SABC2 has cancelled Pasella after 23 years and 28 seasons, confirming that the longrunning Afrikaans lifestyle magazine show won't be back after the latest season.
Pasella weathered multiple day and timeslot changes over numerous years on SABC2 and was a yearlong show with weekly episodes until the SABC2 changed it to shorter, broken-up seasons in 2013 after 15 years.
Pasella started in March 1998 on SABC2 when Pieter Cilliers Productions began the series as a studio-based show. Filmmedia took over production a year later in 1999 and then Tswelopele Productions got the contract in 2001.
Amor Engelbrecht was the longrunning producer of Pasella until she left and started her Media Club production company producing series for Media24's VIA (DStv 147) channel.
The final current season of Pasella on Wednesdays at 19:30 will be a "tribute season", meeting up with some of the presenters from previous years and showing the history of the series, along with everyone who had a role in creating and producing the series, including veteran Pasella crew and staff behind-the-scenes.
Maritha Greenland, SABC2 commissioning editor, says Pasella will end with a final episode that will be a wrap party, called a "Pasella party" to "give the show a proper, heartfelt goodbye".
The current crop of Pasella presenters are Paul Rothmann, Vicky Davis, Amalia Uys, Hemelbesem, Rumacques Gelderbloem and Sasha-Lee Davids.
Pasella is produced by Tswelopele Productions with Patience Stevens and Basetsana Kumalo as executive producers, with the company that was a powerhouse producer for SABC content for decades.
SABC3 cancelled Top Billing, also produced by Tswelopele Productions in October 2019 after 27 years after the South African public broadcaster could no longer afford the luxury lifestyle show.
Gerhard Pretorius, SABC2 channel head, said Pasella over the years was very good at adapting with how television changed.
"The decision has been a hard one, but it is necessary with the new schedule introduced in April this year, aimed at diversifying SABC 2’s Afrikaans magazine offering," he said.
"This will also enable the channel to showcase different stories which represent the diversity of our nation and offer more opportunities for independent producers to bring their creative works to the channel."
The axing of Pasella is part of the ongoing restructuring of SABC2's linear schedule to replace old programmes with fading ratings with new on-air properties that could hopefully lure more viewers back to the channel.
The struggling SABC has axed its longrunning Top Billing magazine show on SABC3 - which did well in the TV ratings given the channel it was on - but has an expensive production budget that the cash-strapped public broadcaster can no longer afford.
Viewers as well as South Africa's TV industry have expressed their shock and bewilderment that the SABC has deteriorated to such a state that it can no longer "afford" to keep a legacy and premium brand like Top Billing on its airwaves which bring the viewers that most advertisers crave.
On Thursday evening TVwithThinus spoke to over 20 local producers, showrunners, bosses of production companies and TV executives who all said that they're gobsmacked and shocked at the SABC's decision and struggle to fathom how the SABC could have failed to keep a brand like Top Billing going and failed to leverage it to make money on its only commercial TV channel.
Top Billing is the latest show getting axed in a shock decision as far as the SABC3 schedule is concerned.
So far the ongoing SABC3 bloodletting has seen it get rid of basically all of its iconic and longrunning legacy programming that for decades drew viewers to the SABC, with SABC3 that in succession ended Days of Our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful, as well as local shows like High Rollers, 3Talk and even its replacement Real Talk.
The final legacy show on SABC3 remains its longrunning weekday soap Isidingo that is struggling in the ratings.
Although the SABC said that Top Billing has not been fairing well ratings-wise, it doesn't paint an accurate picture.
The Tswelopele Productions show survived and thrived through multiple, often jarring, timeslot and day changes over many years, drawing and building new audiences wherever the SABC decided to place it on the schedule next.
While the show has a set production budget and a cost that the SABC buys it at, the show itself is not responsible for selling the actual ad space on the SABC's only commercial TV channel during the weekly hour that it's broadcast.
That is the task and responsibility of the SABC's advertising sales division where sales reps must sell the inventory of 30 second spots at such prices that the content firstly makes the money back that the SABC paid for it, as well as then make money for the SABC.
As a blue-chip on-air and lifestyle brand - one of the very last remaining on the SABC - the escapist and aspirational show was one of less than a handful media properties in South Africa that weekly painted a positive picture through profiles of local South Africans, their lives and lifestyles, and what success, achievement and even local weddings could look like.
While SABC3 is the terrestrial TV channel with the smallest geographical broadcast footprint and therefore the channel with the smallest overall possible audience - coupled with SABC3's overall and ongoing sinking ratings, Top Billing remained a top-rated show.
In September 2019 Top Billing was the 8th most-watched show on SABC3 with 438 847 viewers (1.23 ARs), up from August when it was also the 8th most-watched show on SABC3 with 421 690 viewers (1.18 ARs).
"The SABC's decision to bring Top Billing to an end has not been an entirely easy one," says Zandile Nkonyeni, SABC spokesperson in response to TVwithThinus' media enquiry asking for the rationale for the show's axing.
"Like any programme on our schedule, the show is ultimately based on its performance and market relevance and to that end it has not been faring well against set targets and in light of the review processes actioned within the last two years."
"With a quarter of a century on our television screens, we all agreed that the show has had a good run," Nkonyeni says.
Great but too expensive for the SABC
"Secondly, Top Billing is a premium production which documents and represents a high-end lifestyle. That, combined with the expensive travel and crew capacity required, does need a considerable investment directed into that show," the SABC said.
"The broadcaster was always able to afford this investment so long as there were healthy returns against that investment. Of late, the production return on investment had declined significantly, thus making us operate at a loss. Hence a part of the decision to decommission the show," says Zandile Nkonyeni.
Very little warning - and no goodbye
Asked why viewers and the industry were only officially told that Top Billing is cancelled after 27 years and will have its final original episode on Saturday just two days before it airs, the SABC said that SABC3 and Tswelopele Productions decided to do it that way jointly.
