Programming note: ESPN continues 30 for 30 documentary strand with new films; ESPN Classic gets docufilms for February 2013.

ESPN (DStv 230) will continue to roll out new documentaries in South Africa and Africa under its 30 for 30 programming brand which started in 2010.

The new strand of 30 for 30 documentaries started on 9 October with Broke (which will be shown again on 23 November at 00:00).

The next four films are There's No Place Like Home (27 October at 23:00), Benji (30 October at 19:00), Ghosts of Ole Miss (6 November at 19:00) and You Don't Know Bo (11 December at 19:00).

To accompany these documentaries, ESPN has commissioned a 30 part digital short film series, 30 for 30 Shorts which viewers can view online at ESPN's website.

ESPN has also acquired a series of documentaries which will be shown in February 2013 on ESPN Classic (DStv 231). Play from director Manuel Herrero looks at the sociological aspect of sport and why humans take part. Jorge Mendes - Superagent follows one of the world's leading sports agents.


Here's what the specific new documentaries in the 30 for 30 strand are all about:

Broke

Broke explores the roads to fortune in American sports and eventually, the many detours to bankruptcy.  Bernie Kosar, Andre Rison and Cliff Floyd are among the athletes who talk openly about the challenges of managing their money in an era when big contracts don’t necessarily support bigger lifestyles. Sucked into bad investments, stalked by freeloaders and saddled with medical problems, many pro athletes get shocked by harsh economic realities after years of living the high life. A story of the dark side of success.

There’s No Place Like Home

On December 10, 2010, Sotheby’s auctioned off the most important historical document in sports history - James Naismith’s original rules of basketball. There’s No Place Like Home is the story of one fan’s obsessive quest to win this seminal American artefact at auction and bring the rules “home” to Lawrence, Kansas, where Naismith coached and taught for more than 40 years.

Benji

In 1984, 17-year-old Ben Wilson was a symbol of everything promising about Chicago: a beloved, sweet-natured youngster from the city’s fabled South Side, and America’s most talented basketball prospect. His senseless murder the day before his senior season sent ripples through Chicago and the nation.

Ghosts of Ole Miss 

In 1962, the University of Mississippi campus erupted in violence over integration and swelled with pride over an unbeaten football team. Mississippi native Wright Thompson explores the tumultuous events that continue to shape the state 50 years later.

You Don’t Know Bo

Bo Jackson hit 500 ft. home runs, ran over linebackers, and - for a small window - he was the best athlete America had ever seen. You Don’t Know Bo is a close look at the man and marketing campaign that shaped his legacy. Even without winning a Super Bowl or World Series, Bo redefined the role of the athlete in the pop cultural conversation.

Programming note: Tech Report doing broadband tests on Thursday; Nicky Greenwall interviews Joelle Kayembe and ProVerb on Saturday.

Tech Report on Thursday on eNCA (DStv 403) at 21:30 will be doing broadband speed tests and will show viewers where to move to for a faster internet connection. The weekly tech magazine show on the news channel will be getting up close with the new Wii U, ditch bulky keys in favour of a slick card and will look at some pimped out gamers.

The show will also be looking at some corporate perks which might make some people want to switch jobs.

ScreenTime with Nicky Greenwall Saturday on e.tv at 19:30 will have the fashion model Joelle Kayembe and the musician and TV presenter ProVerb as the in-studio guests of Nicky Greenwall.

Programming note: Mishal Husain Meets ... returns to BBC World News on 2 November for a second series of interviews.

Mishal Husain Meets ... will be back for a brand-new second series to BBC World News (DStv 400 / TopTV 400) on 2 November with guests ranging from a Malaysian celebrity chef and an award-winning Chinese actress to the only woman to run an F1 team. Also included in the guest line-up is India's most successful Olympian and one of Indonesia's richest men.

The second series of Mishal Husain Meets ... is filmed at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in Singapore.

