Tracey Lange exits celeb magazine show Bravo! on kykNET after 11 years: 'It's time to dream again'.

by Thinus Ferreira

TV and radio presenter Tracey Lange has exited the weekly Afrikaans celebrity magazine show Bravo! on kykNET (DStv 144) after 11 years, saying that "it's time to dream again".

Her final interview was in January with the singer Jean du Plessis, known as Jan Bloukaas, battling brain cancer.

"It blows my mind that it's been 11 years since starting this journey on TV that allowed me in the homes and hearts of so many in South Africa," Tracey Lange says who was also a co-host on M-Net's Dancing with the Stars SA, a panellist on the Afrikaans female talk show Tussen Ons on kykNET, and hosted the talk show Studio 3 on kykNET & Kie.

Tracey Lange says Bravo! was "11 years of countless flights, some of the best hotels, early mornings and very late nights" and "chilling with people I'd only ever seen on TV".

She says that since 2022 she felt that "God had ticked off everything on my bucket list where South African TV is concerned" and that for her, it is now "time to dream again" and the reason for exiting Bravo!.

"I will never forget the people, the events, the spectacular dresses and most importantly, the lessons I'd learnt in this 11 years." She thanks "everyone for allowing me into their homes every week and for every kind word on the street or social media".

Coronavirus: Production resumes on season 3 of the Afrikaans talk show Tussen Ons on kykNET & Kie that drops the in-studio audience and desk because of Covid-19, Ricky Schroeder joins as floor manager.

by Thinus Ferreira

With national lockdown regulations eased to Level 4 in South Africa production has resumed on the third season of the weekly Afrikaans female talk show Tussen Ons on kykNET & Kie (DStv 145) - but without the 6-row studio audience, the addition of clear social distancing between the 5-women panel, and with Ricky Schroeder as the new floor manager.

The View-based talker filmed at Atlantic Studios in Cape Town and produced by Homebrew Films was suddenly forced to stop recording 7 weeks ago during the Covid-19 lockdown as the rest of South Africa's TV and film industry grounded to a halt.

Tussen Ons has now filmed and broadcast its first new episode - episode 6 of the third season - after the relaxation of South Africa's national lockdown measures. The hourlong show has however been forced to drop the in-studio audience and had to make some other changes.

In the new episode panellist Tracey Lange, who shares the talk show stage with Kay Karriem, Zelda la Grange, Ingrid Jones and Success Lekabe, said "goodness, this is our very first recording during the lockdown times, so without an audience naturally, which is very different than usual for all of us".

Tracey Lange announced that Ricky Schoeder has joined Tussen Ons as floor manager. "There's a new addition to the whole team. His name is Ricky Schroeder".

Set design-wise the normal Tussen Ons talk show table is gone, now replaced by an oval-shaped baby blue soft cushion-couch doubling up as a coffee table in the middle of the set.

The 5 women have also noticeably been spaced further apart as part of the government-mandated Covid-19 social distancing regulations that studios must now follow.

kykNET commissions a new Afrikaans female panellist talk show, Tussen Ons, starting in July on kykNET & Kie.

M-Net's Afrikaans TV division, kykNET, has commissioned a new weekly Afrikaans female-skewed panel talk show entitled Tussen Ons, that will be produced in Cape Town and that will kick off on kykNET & Kie (DStv 145) in July.

Based on the female panel talk shows like The View and The Talk in America, Tussen Ons ("Just Between Us") produced by Homebrew Films, will be filmed before a live studio audience with panellists Zelda la Grange, Kay Karriem, Tracey Lange, Ingrid Jones and Success Lekabe.

Kay Karriem and Ingrid Jones are successful magazine editors with Ingrid Jones who appeared on VIA's (DStv 147) female panel programme, Wie weet beter?

Tracey Lange is fresh off her live TV presenting gig as co-host of the 9th season of Dancing with the Stars SA now on (M-Net 101) and last month quit her radio job in order to become a Tussen Ons talk show panelist.

Zelda la Grange minted fame after her time serving as former president Nelson Mandela's aide, and Success Lekabe is a successful radio presenter.

The Tussen Ons quintet will cover one subject per episode, addressing a wide range of topics and issues over the course of the season that matter especially to women.

