Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Lee Thompson's The Bachelor SA tell-all book set to go on sale in April: 'It will be everything that happened that nobody knows but everyone wants to hear'.

Photo: Byron Keulemans - Boss Models SA

by Thinus Ferreira 

In a South African first, the star of the country's first season of The Bachelor South Africa is set to release his tell-all book, The Truth Behind the Rose, in April, saying that he will be revealing "everything that happened that nobody knows about but everyone wants to hear" and that he was oblivious at the time as to how he was actually manipulated for television while being "played like a fiddle" by producers.

In his book, Lee Thompson is not just spilling secrets as the first South African reality TV star to actually speak out about what happened to him personally behind-the-scenes but he is also revealing the emotional and psychological toll that it had taken during and afterwards on his life and mental health.

M-Net (DStv 101) and the Rapid Blue production company chose Lee Thompson as South Africa's first bachelor in 2018 for the first season of The Bachelor SA in 2019 that didn't end in a successful relationship.

A second season of The Bachelor SA followed in 2020 with The Bachelorette SA that is currently shown on the channel.

"I got the idea to write the book about one and a half years after the show and because after the mental health issues and things that I went through I just realised that if I come out and share this with people it might help others come out and help them to know that it's okay and how they can handle it and how I did it," Lee Thompson says. "I want to help set an example that can help other people."

"An autobiography is obviously a lot more about my life and my childhood, my sporting career, my past relationships and then mainly it will focus on The Bachelor SA and the manipulation and persuasions that go on behind-the-scenes that people don't know about and how they re-edit things to make portray you in a certain way and the lies that were told."

"I feel that people need to know and I'm not going to stand back and let it happen because it caused a lot of issues and I want people to know and I feel that they need to know and they want to know," he says.

Lee says he came up with the title of his book, The Truth Behind the Rose "and that I came up with the title - it just popped into my head, it was the first title and just says so much because it's really about what goes on behind-the-scenes of the show and what's really happening and what really happened in my life."

"It's the truth behind all of this glitz and glamour cover that so many people see but they need to know the truth behind it and I want people to know the truth and more about me and how it's led up to getting to The Bachelor SA and focusing on the show and what's happened."

Asked if he had any reservations about writing his book, Lee says "I've never had any reservations about writing the book".

"There was a time where I halted to process because it did take a toll on me emotionally and mentally so I just had to put a bit of a hold on it but I managed to get through it - just going back to all of those old, bad memories".

"They're not all bad but it's tough. You dig deep into your past and it can be a tough thing to do and it does play on your emotions at times but you've got to put it aside and I managed to push through."

"It's not going to be a book about what people want to see or what they've seen before - it's stuff that's going to be calling out a lot of people and sharing the truth and showing what they can do and what's wrong and I want people to know the truth."

"There's been no book that's been written like this, even in the United States. This is really calling people out and sharing the absolute truth about the show and my life and what happened after the show".


'You only see this afterwards'
Lee says his feeling is that The Bachelor SA "put me in many corners, you know, where it's difficult to choose. They just play it very well - it's a game of psychology from their side I've realised and you only see this afterwards".

"Once I rewatched all the episodes just to get accurate information again and just to revisit those moments I can give the right information in my book. I do see it differently now after watching the show now compared to a couple of years ago - it's like I see it completely differently and I realise how oblivious I was."

About who he believes manipulated him, Lee says "Yes people from M-Net were culprits and the production company Rapid Blue and obviously certain people within those companies had a lot more to do with it and I'll be naming them - I know exactly who they are. Some of them definitely played me like a fiddle."

Asked if he is still friends with Jason Greer, the host of The Bachelor SA and The Bachelorette SA, Lee says that "Jason Greer and I are still very good friends - I think our friendship came across on camera and you know, he was always there to chat to when we had the time".

"He was left out of a lot of the details of the show and he wasn't invited to Mauritius when they told him he would be and he needed to be there. I guess they told him a couple of lies too but we're great friends."

"I see him quite regularly along with his family and we braai, we chat, we share jokes and we play Xbox together and we're really good mates and I really enjoy his company. He's a really good man."


