BREAKING. Devastating 'mystery fire' engulfs M-Net, SuperSport and MultiChoice's Lagos studios; broadcasting of shows likely affected.

Pandemonium hit as a devastated fire broke out on Saturday and destroyed property and studios worth millions where M-Net records its soaps such as Tinsel, magazine shows such as Studio 53, and the studio where SuperSport broadcast from in Lagos, Nigeria. The fire which razed the studio complex will likely result in broadcasting disruptions of some productions.

The fire raged for hours on Saturday but is now under control. The studio fascilities has been closed and will remain closed for the time being.

A "mystery fire" broke out on 2 March at 15:30 with the inferno which engulfed the former Phillips Warehouse Building, now the Ojoto Studios fascility, causing massive damage to property belonging to MultiChoice Nigeria. All Tinsel episodes and Studio 53 on M-Net's AfricaMagic channels on DStv are shot inside the building.

SuperSport's live transmission for the weekend in Nigeria was just about to begin on Saturday afternoon when the fire broke out and gutted the entire SuperSport studio and others.

According to reports the Lagos fire department is blamed for arriving late to the scene, but Rasaq Fadipe, the director of the Lagos Fire Services is quoted as saying "I will fault the organisation. How can you have a big premise like this, a whole multinational company, and there's no water hydrant? It's given us a bad image."

M-Net's AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards is set to take place in Lagos, Nigeria this coming weekend.

I asked M-Net about the fire and the pay-TV broadcaster says that the fire "broke out yesterday afternoon at the Ojoto Studios fascility, which is home to both M-Net and SuperSport productions in Nigeria".

"At this time the fire is under control and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the blaze. While the fire appears to have caused significant damage to the fascility, which may result in some screening delays for programmes recorded on site, M-Net and SuperSport are already hard at work with a view to resuming production as soon as possible in order to minimise any impact on viewing audiences."

"M-Net, SuperSport and MultiChoice are deeply thankful and grateful that no-one was injured during this unfortunate accident," says the pay-TV broadcaster.

M-Net says the devastating fire "will not affect its plans for next weekend" when the AfricaMagic Viewers' Choice Awards takes place. The awards is done in association with MultiChoice.

THE CIRCLE OF SHAME. Zoanette from American Idol the latest proof that reality television will put anything on to try and make you watch.

No. This is not a wannabe drag queen from RuPaul's Drag Race but a real so-called contestant on the latest 12th season of American Idol on M-Net.

She also sang "The Circle of Life" from Disney's The Lion King in Las Vegas. Kid you not.

Then people clap, shout and therefore encourage this shameful shameful spectacle. Interestingly as many people loathe her as like her. A lot of people thought Zoanette was a "joke" contestant, but she is very real and very really in the show.

Of course Zoanette Johnson comes with the obligatory sad sob story to make reality television tabloid fodder.

When she was two she came to the United States of America from the war-torn African country of Liberia.

Now her wacky antics ("the ciiiiiiiirccle of liiiiife") is stealing the show on American Idol.

STAR WARS SHOCKER! Massive character development in absolutely shocking Star Wars The Clone Wars season 5 finale!

Jaw-dropping does not describe or do justice to the absolutely shocking turn of events in the 5th season finale of Star Wars The Clone Wars which broadcast the final episode of the fifth season today on The Cartoon Network in America.

Simply terrific television Star Wars The Clone Wars is, and after five years the biggest, eye-popping change the 5th season finale brings.

The 5th season of Star Wars The Clone Wars which will start soon on The Cartoon Network (DStv 301) on MultiChoice's DStv in South Africa might seem like a "cartoon" or a "kids show" but it's absolutely not - and the latest season further expanding on that galaxy far, far away and which just concluded in America, was phenomenally good.

I cannot underscore what riveting and great television Star Wars The Clone Wars is and has been - one of the very few TV shows I diligently watch and follow as a TV critic not because I have too, but because I am amazed by its intricacy and extremely complex and adult storylines and its heartwrenching and deeply emotional plots - wonderful television I really enjoy.

