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The SABC quietly hid away one of its best brand ambassadors and showpieces on a Friday night when viewership was lowest: the Presenter Search on 3. The third season was once again a local show on TV about TV, and it sparkled.
Once more taking the form of a reality competition, this time finding three TV presenters and not just one, the weekly production found and successfully showcased something you don’t see and hear about often, and which many viewers and industry insiders thought was lost: an SABC that works.
The Tswelopele Productions show cleverly dipped into various SABC programmes and also roped in different SABC presenters across several shows as the wannabe newbies were put through their paces on the sets and before the camera crews, control rooms and floor directors of various SABC programmes.
From Morning Live to the now defunct 3 Talk with Noeleen and Top Billing to Expresso, contestants stepped into the finely tuned machinery of shows that have to deliver without getting bogged down in internal politics, personality clashes or waiting for the R3 million SABC choir to sing.
The genius of the show and the concept is how good it makes the SABC look without being a fake spin doctor exercise. Far from the madding crowd of Auckland Park, it showed the parts of the SABC that work – and must work – to put actual local programming on the air to fill the countless minutes in a day.
The show did so without “damaging” any of these other shows. In fact, it enhanced them and gave viewers a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes.
Through elevating a type of pseudocalamity that is no real crisis – similar to a Real Housewife from Beverly Hills throwing a glass of wine into another’s face – Presenter Search on 3 delivered tears, anguish and drama as contestants struggled to master the art of having a professional on-air appearance while constantly wading through this Willy Wonka-type TV factory.
Something as simple as a script with deliberate spelling mistakes, for instance, caused wonderful heightened reality drama.
The most brilliant part was Top Billing’s Ursula Chikane, who popped up as a mentor in one of the earlier episodes. She should have been an overall mentor and judge. It was breathtaking watching her give real advice about being on TV, wanting the contestants to succeed, watching her scold, cajole, berate, encourage and teach. This is what a reality TV judge should be like, and even ordinary viewers who will never be on TV were made to feel like Ursula was helping them.
Obviously, SABC3 and the SABC as a whole can’t just keep adding new TV presenters, hence the hiatus between seasons. But here’s an idea: why not detach the show from the competition element and continue to bring viewers the drama? Cleverly positioned and planned, something like “Presenters” could be a weekly fly on the wall behind an SABC show.
Cameras can easily film presenters and producers in point of view shots in glorious cinéma vérité style, dealing with no-show guests, technical problems and other TV calamities.
There is so much opportunity in Presenter Search on 3, and SABC would do well to run with it
