Primedia revives SA's Got Talent for 9th season on SABC in 2024.

by Thinus Ferreira

After seven years off the air, SA's Got Talent is getting revived and is jumping back to the SABC in 2024.

As TVwithThinus reported last month Primedia now confirms that SA's Got Talent is getting a TV berth back on the South African public broadcaster where it ran for two seasons on SABC2 since 2009 before the Rapid Blue-produced show jumped to e.tv for another six seasons, ending in 2017.

The revived 9th season of SA's Got Talent will air on a SABC channel and will now be produced by Anele Mdoda's Rose and Oaks Media production company.

In late September Primedia, at its second PrimeX event held at Montecasino in Johannesburg, announced that it is bringing several retired international formats back to South African television, like SA's Got Talent, as well as Strictly Come Dancing SA which was on SABC3 and moved to M-Net as Dancing with the Stars SA.

Primedia is also reviving The Voice SA which was also on M-Net for a free-to-air audience. 

Primedia also said it plans to take M-Net's Idols which has run out of ratings steam on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) currently in its 19th and final season there, to the SABC and a free-to-air audience.

The Masked Singer SA on SABC3, also produced by Rose and Oaks Media, has been renewed for a second and a third season, while the revived Deal or No Deal SA currently on SABC1 produced by Homebrew Films is also getting a second season.

It's not clear whether the new season of SA's Got Talent will be on SABC1 or SABC2 although it will very likely return to SABC2 as its former channel home, with the season that will have 14 episodes.

"In less than a year we've come further and achieved more than we ever dared hope - not least winning three major television format commissions from our country's largest broadcaster," says Jan du Plessis, Primedia Studios president, in a statement.

"All three shows have the power to bring joy and improve lives while showcasing African talent and culture with passion and authenticity".

ALSO READ: Idols, The Voice SA, SA's Got Talent and Strictly revived for SA's free-to-air viewers, Masked Singer SA renewed for 2 more seasons.

Idols, The Voice SA, SA's Got Talent and Strictly revived for SA's free-to-air viewers, Masked Singer SA renewed for 2 more seasons.

by Thinus Ferreira

Strictly Come Dancing SA and SA's Got Talent are being revived for new free-to-air audiences, with The Masked Singer SA renewed for a further two seasons, Deal or No Deal SA getting a second season, while both The Voice SA and the long-running Idols that ran out of steam on pay-TV is getting free-to-air oxygen.

Like it did last September for the first time, Primedia on Monday held another of its so-called "PrimeX" events where it touted some format reality shows that its expanding Primedia Studios is planning to bring to South African television.

As part of its growing entertainment content slate of reality competition and shiny floor shows, Primedia Studios has renewed The Masked Singer SA on SABC3 for another two seasons, renewed Deal or No Deal SA for a second season, is reviving SA's Got Talent that was on e.tv, is reviving The Voice SA that was on M-Net for a free-to-air audience, and is also taking over Idols that was cancelled as a pay-TV show and bringing it to free-to-air viewers.

Similar to The Masked Singer SA and the revived Deal or No Deal SA that Primedia brought to SABC1 and SABC3 over the past year and announced in September last year, Primedia now plans to bring back and revilatise Strictly Come Dancing SA, SA's Got Talent, The Voice SA and also Idols that stalled on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) and is in its final season on pay-TV.

Primedia only told some media about its PrimeX event held at Montecasino in Johannesburg with Primedia CEO Jonathan Procter and issued no press release on Monday after the event. 

According to insiders, while several shows were touted on stage, some of the contracts are not yet in place.

As part of the second PrimeX presentation, Anele Mdoda who produced The Masked Singer SA under her Rose and Oaks Media production banner, also did an interview on-stage with comedian Trevor Noah, while Deal or No Deal SA host Katlego Maboe also made an on-stage appearance.

Production company Rapid Blue did eight seasons of Strictly Come Dancing that aired on SABC2 and later SABC3 until 2015. In 2018 the format was revived and taken over by M-Net with Rapid Blue producing a single season for M-Net but rebranding it under the show's American moniker of Dancing with the Stars SA.

Now the show will return to free-to-air - very likely SABC3 - and again as Strictly Come Dancing as the British version is also known as.

After 18 seasons on M-Net, then on M-Net and Mzansi Magic jointly and then on Mzansi Magic, Idols will also move from pay-TV where the show got cancelled, to free-to-air - very likely SABC1 in order to give it the biggest potential new talent pool and TV audience. 

With massively declining audience ratings, on pay-TV, Idols that has run out of viewership steam, has barely reached 403 818 DStv subscribers who tuned in during August. 