Although cancelled months ago Saturday's final Top Billing episode will contain no goodbye, nostalgic lookback or tribute clips and SABC3 will now pad the schedule with Top Billing rerun episodes until March 2020 until it finds a replacement for the timeslot.
"After careful consideration between both SABC3 and Tswelopele Productions, a decision was taken to inform the loyal title and platform viewers at the penultimate episode and for the farewell statement to be issued in the week of the finale episode."
"In light of this, an on-air promo was scheduled for this past week to air on SABC3," the broadcaster says.
SABC3's morning show Expresso and Afternoon Express will leave its studio and office space inside The Equinox Building in Sea Point, Cape Town after 9 years and move to a new studio facility in Tokai from where the shows will broadcast from 24 June.
As TVwithThinusreported yesterday, both shows and the production company are leaving their longtime studio space berth atop the Sea Point high-rise after nearly a decade at the end of this week.
Cardova Productions, sister company of Tswelopele Productions, moved into the 7th floor penthouse space of The Equinox in October 2010 at 154 Main Road in Sea Point on the corner of Main Road and Milton Road where its been doing the weekday Expresso morning show and Afternoon Express from since.
The Hello Doctor/Dr Mol Show/Doctor's Orders show also produced by Cardova for SABC3 was also filmed inside The Equinox until it was axed, as well as programming for shows like Win a Home.
Using the top floor of The Equinox including exterior backdrops for its live broadcast the past 9 years has lend Expresso watchers a fascinating and constantly changing view on the ever-changing seasons and the vagaries of Cape Town's temperamental weather.
SABC3 in response to a media enquiry confirmed the move happening on Friday and says the shows will go live from the new studio on 24 June.
Cardova Productions and SABC3 were asked why the production company and the shows are moving out of the existing building but didn't respond with an answer.
According to insiders the new studio will be based in the picturesque Westlake in Tokai, close to the Tswelopele Productions head office in the same suburb.
"This is so that the shows can be loser to that head office," said a source. "Tswelopele and Cardova are sister companies, so it makes sense to house all production for Top Billing, Afternoon Express and Expresso within earshot of each other".
SABC2's Afrikaans lifestyle magazine show Pasella will return for a 27th season on Wednesday at 19:30 adding the former Idols winner, Sasha-Lee Davids as one of the new presenters.
The SABC's longest-running Afrikaans magazine produced by Tswelopele Productions keeps Paul Rothmann and Simon Witbooi, known as HemelBesem, as presenters, and is adding fellow rapper Rumarcques Gelderbloem known as Oxijin, actress Amalia Uys, known for her role as Sanmarie on the SABC2 soap 7de Laan, as well as Sasha-Lee Davids who was the co-winner in 2009 of the 5th season of Idols on M-Net. Pasella is the first of the longrunning SABC2 prime time shows getting a refresh and that has to lift sagging ratings. Nomsa Philiso, the SABC's group executive for television, last month told parliament that the SABC is working at reversing the viewership slides at its SABC2 and SABC3 TV channels.
"SABC2 also had its own problems from 2014 coming this way - it has had 6 major schedule changes - so it has dropped some of its share and would like to see a targeted increase from a 13% share to 15%."
"We are also looking at some of the key properties that are under-performing in the prime time timeslots on SABC2 and we are also going to be reviewing those."
"From a SABC2 point of view we really want to continue to entrench the positioning of SABC2 as a family channel, which is really focused on nation-building and social cohesion," Nomsa Philiso said.
The 27th season of Pasella will showcase things in three, for instance locations, experiences and subjects that all share a common thread. The show will for instance cover three of South Africa’s most interesting train trips, will be exploring three
out of the ordinary South African breakaway accommodations and visit some of South Africa’s top animal hotels.
As before, as Pasella visits various places around South Africa, it will do it with local personalities, share recipes and talk to people behind some of the most innovative and creative locations.
Some of the entertainers that will be featured in the new Pasella season include personalities like actors Frank Rautenbach and Jill Levenberg; the Idols
winner Paxton Fielies, the singer Claire Johnston and radio DJ Martin Bester.
The show will also spend some time with local sport stars like
Dillyn Leyds, Jaco Coetzee, EW Viljoen and Scarra Ntubeni and this season will also include stories of some inspiring South Africans.
SABC3 and Top Billing's Presenter Search on 3 will return from May for a 4th time, once again looking to add new South African TV talent to joins shows like Top Billing, Expresso or Afternoon Express.
The Presenter Search on 3 will once again be produced by Tswelopele Productions with the search for a new presenter or presenters to join various SABC3 shows that is taking place to co-incide with the 25th anniversary of the venerable weekly gloss entertainment and lifestyle magazine show Top Billing that started on the SABC in 1992.
Previous seasons of the highly popular Presenter Search on 3 have made bona fide TV stars and celebrities of Simba Mhere and Jonathan Boynton-Lee with thousands of hopefuls who queued across the country in 2010 and in 2012 when it known as My Top Billing Dream.
The last season of Presenter Search on 3 was held in 2015 with the winners who were Zoe Brown who joined Expresso, Danilo Acquisto who joined Afternoon Express and Jade Hubner who joined Top Billing.
The show was however also a star vehicle launching pad for Chris Jaftha who made the Top 5 and was picked up soon afterwards by Top Billing as a presenter as well anyway, and who is currently also the co-presenter of Dancing with the Stars South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101).
Likewise Mishka Patel was picked up to join Tswelopele Productions' weekly Afrikaans magazine show Pasella on SABC2.
The presenter of the new Presenter Search on 3 will include among others Jonathan Boynton-Lee, Ayanda Thabethe and the evergreen Jeannie D.
Contestants will once again be put through their paces in grueling real-life TV challenges before and behind-the-scenes with various presenting tasks taking place in-studio and shot outside on-location to not just test the telegenic mettle of those who want to be on TV but also their adaptability and how they respond to unexpected production curveballs.