Here's the guest line-up:
2 Nov Zhang Jingchu (Chinese actress)
9 Nov Monisha Kaltenborn (Sauber F1 team CEO)
16 Nov Chef Wan (Malaysian chef)
23 Nov Sandiaga Uno (one of Indonesian's richest men)
30 Nov Abhinav Bindra (Indian Olympic shooter)
7 Dec Anggun (popstar)

The BBC and Discovery's Science Channel co-producing a movie about scientist's investigation into Nasa's 1986 Challenger disaster.

The BBC and Discovery's Discovery Science (TopTV 302) channel are co-producing a one-off factual drama which will be telling the story of a scientist's search for the truth in the wake of the Nasa Challenger disaster of 1986.

William Hurt will play the scientist Richard Feynman in the as-yet-untitled movie with filming which will be starting this month and which will be shown in 2013.

The biographical drama will follow the real-life events surrounding the physicist's investigation into what caused the Challenger space shuttle to explode in 1986.

"Science Channel is honoured to work with the incomparable William Hunt to tell the story of Richard Feynman, a true-life hero and one of the most controversial scientific minds of our times," says Debbie Meyers, the general manager and executive vice president of the Science Channel.

The executive producers are Mark Hedgecoe, Cassian Harrison and Rocky Collins.

BBC Worldwide Channels commissions new in-house productions for the BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle.

BBC Worldwide Channels has commissioned brand-new shows for BBC Knowledge (DStv 184) and BBC Lifestyle (DStv 174) and which will be in-house productions for the BBC with the BBC's terrestrial BBC Two TV channel.

It's BBC Worldwide Channels first co-productions with the BBC's in-house team since the major announcement at the end of last month that BBC Worldwide Channels wants to treble the number of original programme hours ordered for its international audience such as South African viewers on MultiChoice's DStv platform.

Coming to BBC Knowledge will be six 50 minute episodes of Dara O Briain's Science Club, a brand-new science magazine format with the Irish comedian as presenter. The show will be seen in South Africa and Africa in 2013.

The new science series will take a single subject each week and examines it from lots of different and unexpected angles - from extinction to sex, Einstein to space exploration and brain chemistry to music. The programmes will plug viewers into the latest thinking on hot topics.

He will be joined by materials scientist and engineer Mark Miodownik, neuroscientist Tali Sharot, physicist and oceanographer Helen Czerski and science writer Alok Jha.

Coming to BBC Lifestyle is an international version of the newly revived Food and Drink series, presented by the Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux Jnr. Food and Drink is BBC Worldwide's first ever original production for BBC Lifestyle. There will initially be six 30 minute episodes.

Each episode of Food and Drink will feature mouth-watering recipes cooked by Michel Roux Jnr and a stellar cast from the world of food and drink who will join him in the kitchen. 

Food and Drink will play host to the latest debates and discussions from the world of gastronomy, and will showcase the hottest food trends - delivering up-to-date news, views and consumer issues. The series will be vibrant and relevant, providing a fascinating look at what, how and why we eat and drink today.

Both shows have been ordered by Tracy Forsyth, the vice president for commissioning at BBC Worldwide Channels.

"Both Dara O Briain's Science Club and  Food and Drink are great examples of the high quality programmes that I am seeking for BBC Worldwide's international channel portfolio," says Tracy Forsyth. "As well as these popular science and culinary formats holding broad appeal for our viewers around the world, I believe the shows have the potential to be returning series which can be built into global brands."

FULL AUDITION DETAILS: M-Net's Million Rand Money Drop looking for teams and contestants who are motivated to get as far as they can.

The final specific audition details are now available for M-Net's new format game show, Million Rand Money Drop produced for the pay-TV broadcaster by Endemol South Africa.

While a Nigerian version, Million Dollar Money Drop, will also be produced by M-Net for AfricaMagic Entertainment, South African auditions for the South African version will start on Thursday.

For each of the dates below, M-Net tells me that gates open at the respective venues at 10:00 in every city.

Since the premise of Million Rand Money Drop is a format built on the tension between two people having to decide (and often arguing and second-guessing on which hopefully-right answer the money should be placed), people auditioning for the game show will have to do so with any kind of partner.