Reality TV and selling your soul to the devil
Lee Thompsons says that the subjects and issues that his book, The Truth Behind the Rose, will be covering is "from my childhood, growing up through school, to my sporting career, my business career, past relationships, family and all of that - my journey and the timeline up until the show".

"The Truth Behind the Rose will focus mainly on that and also post-show and everything that happened that nobody knows about but everyone wants to hear".

On advice to people entering reality shows or what they should keep in mind, Lee says "They need to be aware that it's not always about what they want - it's about what's going to create viewership and numbers. Ratings."

"They play the game and they push it to the way that they want it to play out, so you don't have the power or the hold on the process as you think you do, but they let you think that you do. But they persuade you and move it to the way that they see it best suited for viewership and ratings."

"It's a reality show so it's your life and they can sometimes mess with that," says Lee. 

"People just need to be aware of that and also the mental health issues and any other issues that could come up post-show that might be difficult or that you struggle to handle. People take things differently."

"People entering reality shows won't know that you've sold your soul to the devil until you sign that paper and are in there and that's what people need to realise."


'Changed me psychologically'
Lee says that having gone through the wringer of this reality show "has changed me psychologically and how I approach and see and think things through".

"It's definitely made me more aware of certain things and I will be going into more detail about it in The Truth Behind the Rose and with my feelings about it and how it has affected things positively and negatively. It's not all bad but the most important thing in your life is your health - mental health, physical health. So I will share a lot about that in my book."

After having written his book that will become available in April, Lee says "I feel relieved a bit. It's a weight off my shoulder. I feel relieved. I feel strong."


TVwithThinus asked M-Net for comment about Lee Thompson's upcoming book. 

M-Net says "All reality shows are directed to manage the quality of production and not the manipulation of outcome".

"Professional help is offered to all contestants who take part in our reality shows. This is done during the production and on offer after the show has wrapped up. We enjoyed working with Lee Thompson, and we wish him well in all his endeavours."
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Disney Junior adds new episodes of Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures on weekdays during its Mickey Mornings programming block.


by Thinus Ferreira

Disney Junior (DStv 309) is rolling out brand-new episodes of Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures this week at 08:30 during its "Mickey Mornings" programming block.

Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures is the new name of the series that was initially known as Mickey and the Roadster Racers.

In Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures Mickey Mouse, and his pals, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, as well as Chip and Dale, go on zany adventures all around Hot Dog Hills.

They visit fun places like Mickey’s new gadget-filled house, the Mixed-Up Motor Lab at Mickey’s Garage and Minnie, Daisy and Cuckoo Loca’s Happy Helpers office. 

Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures is designed to impart lessons about friendship, teamwork and community, with each episode that features a dance break-in which Mickey and the gang invite viewers to dance along to an updated version of the “Hot Dog!” song.

Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures is broadcast on weekdays from 1 March at 08:30 during the Mickey Mornings programming block between 07:00 and 10:00 on weekdays.
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Pain Island SA: Parody accounts, hate-watching, 'emergency blacks' and farm tractor noise for M-Net’s Love Island SA.


by Thinus Ferreira

M-Net's controversial vineyard-set Love Island SA has turned into Pain Island SA with several parody accounts that have sprung up mocking the badly-produced show while viewers have now turned to hate-watching the reality series that on Tuesday night once again suffered from technical problems and mistakes in its third episode including what sounded like farm tractor noise.

While MultiChoice has failed to place any Love Island SA episodes on DStv Catch Up except for episode 2 that was briefly loaded on Tuesday morning and yanked by Tuesday afternoon, the severely botched first episode is now widely circulating and being shared online by viewers beyond MultiChoice's control.

Parody accounts have also sprung up on social media ranging from Love Island SA Memes and Love Island SA Needs Help on Instagram, to Pain Island SA on Twitter, while viewers have turned to hate-watching the series on M-Net (Dstv 101).

Following the barrage of public criticism over the show's lack of cast diversity and low production values and problems, LottoStar - presumably partly responsible for the show's R1 million and other prizes - on Tuesday afternoon withdrew as the main sponsor of the excoriated Love Island South Africa on M-Net, plunging the show that is already in full crisis mode into further turmoil.

MultiChoice decided to stay tight-lipped about LottoStar's exit and haven't responded to the media's enquiries about it.

