M-Net reveals how - and why - it chose Marc Buckner as the bachelor for the second season of The Bachelor SA ... and the channel execs' first 'date' with him to suss him out that they had to fit in at the Cape Town airport.

M-Net is revealing how - and why - it chose Marc Buckner as the bachelor for the second season of The Bachelor SA that will start filming in October - including how the channel executives' first "date" to suss him out took place at the Cape Town International Airport of all places.

"Finding a bachelor for a show like The Bachelor SA is probably one of the hardest processes that we have been through as a team," explains Kaye-Ann, M-Net's head of local content and independent films.

In October, production company Rapid Blue will start filming the second season of The Bachelor SA, set for broadcast on M-Net (DStv 101) from sometime in February 2020.

Following Lee Thompson as the bachelor of the first season, M-Net and Rapid Blue found Marc Buckner, also from Cape Town, as the bachelor for the new local season of the dating reality show that is done according to the Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) format.

"It is so difficult to do because there's a lot of guidance we get from the format and from the format holders but for our M-Net audience and from what we know will work for this format there's a lot of boxes to tick."

"There were so many people that we had to go through, so many "dates" we had to go on - we actually met Marc Buckner at the Cape Town International Airport, we met up with him at the airport and had a discussion with him, but there are a plethora of boxes that need to be ticked in order for us to satisfy a lot of different things."

"The most important thing is that the guy must actually really want to be in a relationship - really wants to settle down and find someone and is ready for a relationship," says Kaye-Ann Williams.

"Then on another level they need to work on television. They need to be able to communicate their feelings. They need to have some kind of self-actualisation, in a sense that they know what they want, they know who they are, they know what they're looking for."

"But then also, when you chat to him, there needs to be some kind of engagement - he needs to have personality, he needs to have a sense of humour, he needs to have an opinion on things; he needs to narrate his own journey as well."

"So when we speak to him, we listen to him and how he narrates his own journey. We ask: 'Tell us about yourself? Tell us about your life? Where you've been, what you've been through?' And we listen to how he tells us his own story but also how he's observed his own life."

"That needs to translate through to the M-Net audience watching. So there are so many different levels that you need to hit that it's such an almost impossible thing to find. We really, really went through a lot of guys."

"The Bachelor SA process to find a bachelor is normally a closed process. The only thing we did differently this time around for the second season is that we opened it up to radio stations who went to see is there anyone out there that we don't know of."

"It's mainly a closed-off process and we approach people, we work through agencies and websites and we have tentacles and people who help us, but this time around we decided to open it up a bit to see what can people bring us," says Kaye-Ann Williams.

"Marc Buckner was actually a lead that came through from two different directions. One was Instagram and one was something else - I'm not going to say who it was but it was someone really amazing. But it was a great process."

Jan du Plessis, director of M-Net channels, says "Kaye-Ann and I went together when the lead came out way and Marc Buckner happened to be in Cape Town. And we immediately investigated it and he's the result as the next bachelor."


ALSO READ: From a new mansion to simplified dates M-Net and Rapid Blue are implementing some behind-the-scenes production changes to improve the second season of The Bachelor SA.
ALSO READ: INTERVIEW. Marc Buckner, The Bachelor SA's new bachelor, on why he's doing it, the love he's looking for - and maybe even shaving for television.
ALSO READ: M-Net reveals Marc Buckner as the bachelor for the second season of The Bachelor SA who is 'husband material' and this time looking for love and a lady.

From a new mansion to simplified dates M-Net and Rapid Blue are implementing some behind-the-scenes production changes to improve the second season of The Bachelor SA.

Besides a new "hot guy" in the shape of Marc Buckner, some significant changes are coming production-wise behind-the-scenes that have been ordered by M-Net to improve the second season of The Bachelor South Africa.

TVwithThinus has learnt that the Rapid Blue produced dating reality show is making some fundamental production changes to try and make Cupid's arrows hopefully find their targets better and coming after the first season on M-Net (DStv 101) ended on a disappointing note when Lee Thompson's relationship was revealed to have fizzled out during the first season finale.

The Bachelor SA, a local version of the dating show format of Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP), is implementing various production changes to try and make love blossom better the second time around.

Marc Buckner will get more actual off-camera time for "dating" on the show to get to know the various women he will meet better. The casting process has also been made even more stringent to weed out fame-seeking women more interested in being on television than finding love.

In addition, one-on-one dates will be simplified and toned down production and filming wise to allow more time spent on the actual date and less time on camera and scene set-up, and there will also be a new mansion used when filming starts in October.

"For us it is really important to make sure that we create that environment where the bachelor and the woman that he is dating are in a 'bubble' - that they get enough time to spend together without any influences; and secondly that there's enough time to really get to know each other," says Jan du Plessis, director of M-Net channels.