Tonight
South Africa’s longest-running, uninterrupted lifestyle magazine TV show will
celebrate its 25th anniversary on South African television with Top Billing doing a special,
nostalgia-laden look-back episode as current and former presenters, and the
show's executive producers, do revealing and personal oral histories of their
time working on the show.
Former
presenters – a now greying fox Michael Mol, and ever-youthful Basetsana Kumalo
are back as tonight's special presenting duo.
Top
Billing's silver anniversary is a phenomenal feat for not just the show but
also for the South African public broadcaster where the now iconic programme,
as TV arbiter of the "good life" on SABC3 has managed to captivate audiences
for two and a half decades of weekly episodes telling and showing inspiring
South African success stories with a revolving roster of glambod presenters
over the years, widely admired and often imitated.
Keeping
up appearances for 25 years in South Africa's TV industry, Top Billing, has
managed to pull off an incredible production record, only equaled by M-Net's
long-running investigative magazine show, Carte Blanche that will turn 30 in
2018 – both shows bravely travelling internationally, working unrelentingly at
getting exclusive interviews and access to eye-popping visual stories.
Now
iconic for its hobnobbing with the rich and famous locally and abroad, exotic
travelogues, fashion and movie junket inserts, jaw-dropping mansion features
and presenters walking (and talking!) in designer evening wear, the Tswelopele
Productions show has spawned colloquial phrases like "that's definitely a Top
Billing house", "it's a Top Billing wedding" and its sign-off "goodnight and
God bless!" that has become synonymous with this South Africa TV royalty
institution.
More
than any other local South African TV show, Top Billing has successfully
spawned a bevy of presenter beauties – people South African viewers don't just
love to see, but want to be.
Over
the years, their names have inextricably become linked with any event –
anything – "top billing" since 1992: from Neil McCarthy, Ursula Chikane, Janez
Vermeiren, Jeannie D, Simba Mhere and Jo-Ann Strauss to Bonang Matheba, Nico
Panagio and lately names like Jade Hubner and Chris Jaftha.
While
viewers drink in the beautiful and carefully curated "Vanity Fair on
television" type content weekly – sometimes criticised as empty calorie glam-TV
– they're oblivious to the immeasurable production focus, energy, man hours and
stressful navigation of often-impossible inserts behind the scenes and the
gargantuan achievement of Top Billing that has kept it up for 25 years.
In
fact, it's not just Top Billing's longevity of 25 years on the cash-strapped
and often-erratic SABC (the show that started on TV1, moved to SABC2, then
SABC3 and saw an untold number of day and timeslot changes) where programmes
are subjected to the whims and vagaries of an ever-changing echelon of TV
executives that is extremely impressive, but that it has been able to establish
and keep up very high production values week after week after week, unequaled
by any other local show on South African television.
What
viewers don't see on Top Billing are producers constantly pushing forward and
navigating through the byzantine maze of difficult publicists and gatekeepers
for access to A-list stars from the worlds of entertainment, sport, business,
music, film, and news - the rushed editors working late, insane global travel
logistic arrangements often changing last minute and exasperated cameramen
valiantly trying to still frame stars looking their best even though someone
like Kim Kardashian would refuse to put down her cellphone and look up during
an exclusive one-on-one interview.
Still
aspirational
As
fleeting styles, fashions and viewer interest all blossom and fade, Top Billing
has smartly managed to adapt, change and constantly evolve over the more than
two decades not just with its audience but staying carefully always just
slightly ahead of them.
Nothing is more tragic than anything old in pop culture
that's lost its relevance, attraction and reason for being – yet Top Billing
with agile pop culture agility, remains ahead of the pack.
Viewers
keep tuning in because Top Billing, even after 25 years, remains inspiring.
Viewers don't just want to see the spectacular house – the show makes them
dream that they can maybe one day have it too.
Viewers don't just tune in for
the celebrities – they watch the interviews, although sometimes too sweet, that
are carefully orchestrated to make famous folk come across as accessible,
ordinary and relatable.
The
glitz, glamour, décor, design, exotic cuisine and luxury travel appearing on
Top Billing are at heart not show-off pieces; viewers keep watching because
they see things and people they want to emulate.
For
25 years, Top Billing has continued to give South Africans on public television
– in a country pummelled by a barrage of negative and disturbing news headlines
– an escapist out: a passport saying that it is okay, even if just for an hour
a week, to have a dream.
Thursday
night’s must-watch episode at 20:30 on SABC3 will look back with Michelle
Garforth-Venter, one of the original presenters, now living in Atlanta in
America, reminiscing with her family about her Top Billing years.
Current
presenter Jonathan Boynton-Lee will relive the Top Billing Presenter Search
reality show that he won, while Michael Mol’s family will look back on their
life over the years with Top Billing.
The
one wearing the Top Billing tiara in real life is Patience Stevens who started
Top Billing for the SABC 25 years ago with a dream and a lot of guts in one
small editing suite, and who is still the executive producer of this glamarama
TV train steaming ahead a quarter of a century later. In another insert on Thursday the show charts the friendship between this
indefatigable uber-producer who noticed and roped in Basetsana Kumalo years ago
– first as a presenter and then as a production partner – and their incredible
producing partnership and friendship working on Top Billing all these years.
A former director on the SABC's Top Billing has revealed that the opulent magazine show doesn't like vagina.
In a funny anecdote, Pamela Power, a TV scriptwriter and script editor, shared a funny anecdote with talk show host Anele Mdoda on SABC3's Real Talk with Anele, saying she was once responsible for doing an insert on the play "The Vagina Monologues" but was ordered not to use the word "vagina" anywhere in the insert for the SABC3 show produced by Tswelopele Productions.
In another insert she wanted to do for Top Billing - South Africa's longest running uninterrupted local programme on South African television and that focuses on the lives of the rich and famous - she wanted to film homeless people for the show because she says "I was so much more Special Assignment".
Special Assignment is SABC3's weekly investigative magazine show strand.