The last few episodes of the 5th season of Star Wars The Clone Wars packed a massive punch - the penultimate episode caused me hours upon hours upon hours of research looking for arcane facts and character histories and clues to a massive mystery which South African viewers will see unfolding and which will have any Star Wars fan's rapt attention when the 5th season's 20 episodes start here soon.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker look sullen in the final moments of the 5th season of Star Wars The Clone Wars - but there's actually also a painful sense of self-awareness visible on their faces.

They're not just sad about something shocking, they're also suddenly, painfully, keenly self-aware about something terrible about the Jedi and the Jedi order. That they've made a mistake. That they're flawed. That something huge has changed. Dark times for the Republic, indeed.

If you want television storytelling at its best and complain about the overabundance of repeats and the lack of really intelligent television; and if you want good and intricate stories and fascinating character development, watch the 5th season of Star Wars The Clone Wars when it starts on The Cartoon Network soon.

Just like the Star Wars movies, Star Wars The Clone Wars is a complex but richly textured narrative with interesting characters set against a bigger backdrop of sweeping, epic change and socio-political powers which they are actually powerless to change - they're only actually reacting to it, and that is changing them.

It's wonderful that what is disguised as a kids show, a cartoon, is actually a powerful grown-up story. Like The Simpsons kids can watch it and enjoy a one dimensional aspect to it.

It's however as an adult (and if you've ever watched Star Wars) that Star Wars The Clone Wars come alive with introspection and relevations. The 5th season more than ever before fills in missing puzzle pieces for the viewer and Star Wars fan about the overall existing story which you never knew you needed to (and wanted to) know.

Similar to that iconic Star Wars zinger of "Luke ... I am your father" (and Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Best of Both Worlds Part I), the 5th season finale of Star Wars The Clone Wars contains a plot twist so extreme, so magnificently yet tragically huge, that it will take your breath away.

Invest in this show, watch the amazing 5th season, and I can promise you that you won't be disappointed.

A cool goodie bag and press pack from SABC2 for the launch of the channel's new on-air look and identity.

For the relaunch of SABC2's brand-new on-air imaging and its new channel identity SABC2 handed out impressive goodie bags on Thursday night to journalists and entertainment reporters with a press pack containing a hard copy press release, a 4GB USB (containing programming images, the release, channel logo images and programme logos) and a Sansui MP3 & Video Player with FM radio and earphones, as well as a separate set of Sansui headphones.

I didn't attend Thursday evening's launch of SABC2's new channel identity unveiling (I was invited but I had to decline due to multiple end-of-the month deadlines for various publications I do stuff for, co-inciding with daily and weekly deadlines for various publications, plus lecturing, once-off articles and proofreading projects etc. etc.).

I did however do a lot of pre-work and organised in advance to get the information I felt I needed as a journalist covering television, in order to still bring the actual real news. (That comprehensive coverage on SABC2's new on-air imaging is here:
- SABC2 channel rebranding "went to a place we didn't expect," says Pulane Tshabalala, SABC2's acting channel head.
- SABC2 launches a brand-new on-air look, logo and new slogan of "You belong".
- SABC2 personalities appearing in a brand-new promo about SABC2's new on-air indentity and look.
- SABC2 announces the start of new seasons of existing shows starting in March, April and May.

I signed for the couriered goodie bag on Friday which looks very nice in blue as one of the new "official" colours of SABC2 (which now uses yellow, red, blue and green - just like the board game Ludo).


Editor's note: What really irks me (and not just about the SABC2 relaunch media event; it happens all the time for almost all events and news events about television) is South Africa's really bad if not almost non-existent level of reporting about television, our largely bad group of journalist and entertainment reporters and the lack of willingness, desire, know-how, focus, training and seriousness to actually write and cover the news and to cover the news when it happens.

I wasn't even at the SABC2 rebranding event and I was first to write about it on the very night, did numerous stories, did stories for other publications, worked until very late, woke up very early to watch Morning Live on SABC2 and catch and do another story.

It's been two days now since the SABC2 relaunch event. I saw some places shamelessly just reprinting the press release - no independent thought, feeling or analysis. I'm still waiting for other print stories in newspapers or online to read and get more information, another sense, another view, another perspective.