In earlier seasons before a dramatic viewership decline set in that co-incided with judge Somizi Mhlongo who was engulfed in scandals, Idols brought close to and over a million viewers on Sunday evenings to DStv.

SA's Got Talent, also produced by Rapid Blue, saw eight very successful seasons  between 2009 and 2017 - the first two of which were on SABC2 after moving to e.tv from the third season onwards. It's likely that SA's Got Talent could now re-emerge on SABC2.

The Voice SA will also jump to cater to a new free-to-air audience after M-Net had the reality talent competition for three seasons between 2016 and 2019 and where Anele Mdoda served as host for the third and last season.

TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. How M-Net's The Voice SA director Darren Hayward once again pushed further in the 3rd season to create true TV pearl spectaculars - an appreciation.

Like strings of impossibly hovering white pearls they suddenly appeared. Dazzling white orbs of light moving through a pitch black, rigging-flanked sky.

The very best magicians are the ones capable of pulling off such masterful and seamlessly artful illusions, that you forget that you're being tricked and completely come to believe in the immersively conjured-up world of make-believe they create.

South African TV has that in Darren Hayward, the director of The Voice South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) whose découpage live television spectacle brims with glitter, truetone surround-sound and such powerfully choreographed walk-and-talk singing voices that it successfully transports even the most jaded non-believer to a world of must-believe magic.

If there's a 4th season of The Voice SA on M-Net - and there should and must be - M-Net would do well to commission an additional separate episode as a sort of loose standing documentary, to slot in around the end of the season for broadcast.

It should just follows Darren Hayward, fly-on-the-wall style as a behind-the-scenes, making-of special entitled something like The Voice SA - The Director's Cut.

DStv subscribers deserve to see how this TV maestro makes the magic.

Similar to documentaries and series like the ones peeking behind-the-scenes of HBO's Game of Thrones, Oprah's final season and Netflix's Formula 1: Drive to Survive looking behind the veil of Formula One, a camera following Darren Hayward to show the ups and downs, crises and triumphs, stress and drama, and the challenges and beauty of putting episodes of The Voice South Africa together, is really a must.

It would be highly enjoyable to see.

Did you see the pyrotechnics? The moving balls in the sky? Did you notice how everything from bands and their instruments, grand pianos, backup dancers, and even pop-up light fixtures glide across the stage for musical numbers in perfectly (and intricately) choreographed musical numbers - only to seamlessly disappear the next?

It looks like sheer magic - and that's the successful aim - but it's part of insane prep work beforehand and a dazzling number of in-production moves by many people, executed in literally seconds, similar to the tyre changes that mark Formula 1 pit stop perfection.

The man behind this all is director Darren Hayward, who not only sells you a TV dream but makes you believe it.

To step into Darren Hayward's dazzling creations for the weekly episodes of The Voice during the third season on M-Net was once again like being Mickey Mouse entering Disney's 1940-Fantasia: living video art for the ages.

While The Voice SA is a TV show primarily for DStv subscribers and their home viewing consumption, Darren Hayward manages to achieve the near-impossible: a live TV show that is as utterly mesmerizing and great to watch in person as one of the seated audience members, as what it is to watch it on a flat TV screen.

Very rarely - simply due to logistics and technical specifications - can a show be done in an excellent way on-stage as a theatre production and simultaneously translate to be great as a 16:9 two-dimensional home theatre experience.

The Voice SA on M-Net is that rarity.

Pearl divers are special.

With just one breath, fearlessly, they're willing to dive far deeper than the rest of us, grabbing what they can, and bringing mulluscs to the surface. They open up the spectacular bits of beauty that they find, for all the world to see.

Darren Hayward once again dove deeper than ever before to find and properly showcase the beauty contained within the third season of The Voice SA on M-Net - beauty that's only attainable when you're able to hold your breath, dive deeper and stretch even further in the ever-onward search for TV pearl perfection.

ALSO READ: Tasché Burger from Brackenfell in Cape Town wins the 3rd season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net.
ALSO READ: 6 things we've learned about The Voice SA from M-Net's press conference after the third season finalé.

6 things we've learned about The Voice SA from M-Net's press conference after the third season finalé.

Following the winner moment on Sunday night when Tasché Burger (19) from Brackenfell in Cape Town was announced as the winner of the third season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101). the channel had a press conference with her, M-Net executives and the show's director.

Here are 6 things we learned in response to their answers to the media's questions:


1. The difference between votes and why it's important to vote
M-Net says almost 10 million votes during the course of this season and that voting results were independently computed by Deloitte and Touche. TVwithThinus asked how close the difference was between the top vote-getters and how important it really is for DStv subscribers to vote.