The director who has worked on TV shows ranging from Top Billing and SABC1's Generations and Uzalo to Mzansi Magic's Rockville and who is currently a script editor at SABC2's Muvhango, didn't know how she was supposed to tell a story about "The Vagina Monologues" without using the word "vagina".
"I was the worst director ever and I think they were so happy to wave me goodbye," said Pamela Power who authored the books Ms Conception, Things Unseen and Delilah Now Trending.
"The Vagina Monologues, I was supposed to film that and without ever having the word 'V' mentioned," explained Pamela Power.
"So I didn't film any of the show. And then I got back and they were like: 'But you haven't filmed any of the show, you just did everything in the background".
"I said [its] because you didn't want me to mention the word!" said Pamela Power.
Pasella is adding three new presenters when the Afrikaans lifestyle and entertainment magazine show on SABC2 returns for another season from this Friday, 5 February.
Pasella's timeslot is also once again changing - from 18:00 exactly a year ago during its last season to now 19:30 on Fridays where it will serve as a lead-out for the SABC's Afrikaans TV news bulletin.
Pasella moving to 19:30 and replacing the Sesotho news bulletin moving to 18:00, will serve as part of a new programming bridge to the Afrikaans game show Noot vir Noot at 20:00.
It's part of the SABC's attempt to keep Afrikaans viewers from tuning out by creating an uninterrupted Afrikaans language flow programming block of two and a half hours on Friday nights, starting with 7de Laan at 18:30, followed by the Afrikaans news, Pasella and then Noot vir Noot.
Joining the existing line-up of Pasella presenters Paul Rothman, Dieter Voigt, Melinda Bam, Vicky Davis, Lynelle Kenned and Simon Witbooi known as Hemelbesem, are Mishka Patel, Sean-Marco Vorster and Carmen Pretorius.
The show from Tswelopele Productions also responsible for SABC3's Top Billing, used to run uninterrupted all year round on SABC2 until March 2013 when the SABC decided to break it down into shorter interrupted seasons which returned in the new format in February last year.
Mishka Patel is finally getting TV screen time after the former Presenter Search on 3 finalist was officially announced on Expresso as the Win a Home co-presenter on SABC3 in August and then got inexplicably dumped causing big embarrassment.
Mishka Patel is a former Miss South Africa finalist and will interview actress Lindie Stander and painter Sandy Esau in the new Pasella season's first episode.
Sean-Marco Vorster was a presenter on SABC3's short-lived NAweek magazine show in 2015 and had roles in local Afrikaans films like Die Windpomp, Strikdas and Lystraf.
Soap star Carmen Pretorius who've appeared in Isidingo and Binnelanders has also done musicals and films like Lien se Lankstaanskoene.
Afrikaans personalities who will appear in the new Pasella season include Fanie de Villiers, Kurt Darren, Annie Malan, Faf du Plessis, Len Muller, Nianell and Dozi.
The first Pasella episode will be visiting Langebaan, with Hartbeespoortdam, Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Riebeek-Kasteel, Witrivier and Hermanus in upcoming episodes.
Glamour entertainment magazine show Top Billing is adding Christopher Jaftha, known as just Chris to its roster of presenters.
Chris Jaftha, who had won several best looking man awards, has been added to possibly follow in the testosterone filled footsteps of former longtime presenters Michael Mol and Janez Vermeiren.
Chris Jaftha landed a spot in the Top 11 during the reality show Presenter Search on 3 earlier this year on SABC3.
He made it to a place as one of the Top 5 in the competition which saw Jade Hubner win the prize to become the latest Top Billing presenter, with Danilo Acquisto who joined the SABC3 afternoon variety and talk show programme, Afternoon Express.
SABC3 and production company Tswelopele Productions gave no reason as to why Chris Jaftha has suddenly also been added.
The second season of Win a Home on SABC3 which just started on Friday evenings also added two Presenter Search on 3 contestants - Khanya Siyengo and Mishka Patel - although Mishka Patel was unexplicably dumped and removed from all marketing material just before the first episode was broadcast last month.
Chris Jaftha's first insert for Top Billing will be to cover the Durban Fashion Fair this week in the episode of 10 September.
Chris Jaftha lives in Johannesburg and has studied Fine Art at the National School of Arts. He's appeared in several pantomimes and musicals and can currently also be seen in SABC3's musical drama Roer Jou Voete.
Chris Jaftha appeared on Afternoon Express, produced by Cardova, on SABC3 on Monday afternoon so that Bonang Matheba could interview him in a cross-promotion, and asked him what people can expect and how it was filming his first insert.
"It's never as easy as it looks but I've been in the industry a long time now, and I know you need to work hard. With Top Billing and my first insert at the Durban Fashion Fair it was really cool. I worked with a really lovely team. It was so much fun," said Chris Jaftha.
Miskha Patel who was "overwhelmed" to be the new co-presenter of the second season of Plascon, Private Property, Nedbank, LG and Mercedes-Benz' advertiser-funded production (AFP) Win a Home has been dumped shortly before the first episode aired this past Friday.
That's after Miskha Patel was already talking about how she was "excited for the journey ahead".
While Mishka Patel was previously announced, she was suddenly, embarrassingly, no longer a part of Win a Home's second season, with no word from SABC3, Tswelopele Productions producing Win a Home or any of the sponsors on why she was suddenly missing in action.
While imaging with Khanya Siyengo together with Mishka Patel and SABC3 branding appeared beforehand as well as other pictures of them together, and them being interviewed together on Expresso, Khanya Siygeno was suddenly the sole presenter.
Mishka Patel is gone.
"A revision of the show's format, aligned to the reality
format, informs the programme's current look and feel," says Win a Home.
"Final testing with the client" apparently led to the axing of Mishka Patel for reasons unknown.
"What's so especially shocking is about this particular situation is how it was so publicly confirmed by so many of those involved with the series. The Win a Home Twitter account retweeted Expresso's tweet about the two of them hosting together," TVSA reports.
