SABC done with Zaziwa; once-hot music talk show with Pearl Modiadie that saw its big ratings destroyed by SABC1 finally cancelled for good.

by Thinus Ferreira

The SABC is done with its once-hot Zaziwa talk show with the Pearl Modiadie-fronted music magazine programme on SABC1 that has finally been cancelled for good despite earlier promises from the broadcaster that it would return.

The SABC tells TVwithThinus that a decision was taken not to renew Zaziwa for another season.

"SABC programmes are subjected to a review exercise for recommissioning with the intention of ensuring that the channels are able to deliver and become competitive platforms. Therefore, following a review of Zaziwa, a decision was taken not to recommission the show for another season," says Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson.

"SABC1 is however exploring other content ideas and formats in the timeslot, allowing room to curate a diverse offering to viewers."

The once-popular Zazizwa, produced by Thabo Mphelo Films, drew between 3.5 and 4 millions of viewers to SABC1 as a ratings hit in its original Thursday night prime time slot of 19:30 until SABC1 executives decided to uproot it and destroyed its viewership in what became a self-inflicted wound.

In February 2017 SABC1 ripped Zaziwa from the schedule and transplanted it to Sunday nights at 20:30 - a lifestyle television "death slot" where, as predicted, viewers abandoned the show by the millions.

In August of the same year SABC1 quietly decided to dump Zaziwa from the schedule entirely to make space for yet another old rerun of Shaka Zulu, planning to bring Zaziwa back in a few months' time.

Nobody from SABC1 told a flabbergasted Pearl Modiadie that her show is off the schedule and off the air, with the Zaziwa presenter who had to hear from the media and not the SABC that Zaziwa has abruptly been shelved from its struggling Sunday evening timeslot.

Then SABC1 said that Zaziwa would return to a weekday and its erstwhile 19:30 timeslot but on Wednesdays, although it didn't materialise. 

On her Instagram page Pearl Modiadie in 2019 when she was asked if Zaziwa will ever return to SABC1, said that "When it does, I will put it out there right now I don't know. I've enjoyed it for the past 5 years, let's wait and see what happens next".

After dismal day and timeslot moves that drove away millions, SABC finally backstracks to return Zaziwa to 7:30pm on weekdays from 15 November.

After dismal day and timeslot moves for its once hot Zaziwa show that drove millions of viewers away from the SABC1, the SABC is finally backtracking and will be restoring Zaziwa to where it originally worked - on a weekday at 19:30.

Zaziwa will return to the SABC1 programming line-up from 15 November at 19:30 - the same timeslot but on Wednesdays, not Thursdays like before.

"We have made a conscious effort to move Zaziwa to Wednesday, as the environment that we have built on Sunday - and has already shown returns, intentionally did not make room for other formats other than local drama," says Sane Zondi, SABC1 programming manager.

"We believe Zaziwa will be a complimentary offer on the existing entertainment line-up on Wednesdays."

The return to a semblance of normality for Zaziwa comes exactly a year after the SABC decided to mess with the hugely popular show that used to pull between 3.5 and 4 million viewers to the public broadcaster before millions abandoned the show following inexplicable timeslot and day changes that saw the audience erode.

SABC1 programming executives decided to uproot Zaziwa and to move it to Thursdays at 21:00, but in October 2016 backtracked at the very last minute.

For a short while, it seemed as if Zaziwa was safe.

Then in February 2017 the SABC ripped Zaziwa from the schedule and inexplicably transplanted it to Sunday nights at 20:30 - a lifestyle television "death slot" where, as predicted, viewers abandoned the show by the millions.

In August 2017 there was even more shame for the show when SABC1 channel head Clara Nzima quietly decided to dump Zaziwa from the schedule entirely to make space for yet another old rerun of Shaka Zulu, and to bring Zaziwa back in a few months' time.

Nobody told a flabbergasted Pearl Modiadie that her show is off the schedule and off the air, with the Zaziwa presenter who had to hear from the media and not the SABC that Zaziwa has abruptly been shelved from its struggling Sunday evening timeslot.

Now Zaziwa is coming back to SABC1 and its erstwhile 19:30 timeslot, just on a weekday that's a day earlier than what it always used to be.

KINDA TRASHY. Poor Pearl! Pearl Modiadie had to hear from the media that SABC1 abruptly dumped Zaziwa from Sunday for ... Shaka Zulu.

Poor Pearl, nobody apparently bothered to tell her Zaziwa has abruptly been dumped from the SABC1 schedule from this Sunday to make way for ... Shaka Zulu.

SABC style, a flabbergasted Pearl Modiadie had to hear from the media and not the SABC that uhm, Zaziwa has abruptly been shelved from its struggling Sunday evening timeslot.

SABC1's channel head Clara Nzima decided that Zaziwa must make way from this Sunday for an old Shaka Zulu 10-partner at 20:30.