"Tasché has been a firm favourite since the start of the voting process, from the point past the coaches' stage. But I can say of the top 2 runners-up, between Siki Jo-An and Soné that is was very close," said Kaye-Ann Williams, the head of local content and independent films for M-Net channels.

"People who vote make a massive difference. It's so important to vote, it's so important to encourage people to engage and to participate and that if they love someone to express it through voting for them. So absolutely, yes."

2. Tasché Burger feels amazing - and missed home
Winner Tasché Burger (19) from Brackenfell was asked how she feels. "I feel amazing. I'm so thankful. I came here for a platform and then I did it and it's crazy. I don't know quite how to feel but it's amazing."

She said that in 5 years time "I'd like to be a great artist and bring a bit of difference in the industry. I just want to sing".

She said she would like to sing with Afrikaans songs "because that's my home language, I feel comfortable in Afrikaans. But I don't care - wherever there's a song that I connect with, however a song makes me feel, I will sing it - Afrikaans and English. Genre-wise I think country-rock".

She said that the hardest part was being away from home. "We've been here for 2 months already and we miss home. I miss my braai. I miss my mense (people). But it's all worth it, and I can't wait to go home."


3. Coach Francois van Coke's spirit animal
Francois van Coke, who is the successful coach behind Tasché, was asked how he feels."I'm not the winner,  Tasché's the winner. I'm just so happy that I could be a part of her journey. She picked me during the blind auditions, she could have picked anyone."

"I think if she picked anyone, they would have been the winner as well. I'm just happy that I'm involved in her journey; and I want to be involved moving forward as well."

He called Tasché his "spirit animal".

4. A season 4?
"It's too soon to tell if we're going to do a season 4 of The Voice South Africa but I do want to say that as M-Net we are exceptionally proud of this production team," said Kaye-Ann Williams.

"When we started this journey it was a year and a half before we even had a discussion with a coach and we put together a team of some of our favourite producers and that was Darren Hayward, who is the director; and James who is music director; and then we brought in Ady at Blackswanmedia. And it became a happy marriage".

"And I want to say on behalf of M-Net we are extremely proud of what you guys have achieved; we asked a lot of you, and I have to say that any time I've worked with Ady or Darren or Bruce or anyone else on the team it has been very collaborative."

"So, nothing on the card yet but I want to say thank you, we are very, very proud of you guys. And I want to say thank you very much to the coaches. It was an incredible journey."

"You were extremely committed, always giving your time, always attending rehearsals, always invested in your talent. And even when it's not your talent being invested in their success. I want to say thank you for your commitment and for your creativity, and thank you for your time."


5. Lira's favourite season so far
"It really was my favourite season so far," said Lira about the just-concluded third season. "I just think everything was epic, was big, was better."

"The energy, the collaboration - it was just a powerful experience for me in every way. It was the first time that we had a female top 3. And I just want to say kudos to M-Net because you can see through the reflection of the results that The Voice SA was more inclusive."

"It's the first time that someone like Siki made it so far in the competition, and it makes me so proud to be South African. I just felt it was so inclusive, that people are so invested; everybody was watching, so I'm just proud in every way."


6. M-Net improving duty of care of reality contestants
"I think through the years we have learned a lot, we've done quite a lot of reality shows, and hopefully we just get better and better every year in trying to life-coach and to provide support for the contestants," said Lani Lombard, M-Net's head of publicity.

"The beauty of a show like The Voice South Africa is that the talent have the coaches to guide them. They have the co-coaches as well - they connect with them. They're able to go backstage and meet all of the musicians, so they have quite a big support system. Darren Hayward as the director as well."

"We have learned a lot from the beginning."

Kaye-Ann Williams said that "there is a proper mentorship that happens. So they're not just left to their own devices to figure things out on their own. In the last 3 years, and I've been past of this team, we've grown a lot in terms of what we call "duty of care" towards our participants and our reality shows.

"Jan du Plessis, M-Net channels director, makes a concerted effort to meet with every single person who gets eliminated to make sure that they go through Lani's publicity team, we have proper psychologists, so we make sure that whoever is part of our reality slate understands that they will always be part of the M-Net brand, that they will always have our support, whatever they decide to do."


ALSO READ: TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. How M-Net's The Voice SA director Darren Hayward once again pushed further in the 3rd season to create true TV pearl spectaculars - an appreciation.
ALSO READ: Tasché Burger from Brackenfell in Cape Town wins the 3rd season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net.

M-Net and The Voice SA reveals the guest artist line-up for Sunday's third season finalé with Laurika Rauch set to do something she's never done before.