"The situation also highlights what a huge problem it is when shows are at the mercy of sponsors in advertiser-funded shows."
The irony for many is how television and programming about beautiful things and about the creation and showcasing of beautiful things externally, often has a mostly hidden, ugly underbelly.
It's not clear why a show like Win a Home and SABC3 would trot out someone like Mishka Patel, have her talk on public television about being a co-presenter, then cut her in conjunction with a client or clients of the advertiser-funded production - and then not explain her sudden absence.
It leaves so many questions about the ugly brand damage inflicted on sponsors, a broadcaster and the business of creating beauty.
SABC3 is replacing Three Talk with Noeleen from Monday, 4 May at 16:00 with a new female-centric local talk show in the vein of The Talk and The View, with presenters Bonang Matheba and Jeannie D turning talk show hosts, hoping to bolster the channel's sagging afternoon ratings.
Afternoon Express will take over the 16:00 timeslot on SABC3 from Monday on weekdays, with Bonang Matheba - known as "Queen B" - and Jeannie D, both known as Top Billing presenters, as well as Bonnie Mbuli from e.tv's Traffic who will present the show as a live broadcast.
A 4th woman will join the existing three as a newbie on Afternoon Express within a month when the top 3 winners are announced from the Presenter Search on 3 reality show on SABC3, with the two others going to Top Billing and Expresso respectively.
Afternoon Express, produced by Tswelopele Productions which is also responsible for Top Billing, Presenter Search on 3 and other TV shows, will try to lift SABC3's viewership in the dull afternoon daypart similar to the ratings rejuvenation the morning breakfast show Expresso, also produced by the same company, brought to SABC3's early morning timeslot where viewership lagged.
With the added heavy lifting of the new weekday interactive afternoon talk show done from Cape Town, Bonang Matheba and Jeannie D will be featuring somewhat less on Top Billing in the future.
Afternoon Express, which will have a big social media interactive component in a sense similar to SABC2's afternoon youth block Hectic Nine-9,will cover female interests ranging from cooking and fashion to finance tips and inspirational stories and interviews. The show will also feature live musical performances similar to Expresso in the mornings.
"Afternoon Express is a first for South Africa and for SABC3," says Aisha Mohamed, SABC3 channel head. "To combine fun interaction, practical advice as well as engaging conversation into one show is definitely taking the quality of programming to the next level and we are proud to have this kind of uplifting and empowering content for women as part of our offering".
"The show will give women an opportunity to interact and engage daily," says Bradley van den Berg, Afternoon Express' executive producer, saying the talk show will inspire viewers "to take the courage to try something new and become their best selves".
"I am really excited to be stepping into a new terrain with SABC3 and the opportunity to co-host with Jeannie D and Bonnie," says Bonang Matheba.
"I'm very excited to be part of this experience and to be doing a new show with my Top Billing family," says Jeannie D. "This is a winning formula that keeps growing and growing."
"I'm so thrilled to be one of the hosts; it is a great concept and there is so much to look forward to," says Bonnie Mbuli. "I don't think there has ever been a more exciting time for television in South Africa - I can't wait".
"We hope that making a date with Afternoon Express will be making an appointment to have fun," says Patience Stevens, the managing director of Tswelopele Productions.
"We have three of the country's most talented presenters, we are very excited to have this opportunity and we are looking forward to this challenge".
The longrunning Afrikaans magazine show Pasella returns on Friday to SABC2 in a new timeslot of 18:00 with a new format and a new presenter Simon Witbooi, known as "Hemel Besem".
Pasella which has weathered multiple day and timeslot changes over 16 years is once again moving to a new day and timeslot from 13 February with a new 30-minute format.
Pasella, produced by Tswelopele Productions from Cape Town, does retain presenters like actress Crystal-Donna Roberts, model and former school teacher and Mr South Africa Dieter Voigt, former Miss South Africa Melinda Bam, Paul Rothmann, Charlene Lackay and singer Lynelle Kenned.
The magazine show will once again explore South Africa, visiting people and doing profile inserts, giving décor and DIY advice and share recipes.
Friday's first new Pasella episode explores the history of the Bainskloofpas and talks to Tim Theron, Heinz Winckler and Milan Murray from the film Mooirivier. Paul and Crystal-Donna celebrate Valentine's Day by cooking a romantic dinner, the show visits Langkloof Roses to learn about different varieties of roses and Dieter goes on the Sundays River Cruise in the Eastern Cape.
Simba Mhere's memorial service on Thursday and his funeral on Saturday will both be live streamed for viewers who want to follow it on the YouTube channels of both the SABC's news service, SABC News, as well as SABC3.
Simba Mheredied on impact together with his friend Kady-Shay O'Bryan early on Saturday morning when a car crashed into the driver's side of the vehicle Simba Mhere was driving on William Nicol Road near the N1.
The SABC just confirmed that the Top Billing presenter's memorial service and funeral will both be live streamed on SABC News as well as on SABC3.With TV cameras there it makes it very likely that the memorial service will also be shown live on the SABC News (DStv 404) channel on Thursday afternoon.
Simba Mhere's memorial service hosted by the SABC will be taking place this coming Thursday afternoon, 5 February, between 15:00 and 17:00 at the Rhema Bible Church North in Hans Schoeman Street in Randburg.
Simba Mhere's funeral service will take place this coming Saturday, 7 February, also at the Rhema Bible Church North between 09:00 and 11:00. He will be buried at Westpark Cemetery in Roosevelt Park.
The SABC's live stream of the memorial service of the late Morning Live presenter Vuyo Mbuli in May 2013 clocked record viewership, and has made it the SABC's most watched online event since the public broadcaster started streaming live events through the internet.
On Thursday and on Saturday, viewers will be able to follow Simba Mhere's memorial and funeral live streams at www.youtube.com/sabcdigitalnews and www.youtube.com/sabc3.