Meanwhile MultiChoice and its PR company Aprio continue to rebuff interview requests to talk to M-Net executives and Rapid Blue producers for them to explain what the cause of the various persisting issues are around the local adaptation of the ITV Studios reality format show. 

There's also been no virtual press conference for the pay-TV broadcaster to take questions and to explain to the public and DStv subscribers why things went wrong, or any statements from Yolisa Phahle, MultiChoice Group CEO for general entertainment and connected video; M-Net CEO Nkateko Mabaso; M-Net director Jan du Plessis; or Kaye-Ann Williams as M-Net's head of local productions.

At Rapid Blue, as the production company also responsible for The Bachelorette SA on M-Net, Love Island SA is overseen by executive producers Adi de Lancey and Duncan Irvine, series producer Abigail Clark, series director Nadia White, and Kim Thwaites as head of production.

Tuesday night's episode 3 of Love Island SA set in the middle of a vineyard, abruptly ended 8 minutes short and continued to be marred by technical problems and mistakes as well as what sounded like farm tractor noise in the background.

Viewers complained about the bad sound and lagging sound, missing scenes, bad, blurry and out-of-focus camera work, bad editing, the sudden disappearance of the contestant Sarah who happened to be a white woman who was introduced and only seen in episode 2 on Monday, scenes shown out of chronological order, as well as the contestants talking about events never shown.

Viewers also called a sneak peek at new contestants the introduction of the "emergency blacks" with Tuesday's episode that teased the introduction of a black man and a black woman within days.


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Tuesday, March 2, 2021

M-Net and Rapid Blue execs don't want to talk to the media about its Love Island SA fiasco but posts a social media card saying: 'We're working tirelessly to fix things'.


by Thinus Ferreira

While both M-Net executives and Rapid Blue producers still don't want to talk to the media two days after a firestorm of criticism engulfed its Love Island SA reality show on Sunday, the pay-TV broadcaster on Tuesday afternoon at 16:00 posted a message on social media finally using the word "sorry" for the first time and that they are "working tirelessly to fix things".

M-Net posted its message at 16:00 on Tuesday after the main sponsor of the local adaptation of the excoriated ITV Studios format show, LottoStar dumped and distanced itself from the reality series on Tuesday that came under severe criticism for its lack of diversity in casting and shockingly bad production values.

"You called us out on the lack of diversity and production quality in our first episode of Love Island SA. We're sorry - we didn't meet our usual standard on both counts. We are working tirelessly to fix things, and to deliver the Magic you deserve," said M-Net in a social media statement card that wasn't emailed to media.

Interestingly, M-Net hasn't said a single word to journalists about Love Island SA, or responded to any media enquiries made, since Monday.

Meanwhile MultiChoice and its PR company Aprio, have rebuffed media requests to interview M-Net executives charged with oversight of the show, or Rapid Blue producers making it, and there's been nothing like a virtual press conference to explain or take the media's questions.

There's been no statements or any explanations forthcoming at all from Yolisa Phahle, MultiChoice Group CEO for general entertainment and connected video, M-Net CEO Nkateko Mabaso, M-Net director Jan du Plessis, or Kaye-Ann Williams as M-Net's head of local productions.

Serious questions remain unanswered by Rapid Blue about how the implosion of Love Island SA came about with the show that is overseen by executive producers Adi de Lancey and Duncan Irvine, series producer Abigail Clark, series director Nadia White, and head of production Kim Thwaites.

No answers have yet been given about why the production erred so egregiously with the Love Island South Africa casting selection, and why it remains unable to fix production issues with the sound, editing, music, voice-over narration, cinematography and why the show is set in a vineyard instead of, like previous UK and French seasons filmed in South Africa, at luxury mansions.

MultiChoice and M-Net haven't made the much-derided debut episode of Love Island SA available on its DStv Catch Up service but added Monday night’s second episode – also containing mistakes – on Tuesday morning.

However, by Tuesday afternoon episode 2 of Love Island SA was also abruptly removed without explanation from DStv Catch Up.

MultiChoice was asked about the episode's removal - likely to do with the fact that it contains LottoStar banners and advertising - and for comment on the ongoing mistakes and technical issues that were present in Monday night's episode as well, and why these occured. 