Pearl Modiadie presents and produces Zaziwa.

The struggling Zaziwa will move back to a weekday from 8 November after ratings for the show tanked when SABC1 in February moved it from its Wednesday timeslot to Sundays, losing more than a million viewers for the SABC.

SABC1 publicist Phillip Mabitsela didn't respond to a media enquiry as to why Zaziwa - only midway through its 5th season and with 36 episodes left - is being taken off the air for two and a half months.

Zaziwa's could have gotten somewhat of a ratings boost as the lead-out from the new Tjovitjo starting this Sunday at 20:00 on SABC1 if the gritty pantsula dance drama itself manages to lure big enough audiences.

Now the SABC will treat SABC1 viewers to the umpteenth reshowing of the 1986 Shaka Zulu drama with Henry Cele in the title role that actually more belongs on MultiChoice and the SABC's library rerun channel SABC Encore (DStv 156) on DStv.

SABC rips Zaziwa from its SABC1 Sunday night timeslot of 20:30 replacing it with Shaka Zulu reruns as it gets ready to launch pantsula drana Tjovitjo.

The SABC has abruptly pulled the ratings-battered magazine music show Zaziwa from its Sunday night timeslot of 20:30 on SABC1 to replace it with another old rebroadcast of Shaka Zulu, as the public broadcaster gets ready to media launch its new Sunday night pantsula dancers drama, Tjovitjo on Thursday in Johannesburg.

The once hugely successful Zaziwa was a SABC and SABC1 top-performer in the ratings on Thursday evenings until the SABC finally went through with moving it to Sunday nights in February this year after deciding to do it in October 2016 but scuppering the schedule change at the last minute.

Zaziwa's ratings plunged and now the SABC wants it gone from the 20:30 Sunday night timeslot following the new 20:00 drama Tjovitjo, going as far as rather scheduling the old Shaka Zulu drama for yet another repeat in prime time.

The SABC apparently plans to move Zaziwa back to a weeknight timeslot in a few months' time after the ratings-hemorrhage of more than a million viewers who abandoned the show.

On Thursday SABC1 will have a media launch in Johannesburg for Tjovitjo, produced by Puo Pha Productions' Lodi Matsetela and Vincent Moloi.

The gritty Tjovitjo filmed at Crown Mines outside Johannesburg, follows a struggling group of pantsula dancers and is the SABC's counter-programming answer for Mzansi Magic's (DStv 161) successful iNumber Number drama that recently started in the 20:00 timeslot and that Tjovitjo will try and lure viewers from.

The 26-episode Tjovitjo stars Warren Masemola as Mafred, the leader of the struggling dance group in the Tjovitjo community with as cast that includes Rapulana Seiphemo, Tebogo Chauke and Harriet Manamela.

Strangely Zaziwa will no longer be the lead-out to Tjovitjo that could have helped it gain viewers, but has been removed to make space for the 10-episode reshowing of 1986's Shaka Zulu with Henry Cele in the title role.

SABC1 dumps hit talk show Zaziwa on Sunday nights at 8:30pm; Pearl Modiadie to present new show, Raw Silk, on Tuesdays from 7 February.

The SABC is moving its hit local talk show Zaziwa on SABC1 from Thursdays at 18:30 and dumping it on Sundays at 20:30 while presenter Pearl Modiadie is spreading her wings with a new show, Raw Silk.

The shock-move comes after SABC1 last year planned to move the show to a so-called "death slot" of later in the evening, but then gave the show a reprieve at the last moment when other commissioned local programming set to take its 18:30 timeslot wasn't finished in time.

After the completion of its temporary schedule disruption for AFCON 2017, the SABC is moving Zaziwa with presenter Pearl Modiadie to Sunday nights at 20:30 from 12 February. The SABC hasn't given any explanation for the move.

In October 2016 the SABC backtracked at the last minute after it wanted to move Zaziwa to 21:00 on SABC1 where it would have suffered a dramatic viewership drop off at a much later time period where it would have had to compete against SABC2's Muvhango and Mzansi Magic's The Queen.

Zaziwa is currently luring around 3.5 to 4 million viewers on Thursday nights, making it the most watched local TV talk show on South African television.

Now the SABC is inexplicably moving Zaziwa to an even worse day and timeslot - Sunday nights where it will be up against e.tv's Sunday night films and Mzansi Magic's power house local shows.

It's not yet clear if Pearl Modiadie is staying on at Zaziwa where she has been the presenter and associate producer.

She will however become the presenter of a new SABC1 show, Raw Silk, starting on SABC1 on Tuesday 7 February at 21:00 and already started filming for Raw Silk in late 2016. Pearl Modiadie is either leaving Zaziwa or will be doing double duty presenting both shows.

On social media Pearl Modiadie told followers two days ago that she's in-studio and doing a voice-over session for Raw Silk.

