to rely on, and also some new ones who will join the channel," says eNCA, adding that "The weekend schedule is also being refreshed. Going forward, We the Nation will be shown on Sundays at 20:00. eNCA will also extend its broadcast hours until midnight, every night."

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