" So that's the first thing that we're most definitely doing. And then the other thing is that I had a list of probably 80 or so activities and dates that we were choosing from."

"The moment that Marc signed on the dotted line, we are busy adapting all of those dates and events to suit Marc's personality and interests, so that they can actually go hiking and jogging and do all sorts of outdoors activities with the ladies to see that natural sort of chemistry develop."

"The most important change was the time."

Kaye-Ann, M-Net's head of local content and independent films, says "if you remember Lee Thompson's date with Edith that started off at the top of a hill, and then the next thing was a strawberry farm and then they had a picnic after they picked the strawberries".

"Those three things that happened cost us three different movements and set-ups and location shifts and camera set-ups. It was just too much. There was too little time for them to get to know each other and too much time spent logistically."

"So what we've decided to do is to simplify - whatever it is. There needs to be one set-up, there needs to be one simple movement, unit movement, so that Marc Buckner and the date he is with can actually get to know each other and actually spend time together because all those set-ups cost a lot of time. So those are some of the lessons we've learnt from the first season."

TVwithThinus asked whether the same Sandhurst-set mansion, located in an ultra-affluent residential area in Sandton, Johannesburg, and the wealthiest suburb in the country, will be used again. "No, it won't be the same mansion," says Lani Lombard, M-Net's head of publicity.

"We never told anybody last year where the mansion was, for very good reasons. It's going to be a new mansion this year and again, you won't know where exactly the mansion is. Because you can just imagine, that if people were to know where the mansion is, how they will hang around in the streets."

"We remember from the very first season of Big Brother SA and the Big Brother house, people were in the streets, neighbours complained, and people came to try and see what's going on and what the housemates were doing. If they're to know where the mansion is, it would be madness. So we're keeping the mansion a secret and for the second season it's a different one."

The second season of The Bachelor SA won't start on Valentines Day on 14 February again but is likely to start on M-Net sometime in February 2020 and M-Net will make the season premiere episode once again available on YouTube for a limited time as free-to-view.

M-Net reveals Marc Buckner as the bachelor for the second season of The Bachelor SA who is 'husband material' and this time looking for love and a lady.

M-Net (DStv 101) on Saturday afternoon revealed Barc Buckner (36) as the bachelor who will be looking for love and a lady in the second season of The Bachelor South Africa.

M-Net describes Marc Brent Buckner as a "mature, witty, energetic, smart, adventurous and compassionate, globe-trotting action man and multiple property owner and currency trader and investor".

Marc Buckner will be introduced on Sunday night, 8 September 2019, just after Carte Blanche on M-Net in an on-air promo, with entries for women who want to possibly meet him in the second season of the reality show that will be closing on Wednesday 11 September 2019.

The second season of The Bachelor SA follows after the first season that had Lee Thompson as the bachelor and is again being produced by Rapid Blue as a localised version of the dating show format of Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP).

His full name is Marc Brent Buckner and he "is the type of guy who puts his heart and soul into everything he does," says Lani Lombard, M-Net’s head of publicity.

"Once you’ve seen that twinkle in his eye and have the chance to engage with him in conversations  on a range of topics – from environmental issues, to motorbikes, healthy living, wellness, psychology and news headlines – there’s really only one way to describe him – husband material! And that’s exactly what we want our Bachelor to be."

M-Net says that when Marc Buckner isn't exploring foreign destinations – often in the company of one of his favourite people in the world, his mom – or analysing economic trends to boost his bank account – you will find Marc in the great outdoors.

"Hiking, kayaking, snorkelling, sky-diving or enjoying a 'picnic with a view' count among his best-loved activities. It’s just as important to him to build trusting, close relationships."

"Cooking a meal alongside a loved one and having a meaningful conversation over a glass of wine near a crackling fireplace is right up his alley. Another bonus for the ladies: he loves DIY projects and even builds his own furniture," says M-Net of Marc Buckner.

"Growing his own vegetable garden is on his to-do-list for when he finds 'the one' and starts his own family."

If Marc looks familiar, here's why: a modelling agency approached him at the age of sixteen and since then he’s appeared in commercials for many prominent brands and tested his acting chops in small parts in a couple of  music videos and movies.

"It opened many doors for me and allowed me to go to exotic places and meet many interesting people," Marc says in M-Net's statement.

"But now I'm about to open the most exciting door of them all – the opportunity to meet my other half on The Bachelor South Africa. I have no preconceived ideas of who this woman should be."

"Sometimes opposites attract and I can’t wait to invest quality time in getting to know the diverse group of powerful South African ladies who are as keen as I am to put their hearts on the line for love on a television show."

Jason Greer will again be the host of the second season and be facilitating the rose ceremonies as well as serving as a mentor figure to Marc throughout his reality love journey.

The second season of The Bachelor SA will be filmed between 5 October and 5 December 2019.