M-Net (DStv 101) and The Voice South Africa revealed the line-up of the big guest stars for Sunday's third season live finalé on 7 July which will include Laurika Rauch, Judith Sepuma, Jo Black, Roan Ash, Timothy Moloi and Caroline-Grace Brüssow, along with a The Voice SA red carpet broadcast starting at around 16:30.

Sunday's The Voice SA finale starting at 17:30, produced by BlackSwanMedia with director-producer Darren Hayward based on the international Talpa format, will be an all-out Cape clash.

Either Soné Joubert, Siki Jo-Ann Qwazi, Tasché Burger, Eon le Roux, or The PJ Twins (Peter and John Talmarkes) will walk away victorious at the Mosaïek Teatro in Fairlands, Johannesburg depending on who has been able to garner the most votes from viewers this week.

Hailing from the Western Cape is Soné Joubert (27) from Gordon’s Bay, Tasché Burger (18) from Brackenfell and The PJ Twins (26) from Bonteheuwel.

Coming from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape is Eon le Roux (27) and Siki Jo-An Qwazi (25).

Coach Riky Rick is counting on Eon, Lira is backing the PJ Twins and Francois van Coke is cheering on Tasché. Coach Riana Nel is the only one with two talent on stage – Soné and Siki Jo-An.

On Sunday, for the first time in her illustrious career, the Afrikaans music legend Laurika Rauch will be on-stage at a live television singing contest, breathing new life into her iconic song, “Stuur Groete aan Mannetjies Roux” with Soné.

South Africa’s Queen of Afro-jazz, Judith Sephuma, will be joining Siki  Jo-An with an apt song for two big voices, “I’m Every Woman” by Chaka Khan.

The second season's Caroline-Grace Brüssow and Eon are ready to raise the roof with Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me”, while the singer Timothy Moloi and The PJ Twins are set to go for gold with Luther Vandross' “Impossible Dream”.

Tasché and her coach, Francois van Coke, will be blending their voices in their version of “Toe Vind Ek Jou”.

The top 5 will also sing solos during the show, while artists Jo Black and Roan Ash, are also set to perform.

An epic Cape clash awaits in the 3rd season finale of The Voice SA on M-Net as the last 5 remaining contestants from the Western and Eastern Cape wait for votes before Sunday's showstopper final episode.

An epic Cape clash awaits in the 3rd season finale of The Voice South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) as the Western Cape's Cape Town metropole will go head-to-head with the Eastern Cape's Port Elizabeth to see who will deliver the winner in Sunday's night's live season finalé.

Voting closes on Thursday night at 22:00 with one of the five remaining talent all coming from the Western and Eastern Cape provinces who will walk away with the top prize at the end of Sunday's last episode of the season.

Sunday's showstopper finalé will be filled with several spectacular set-piece performances and on-stage surprises.

The Voice SA is produced by BlackSwanMedia with director-producer Darren Hayward, based on the international Talpa format.

The soulful Afrikaans singer Soné Joubert, African diva Siki Jo-Ann Qwazi, young rocker Tasché Burger, crooner Eon le Roux, or The PJ Twins (Peter and John Talmarkes) will walk away victorious on Sunday night at the Mosaïek Teatro in Fairlands, Johannesburg - depending on who is able to garner the most votes from viewers by the time voting closes tonight.

Hailing from the Western Cape is Soné Joubert (27) from Gordon’s Bay, Tasché Burger (18) from Brackenfell and The PJ Twins (26) from Bonteheuwel.

Coming from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape is Eon le Roux (27) and Siki Jo-An Qwazi (25).

Viewers have had more time to vote this week leading up to the finale with the winner who will snag a recording contract with Universal Music South Africa, as well as a Toyota RAV4 and other prizes.

Voting for The Voice SA closes on Thursday night at 22:00.

Western Cape boasts with 5 talent in the top 8 of The Voice SA on M-Net as the live shows in the third season of the singing reality show switches to viewers' votes.

The third season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) has its top 8 talent with DStv subscribers who will now decide who goes home weekly in the Sunday night live shows broadcast from the Mosaiek Teatro in Fairlands, Johannesburg.

The Western Cape has the most talent left in the top 8.

The top 8 talent who are now vying for the viewers' vote are Tasché Burger (18) from Brackenfell in Cape Town, Anslin Gysman (23) from Philippi in Cape Town, Soné Joubert (27) from Gordon’s Bay, Yahto Kraft (18) from Alberton, Eon Claude le Roux (27) from Port Elizabeth, The PJ Twins (26) from Bonteheuwel in Cape Town, Siki Jo-Ann Qwazi (25) from Port Elizabeth and Amy Tjasink (26) from Cape Town.