On Thursday morning Top Billing presenter Jonathan Boynton-Lee will talk on SABC3's Expresso breakfast show about Simba Mhere to share his grief,memories and to honour his friend.
On Thursday evening on SABC3 at 20:30 Top Billing will broadcast a special tribute episode to Simba Mhere.
Simba Mhere's family have requested that rather than flowers, donations be made to the JAM charity organisation. JAM feeds more than 1 million children daily.
When Simba Mhere moved to South Africa from Zimbabwe, he stayed at JAM since he was a 2 year old boy and grew up in the missionary, participating in several children's initiatives.
JAM's banking details for donations are:
Standard Bank Acc # 021627045
Randburg Branch # 018005,
Account name: JAM SA Donations,
Bonang Matheba, Top Billing presenter is part of the TV family mourning the loss of friend and co-presenter Simba Mhere (26).
Simba Mheredied on impact together with his friend Kady-Shay O'Bryan early on Saturday morning when a car crashed into the driver's side of the vehicle Simba Mhere was driving on William Nicol Road near the N1.
"I am still confused and trying to make sense about everything," Bonang Matheba tells TV with Thinus.
"No matter how many times you experience the horror that is death, one can never get used to it."
"Death has robbed me of a brother, a colleague, a pillar and a friend," says Bonang Matheba.
"An angel has returned home, leaving us all devastated and confused, but he will always live amongst us, in our hearts. It is still surreal, all dreamy and even shooting the Top Billing tribute link for this Thursday didn't help.
"I still can't believe you are gone Big Guy. I will cherish your memory till we meet again".
Top Billing presenter Jonathan Boynton-Lee is set to talk for the first time publicly about Simba Mhere on television on Thursday morning on SABC3's Expresso.
Theirs is a world of selling
make-belief. Fantasy. An hour a week of the good life and indulgent escapism: jetsetting
foreign locales, massive mansions and beautiful people. Neverending celebrity parties.
For the past 22 years on the South
African public broadcaster Top Billing
had only one aim: to whisk ordinary viewers away for one hour per week from their
ordinary lives – lives where bills are waiting to be paid, bad hair days are
much more numerous than Jeannie D's perfect locks, and where death and pain and tragedy stalk us – to a Neverland place. A nebulous TV wonderland where youth, wealth
and champagne flow freely and designer everything is everywhere.
But this past Saturday morning not even Top Billing could escape the painful
ordinary life – the real harsh, cruel one where a selfish, speeding, drunk or
maybe not drunk driver (we won’t know since the police didn’t do an alcohol
test) rammed a vehicle into the driver’s side of the car where Simba Mhere was
behind the wheel and instantly killed two people.
At Tswelopele Productions, a finely run
production company in Westlake Business Park in Tokai, the past 20 years has
seen a script for everything at Top
Billing under the fine-tuned hand of co-executive producers Patience
Stevens and Basetsana Kumalo.
Tswelopele has built up, from scratch, a
go-to plan for basically every conceivable production crisis (and there’s been
many over the decades): from delayed and cancelled and missed flights, to weather, to sickness; from pedantic celebrities,
cancelled shoots, no-shows, can’t-do’s and no visas, to altered deadlines and suddenly
moved up episode delivery dates and even postponed timeslots (part of the inexplicable
vagaries of the SABC).
On Saturday morning at 05:10am however one of the harsh realities of real life – the world where a beautiful, vibrant
life can be cut short in an instant – punctured the finely manicured TV machine
which has over years the honed the ability to bring viewers only the good side of life.
When Simba Mhere died there was no go-to
for the production company; no script for the pain.
This coming Thursday night on SABC3 at
20:30 the show that focuses on the vibrant, the celebrated and the beautiful, will deal with death on television for the first time in its history in the
only way it knows how: by remembering the loss of one of its own.
The South African lifestyle show which
never ever showed us sadness is now filled with sorrow.
'A pervasive sense of loss'
Simba Mhere's dad who was also in the
car during the accident which took his son’s life will be on Top Billing this Thursday – a symbol of
what the showstopper production lost.
Presenters already started to record
tributes, with Bonang Matheba, Ursula Chikane and others who couldn't keep back the tears.
On Thursday night the popular lifestyle magazine show that all others
on South television are measured by and which brought happiness and joy and
possibility to millions of viewers weekly, will – for the first time ever –
make them cry.
Tswelopele Productions hasn’t responded
to any media enquiries since Simba Mhere's senseless death Saturday morning,
but insiders were willing to talk about the "utter shock, numbness and
devastation" of the production company's private, and yet so public, pain.
"There's a pervasive sense of loss," said a longtime Tswelopele production insider. "This hit everybody hard,
especially Patience and Bassie. People are concerned about Jonathan too," said
the insider about Top Billing presenter
Jonathan Boynton-Lee who flew back to Johannesburg to be with Simba Mhere's family.
"They really were like brothers, it wasn't
some kind of an act," said another source. "They were both sortof the 'little
brother' of each other. At the same time. They would mercilessly rib each other but underneath it they were
fiercely protective [of each other]."
"They were both essentially individually hand-picked
by Patience through the presenter searches and to this day they felt like they
were 'the new ones' who constantly wanted to prove themselves I guess – to their
families, to their fans; even to the show, especially Patience.
"For them it was always in a sense 'them' against the world. You saw it every time you saw Simba and Jonathan's fierce work ethic. A really deep-seated need to make those around them proud. And so extremely loyal. Everybody's heartbroken over Simba
and also what it's done to Jonathan".
A TV moment that can't be scripted
The unexpected death will likely cast a
shadow over the new Presenter Search on 3 on SABC3. The show is looking for
three presenters for three different Tswelopele produced shows – one of them being Top Billing.
Although planned and announced before
Simba Mhere's passing, instead of an additional new TV face to join the crop of existing presenters, the reality show will now
feel like it's looking for a replacement for Simba Mhere - someone to fill his (literally) big
shoes.