I assume the journalists and entertainment reporters who went, enjoyed the food and entertainment, the free booze, the big Sansui MP3 & Video Player and headsets. Where's the stories? Why do South Africa's journalists tasked with covering television do such a lazy and bad job of actually reporting the news?

We don't need to write gloriously puff pieces about it, or scrape the floor with bile-filled critiques, but if you go and attend an event as a news event on the diary, you need to - since you represent thousands of people called your readers - to write about it and report about it.

We don't have better television in South Africa because there's a lot of bad (inexperienced, unqualified, non-passionate, moronic) people working in television in this country who just don't care and do bad work and who don't care. We also have worse television because the press supposed to cover television is largely simply not doing what they're supposed to be doing. I try and I try very hard.

I've also done it for 13 years and what's interesting is to see how the sense of entitlement of so-called "journalists" covering entertainment and television (sadly TV mostly falls under "entertainment", few publications have a dedicated TV writer) have grown. They will eat your food, drink your booze, forage for (and some blatantly asking for) goodie bags, won't bother to actually ask questions, and then go home or back to work and do ... nothing!

Can everyone - every journalist - who attended the SABC2 channel rebranding launch on Thursday and went home with a goodie bag, ate there and drank there - please, please go and write about it.

Take the press release (don't run the press release - unless you're actually an extension of the SABC's publicity biz machine), read it and write and create your own, thought-about, and researched story about it. The give it to the world to inform the world.

You owe it to your readers, you owe it to your profession of being a messenger and a timeous one at that, you owe it to South Africa since you attended an event of the public broadcaster, and you owe it to the television industry which will never get better and advance if you neglect your duty of holding up a mirror to reflect back as best as possible, what is happening with, and inside, it.

BACK FROM THE DEAD. Drop Dead Diva renewed for season 5 in a surprise cancellation reversal.

The cancelled drama Drop Dead Diva is getting renewed and is suddenly coming back from the dead and will be getting a 5th season after Drop Dead Diva, seen in South Africa on M-Net Series (DStv 114) was abruptly cancelled in America in January at the end of its 4th season without storyline conclusion.

Drop Dead Diva was produced by Sony Pictures Television and although the viewership remained good enough, became too expensive to continue for the American TV channel Lifetime.

Now there's real-life imitating art, for the show which is coming back from the dead similar to the story of the dead aspiring model coming back to life, trapped in the body of an intelligent, larger-bodied lawyer played by Brooke Elliott.

Drop Dead Diva is being revived for a 5th season after Sony Pictures Television reworked the cost structure for the show in a deal with Lifetime.

Victoria Principal won't return to the new Dallas seen on M-Net for what she calls a 'desperate reappearance'.

Actress Victoria Principal, primarily known for her iconic 80's role of Pamela Ewing in Dallas, has issued a statement saying she will definitely not be returning to the new Dallas seen in South Africa on pay-TV broadcaster M-Net.

The second season of Dallas just started on Tuesdays at 20:30 on M-Net and South African viewers will see Larry Hagman's character JR Ewing get killed in episode 7 which will be broadcast on 27 March.

In episode 8, entitled "JR's Masterpiece" which will be shown in South Africa on M-Net on3 April at 20:30, JR Ewing gets buried at Southfork as numerous characters from JR Ewing's past shows up, including Ray (Steve Kanaly), Gary (Ted Shackelford) and Lucy (Charlene Tilton).

Speculation started that Victoria Principal might be seen together with several other luminaries from the original incantation of the show for the funeral and storyline incorporating the death of JR Ewing following the real-life death of actor Larry Hagman.

Speculation suggested Victoria Principal could possibly not just return for a special guest appearance to honour Larry Hagman, but to also join the cast permanently or as a recurring star.

Now Victoria Principal says it will never happen and that she is not going to ever make what she calls "a desperate reappearance" after the character of Pamela was seen dying in a car crash in Dallas and written out.

"Since the inception of Dallas, the creators and fans around the world have referred to Bobby and Pam, as the Romeo & Juliet of Dallas. I could not agree more. And since the original author of this scenario, William Shakespeare, felt compelled to make theirs a tragic love story, of epic and unforgettable deathly loss, I think I shall respect that very successful example, and leave the legacy of Bobby and Pam's tragic love story, undisturbed and intact."

