BREAKING. So You Think You Can Dance SA? returning to SABC1 for a 3rd season on Saturday 17 August at 18:30.

So You Think You Can Dance South Africa? is set to return to South African TV screens for a third season from Saturday 17 August at 18:30 on SABC1.

There's been zero communication about it - in fact nationwide auditions have already started, audition dates have come and gone with zilch in terms of any announcements from SABC1 or anyone else to the press - and So You Think You Can Dance South Africa? is set to return to South African TV screens for a third season in less than a month.

SABC1 already had two seasons of the format dance reality show in 2008 and again in 2010, produced by Rapid Blue. Now the show will be back for a third season as Rapid Blue is also producing another international format dance reality show - Strictly Come Dancing for SABC3.

No word yet on the So You Think You Can Dance SA? presenter or panel of judges for this season.

It's too late to enter if you wanted to and live in Cape Town or Durban or anywhere else than Johannesburg; only the Johannesburg auditions for the show is still happening at a future date on 27 July - the rest has all come and gone.

M-Net looks back at the Idols phenomenon once week before the 9th season starts with a retrospective doccie, The Incredible Journey.

Before the start of the 9th season of Idols on the M-Net and Mzansi Magic channels next Sunday, M-Net (DStv 101) has a a retrospective local documentary of the reality show today at 18:00 entitled The Incredible Journey.

The Incredible Journey looks at how Idols became a pop cultural phenomenon, the various changes the reality show underwent during the past 8 seasons, the impact the show has had on the local South African music industry and how it's transformed the lives of some of the contestants.

The Incredible Journey includes interviews with people like Loyiso, Danny K, Tamara Dey and the Idols judges. Some previous Idols winners including previous Top 10 contestants will also talk about how Idols changed their lives.

Idols will also look back today with historic archive footage of the winning moments of different Idols' seasons as well as Heinz Winckler impressing Simon Cowell at the World Idol competition.

"The Incredible Journey is a must-see for Idols fans,music lovers and anyone who has ever wondered about the success of Idols," says Lani Lombard, M-Net's head of communications. "It shares some amazing facts and figures which are a real eye=opened in terms of the magnitude and impact of the show."

Debora Patta maintains a presence on the CBS Evening News reporting from South Africa on Nelson Mandela.

South Africa's TV news woman Debora Patta continues with excellent news coverage seen internationally, reporting for the CBS Evening News in America which is seen worldwide since the daily news bulletin is syndicated on Sky News (DStv 402).

Debora Patta abruptly left e.tv and the eNCA (DStv 403) two months ago when her longrunning weekly investigative and current affairs show 3rd Degree was cancelled.

e.tv and the eNCA has no investigative news show on the air. SABC3 has Special Assignment and M-Net has Carte Blanche.

Debora Patta reported for the CBS Evening News this week again covering Nelson Mandela and the ailing statesman's 95th birthday.

E! News boss to leave E! Entertainment in August; no replacement named.

E! News boss Bruce Perlmutter is leaving E! Entertainment in August, no replacement has been named, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Bruce Perlmutter was the senior vice president for news and online for E! Entertainment in Los Angeles and oversaw E! News in all its various permutations such as the daily E! News show on E! as well as its online presence.

Bruce Perlmutter joined E! Entertainment in March 2010 to run the entertainment channel's daily news operations and to oversee all news gathering.

BREAKING. SABC1's Bar.One Manhunt reveals the top 16 contestants for the upcoming third season.

The 16 new contestants who will be taking part in the third season of Bar.One Manhunt on SABC1 has been revealed.

Nine are from Johannesburg, Pretoria and surrounds, four are from Cape Town, two from KwaZulu-Natal and one from East London.

The new season is moving from SABC3 to SABC1 when it starts on Tuesday, July 30 at 21:00 for 13 episodes, seeking to find the man with the most endurance in South Africa.

The previous two seasons saw injuries, drama, tears and medical emergencies in the Rapid Blue produced show, which has a new presenter in the form of actor and kwaito star Howza this year.

This season's contestants include Fadeem Mia (29) from Benoni, a project manager; Hilkia Jacobs (32) from Johannesburg, an engineer; Jefferson Lan (23) from Oranjezicht in Cape Town, a personal trainer and martial arts instructor; Johan Westervelt (27) from Centurion, a software engineer; and Jonathan Konkerman (32) from Durban, a high school rugby coach.

Also making the top 16 are Kimo Abrahams (34) from Woodstock, Cape Town, a personal trainer; Manqoba Kubheka (25) from Benoni, an auditor; Oz Lupuwana (25) from Craighall Park in Johannesburg, a beer merchant; Scotty Boyden (27) from Tamboerskloof, Cape Town who is a restaurant owner; and Sibusiso Khomola-ka-James (21) from Morningside in Durban who is a former gym receptionist.

Smith Mangena (27) from Soweto, an underwriting assistant; Steven Michelsen (28) from Llandudno in Cape Town, a surfer and filmmaker; Teboho Malatola (24) from Vosloorus, a fascilities manager; Zwelandile Magaya (35) from Dorchester Heights in East London, a police officer; Bongs Ndima (29) from Marshalltown, Johannesburg, a video editor; and Johannes Mapalakanye (28) from Kaalfontein in Midrand, a stock controller, also made the cut.