Producers are already thinking of how to properly honour Simba Mhere's legacy
through that upcoming reality show.
In fact, Top Billing's tight turn-around productions schedule can now
actually do with two new presenters, although the company will stick with
finding and adding only one to the weekly flagship production.
This coming Thursday the Tswelopele
produced SABC sunshine show will also turn sombre when Jonathan Boynton-Lee is set to
make a live appearance on the "feel good breakfast show" Expresso done from Cape Town. He will for the first time talk publicly about his grief and
the loss of his "brother" Simba Mhere in a safe and protected TV environment.
And again it will be a TV moment that can't be scripted.
"It's just so very hard," laments a
source. "Everybody working here are miracle workers. Real miracle workers.
Day in and day out – the impossible. People here do and create and achieve the
impossible even under the most trying conditions and circumstances."
"But nobody is able to take the tears and pain away".
A memorial service will be held this week for Simba Mhere, the Top Billing presenter who was killed in a car crash on Saturday morning as his co-presenters on the popular lifestyle show expressed that they're "beyond broken" after his unexpected death this weekend.
Top Billing has also pushed out its already produced episode for this coming Thursday evening on SABC3 and behind the scenes producers at Tswelopele Productions are now working on a new special tribute episode dedicated to Simba Mhere in honour of the presenter "as a final goodbye".
Simba Mhere, who would have been a co-presenter with Top Billing presenter Jonathan Boynton-Lee on the upcoming Presenter Search on 3 looking for three new TV presenters, died when the driver of a VW Polo crashed into the Mitshubishi Simba Mhere was driving in Johannesburg on William Nicol Road near the N1 onramp early Saturday morning.
The driver of the VW Polo was not tested for alcohol and will be charged with reckless and negligent driving and two counts of culpable homicide. Simba Mhere's father who was also in the car survived is now recovering at home.
Edna Mamonyane, Johannesburg Metro police spokesperson said on Monday morning that "this guy [the VW Polo driver] crossed over the middle island and then hit Simba's car from the side." The impact killed Simba who was the driver and the person sitting behind him.
A memorial service for Simba Mhere will be held this Thursday, 5 February, at the Rhema Bible Church in Randburg from 15:00 to 17:00.
Simba Mhere's funeral will take place on Saturday, 7 February at the Rhema Bible Church in Randburg at 09:00, and he will be laid to rest at the Westpark Cemetery in Roosevelt Park.
Meanwhile tributes continue to pour in for Simba Mhere with Jonathan Boynton-Lee saying "Can't believe my brother is gone".
Top Billing presenter Jeannie D said "we are beyond broken and sad. Simba who we loved so much! Words fail us at this time but we just pray for his family and friends".
Lorna Lukhele said "words cannot express how shocked I am. Such a sad day to have lost one of the most amazing guys in the industry. At the brink of his career, not even 30. Gone too soon."
Basetsana Kumalo, the executive producer of Top Billing said "As a Top Billing family we're very, very devastated about the passing of Simba. He was an incredible human being, a gentle soul. He was fun and loving, a true hard-working individual, he was always just a delight and a pleasure to be with".
Aisha Mohamed, SABC3 channel head said Simba Mhere "was so real, so humble". "People really felt a connection with him. Always a big smile. Always a big hug. He had a warmness and a presence about him that you will never forget and it resonated on screen but he was also just as real in person".
"For me its just so heartbreaking to think he was on such a rise, and he's gone so soon. He had so much more to give," said Aisha Mohamed.
Both of the SABC's two breakfast shows on Monday morning which are produced live, Morning Live on SABC2 and Expresso on SABC3 - which is also produced by Tswelopele Productions- reflected on Simba Mhere's passing and had tributes.
"People fell in love with Simba. He just had such a charismatic, real openness about him," said Expresso presenter Leigh-Anne Williams, close to tears, on Monday morning.
"There's a reason why he was voted among South Africa's best and most popular TV presenters," said Expresso presenter Katlegoe Maboe.
"It's been a sad weekend and we send our condolences out to the family and colleagues of the late Simba Mhere," said Morning Live anchor Leanne Manas on SABC2 Monday morning. "Simba was only 26 years old - his whole life ahead of him. It really is a devastating story."
Simba Mhere, Top Billing presenter on SABC3 is dead as the shocking news about his death this morning in a horrifying car crash on the N3 is sending shockwaves through South Africa's TV biz.
Simbarashe Mhere known as simply "Simba" was only 26.
Eight people died in the car crash in which Simba Mhere, the son of missionary parents, was killed on Saturday morning on the N3 near the Marlboro offramp. His father and a friend was with him in the car at the time of the accident during which another car crashed into his vehicle.
The driver who caused the crash will be charged with reckless driving according to the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD).
Simba Mhere was on his way to the Oliver Tambo International Airport to fly to Cape Town's J&B Met this afternoon. In 2013 Simba Mhere was voted most stylist man in South Africa, and in 2014 favourite TV presenter.
Several celebrities left, and several were no-shows at the 2015 J&B Met on Saturday afternoon as news quickly spread about Simba Mhere's death.
The Top Billing crew and presenter Jonathan Boynton-Lee left the J&B Met after news about Simba Mhere's passing became known, where the atmosphere turned sombre and depressing.
"It is with awful shock and terrible pain that we reflect on the passing of our beloved Simba Mhere," saysTop Billing, produced by Tswelopele Productions.
"Simba Mhere will forever be an irreplaceable member of the Top Billing family. May your soul rest in peace dear Simba. We all loved you and we are truly heartbroken".
"It is with great sadness that SABC3 received the news about the passing of Simba Mhere, presenter on SABC3's Top Billing and Presenter Search on 3," says the SABC in a statement.
"Our beloved colleague and friend passed away in a tragic car accident earlier today. Simba Mhere brought great character and charisma in everything he did and for that he will be sorely missed."
"Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family, Simba Mhere's friends and
associates, his fans, viewers of SABC3 and the rest of South Africa."