The coaches Lira, Riky Rick, Riana Nel, and Francois van Coke are able to offer encouraging feedback on the remaining top 8 talents' performances, but they have no more say in the competition - it is now all up to viewers and their votes.

Going forward the talent in The Voice SA are also not performing in teams any more, and this coming Sunday, the singer who received the fewest votes up until the voting closes on Tuesday, 11 June at 22:00 will leave The Voice SA stage. 

On Sunday night viewers had to say goodbye t0 4 singers - one talent from each coach. 

#TeamRiky lost Durban muso Ross Charles (26), #TeamRiana said goodbye to the Johannesburg musical theatre actress Lelo Ramasimong (33), #TeamVanCoke bid adieu to songstress Chezelle Shahadat (39), and #TeamLIRA said farewell to the performing artist Sbu Dludlu (35).

The Voice South Africa on M-Net upgrades live shows for the 3rd season with the spectacular L-ISA immersive sound system bringing an immersive sound art experience to the audience.

The Voice South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) has upgraded its live shows - starting this Sunday 19 May at 17:30 - with the spectacular L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound system, that will be bringing an immersive sound art experience to the studio audience seated inside the Mosaiek Teatro in Fairlands, Johannesburg.

For DStv subscribers watching The Voice on M-Net, it means that they will be able to watch the show for the first time in true Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound - one of extremely few reality competition shows capable of doing that.

M-Net and The Voice SA revealed the new stage, its audio-visual set-up as well as the new L-ISA sound system from L-Acoustics on Thursday during an exclusive set visit to a select group of media before Sunday's first use of it during the first live broadcast of the third season of the show.

The Voice SA is produced by BlackSwanMedia with director-producer Darren Hayward, based on the international Talpa format.

SNEAK PEEK. Number 1 most favourite thing I love as a TV critic is doing set visits & seeing the art,creative work & effort people put into their shows. @MNet (@DStv 101) just allowed me to roam the new stage of @VoiceSA where the live #TheVoiceSA performances will start Sunday. pic.twitter.com/lfwIXBJUYq

— TVwithThinus (@TVwithThinus) May 16, 2019

L-ISA can accommodate up to 96 different audio channels, mix them and send them out in a customised, multi-speaker set-up so that individual sound literally "move" through the physical space as needed - for instance with a performer.

L-ISA brings a massive improvement over ordinary "stereo" and so-called "surround sound" in venues with hugely improved individual sound separation, meaning a better "overall" sound mix with more clarity.

While, traditionally, most live performances have speakers overhead and on the left and right of the stage with all channels from vocals and instruments feeding into these, listeners don't really hear everything clearly or individually. L-ISA creates a true "3D sound environment" by acoustically placing all of the relevant sounds really everywhere.

The Voice South Africa on M-Net is the first time that L-ISA and its sound technology has been used in any version of The Voice, with L-ISA that has also only been used once before in the entire Southern Hemisphere.

The Voice South Africa's sound engineers got specialist training for L-ISA at L-Acoustics' headquarters in France.

Chris de Lancey, director at Multi-Media who brought the L-ISA technology from L-Acoustics to The Voice SA, explains that all of the various sound channels, for the first time ever, instead of through stereo output, can now be placed anywhere within a virtual 3D-space.

"If for instance there is vocals moving from the one side of the stage to the other, we can move that vocal with them. From just listening to them, your ear can now hear where they are. The system can now be set up that wherever you are in the room, you get the full spectrum of the audio coming from the performance."

"L-ISA is new tchnology, and is as far as we are concerned, the future of sound. L-ISA really involved the audience. You can go even further and put speakers on the different walls. You can go even further and put speakers in the roof."

"We discussed with the production company, we mentioned that we have this technology and that we'd committed a large sum of money to buy the L-ISA system, and through negotiations with the production company we decided to invest even more money in order to make The Voice South Africa a first of its kind in the world," said Chris de Lancey.

"L-ISA really is the world's first really immersive audience sound experience."

"Each individual sound object is coming in as an input of its own, and going out as an output of its own. So every element is played out on its own rather than being mixed into a stereo environment. So it's all separated and remain crystal clear."

Darren Hayward, the producer-director of The Voice South Africa explains that "we create a live show with an audience and we broadcast that live show. We don't create a television show that we put an audience into. So even though it doesn't affect the broadcast at all, it actually is important to us that the people inside the audience has the best experience possible."

"Our pillars are from our pre-records, so we use them as a theme coming into the live shows as well. Last year we had big 'V's, so we changed that slightly," said Darren Hayward.