Comment will be added here if received.


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Jason Kennedy the next on-air talent to leave E! after 16 years, says he wants to 'explore new opportunities'.


by Thinus Ferreira

Jason Kennedy is the next E! (DStv 124) talent to exit NBCUniversal's increasingly-dimming entertainment channel saying he is pursuing new opportunities after 16 years.

E! cancelled its biggest draw, Keeping Up with the Kardashians with the Calabasas-based Kardashian-clan in California that will be doing a new reality TV series for Disney+; with E! News, In the Room and Pop in the Morning that all got cancelled, and red carpet host Ryan Seacrest who quit last month.

Jason Kennedy joined E! and E! News in 2005 and eventually became the co-anchor of E! News next to Giuliana Rancic.

In a statement, Jason Kennedy says "I've had the time of my life at E!. Most recently, I loved being the host of In the Room, but Covid made it impossible to capture interviews with celebrities in a more personal setting, so I have decided to explore new opportunities".

"I'm leaving with a grateful and full heart thinking about my experience, and the lifelong friendships I've made along the way at E!. I have a slate of exciting projects that I've been working on and I can't wait to share with you soon."

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LottoStar dumps M-Net’s controversial Love Island SA as its main sponsor.

 
by Thinus Ferreira

LottoStar has abruptly dumped M-Net's controversial Love Island South Africa as its main sponsor with the gambling outfit that wants to get away as fast as possible from the brand and reputation damage it has suffered due to its proximity to the badly-produced ITV Studios format reality series.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the LottoStar director Tasoulla Hadjigeorgiou says that "LottoStar has taken the decision to respectfully withdraw its sponsorship of Love Island SA. We wish the show and its contestants every success".

LottoStar is also the sponsor of The Bachelorette South Africa, also produced by the same production company Rapid Blue and also broadcast on M-Net (DStv 101).

 A LottoStar spokesperson didn't want to elaborate and say why it has abruptly cancelled its sponsorship, or when it first became aware of the firestorm that had engulfed Love Island SA.

Love Island SA that is in full crisis mode following widespread criticism, is losing the show's main sponsor after Sunday night's disastrous and jarring premiere on M-Net (DStv 101) of the South Africa adaptation of the buzzy ITV Studios format that was a technical TV flop.

Very serious questions were raised over the lack of diverse casting in the show, while DStv subscribers and TV critics also called out the poor Love Island SA production values – ranging from sound and editing to the music, the voice-over narration, cinematography as well as the uninspiring bungalow vineyard-set dormitory that the show calls a villa.

MultiChoice and M-Net didn't respond to specific questions posed about the show's production on Monday but issued a terse statement saying on Monday evening saying that “We pride ourselves in reflecting diversity and inclusion for all our shows, including Love Island".

On Tuesday M-Net didn't immediately respond to a media enquiry about LottoStar axing its sponsorship but comment will be added here if received.

MultiChoice and M-Net haven't made the much-derided debut episode of Love Island SA available on its DStv Catch Up service but added Monday night’s second episode – also containing mistakes – on Tuesday morning.

By Tuesday afternoon episode 2 of Love Island SA was also abruptly removed without explanation from DStv Catch Up after it was added on Tuesday morning.

MultiChoice was asked about the episode's removal - likely to do with the fact that it contains LottoStar banners and advertising - and for comment on the ongoing mistakes and technical issues that were present in Monday night's episode as well, and why these occured. Comment will be added here if received.

Meanwhile, international reports about Love Island SA ranging from the BBC to CNN and in multiple foreign newspapers on Monday continue to inflict damage on the entirety of South Africa's struggling film and TV industry.

While ongoing questions are swirling about the show's look and its low production values South African TV producers have been calling Love Island SA "a dumpster fire".

Producers say that the show's bad quality is damaging the reputation of the country's whole TV industry and that while they're still battling the impact of Covid-19, that Love Island SA is inflicting collective damage on the industry and that Rapid Blue needs to do better since it's hurting the country's international credibility to make international series.