The show, produced kykNET and Homebrew Films responsible for Jou Show, Bravo!, and Kwêla, will be filmed at Atlantic Studios in Cape Town before a live audience.

Tussen Ons will air every Thursday night at 20:00 from July 2018 on kykNET & Kie.

REVIEW. A rejuvenated Dancing with the Stars SA on M-Net is true 'Disney-glitter television', a dance-off menagerie filled with colour, strobe lights and beautiful bodies.

"This show should come with a glitter warning," said co-presenter Tracey Lange on Sunday evening - and she was absolutely right - in the revived, rejuvenated and improved Dancing with the Stars SA that took a giant leap forward in techni-colour projection and high definition in the jump of this ballroom dancing series from the SABC to M-Net (DStv 101).

Strictly Come Dancing SA, the title under which the glitter floor format show was known as over the course of 8 seasons on SABC2 and SABC3 was never a bad show. The Rapid Blue produced song-and-dance fest is now just even better as the BBC Worldwide format show transitioned to M-Net under the retitled Dancing with the Stars SA name.

It's now in high definition (HD), the revamped voting process is much improved, and everything has had the "M-Net glitter machine once-over", elevating the show's production values to pay-TV levels for a pay-TV audience, specifically for MultiChoice's highest-tiered DStv Premium subscribers.

With a (first-ever) rooftop ballroom, a live band and lead vocals, projectors casting full-colour images on the dance floor and walls to envelope the dancers and ballroom spectators in dancing diaramas and with a large video wall ensconced under circular arches, Dancing with the Stars SA is finally a South African version sporting pedigree specs similar to its UK and American counterparts.

Dancing with the Stars SA, produced by extremely skilled and veteran producers, clearly must have a bigger budget and it shows in a refinement of basically everything with the result that the M-Net viewer and DStv Premium subscriber get a TV show that's gone from fine as it was economy, to more attentive, better furnished business class.

While eagle-eyed observers would spy some first episode production jitters, brief glimpses of stage-fright and some technical problems that will surely be ironed out as the season rolls along, the show, done live from the top of the Hyde Park Corner shopping centre, shined bright in its first episode on M-Net.

Impacted by some sound problems especially towards the end, Dancing with the Stars SA was a colour and dance Sunday evening TV samba as celebrity and professional dancers entertained in what for the bulk of it felt like a wonderful 2-hour live Grease musical with a waltz and tango thrown in.

The co-presenters Tracey Lange and Chris Jafta are in tandem television jewels. Quite simply they make magical television together.

Not since eNCA's NewsNight with Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti has South African TV had a couple being such a perfect fit in natural charm, backing each other up, imbuing the autocue with just enough of their own personality, and striking the perfect tone in both humour and unaffected delivery.

Whoever found Tracey Lange and Chris Jafta and thought of putting specifically these two together, deserve a mirror ball trophy of their own.

Together the twosome, who have individual experience of presenting TV magazine shows, are not just extremely natural and comfortable on-screen, but become a bigger, even better, and more powerful compound than their individual elements on TV's periodic table.

The four judges are all very likeable but the funny and effervescent judge and choreographer Jason Gilkison is clearly the high EQ head boy in this dance-off menagerie filled with colour, strobe lights and beautiful bodies.

Judge Tebogo Kgobokoe, back from Strictly Come Dancing SA, is clearly going to be the "strict one" and will provide added drama as the scoring reveals of the four judges and the numbers on their scoring paddles already turned into a little mini-drama of its own.

In variety and comedy television, timing is everything. In the first outing of Dancing with the Stars SA the pacing was fine, interrupted by somewhat halfhearted in-show audience applause at certain places but deftly smoothed over by Chris Jafta who at some points were a bit quick in transitioning from judge to judge in eliciting comments but will still adapt to their speaking patterns.

The costumes and set design are top notch, the professional dancers extremely talented, agile and skilled, and the band masterful in the rendition of instantly recognisable hits to accompany the dance acts.

Some camera angles felt oddly missing, as if the majority of cut to's were done from only one or a limited range of direction. Still, it is true "Disney-glitter television" - an immersive, highly entertaining variety TV experience that draws you in and manages to keep you spellbound.

