Suzaan Steyn has been upped as one of the new kykNET Verslag anchors on kykNET (DStv 144) from 2022 and will start on Monday 24 January.
Suzaan Steyn replaces Lourensa Eckard who is the new anchor of Wednesday's current affairs talk show edition, In Gesprek met Lourensa. Lourensa Eckard replaces Waldimar Pelser who is becoming the new kykNET channel boss from February.
With the musical chairs anchor changes, kykNET and the production company IdeaCandy is also slightly changing the presentation frequency of the anchors of kykNET Verslag in 2022.
Where Heinrich Weingaard and Lourensa Eckard would alternate as kykNET Verslag anchors on different nights of the same week, Heinrich Weingaard and Suzaan Steyn will now take turns to anchor a week's episodes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights on kykNET.
kykNET Verslag returned this week with Heinrich Weingaard as anchor, with Suzaan Steyn who will debut next week for that week's episodes.
Suzaan Steyn was chosen as the anchor of the weekly kykNET Verslag Pandemie episode during the height of South Africa's Covid-19 pandemic when KN Pandemie was introduced as a limited series show.
After the conclusion of that show, Suzaan Steyn was moved to Mondays at 17:30 to anchor the weekly medical current affairs show, Spreekkamer on kykNET.
Now she will take weekly turns as the anchor of kykNET's live current affairs late-night strand at 21:30 that is done from Stark Studios in Johannesburg.
The Afrikaans TV reporter and anchor Lourensa Eckard is taking over from Waldimar Pelser as the permanent new presenter of the weekly current affairs talk show In Gesprek on kykNET (DStv 144).
Lourensa Eckard, one of the anchors on kykNET's kykNET Verslag news and current affairs strand on weeknights produced by Idea Candy, has in the past been a sit-in for Waldimar Pelser for the week's talk show episode.
She has now been upped to the position full-time following Waldimar Pelser's appointment as the new boss of kykNET from February 2022.
In Gesprek with Lourensa will debut with her first episode on Wednesday 19 January at 21:00 on kykNET.
The kykNET Verslag strand, anchored by Lourensa Eckard and Heindrich Wyngaard and done from Stark Studios in Johannesburg, returns for the year from Monday 17 January with episodes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 21:30 on the channel.
Lourensa Eckard who studied journalism at the University of Pretoria and completed her B.Phil at the University of Stellenbosch in 2011 started her journalism career at the Afrikaans Beeld newspaper in 2012 and also worked for Rapport, City Press and Netwerk24. In 2014 she started as a TV field reporter for kykNET Verslag.
The veteran Afrikaans TV news anchor Riaan Cruywagen (72) made a quiet exit on Thursday night as news anchor on kykNET Verslag on kykNET (DStv 144) bringing the curtain to a final close on his illustrious TV news reading career after more than four decades on the air on South African television.
With no pre-announcement to the press by kykNET of his exit, Riaan Cruywagen stunned viewers on the eve of the Easter holiday at the end of Thursday night's episode of kykNET Verslag when he told viewers he's leaving.
At kykNET he first anchored the news on the morning show Dagbreek, before transitioning to the evenings on M-Net's Afrikaans TV channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform for the past three years, after Dagbreek was cancelled.
"I'm also finally saying goodbye tonight after more than five wonderful years - first at Dagbreek and after that at kykNET Verslag," said Riaan Cruywagen at the end of the third season and episode 140 of kykNET Verslag.
"I'm now swapping the world of hard news and actuality for other TV work and new challenges but not without saying thank you to kykNET for the opportunity to broaden my horizons on this exceptional channel."
"I've worked with tens of creative and inspiring people, as well as at kykNET and with the producers of our programme, IdeaCandy - and in my old days I've learnt a lot from them. If I can mention only a few names - because there's tens of them - I'm saying thank you very much to Karen Meiring (kykNET channel head) and Tim du Plessis (head of actuality) of kykNET and Wim Steyn (executive producer) and Wynette Theart (producer) van IdeaCandy and their personnel."
"The most unsung mainstays were our studio crew without which no programme can ever make it onto the air - my director Rudi Botha and his team and my editor Werner Swart and his able journalists."
"But finally, to you, our appreciated viewers, thank you for your dedicated support over the years. I wish you all of the best. Well, enjoy the long weekend and go well."
kykNET in response to a media enquiry as to why there was no announcement to the media, told TVwithThinus that the channel took Cruywagen's direction about how he wanted to communicate his exit and up until Thursday morning he didn't want to involve the media.
kykNET says Riaan Cruywagen will remain as the presenter of Met 'n Huppel in
die Stap, kykNET's Afrikaans magazine show focusing on the challenges, joys and life advice for people after 50.
kykNET produced a short tribute goodbye video in which his family including his wife, daughter and grandson, as well as other Afrikaans TV news readers like Marietta Kruger and Suzaan Steyn, shared special messages.
After cancelling its breakfast morning show Dagbreek after just two years and shortening the running time of the programmes of its recently introduced late night timeslot, kykNET (DStv 144) will debut kykNET Verslag from 6 April.
kykNET Verslag, a summary of the day's most talked about events, will be broadcast from Mondays to Thursdays at 21:30 as a new half hour programme on M-Net's Afrikaans language TV channel supplied to MultiChoice's DStv, and will be repeated in the mornings at 06:00.
The changes come five months after the different themed late night timeslot, with programmes ranging from news to comedy and talk, was introduced in October 2014.
Besides Insig which remains an hour in duration, all the other actuality programmes on kykNET in the themed timeslot strand are cut to half an hour and also moved half an hour later to start at 22:00. Thursday's Flits which was to be cancelled will now remain, but the format shaken up. Friday's VrydagNag Laat, a satirical show, remains cancelled.
From 6 April, on Monday nights, Rapport editor Waldimar Pelser will continue to present Insig for an hour from 22:00 on kykNET, a news and actuality show looking at news and political events shaping the country as well as interviews with newsmakers.
On Tuesdays Winslyn, now at 22:00, is reduced to half an hour and business woman presenter Santie Botha is gone. Co-presenter Divan Botha remains and will now anchor the show focused on entrepreneurs and business ventures and looking at the South African economy.
On Wednesday Prontuit, now at 22:00, is reduced to half an hour and presenter Mariëtta Kruger is gone. Co-presenter Kabous Meiring remains in this talk show interviewing interesting South Africans.
On Thursday Flits, now at 22:00, was to be scrapped but will now remain, but with a changed focus. Previous co-presenter Yvonne Beyers from Huisgenoot magazine remains, Fanie Cronjé is gone and Bouwer Bosch joins the show.
From 10 April at 17:30 kykNET adds Aktueel Bestes, a weekly digest which is a collection of shorts culled from the week's various shows in the late night timeslot.
According to Karen Meiring, M-Net's director of Afrikaans channels, the adjustments are being made to better accomodate kykNET's target market interested in actuality programming.
"We trust that these moves will see an even bigger increase in viewership within the next couple of months".