SABC moves Generations tonight from SABC1 to ... SABC3 ... dumping local show High Rollers ... to make space for soccer. And will do it again.

In another mind-boggling and perplexing scheduling move, the SABC is suddenly moving its highest-rated show Generations tonight from SABC1 to its channel with the smallest reach and serving a completely different audience - SABC3 - due to soccer.

SABC1 also shocked with other erratic and last-minute programming schedule changes it's not explaining to viewers that relates to Zaziwa, Street Cred and the new season of Tempy Pushas that was supposed to start last week and didn't without any explanation.

Generations, usually shown on weekdays at 20:00 on SABC1, will suddenly be shown at 19:30 on SABC3 tonight in the place of the dumped local telenovela High Rollers, so that the SABC can broadcast the international friendly soccer match between South Africa and Ghana from 19:00 live on SABC1 from the Moses Mabhida stadium.

The erratic and highly unusual move will apparently happen again on 15 November when SABC3's High Rollers will once again be dumped for Generations in its timeslot.

It's the first time the SABC has replaced one locally produced SABC TV soap with another of its locally produced TV soaps.

The SABC's highly disruptive shock-move is bad for a litany of reasons:

►Previously when the SABC had to move Generations due to soccer broadcasts it was to another timeslot on SABC1, or like for instance during the African Nations Championships to SABC2 where the channel's target audience has a bigger overlap with SABC1.

►SABC3 can only be received by 77% of South African viewers and the channel's target audience is the furthest from SABC1. It makes no sense for the SABC to move its most watched show with an audience of 8.1 million viewers to a channel where millions of viewers won't be able to see it, won't know its on there, and in another timeslot.

►As debilitating as it is for Generations and that soap's audience, it's even more devastating for High Rollers and that show's audience of just over 600 000 on SABC3. Not only does the SABC with the unusual move signals that High Rollers "matters" less as local SABC content than Generations as local content, it also will impact negatively on the specific demos and audience ratings both channels and both shows tries to reach.

►AThe SABC is literally damaging itself and its brands with self-inflicted wounds. Generations ratings for this week has no other place than go down; High Rollers ratings will also definitely be down. And keep in mind viewer sentiment.
Viewers, especially serialised soap watchers, find it confusing and get angry when they come back after they missed, or were forced to miss an episode and struggle to try and fill in what they've missed and then resent TV channel brands for "messing" with their stories.

►The SABC will once again very likely lose advertising income on two streams - for advertisers who bought airtime during what would have been Generations' 20:00 timeslot on SABC1, as well as SABC3's 19:30 High Rollers timeslot. The SABC will have to do what the biz calls "make-goods", give paid and booked advertisers more timeslots in future to reach the right audience they lost out on in the first place, which means less available ad inventory available for the SABC can sell.

►The SABC will also lose money from the sport broadcast during which it can't sell the highly lucrative ad spots commercial advertisers want during Generations.


SABC1's other stranger things
SABC1 has been silent about what's going on with the channel's other erratic moves.

The new third season of sitcom Tempy Pushas was scheduled to start this past Friday on SABC1 but was suddenly a no-show with no word from the channel as to why it didn't start and why Shuga continued. The new Tempy Pushas was this week suddenly rescheduled to start on Friday 28 October but there's been no reason given for the delay. And then it got rescheduled for a third time within days to now start on 14 October.

The new street dance reality show Street Cred has been rescheduled to start this Thursday at 18:00.

The SABC also did a U-turn and decided to keep its ratings successful talk show Zaziwa on Thursdays at 19:30.

SABC1 recently decided to drop Zaziwa from its highly successful primetime timeslot of 19:30 and to move it to the bizarre timeslot of 21:00 from this week where it would not just no longer be a hit but struggle to find any audience up against SABC2's Venda soap juggernaut Muvhango and pay-TV ratings hit The Queen on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161).

Zaziwa will now suddenly be staying in its 19:30 timeslot on SABC1.

Zaziwa, a new 26 episode music talk show, starting this evening on SABC1 at 19:00 with presenter Pearl Modiadie.

Zaziwa, a new 26 episode music talk show starts on SABC1 this evening at 19:00, presented by Pearl Modiadie also known as "Black Pearl".

Zaziwa will aim to give viewers a glimpse into the lives of their favourite celebrities through the music which are shaping their lives. The music talk show will feature one-on-one studio interviews with local stars as they discuss with the help of music videos, the sounds and music influencing their lives.

SABC1 says Pearl Modiadie is "the perfect candidate to drive this exciting show to success."

In a statement Pearl Modiadie says "not only am I doing what I love which is television hosting, but I'm also involved in the nitty gritty's behind-the-scenes. This show gives me a chance to connect with my guests on another level and show a different side that they perhaps would otherwise never have seen. I absolutely love music so this show is perfect."

The first episode of Zaziwa profiles actor Melusi Yeni of the SABC1 soap Generations.