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A tribute to a South African TV critic: Goodbye Emsily Rose.

 
by Thinus Ferreira

The fraternity writing about television lost one of our own on Monday with the untimely passing of our friend and industry colleague, Emile Butler-O'Brien, who's unswerving dedication over decades to churning out schedules and information about TV helped millions of South African viewers about what they're watching who never knew his name.

His passing comes just a month after his dad died from Covid. As South African TV viewers we are poorer today in ways that most people won't be able to fathom, over something that most people who switch on their TV sets as part of their daily ritual, often just take for granted.

With a yellow highlighter and pen, nobody read a TV channel's monthly schedule better, and more meticulously dissected a schedule for the television gems it might hold, than Emile.
 
Day in and day out he would fire off dozens of questions and requests for clarifications to publicists asking whether that NCIS: New Orleans double-bill playout on 16 February is really two episodes if the season ends on episode 20 – and he always knew exactly who to ask.

Emile – who I've called by my nickname for him, Emsily Rose, ever since the 2005-film The Exorcism of Emily Rose because of a mistake I made that he hilariously had to correct – wrote articles that appeared in numerous places, did interviews with TV stars, and also typed up, corrected and oversaw a litany of TV schedules and grids printed in the TV section of numerous magazines and newspapers for Media24.

He did more interviews from South Africa with Bold's Brooke than I think anyone else ever will.
I first met Emile two decades ago at TVPlus magazine where I worked and laughed alongside him for half a decade and where Emile was the kid in school you wanted to chase and tried to surpass and who just slightly irritated you with his indefatigable work ethic.
 
See, my Emsily Rose was a bit like Emily in The Devils Wears Prada. 
 
His work was always done first. Emile's job bags for pages were always done before deadline (his favourite saying to time-wasters and publicists was always "Hi, I'm on deadline"). 

He was always ahead of everyone else. Yesterday a TV channel publicist told me Emile called last week … not looking for April – but asking for a May schedule already. That was typical Emsily Rose.
 
Emile was always the most-read in the room, always up to date with the latest reports from Hollywood and always finished with the work no matter how high the stack of Rumpelstiltskin TV hay he had to spin away. 

With an eagle eye he spotted schedule mistakes – both on the terrible drafts in various rough formats issued by TV channels, as well as on final layouts. 
 
Those ubiquitous TV pages and schedules in your magazines and newspapers were made so much better and enhanced purely because of Emile and his real passion for his work. It's something he saw as his duty – a contribution to better television in totality for South African viewers.
 
Who hasn't crossed paths with Emile and not hear him say the exact sentence of: "Jerry Shandrews has offered me an interview with ..." and then the name of an American TV star that Emile either will or has interviewed through his personal connections with overseas publicists?
 
 
On sea sand at midnight
Over many, many years we've lived through so many good, bad, hilarious and unbelievable adventures in TV land together – mostly on TV tour when TV channels and shows would invite the press covering television on TV junkets. 
 
It sounds all very "glamarama" but it's mostly not and a slog. In haplessness and helplessness we’d often find ourselves in bizarre situations only the people who've experienced it together can laugh at as you replay it later like watching a favourite sitcom rerun episode.
 
Once SABC2 invited the media to an evening year-end function for media somewhere outside of Johannesburg where literally nobody showed up except for Emsily Rose and myself. We only discovered we were alone once we arrived. 

Not a single SABC2 publicist showed because everyone cancelled and thought everyone else would go, and no Johannesburg media pitched while the two of us flew in from Cape Town.
 
There we were, in a hotel side hall, at night, filled with a mountain of shipped in sand to make it feel like summer at the sea, with rainbow umbrellas and beach chairs and waiters wanting to serve us cocktails. Just the two of us. 
 
He always loved Stoney ginger beer but we decided to splash out and sit in the deck chairs, on actual sand, in an empty room and drank piña coladas with little umbrellas under plastic palm trees until midnight – just another surreal day night you endlessly laugh about for years afterwards.
 
One year on a 2-day "journey to nowhere" cruise on a passenger ship, Emsily Rose got food poisoning.
 
Oh, how scared the man was to go see the ship's doctor and eventually returned after I forced him to go get an injection. "It was a Turkish doctor and he just told me ‘Turn around and pull down your pants!”. Emile’s face of indignation I'll never forget. The many stories can fill books.
 
