e.tv doing a timeslot-switcheroo for telenovela Broken Vows and eNews Direct as shows get each other's timeslots of 18:30 and 20:00 from 4 September.

To try and lift ratings e.tv will switch the timeslots of its telenovela Broken Vows and its prime time TV news bulletin eNews Direct from Monday 4 September although the apparently odd move will see both half hour shows face even stiffer competition that might drag viewership lower.

As part of the red letter channel's acquisition of Days of Our Lives and take-over of the Sony and Corday production from the SABC's SABC3, e.tv is doing a major retooling of its prime-time schedule from September with Days' placement at 17:30.

While music show Club 808 on Fridays is strangely shipped off to the earlier 16:30 timeslot from Friday 8 September when its target audience won't be home to watch it, e.tv is also switching around Broken Vows and eNews Direct - both struggling in the ratings - by giving them the other show's timeslot.

e.tv hasn't made any announcements yet, but from Monday 4 September the telenovela Broken Vows produced by Clive Morris Productions will move from 20:00 to 18:30 where it will have to compete head-to-head with the 6th season of SABC1's hugely successful Skeem Saam youth drama.

From 4 September the eNews Direct at 18:30 will be moved to 20:00 opposite SABC1's super-soap Generations - The Legacy.

Skeem Saam and Generations command a ratings share of respectively 61% and 68.2%. It means that during their timeslots, more than two-thirds of all South African TV sets that are turned on, are tuned to these shows.

What it means it that it will likely be very difficult for e.tv's Broken Vows and for eNews Direct in their switcheroo-timeslots to find a sizeable enough audience, although they haven't been doing well where they've been scheduled currently either.

Two and a half years ago in January 2015 e.tv promised "a regeneration of 8pm" - a play of words on SABC1's Generations with e.tv's introduction of a local telenovela during this timeslot on weekday, but that strategy hasn't worked and now the channel is reversing course.

Days of Our Lives is now going to serve as the lead-in to an e.tv superblock of soap, with Broken Vows at 18:30, Rhythm City at 19:00 and Scandal at 19:30.

It remains to be seen whether e.tv viewers can stay put for a marathon 2 and a half hours of soap television during early prime time as working class families with dueling priorities rush home, battle to bath and to put food on the table in time for dinner.

eNCA anchor Joanne Joseph moves back to 4pm timeslot from today to replace Dudu Ramela; still looking for mid-morning co-anchor replacement.

eNCA (DStv 403) anchor Joanne Joseph is moving back to the 16:00 to 18:00 timeslot from today, 1 February with the Sabido-run TV news channel on DStv that is still looking for a new co-anchor for Cathy Mohlahlana in the mid-morning slot.

Joanne Joseph replaces Duduzile Ramela who left the 16:00 timeslot on eNCA to anchor e.tv's quixotic eNews Direct.

Joanne Joseph previously anchored at 16:00 on weekdays and she's familiar with the timeslot that's more interview-driven with a faster pace.

"The 16:00 to 18:00 show makes unique demands on the afternoon team," compressing a wealth of news - from politics, to business, to sport and weather - into a mere two hours," says Joanne Joseph.

"For the afternoon tea, it's a barrage of breathless journalism. For the viewer, we hope to make it an informal whirlwind that draws you into the eye of the day's top stories around us."

"eNCA is confident Joanne Joseph will take Afternoon News from strength to strength with her incisive interviewing skills and intelligent approach to news," says Mapi Mhlangu, eNCA news director.

"As a senior anchor Joanne Joseph plays a crucial role in mentoring young talent. She models a very high standard of professionalism in broadcast journalism. We are confident that her probing interview style, ability to distill live events and dedication to the core values of journalism will continue to make eNCA the country's news channel of choice"," says Mapi Mhlangu.

eNCA is still deciding on a replacement for Joanne Joseph's spot next to Cathy Mohlahlana.

REVIEW. eNews Direct on e.tv is an ugly, awful, disjointed, technically flawed, hashtagging rehashing vacuum of frenetic nothingness.

What was this? No, really ... what was this?

e.tv dumped its eNews Prime Time news bulletin and replaced it on Monday evening with what can only be described as one of the most awful, technically terrible and most cringe-worthy pieces of television trashnews since the disastrous launch of ANN7 (DStv 405).

eNews Direct on e.tv is literally the worse piece of South African produced TV news I watched since the jaw-droppingly bad launch of ANN7.

Have the people at e.tv, eNews and eNCA ever heard of the word "rehearsal"? Even more importantly, have they no shame?

If this is what "TV news" looks like after a rehearsal or dry-runs, people really should get fired.

eNews Direct is inexcusably bad and very poorly executed and e.tv is doing a big disservice to viewers with this misdirected mess.

eNews Direct that started on Monday night was filled with wrong camera cuts, awful and erratic camerawork, a news reader who looked more interested in her tablet, numerous cringe-inducing mistakes, a dumbed down weather map, a lot of stuff that completely didn't work and was an utter disorganised mess.

eNews Direct, e.tv's extremely disappointing latest iteration of a news bulletin is an abominable mess - it's hard to believe that people who've been doing news for years are responsible for this abject failure which feels like a total disservice to viewers when it comes to news.