The opening group dance number was explosive and so expansive in scope and filled with so many little details not seen on television, that some viewers would probably wish there were camera drones to capture even more different angles.

Dancing with the Stars SA is perfect TV viewing for Sunday evenings and definitely the most colourful programme in a very literal sense on all of South African television right now.

It's cute like a dog show filled with the same dramatic irony that the beautiful and beautifully dressed things have no idea what they're really in for, is filled with vibey music, and brims with more colours than Crayola.

In a world of Donald Trump, Cape Town running out of water and a lot of other troubling issues, the crystal TV palace of Dancing with the Stars SA on M-Net is a wonderful hidden hideaway, devoid of all life's problems for two hours on Sunday evenings.

M-Net reveals Thembisa Mdoda and Frank Opperman as the first 2 of 12 celebrities who will take part in Dancing with the Stars SA from February 2018.

M-Net has announced the former Our Perfect Wedding presenter Thembisa Mdoda on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) and the veteran drama and comedy actor actor Frank Opperman appearing on kykNET (DStv 144) as the first 2 of 12 celebrities who will be taking part in Dancing with the Stars SA.

Dancing with the Stars SA will start in 2018 on M-Net (DStv 101) and is retitled from the longrunning Strictly Come Dancing SA show that was on SABC3 but discontinued due to a lack of money at the SABC.

The pay-TV broadcaster also announced the starting date for Dancing with the Stars SA, with the glitter floor format show produced by Rapid Blue that will be starting on M-Net on Sunday 4 February 2018.

M-Net licensed the Dancing with the Stars SA format show from BBC Worldwide.

Tracey Lange from kykNET's glamour magazine show Bravo! and Chris Jaftha from SABC3's glamour magazine show Top Billing are the presenters of Dancing with the Stars South Africa.

"I have always wanted to be part of Dancing With The Stars," says Thembisa Mdoda who won the title of Best TV Presenter at the 2017 DStv Mzansi Viewers' Choice Awards.

"In the past, I’d watch the show, practice the steps and give myself 10 out of 10s! I am so excited and can't wait to make new memories."

"Mostly, I'm eager to learn some new steps and to have fun."

Frank Opperman says "some people climb Everest for fun. Some walk to the South Pole for kicks, some people swim the seven oceans for pleasure and some people dance with the stars because they have gone insane!"

Rapid Blue and M-Net chose 12 stars to assemble an eclectic group of celebrity dancing stars all from various different backgrounds who will come from the worlds of acting, comedy and sport.

All 12 are already taking dancing lessons and are practising for the show.

Programming note: Bravo! starting tonight at 19:30 on kykNET is another attempt at a local entertainment news magazine show.

Bravo!, another new local weekly entertainment news magazine show starts tonight at 19:30 on kykNET (DStv 111) and whilst publications who don't care for facts says Tammy-Anne Fortuin will be a part of the show, I can tell you she won't.

Precious little information about Bravo! exists although it starts today - is the show another rush job in a notoriously difficult TV genre to do and do really well? Henre Pretorius, Hannes van Wyk and Tracey Lange from Good Hope FM are the three main presenters; experience and history indicates that it might change and sooner than viewers might think, as the show evolves.

The Afrikaans half hour Bravo! which I was told a few months ago is basically replacing Glitterati on kykNET as a new attempt to bring some much-needed glam content to the channel, is produced by Homebrew Films also responsible for the similar weekly All Access Mzansi on Mzansi Magic (DStv 107).

It used to be that red carpet interviewers and presenters doing profile pieces had some pedigree - not anymore with Bravo! which just like Flash! on SABC3 and the horrid string of SABC1 also-ran'sseemed to have picked people that makes you shake your head in confusion. Only Henre Pretorius has bona fide experience within this genre as the first co-presenter of the youth magazine show Jip.

Insiders gave me several names of people who auditioned for the presenter role that eventually went to Tracey Lange. Tammy-Anne Fortuin is busy studying and networking in New York and won't do inserts for the show sources tell me.

Also as per usual and although it exists, specific episode information - let alone the latest real actual announcement that Bravo! is starting - isn't/wasn't send to the press. The first episode tonight as far as I can tell will feature inserts of the new magazine launch of Grazia and the recent Fiestas where the Bravo! cameras were seen.