Within the small ecosystem of journalists, writers and editors covering television in South Africa there's hardly any duplication – everyone does something slightly different and unique but all of us feed off of the collective work done by each other. Each one adds to the whole. How to replace Emile's immeasurable contribution over literally decades?
 
The guy worked so many weekends. 

How many times would I pitch up for a set visit during filming over weekends, or for a Saturday media roundtable in a hotel conference room with talent who didn't seem to be in the mood to answer questions, and there would be Emile – overprepared, and with stacks of printed out information – asking genuinely interesting questions that stars who realised that he had made a real effort couldn't help but become engaged with.
 
Besides being a walking TV guide – you really could ask him anything and he would know and answer you off the top of his head – Emile loved music and was a veritable Music Wikipedia. He listened to everything. He collected everything. He knew everything.
 
With tears in my eyes I can hear Emsily Rose telling me that this story isn't doing him justice. That I should tell the one where we fled a wave of poo coming at us on a bus in Durban, or how he always had the best spread of high-res publicity photos in all his folders ready for layout, or how Jerry Shandrew just ... well, you know.
 
Rest in peace, Emsily Rose. 

Change the channel to something hilarious – you always knew the best of what's on – and always so ready to tell about television. Take control of the TV remote, and educate them all where you're now with your insights and TV hot takes. 
 
We'll see you again, friend.
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MultiChoice hides M-Net and Rapid Blue execs from media after trainwreck Love Island SA debut, opts for attempt at damage control instead of being honest with DStv subscribers and TV industry over jarring mistakes.


by Thinus Ferreira

MultiChoice late on Monday opted for an attempt at damage control instead of honest conversations and blocked the media from talking to M-Net and Rapid Blue executives following the trainwreck debut of the Love Island SA reality show on the pay-TV channel.

It follows after Sunday night's disastrous and jarring premiere on M-Net (DStv 101) of South Africa's local adaptation of the buzzy ITV Studios format that was technical TV flop.

Love Island SA ignited a firestorm of criticism under DStv subscribers across sub-Saharan Africa, as well as internationally, for its lack of diversity in casting and a litany of on-air mistakes.

MultiChoice never posted the flawed first episode of Love Island South Africa to its DStv Catch Up service after Sunday night's debut with the Love Island SA placeholder tile on DStv Catch Up that was also quietly removed on Monday. Only episode 2 is available since Tuesday morning.

On its placeholder block Love Island SA on DStv Catch on Sunday night and Monday said that "Our team is working on getting the South African edition of the global reality TV sensation Love Island that is full of drama to you as soon as possible. Episode will be available will be loaded soon".

DStv subscribers and TV critics called out the poor Love Island SA production values - ranging from sound and editing to the music, the voice-over narration, cinematography and the uninspiring bungalow vineyard-set dormitory that the show calls a villa.

Meanwhile, international reports about Love Island SA ranging from the BBC to CNN and in multiple foreign newspapers on Monday continue to inflict damage on the entirety of South Africa's struggling film and TV industry.

M-Net on Monday didn't respond directly to media enquiries and later MultiChoice, through its PR company Aprio, rebuffed repeated requests in a media enquiry to talk to M-Net executives in charge as well as to the Rapid Blue production company executives and producers responsible for the making of Love Island SA.

Following further very evident production problems and mistakes during Monday night's second episode of Love Island SA complete with a timer before and after commercials, it has been two days with still no answers from M-Net, MultiChoice or Rapid Blue as to the cause and reasons behind the show's oddly amateurish look.

The pay-TV conglomerate was asked whether Sunday's episode is what M-Net and the producers intended to shown pay-TV subscribers, why the show is plagued by sound, editing, lighting, and camera problems, if M-Net has any comment regarding the casting of the show, and whether any production crew changes are being made.

There's also ongoing silence around questions posed about whether M-Net possibly didn't give Rapid Blue - also busy with the first season of The Bachelorette SA for M-Net - a big enough budget and support, or whether the issues with the show's production values are not related to budgetary problems but with not having enough staff working on the series that runs 24 hours per day.