"When I filmed Pam's fatal car accident, for me that was the punctuation mark on my role as Pam. I cannot be held responsible for any choices made by producers, once I left Dallas, but I do take responsibility for my decision, not to risk tarnishing Bobby and Pam's love story, with a desperate reappearance. I made this decision a long time ago with a loving and respectful heart for Dallas, Bobby and Pam and all faithful fans."

BREAKING. Downton Abbey suffers another loss as Siobhan Finneran leaves; maid O'Brien won't be in the 4th season of the drama.

Siobhan Finneran, known for her role as maid Sarah O'Brien won't be back to the sterling ITV Brit drama Downton Abbey on BBC Entertainment (DStv 120) on DStv for it's fourth season.

It's the second major actor and character departure for the highly acclaimed British period drama following the loss of a major character at the end of the third season of Downton Abbey which has already been shown in both the United Kingdom and America.

South African viewers will only get to see the third season of Downton Abbey around April on BBC Entertainment with the news of the shocking death in the final episode now known to millions already.

The Mirror broke the shocking news that Siobhan Finneran in exiting the drama and that she will suddenly not be seen anymore during the 4th season. "I'm not doing any more. O'Brien is a thoroughly despicable human being - that was great to play."

Siobhan Finneran's spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that: "O'Brien is leaving to do something else, but the door for her character is open."

BREAKING. SABC2 channel rebranding 'went to a place we didn't expect," says SABC2's acting channel head Pulane Tshabalala.

SABC2's new channel on-air rebranding of it's identity "went to a place we didn't expect," says the acting SABC2 channel head Pulane Tshabalala.

Pulane Tshabalala spoke on the channel's morning breakfast show Morning Live this morning saying that SABC2's slogan change was a natural transition". She called the rebranding results "a pleasant surprise".

"In the beginning - when you think about using 4 different colours on a TV station - it sounds a bit worrying I think, because you don't see a lot of those," said Pulane Tshabalala. "It's either blue, or red. But SABC2 is all of those colours: It's blue, it's green, it's yellow, it's red. All at the same time."

"We've moved away from 'Feel at Home' and we're now saying 'You Belong' as South Africans. We feel it's a natural transition from 'Feel at Home'when we were actually inviting our viewers to come and join us post 1994 it was relevant at the time. But we now feel we are now ready to make people feel that they do belong to this country, whatever colour, whatever religion, whatever creed," said Pulane Tshabalana.

"We've had the look for the past seven years - the pay-off line 'Feel at Home'. And we felt seven years later a lot has changed. We felt that we had to evolve with our viewers. We continue to remain relevant. We continue to remain competitive. So that's definite what sparked the change."

"We're becoming more comfortable with ourselves. We're saying we're many things - we're not just one," said Pulane Tshabalala. "We represent a lot in this country. I mean, on which channel do you actually find a show like Jam Sandwich for instance where two completely different worlds come together?"

"On which other television station do you find on the same platform you celebrate a cultural soapie like Muvhango at the same time on the same station you have 7de Laan? But you know, they come together."

Pulane Tshabalala said it took about 8 months to pull the project together.

The SABC2 website has not yet been updated with the new branding. That will also be changing, said Pulane Tshabalana.


ALSO READ: SABC2 launches a brand-new on-air look, logo and new slogan of ''You belong".
ALSO READ: SABC2 personalities appearing in a brand-new promo about the channel's new rebranding.
ALSO READ: SABC2 announces starting dates for new seasons of existing shows for March, April and May.

BREAKING. 90210 cancelled in America after 5 seasons, youth drama to end in May in America.

Youth drama 90210 seen on M-Net Series (DStv 114) in South Africa has been cancelled in America and the current 5th season will be its last.

The show started off well half a decade ago as a reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210 which lasted for a decade.

Now 90210 will bow out in May in America on the CW network. The channel says in a just released statement that its had "five great seasons with America's favourite zip code, 90210."

"I'd like to thank the talented cast, producers, and crew for all their hard work and dedication to the series. We are very proud of the West Beverly High alumni," says the CW president Mark Pedowitz.