"An important thing this year is that the Red Room is a slightly different concept. In the past we had a Red Room host and this season we wanted to try a different approach, which is a first for The Voice worldwide as well."

"So this will be a 'Red Room Radio Takeover' and every week we will have a different radio station who comes and takes over the Red Room and we get different personalities, so that we have a different presenter every time."

"The Red Room is also a new separate space within the auditorium. Previously the Red Room was at the back and very much behind. So we very much wanted to include the audience in the experience and make it part of the audience area."

"The first radio station is Jacaranda FM with Elana Africa and MiCasa will also perform and debut a new song."

"We have exceptional technicians and people who work behind-the-scenes on The Voice South Africa. Specifically on lighting our lighting designer is at the moment lighting 2019 Eurovision. So he is exceptionally experienced, does a lot of television shows."

"He flew over this week to go do Eurovision and he's back with us next week," says Darren Hayward.


ALSO READ: IN IMAGES. 18 photos of the new stage for the live shows of the 3rd season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net.

IN IMAGES. 18 photos of the new stage for the live shows of the 3rd season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net.

On Thursday night M-Net (DStv 101) and The Voice South Africa revealed to a select group of media, the new stage, it's latest audio-visual set-up, as well as a brand-new state-of-the-art sound system installed inside the auditorium for the live performances and live broadcast part of the third season.

The show once again upgraded the look and sound of its stage set-up for the third season of The Voice SA - produced by BlackSwanMedia and based on the international Talpa format with director-producer Darren Hayward.

The studio audience now attending the live shows of The Voice SA will experience the spectacular and revolutionary L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology from L-Acoustics.

L-ISA is an immersive sound art system that creates a panoramic, multidimensional sound experience that delivers incredible, clear, natural audio through localised sound sources, speaker set-up and object-based sound mixing.

DStv subscribers will see the new stage of The Voice South Africa at the Mosaiek Teatro in Fairlands, Johannesburg, for the first time on Sunday 19 May with the start of the first live broadcast and first live performances in The Voice SA.

Sixteen singers will now be competing over the course of the next few weeks for viewers' votes.

On Sunday, doing battle against each other in the first Live Show will be talent who have been "rescued" by fans - Carmen Basson (20) from Kroonstad, Katlego Makgotlwe (23) from Vosloorus, Soné Joubert (27) from Gordon’s Bay, and Ashur Petersen (26) from Cape Town.

The other contestants who have already made it through are Krista Jonas (29) from Cape Town, Yahto Kraft (18) from Alberton, Sbu Dludlu (34) from Duduza, and The PJ Twins (20) from Bonteheuwel who are all in Lira's team.

Amy Tjasnik (26) from Cape Town, Durban sound engineer Ross Charles (26), the Pretoria duo Aura, and the 28-year-old Bitcoin entrepreneur and musician from Port Elizabeth, Eon Claude le Roux are in Riky's team.

Lelo Ramasimong (33) from Johannesburg, 26-year-old industrial designer Elisha James from Pretoria, Pretoria singer and actor Francois Viljoen (30), and Siki Jo-An Qwazi (25) from Port Elizabeth are in Riana's team.

Daniel Jay (23) from Port Elizabeth, the singing waitress Tasché Burger (18) from Brackenfell, Cape Town payroll officer Anslin Gysman (22) from Filipi, and the 39-year-old pub singer Chezelle Shahadat from Johannesburg are in Francois van Coke's team.

SNEAK PEEK. Number 1 most favourite thing I love as a TV critic is doing set visits & seeing the art,creative work & effort people put into their shows. @MNet (@DStv 101) just allowed me to roam the new stage of @VoiceSA where the live #TheVoiceSA performances will start Sunday. pic.twitter.com/lfwIXBJUYq

— TVwithThinus (@TVwithThinus) May 16, 2019

ALSO READ: The Voice South Africa on M-Net upgrades live shows for the 3rd season with the spectacular L-ISA immersive sound system bringing an immersive sound art experience to the audience.

The Voice SA on M-Net on its big, no-turn format change for the 3rd season: 'Just so much easier, after no-turns, for contestants to just walk away'.

The Voice South Africa kicks off its 3rd season on M-Net (DStv 101) this evening at 17:30 with a rebroadcast on Mondays on VUZU (DStv 116) at 20:00 starting with the usual blind auditions - but a big format change is happening, with the coaches who will no longer all swivel around in their red chairs to see and talk with whom they missed out on, if none of them turned.

Instead, all their backs will remain turned to the contestant who will simply have to exit stage left.

Asked about not turning, the sole returning coach from the previous seasons, Lira, says "It's horrible because everyone on The Voice SA can actually sing. So emotionally it really is difficult."