"We wish to plead with the public to give the family some privacy during this
sad time. SABC3 will communicate all the relevant details in due course."
The longtime Top Billing presenter Janez Vermeiren who've worked with Simba Mhere tells TV with Thinus his death is "a devastating loss".
"For us to lose a human being of that caliber is devastating. I was standing in the shower after hearing the news and going through all of the conversations we've had over the years - his dreams and aspirations. He had so many big dreams and plans that's shattered now that he's in heaven".
"It's devastating to lose someone so nice. In this industry you get a lot of people who are nice to you in front of you but then not so nice when you're back is turned. Simba Mhere was nice 100% of the time. A devastating loss," says Janez Vermeiren.
The charismatic presenter was a TV natural and became a Top Billing presenter after winning the Top Billing Presenter Search in 2010 after he was chosen as the winner out of 5 000 contestants who entered.
Simba Mhere's untimely and shocking death comes ironically just two days after a Top Billing special episode was broadcast on Thursday night, and which will be repeated on Sunday on SABC3 at 12:30, in which both Simba Mhere and co-presenter Jonathan Boynton-Lee (who won in 2012) both looked back and reflected on how the show has changed their lives.
Editor's note: I've met Simba Mhere just after he won and became a Top Billing presenter in 2010, and saw and ran into him several times since then. What I will never forget is a private off-the-record dinner I had with him at the Crystal Towers hotel in Cape Town in 2013.
With the notebook packed away, the wine and conversation flowed. We could all be just us. Not presenter. Not journalist covering television. He laughed with abandon.
He told things I will never share, about his experiences about the TV world and the TV business as someone who entered it and was amazed, shocked, horrified and dazzled by it every day and how he didn't take anything of it for granted. He loved Top Billing and he loved being a TV presenter and the doors it opened. May Simba Mhere rest in peace.
Bonang Matheba, Jeannie D and Phat Joe will be the judges of the brand-new Presenter Search on 3 looking for three new TV presenters for Top Billing, Expresso and an as yet unannounced new magazine show on SABC3.
TV with Thinusbroke the news about the new show and upcoming competition earlier this month, and now entries have officially opened looking to find new stars to follow in the footsteps of previous - and since very successful - winners Simba Mhere and Jonathan Boynton-Lee.
I can reveal that Presenter Search on 3 will start as its own, stand-alone new series on SABC3 and will debut on 6 March on the channel as 13 one hour episodes on Friday nights at 19:30, exactly halfway through the nationwide audition process which will then have been filmed by that time.
It will be the third season of the highly successful reality competition which previously saw thousands of people queue for a chance to on, and become a part of the lifestyle TV production machine.
The Presenter Search on 3, produced by Tswelopele Productions, will be looking for a glamorous presenter to jetset the world, interview celebrities and bedazzle while walking and talking through magnificent mansions on SABC3's flagship show Top Billing.
Then there's also space for an upbeat presenter who can cope with the stress of live morning television and still smile and exude confidence on Expresso, as well as a lifestyle TV presenter for a weekly recorded new magazine show which will start later this year on SABC3.
Contestants will face physical challenges, tests of improvisation and intelligence,all while having to keep an eye on the sun, their mic's battery levels, and oozing high levels of charisma while juggling multiple voices and remembering links exactly the way the director wants them.
Anyone over 18 can enter and over February and March the thousands of hopefuls will be whittled down to a top 12, then a top 10 as they live together and face the various easy looking, yet difficult TV world challenges.
Auditions kick off in Cape Town on 13 and 14 February, Port Elizabeth on 22 February, Durban on 28 February and 1 March and Johannesburg on 6, 7, and 8 March.
Contestants have to take a photo, complete the entry form and dress up to impress and prepare a short speech or link - something to say or introduce themselves or a story, as they would if they're a TV presenter. The judges are looking for creative and original presentations.
Audition dates Cape Town 13, 14 Feb
Cape Town stadium - main entrance 9:00
callbacks: 16 Feb
Port Elizabeth 22 Feb
Nelson Mandela Bay stadium 9:00
callbacks: 23 Feb
Durban 28 Feb, 1 March
Venue to be announced 9:00
callbacks: 2 March
Johannesburg 6, 7, 8 March
Venue to be announced 9:00
callbacks: 11 March
Josh Gloak (23) is the winner of Win a Home on SABC3 after picking the right safe to open in the reality competition show from Tswelopele Productions which was spin-out into its own TV show this year following the successful insert it was on Top Billing.
Josh Gloak from Morningside chose the charcoal safe after 12 weeks and won the keys to the luxury apartment at Steyn City.
"When I opened the safe, it took
me a few seconds to realise what I'd actually won and what was actually in the
safe."
"But when I did, it was an unreal feeling, absolutely incredible. My first home. I think that's something
special."
In an interesting twist Win a Home combined an interesting reality TV aspect into the show, adding an interior design competition.
Four aspiring designers
– Jason Sandows, Jonathan Avnon, Donald Nxumalo and Liza Scholtz - were paired
with four established designers – Stephen Falcke, Ditau Interiors' Nthabi
Taukobong, Head Interiors' Abilene Brodie, and Design Collective's Amanda
Elliott - who acted act as mentors.
Each week, the aspiring designers were given a room décor
challenge on a budget determined by their mentor.
At the end of each four-day
décor challenge Donald Nxumalo (26) was announced as the winner, getting the opportunity to become one of Steyn City's "preferred" interior designers, as well as receiving a three-month internship with Kim
Hutton of Kim H Interiors, who designed the prize apartment.
"We are very proud of this first series of Win a Home and very thankful to our sponsors for their enormous contributions and for Steyn City for hosting us, as well as to SABC3 for giving us the platform to broadcast," says Patience Stevens, executive producer.
"A huge congratulations to Josh. I'm sure he will enjoy the beautiful apartment at Steyn City and all that the lifestyle estate has to offer."