On Monday evening, skirting repeated requests for interviews and not answering any of these questions, Aprio issued a terse statement on behalf of MultiChoice saying that "We pride ourselves in reflecting diversity and inclusion for all our shows, including Love Island".

"The many channels and thousands of program [sic] hours we produce are testament to this. Viewers can be assured that this will become more apparent in future episodes of Love Island SA."

"We hope viewers will keep watching to enjoy the new stars of the show who will be arriving over the next few days. We understand viewers’ disappointment in relation to the production quality and would like to apologize for the technical issues experienced yesterday and are working really hard to resolve them."

While MultiChoice belatedly went into damage control on behalf of M-Net instead of making executives available to openly speak about the show, its controversial casting choices and subpar production values, viewers started fuelling all kinds of rumours on social media.

In the absence of responses about what went wrong with M-Net's heavy-hyped Love Island SA that didn't meet expectations and with viewers searching for answers, multiple online conspiracy theorists - all claiming to know people working on the show - emerged on Monday who fuelled all kinds of unverified conspiracy theories.

These unfounded claims ranged from a power outage that would have hit the show and prevented the upload of the proper episode, that the episode was supposedly a draft and early edited version that was broadcast, and that some of the Love Island crew are upset and threatening to walk off the show.

None of these the Randburg-based pay-TV operator came out to rebuff in public, further harming the show's reputation.

Insiders told TVwithThinus on Monday, after a day into the PR crisis, that Rapid Blue and the Love Island SA crew are well aware of how DStv subscribers and the rest of the world received and perceived the show that switched to crisis mode and is "furiously sifting" through new applications and possible new casting options, with the decision to keep the application process open during the course of the show that had been taken before Sunday's debut.

According to insiders the public reaction to the Love Island SA casting of the debut group of 10 Islanders was "unfortunate" with sources saying that "of course the composition of those taking part would have and will be changing over time".


"Dumpster fire"
South African TV producers - with one describing the reality show as a "dumpster fire" - said that its bad quality is damaging the reputation of the country's TV industry.

Producers said that while they're still battling the impact of Covid-19 that the Love Island SA mess is inflicting collective damage on the industry and that Rapid Blue needs to do better since the attention on the show's bad production values is hurting South Africa's international credibility to make international series.


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Monday, March 1, 2021

TV REVIEW. M-Net’s botched and poorly produced Love Island South Africa is unacceptably bad.


by Thinus Ferreira

Love Island SA on Sunday night made a shockingly embarrassing debut as the worst-ever local TV production in the 35-years of M-Net (DStv 101) by far, with South African television and DStv subscribers who deserve much, much better than Rapid Blue's shamefully shoddy South African adaptation of the ITV Studios format.

The long-awaited debut episode of Love Island South Africa on M-Net was atrocious and unacceptable. 

Marred by the biggest mess with any local reality show it has ever done, M-Net must know that it's unacceptably bad since Love Island SA's botched first episode by Monday morning wasn't even made available for viewing on DStv Catch Up.

On a technical level Rapid Blue's Love Island SA is a poorly produced TV flop. 

While ITV and M-Net sell images of waves, beaches and words like "Islanders" it's hard to believe that Rapid Blue - the very same company that was responsible for the latest UK and French versions of the same ITV Studios format - is really giving South Africans a very badly lit, badly done pastel-coloured paint-job that looks like a guest house overlooking a vineyard far away from the sea.

Why must M-Net and DStv viewers feel that watching this lacklustre "villa" - from JD Unlimited responsible for set design and built by JDMBuildco with Dewet Meyer as production designer - is worth their time?

It doesn't look remotely aspirational or luxurious and literally comes with dead air.

South African students, if they were to hand in an episode like Love Island SA as a team project at any film school in the country, would fail with nothing that the first episode offered up that is even remotely up to M-Net standards.

It's shocking that MultiChoice and M-Net executives like Yolisa Phahle, Nkateko Mabaso, Jan du Plessis and Kaye-Ann Williams as M-Net's head of local productions saw the first episode of Love Island SA and didn't find it unacceptable for broadcast on DStv and didn't postpone the broadcast to get it up to spec. 

If they haven't seen it, and still decided to air it, that is also a big problem.