"But sometimes you end up with a lot of similar voices and you do need diversity. So sometimes you really do get a great person, but you're thinking" 'I've got two or three voices already that sound like this'. So it's all of those kinds of dynamics that come into play."

Lira, the other coaches and show executives spoke at a M-Net press screening and Q&A session of this evening's episode that took place at the Gold Reef City cinema a week ago where The Voice SA formed part of M-Net's 3-day programming upfront. 

About being the veteran coach with three new ones added - Riky Rick, Francois van Coke and Riana Nel, Lira says "initially I had feelings of – probably because I've done it longer – that I have to help everyone along".

"No. I didn't have to do a thing. Everyone was strong, they were present, I was having a great time, I didn't have to worry about any of that, I could just focus on what I needed to do. It was great competition with confidence and great content."

"When you're sitting there, all kinds of people are coming through. What you do is irrelevant – you're there to serve the talent," she says.

"If you find a voice that just wows you, you go 'I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I want you on my team'. Sometimes if you connect with somebody, and say nobody else connects, I was going for just whatever resonates, irrespective of music genre."

Non-turning chairs
"We have 100 people auditioning for the coaches and they can only choose 48 of them, so literally 50% of everyone who's brilliant enough to have got there is no longer on the show," says Darren Hayward, The Voice SA producer.

"It's a tragic thing. And the coaches have to strategically build where they want to go with their teams of 12. So sometimes you look and think: 'They made such a mistake', but actually they were making a decision based upon their strategy."

"We do have a couple of people who are no-turns. This is a global decision – the non-turning chairs at the end of nobody turned."

"A lot of research was done with the talent who didn't get a turn, and the coaches would have to turn around and in the nicest possible way tell them why they didn't turn and what goes into that. And in actual effect what was happening was that the talent didn’t hear a thing."

"It was just so much easier, after no-turns, to just walk away. So it feels very tragic and it feels like we're not finishing the story necessarily from the coaches' point of view, but in actual fact, the talent just feels better. They don't have to face them, they don't have to go through all that kind of stuff."

"We run a very positive show, we do encourage them to come back, we do encourage them to keep on trying, and a show like this doesn't define you as a musician – it literally just enhances opportunities," says Darren Hayward.

"Besides the non-turning chairs at the end of nobody turned – a new change to the format, in the last season we had battles first, and then we had knock-outs. And for this new season, we've actually swopped those around. We've created a really nice dramatic build-up to our live shows."

"Those are the major ones, there are a couple more which I’m not going to talk about. Another format change was putting the family room in the studio itself."

The Voice SA coach Francois says "there's so much emotion when you don't turn. And the reason for not turning is a thousand things – not just one thing. It's a crazy experience".

New presenter Anele: Trying to find all the Dr. Phil-isms'
Another new addition to The Voice SA is Anele Mdoda as the new presenter replacing the previous ones and hanging out backstage with the friends and family members of contestants.

"My feet are not great, because I was standing the entire time. The families are holding me, they're squeezing me; every breath they take I'm taking it with them."

"It's so much fun when a coach turns. I won't lie – it's not great when nobody turns. And I'm out there trying to find all the Dr. Phil-isms in my head like 'This doesn't mean the end' and 'It's okay'. But I mean, because the families are there, and the support is there, they knew they were talented before the coaches' chairs turn or not."

"And that's what I try to remind them of – the fact that you had the support means that you can sing and there are no limits to The Voice SA – there's no age, there's no cut-off, it's not like 'this has to happen before I turn 35'. You can come at 65 and if you can sing, you can sing," says Anele Mdoda.

Live shows of the third season of The Voice SA will take place at The Mosaïek Teatro in Johannesburg where the previous seasons took place, with tickets that will go on sale at Computicket.


ALSO READ: REVIEW. Third season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net less jack-in-the-box, more tempered; just as much fun as before.

REVIEW. Third season of The Voice South Africa on M-Net less jack-in-the-box, more tempered; just as much fun as before.

The third season of The Voice South Africa starting on M-Net (DStv 101) on Sunday, 3 February at 17:30 with a rebroadcast Mondays at 20:00 on VUZU (DStv 116) has somewhat less in-show exuberance, the new collection of coaches are less jack-in-the-box, but it doesn’t mean that the reality singing competition isn’t still as much fun and enjoyable to watch.

With both the well-liked swivel-chair music matriarch Karen Zoid, the bouncy and easily excitable puppy-dog like Bobby van Jaarveld, as well as Kahn Morbee gone, and replaced by Riana Nel, Riky Rick and Francois van Coke, with Anele Mdoda replacing the previous presenters, the third season of The Voice SA is more tempered in tone yet still a fun and joy-tension will-they-or-won’t-they viewing experience.