If you've ever seen a kitten that got into a basket of wool, you will have an idea of what e.tv's dismal eNews Direct is: a messy and disorganised heap of stuff that doesn't gel, doesn't make sense and that is worsened by numerous human errors and technical mistakes.

Watching the first episode of e.tv's eNews Direct it was as if the SABC suddenly grew a parallel news service besides SABC News and did it in red and blue - but just as bad.

eNews Direct is painful to watch - as if e.tv with it wants to punish free-to-air viewers for not having DStv and watching eNCA (DStv 403).

It's as if e.tv is now signalling that people who submit themselves to watching this "news lite" mess with ugly social media latch on's, actually deserve it because they are too stupid to expect or deserve more, or too cheap to watch TV news on a pay-TV channel.

Universities are now simply "unives" according to e.tv and eNews Direct's lower-third banner.

Add the (other unintentional?) "mistakes" of e.tv and eNews Direct showing you things like competitor ANN7's Tweet front and centre, or the SABC News channel on a background monitor, and you will struggle to believe that what you see is actually really being produced and broadcast by e.tv backed with the expertise of the eNCA brand.

The structure, the content, the delivery, the shaky camerawork, the awkward angles, the anchor, the presentation, the script, the "studio", the colours - basically everything about eNews Direct on e.tv is extremely off-putting and just very wrong.

eNews Direct on e.tv is an ugly, disjointed, technically flawed mess, rehashing hashtagged news for an imagined viewership that must be... what? Morons?

Awkward anchor Dudu Ramela behaves like your irritating dinner guest or family member who makes it blatantly clear that she is more interested in her handheld device than you. Did she read her news script beforehand or just showed up to focus or where she would be standing for each of the 1 500 newsroom segment changes?

More interested in counting her lines, Dudu Ramela will look up and talk to you, but she doesn't really want to talk to you because her tablet is more important. That's the eNews Direct vibe, because the news must now be trendy and "trending".

eNews Direct will now even do "Entertainment" - but sadly even that "news" was all old news inside the new bulletin that is supposedly updating you on what's "trending". The (hashtag) "GarethCliff" was all old news, instead of eNews Direct giving viewers new information and facts.

Why is the respected eNCA anchor and social media editor Gareth Edwards even in and part of this downmarket eNews Direct mess?

Why does neither the cameramen with their poor camerawork, editors or director(s) seem to know what's happening next and what the flow is?

Why does this confusing half hour jump from this to that to sport to business to whatever else? Why is the quality of the camerawork and literally every single other element that makes up this eNews Direct bulletin so terribly weak and bad?

Where is the actual news content and the substance? eNews Direct comes across as a vacuum-like bubble of frenetic nothingness - giving viewers more of nothing and less of everything that the eNews Prime Time bulletin offered before.

What a waste to watch.

e.tv's eNews division dumps eNews Prime Time; relaunches early evening news bulletin as eNews Direct with Dudu Ramela.

South Africa'as only free-to-air commercial TV channel e.tv is dumping its eNews Prime Time new bulletin halfway in January, relaunching it Monday 18 January at 18:30 as eNews Direct with anchor Dudu Ramela who will literally walk and talk viewers through the "trending" news stories of the day.

In February last year Pat Pillai left eNews Prime Time. In March e.tv and eNews added its half hour Zulu TV news bulletin from the eKasi+ channel on OpenView HD, eNews Izindaba at 18:30 and moved its primetime news bulletin to 20:30.

The move turned out to be a big failure for both timeslots and both news programmes which suffered in the ratings and dragged down e.tv viewership.

In mid-June eNews reversed course, dumped the Zulu news and moved the English bulletin that failed to attract viewers at 20:30 back to 18:30.

E.tv said market research afterwards showed that viewers want to see the main English bulletin earlier.

After struggling to lift news ratings, e.tv's latest news bulletin tinkering involves relaunching and rebranding its primetime news bulletin to eNews Direct from tonight.

On weekends eNews Prime Time is also changing to eNews Direct Weekend at 19:00.

Monde Twala, managing director of e.tv channels, says its prime time news bulletin's look and content must change its format and delivery in response to changing trends due to how South Africans have changed the way in which they consume news and information.

"eNews Direct is more for the on-the-go experiential viewer as it brings features that are trending and it is engaging with the viewer," says Monde Twala.

eNews Direct is described as a "distinct and innovate new bulletin" that will "deliver robust and contextually relevant news content in an unbiased manner", "news [that] is fast-paced, forthright and engaging, with news reports and news stories that are suitable for the modern-day busy and connected viewer".

eNews Direct will cover the key stories of the day as well as economic, sports and entertainment news, as well as weather.

Worried eNews insiders said the latest move is yet another indication of how e.tv is scaling back news output and the anchoring of news from Cape Town and out of e.tv's new Cape Town headquarters and studio.

e.tv in response to a media enquiry told TV with Thinus "it isn't true that news are no longer done and anchored in Cape Town and there hasn't been any downscaling".


Editor's note: This story was updated 4 hours later to correct the first sentence. It first started "relaunched tonight at 18:30 as eNews Direct" but has been changed to Monday 18 January at 18:30 as eNews Direct. The mistake in mentioning the wrong date was my editorial error.