The show is looking for duos with a kind of chemistry (good or bad) between them, but who will make for have-to-watch television and are really motivated to get as far as they possible can.

Both people need to be older than 18 years. People auditioning will need to take their ID identity documents to the auditions.

 M-Net cannot predict how long queues will be, so people who want to enter are encouraged to show up early. An individual audition will take between 30 minutes to 1 hour. Doors will  remain open until all people in the audition queue has been processed and been seen by the producers.

Prospective contestants will be asked a few simple general knowledge questions and will be interview by members of the Million Rand Money Drop production team. Contestants will then be told who's moving on to the next round or not.

25 & 26 October Johannesburg:
The Apollo Hotel in Randburg. Please use the back entrance of the venue, located in Barkston Road, Randburg.

1 & 2 November Durban:
The BAT Centre.

8 & 9 November Cape Town:
The Cape Town Lodge

16 & 17 November Port Elizabeth:
The Ibhayi Lodge

BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith leaving the Britcaster after 8 years; replaced by Tim Davie from 1 December.

BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith (left) is leaving after 8 years at the helm of the commercial arm of the BBC (and 18 at the BBC in total); he will be replaced by Tim Davie.

BBC Worldwide runs the channels such as BBC Entertainment, BBC Lifestyle, BBC Knowledge and CBeebies in South Africa on MultiChoice's DStv and also produces format shows which are shown globally. BBC Worldwide has become the world's largest owner of TV channels and the largest TV distributor outside of US companies. The channels operation now attracts over 360 million subscribers around the world to its BBC-branded portfolio of channels.

Tim Davie (right), currently the BBC's director of audio and music will take over on 1 December 2012. John Smith told staff he is leaving the BBC to pursue new opportunities in the commercial sector.

"Tim will now take the BBC's commercial arm into the next chapter of its development," says George Entwistle, BBC director-general in a press statement.

"I look forward to leading BBC Worldwide through its next phase of growth, delivering further dividends to the BBC and championing great British content around the world," says Tim Davie in the same statement.

FIRST LOOK. Dagbreek dawns with its first publicity shot of the sextet presenters before it starts on 5 November on kykNET.

Here's the (over-photoshopped) first look at the new presenter sextet of kykNET's (DStv 144) new Afrikaans weekday morning show Dagbreek which will start on the Afrikaans satellite TV channel from Monday 5 November, daily between 06:00 and 08:00.

The Dagbreek presenters are (exactly as I said they would be) Elma Smit, Harald Richter, Rozanne McKenzie, Pierre Breytenbach, Bettie Kemp and Dalen Lance.

Dagbreek on kykNET joins a quickly crowdening morning breakfast television market where the morning TV wars are surely hearing up as shows scramble to hook and keep viewers, as well as advertisers and sponsors: Morning Live on SABC2, Expresso on SABC3, and Sunrise on e.tv.

Will Afrikaans viewers who've felt left out and neglected by any of the other three morning shows (Expresso has a smattering of Afrikaans from time to time) switch once Dagbreek dawns on South African television?

FIRST LOOK. Expresso's presenter sextet looks bright and breezy; ready for tele fun in the sun and summer 2013 on SABC3.

Here they are: Leigh-Anne Williams, Graeme Richards, Liezel van der Westhuizen, new dad Ewan Strydom, Katlego Maboe and Kia Johnson in their new publicity photo as the presenter sextet of the weekday morning show Expresso on SABC3.

With half of them roaming all over the place and overseas, the other half making babies, the other half cleaning creches, rappelling down buildings, doing MC'ing gigs across the country and flying around like crazy, it's somewhat of a logistical nightmare getting this breezy Cape Town telegenics all together for something like a photoshoot.

But now the Expresso did just that and now look as if they've stepped right out of Hamptons; ready for Summer 2013.

The new Expresso publicity pics and photo shoot are for summer - and if that sounds matter-of-factly, Expresso is the only morning show in South Africa which regularly actually takes publicity photos and updates them as the different seasons roll by.