The more mature poise of songstress Lira – the sole returning coach – seems to rub off on her fellow red chaired coaches who are less jumpy, less showy, taking more time to actually listen during the blind auditions.

Unconsciously it’s now very clear that the coaches – although all competing against each other – are now taking their cues from Lira as the queen bee in the new pecking order.

Counter-intuitively but a positive format change, is that the coaches no longer turn at the end if none of them turned. It spares and cuts out the obligatory schmaltz when coaches have to give a pandering “soft-landing” goodbye to people who didn’t make it.

Anele Mdoda is a great addition as new presenter, wonderfully emoting without coming across as insincere, behind-the-scenes with parents and family members of singers. 

Often too stressed to visibly react, Anele Mdoda picks up the slack on their behalf as a well-fused version of the British Ant and Dec and how they visually and cleverly emote backstage at Britain’s Got Talent auditions.

Problematic are the multiple scrapes, marks, and dull surface bits on the supposed high-gloss black stage that are constantly visible in panning shots and detract visually from what is supposed to be a premium, high-definition show. Was the amended stage chunks simply taken out of storage and plonked down with no meticulous producer look-over and touch-ups?

Some other slight format changes are coming, for instance where and how the battle round fit in, but The Voice SA in its third season remain sparkling as a Sunday night TV outing.

While it probably won’t worry or be noticed by ordinary viewers, it’s off-putting that the producers and editors ae deliberately slo-mo’ing the studio audience reaction during performances. While singers sing and perform at normal speed, their backstage walk-in and audience shots are slowed down. 

It’s slightly jarring since a purported reality competition show at least has to present the appearance of unaltered “reality".

As before the performers’ emotional video backstories are well crafted, “wow”-moments are done to great effect, and the on-stage band and musical instruments actually functional in showing how much of a difference a live on-stage band can make to a show like this (“Do you want to use one of their guitars?”).

IN IMAGES. 69 photos of M-Net's 2019 Content Showcase programming upfront.

This past week M-Net held a 3-day press tour in Johannesburg, with an "FBI investigation" theme since the new American drama series FBI just started on M-Net (DStv 101) this week, inviting journalists covering television and TV critics from across South Africa to Gold Reef City.

M-Net did Q&A sessions with the talent of several of its new and upcoming local shows like The Voice SA, The Bachelor SA, Finding the One, and Trackers; held panel sessions with producers and M-Net executives regarding the broader M-Net, M-Net's local content, M-Net's international content slate, its M-Net Movies division, and took media to the recording of the second season finale of The Wedding Bashers.

Besides a full, set schedule of morning and afternoon press events and breakaway panel sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, including evening events, and ending Friday afternoon; M-Net also constructed a "Case File" to be solved.

Journalists were all allocated to different coloured FBI hat teams, having to work together to gather clues and evidence to "solve" the overall case, as well as complete several tasks in-between.

The entire M-Net press tour was extremely well conceptualised, creative, beautiful, well thought-out and flowing, and very well-organised, especially given the large media contingent who were invited and attended - certainly the biggest South African one I've ever been a part of.

Here are photos of M-Net's 3-day #MNetCaseFile programming upfront press tour:

Arrival and registration at MultiChoice City

Arrival at Gold Reef City and welcoming

Wednesday morning: The Voice SA season 3

Wednesday afternoon: Finding the One

Wednesday late afternoon: The Bachelor SA personal grooming, makeup and makeover session

Wednesday night: The Bachelor SA dinner and press event

(Heavy, continuous thundershowers caused a wash-out of the event that was beautifully set up at the Gold Reef City pool - I saw pictures.)

Instead of cancelling, M-Net pushed the start time out to later, constantly messaged the media Whatsapp group with updates and jumped to Plan B reorganising and redressing an available conference room.)

Thursday morning: The Bachelor SA exercise with Lee Thompson Fitness and "FBI training"

(Kill me now.)

Wednesday mid-morning: M-Net international content slate panel session

Wednesday afternoon: M-Net Movies press session

Thursday night: The Wedding Bashers season 2 finale studio recording

ALSO SEE: IN IMAGES. 22 photos from behind-the-scenes of the second season finale of The Wedding Bashers on M-Net.

Friday morning: M-Net scripted local content panel session (like new drama series, Trackers)

Friday afternoon: "Graduation" and lunch

And finally, the haul from the M-Net swag bag, as journalists received gifts and promotional items from M-Net and the sponsors of various shows on M-Net over the course of the 3 days.