It's also a problem that Rapid Blue's executive producers Adi de Lancey and Duncan Irvine, series producer Abigail Clark, series director Nadia White, and head of production Kim Thwaites all making Love Island SA are fine with churning out and offering up something so bad that either has budget problems, staffing problems, too few people, or people without basic competencies in their respective audio-visual production fields. 

Why are showrunners working on a show they can't execute and properly hold together?


The sound and sound mixing on Love Island SA was terrible and in several instances, there was just silence lasting all throughout the first episode with even a silent credit roll (that contains a litany of mistakes, including wrongly-spelt names). How does this happen? 

In some instances, production crew could be heard talking over the Islanders. There was cross-feed of audio channels. Mics overlapping. 

Every single person working on sound on Love Island SA deserves to be fired from Jeff Hodd as sound engineer HOD, to Gary Rundle and Gavin Turner as the sound HODs, and David Oosthuizen responsible for the audio final mix, all the way down.

The Love Island SA music done by Kaz-Leigh Staighfill as music coordinator, is terrible. In ITV's Love Island music makes a big part of the show. 

Once again: Is Rapid Blue and M-Net too cheap to pay to licence proper, suitable music? Pay for proper music. This is a pay-TV show made for pay-TV subscribers and in addition for DStv Premium subscribers on MultiChoice's top-tier who are paying the highest price for quality content.

The voice-over work done by Warren Robertson is absolutely terrible and he needs to be replaced, as well as the scriptwriter for his narration, Melt Sieberhagen. 

The voice-over narrating is likewise one of the crucial ingredients of the secret potion that makes Love Island "work" - it needs to be funny and sound spontaneous and be tongue-in-cheek.

It's hugely ironic that Rapid Blue also produces Come Dine with Me SA on BBC Brit that employs Dave Lamb who is also doing the voice-overs for the British version - so clearly M-Net and Rapid Blue are aware of how it could be done and that it is possible to do it correctly. Warren Robertson doesn't sound right and doesn't sound funny.

Also, there is nothing wrong with your TV screen dear viewer. It's the camera quality of the actual cameras used by Love Island SA that is abhorrent. Grandma with her Nokia 3310 and Shoprite's CCTV camera system capture better visuals. 

The people in charge of editing should also be fired. Students learning basic editing, do better editing with PicsArt on their YouTube channels with proper transitions using free online software.

Multiple editors are listed as working on Love Island SA, ranging from Jacques le Roux as senior story editor to senior editors Alwyn de Bruyn, Daniel Modisakeng, Eckhard Groenwald, Graeme Hodge, Julian Thomas, Nicholette Nolte, Samantha Marais and Tumelo Ditshego. 

Why is the Love Island SA lighting done by Mauritz Neethling as lighting director and designer with lighting operators Hendrik Abraham Avenant and Mathai Lucky Lwele as lighting operators, so bad?

It's supposed to be bright and sunny and to give an atmosphere of holiday and a carefree competition. This is filmed in South Africa in late summer. 

Who is asleep on grading and colour correction under Nicci van Niekerk as post-production supervisor? Love Island SA looks grey and dull like the washing TV laundry commercials use for the "before" clothes before they turn sparkling white.

And speaking of white - yes the show is aimed at the M-Net channel's audience and its specific target demo that does skew white and female but that isn't an excuse for it to be almost another lily-white version of kykNET's Boer Soek a Vrou. 

A reality show like Love Island SA is still anchored and done in South Africa and must reflect at least a modicum of "reality" and "South Africa".

It's beyond comprehension that Rapid Blue would foist an unrepresentative cast and the worst production values for a local reality show ever seen on M-Net, on premium pay-TV subscribers and in prime time, and think that nobody would notice anything or that paying DStv subscribers would be fine with it. 

How does ITV Studios sign off on a localised brand extension that is so bad and so damaging to its format and how does M-Net put something on the airwaves that is so cringe-worthy terrible? 

With 6 weeks left of Love South Africa, M-Net and Rapid Blue need to make drastic and urgent changes and improvements because the standard and quality of Love Island SA make it look like someone is filming a primary school community theatre performance with a torch on a cellphone.

Rapid Blue and M-Net need to fix Love Island SA and fix it fast.


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