Oprah's Rollercoaster Ride with SABC3

Originally published Wednesday, September 06, 2006

SABC3 is a mess, and the people in-charge of scheduling or licensing The Oprah Winfrey Show, need a serious psychological exam. Ride Number One First they premier the show at 16h45 (which was just weird), Ride Number Two Then they move her to 14h00 (they refused to listen to the hundreds of viewer requests and complaints). Ride Number Three They often claim “We are now bring you Oprah’s viewer favorite”, how are those viewers choosing a so called “viewers favorite”. SABC3 Presenters are very quick to tell us about Oprah’s tea parties, Deaf awareness weeks, and whatever else SABC3 wants us to know.

So why wouldn’t they ask viewers to vote for their favorite Oprah show? I’ll tell you why, because some anal retentive channel executive enjoys playing God. Ride Number Four They repeat Oprah at 23h00 and then they decide to stop it without any notice to the viewers who are also voting for the “week’s favorite show” Ride Number Five They move and return the 23h00 repeats, without any notice. They just appear out of thin air…. Ahaaaaa! The pulse of Africa’s creative spirit! Ride Number Six They repeat Oprah at 11h00, then they convince us that just because Tyra Banks appeared on few episodes of Oprah, until the American public decided Tyra was no good for Oprah “she talked a lot and was really not appealing to Oprah’s target market”. Oh wait… she still talks a lot! …. Moving on, the wise Ms Winfrey decided to end the Tyra and Oprah Fashion showcase.

Ride Number Seven What I would like to consider the cherry on top and a blatant disregard of the intelligence of the people that watch SABC3, is listening to their executive mambo-jumbo about Oprah’s shows for the season running out. As a way for them to introduction the hideous talk-show hosted by Tyra Banks. I find it very funny because, Harpo Productions is premiering a brand new season of The Oprah Winfrey Show on September 18th 2006. Of course this is a bit they would conveniently leave out so that they pump this revolting Tyra Banks at our screens. Ride Number Eight

• They schedule the shows based on what feels good to them and as a result we don’t get to see some of the top shows of the season. How can the shows run out when we have not even seen any of the shows listed below:
• James Frey and the A Million Little Pieces Controversy – I was looking forward to this show because it followed the Scandal with James Frey’s book.
• The Two-Headed Baby Miracle
• Exclusive: Oprah's After-Oscar® Party 2006 from the Kodak Theater
• The All-Time Greats of Oscar® Night
• Oscar® Nominees Felicity Huffman and Terrence Howard and Host Jon Stewart
• The Shocking Story George Clooney Has to Tell
• The World's Best Gowns
• Exclusive: Author Terry McMillan Confronts Her Gay Ex-Husband
• The Wildest Dreams Bus Hits New York
• Miracle Babies with Celine Dion

I guess they will tell us another corporate mambo-j about why they did not air the shows. Oh! maybe the tapes got lost…; No even better, Tyra Banks is coming to SABC3. After this many rides, no wonder I feel sick with the idea of chatty Ms Banks occupying the afternoon lineup. Vomit bag anyone!

By The Observer