Bar.One Manhunt's third season will be filmed across South Africa as well as one overseas location as in the previous seasons, with the contestants who have to endure gruelling physical and mental challenges.

BREAKING. Five new potential pay-TV players for South Africa: Kagiso TV, Siyaya, Mindset Media, Close-T Broadcasting Network and Mobile TV.

You're reading it here first. 

Is Kagiso TV, Siyaya Free to Air, Mindset Media Enterprises, Close-T Broadcasting Network and Mobile TV the new Telkom Media, Shenzhen Media, On Digital Media, Walking on Water (WOWtv) and eSat?

All five of these companies are looking to start brand-new pay-TV services in South Africa and will do presentations before South Africa's broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) next week from Wednesday until Friday for possible subscription television licences.

South Africa has a dysmal track-record when it comes to the licensing, actual start, and flourishing of pay-TV operators.

MultiChoice has built the successful DStv satellite pay-TV service. Telkom Media which was licenced with the rest and had the highest hopes of starting a service crumbled and failed and turned into Shenzhen Media, after which On Digital Media managed to launch TopTV which floundered as well and is currently in business rescue since December 2012.

eSat, Walking on Water (WOWtv) and Telkom Media - despite investments of millions -never got off the ground leaving DStv and TopTV as the only two choices besides M-Net as an analogue pay-TV broadcaster which isn't offering individual new subscriptions to just M-Net until digital terrestrial broadcasting (eventually) launches commercially in South Africa.

Now Icasa is trying for round two of licensing more subscription television operators and Kagiso TV, Siyaya Free to Air, Mindset Media Enterprises, Close-T Broadcasting Network and Mobile TV are all willing and wanting to start pay TV in South Africa.

Public hearings will be taking place next week in Sandton at Icasa's head office where all five wannabe subscription TV service operators will do presentations and state their cases after Icasa received applications for individual commercial subscription broadcasting service licences.

Kagiso TV and Siyaya Free to Air will do their presentations at Icasa on Tuesday. Mindset Media Enterprises and Close-T Broadcast Network will present on Wednesday. Mobile T will do their presentation before Icasa on Friday morning.

The public hearings are open for the public to attend.

Kwêla on kykNET adds Reynard Slabbert and Hugo Ludik as new presenters to the weekly Afrikaans magazine show.

Kwêla on kykNET (DStv 144) has added two new presenters to the team of the weekly Afrikaans magazine show from Pieter Cilliers Produksies on Wednesdays at 19:30 - Reynard Slabbert and Hugo Ludik, the brother of Afrikaans soap star Stefan Ludik.

And here's the unbelievable co-incidence about them and what only TV with Thinus can reveal: both have their birthdays on 25 September.

Reynard Slabbert can currently also be seen on South African television as John in SABC2's Inside the Baobab Tree as well as in a TV commercial (He also worked at Disney World in Florida for a year and a half.)

Hugo Ludik, a singer, is following in the TV footsteps of his brother Stefan Ludik. He's one of the founding members of the group Adam.

BREAKING. Generations, SABC1, to show 20 vintage and iconic Generations episodes in September to celebrate the soap's 20th anniversary.

Generations, South Africa's most watched TV show and the most watched soap will be showing 20 vintage episodes culled from the massive video library of the Mfundi Vundla soap to celebrate Generations' 20th anniversary.

The 20 episodes will be selected from the vast Generations library, and will be based on "selected milestones that saw a change in the soap," SABC1 tells me.

Sister channel SABC3 is showing both the regular episode in its regular timeslot as well as the very first episode of Isidingo today to celebrate Isidingo's 15th anniversary of the soap.

It's not yet clear whether SABC1 and Generations will be doing the same in September by keeping the regular Generations episode in its regular timeslot and then substituting the special 20th anniversay Generations episodes in an additional timeslot.

This is important - and a possibility - because SABC1 and SABC3 is still trying to move the American soap The Bold and the Beautiful from SABC1 to SABC3. SABC1 constantly struggles to find replacement content for The Bold and the Beautiful's timeslot in time, which then causes SABC3  - which is ready to take over Bold, to postpone the plan.

After two previous failed tries and attempts which saw the Bold move and plan put on hold - the last try would have been in June this year - both SABC1 and SABC3 are trying to move The Bold and the Beautiful to SABC3 during September.

If the move does happen this time, it could be that the Generations 20th anniversary episodes are placed in Bold's spot on SABC1, with the regular Generations episode remaining.

However, its also forseeable that Bold moves anyway in September, that SABC1 finds other content for Bold's empty spot, and that the special Generations episodes are shown in the regular Generations spots which means no new Generations episodes for 20 days.

Al Jazeera set to move its London head office to The Shard skyscraper near the River Thames.

Al Jazeera (DStv 406 / TopTV 401) is set to become the first commercial tenant in London's skyscraper The Shard, The Evening Standard is reporting.

The 24-hour news channel from Qatar is reportedly getting ready to move its United Kingdom head office to the new skyscraper.

Al Jazeera has taken out a lease for floor space in the iconic building located near London Bridge and the River Thames.

Al Jazeera's current London head office is located in Knightsbridge.