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Tuesday 4 January 2022

The Murder Of Dee Blanchard: From HBO To Telemundo Here's A List Of Brands That Documented Gypsy's Freedom From Her Abusive Mother

Dee Dee had been making her daughter pass herself off as younger and pretend to be disabled and chronically ill, subjecting her to unnecessary surgery and medication, and controlling her through physical and psychological abuse.

Gypsy Rose, daughter of Dee Dee is currently serving a 10-year sentence for second-degree murder while Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In 2017, HBO produced the documentary film Mommy Dead and Dearest directed by Erin Lee Carr about the murder and its relationship to Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The film includes interrogation footage and exclusive interviews with Nick Godejohn and incarcerated Gypsy Rose.

Later that year, The CBS network talk show Dr. Phil, episode "Mother Knows Best: A Story of Munchausen by Proxy and Murder" featuring interviews with Gypsy Rose, her father and step-mother.

In 2018, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) news and information series Good Morning America, segment "Mother of All Murders" aired an exclusive in-prison interview with Gypsy Rose. The ABC network other series 20/20, did an episode titled "The Story of Gypsy Blanchard".

The Sony Entertainment Television channel series CID aired an episode titled "Death on Social Media" on 13 August 2017, based on the case but the setting for the episode was changed to India; the characters Aria and Aanchal were based on Gypsy and Dee Dee Blanchard respectively.

The Investigation Discovery channel series James Patterson's Murder is Forever episode "Mother of All Murders", season 1, episode 2, premiered on January 29, 2018. Investigation Discovery also aired a two-hour-long special documentary titled Gypsy's Revenge.

Love You to Death aired on Lifetime in January 2019, dramatizing the case as "inspired by true events". Marcia Gay Harden starred as the fictionalized version of Dee Dee, Emily Skeggs starred as Gypsy Rose's counterpart, Brennan Keel Cook starred as Nick's counterpart, and Tate Donovan starred as Rod's counterpart.

In 2019, the streaming service Hulu announced the creation of the true crime series The Act. The 8-episode miniseries is based on Michelle Dean's 2016 BuzzFeed article. Dean is an executive producer and writer for the first season of the series.

Later that year, Netflix web television series The Politician, the characters Infinity Jackson, Ricardo, and Dusty Jackson are respectively based on Gypsy Rose Blanchard, Nicholas Godejohn and Dee Dee Blanchard. Telemundo's Decisions 13th episode "Amor de madre" was also used to tell the tale.

Gypsy Rose's case has been treated more as a child abuse as opposed to her fiancee case which is murder. Her actions garnered media attention as opposed to her mother whose family flushed her ashes down the toilet.

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Thursday 14 October 2021

Africa: Why The ACME (Night) Block Will Likely Launch Cartoon Network With Cartoonito Relaunching On Boomerang?

Earlier this year, WarnerMedia announced plans to expand their kids offering across their brands to include programs for preschoolers, girls and families.

A month ago, they unveiled preschool and family content in the form of a programming block on Cartoon Network called Cartoonito and ACME Night (respectively) featuring a variety of content from their archives and other studios.

ACME: Batman: Caped Crusaders, Gremlins: Secrets Of The Mogwai and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal

Cartoonito: Little Ellen, Batwheels and Bugs Bunny Builders

Cartoonito which is adapted from WarnerMedia in Europe has started taking swing internationally while ACME which is likely from the fictional company originating in Looney Tunes cartoons hasn't started as of yet.

While Cartoon Network in the United States got both these brands sharing occupying the space on their channel. It's possible that Cartoon Network in Africa will only pick up ACME leaving Boomerang with Cartoonito.

ACME on Cartoon Network

As mentioned earlier (in italics), the ACME block features shows such as Batman: Caped Crusader and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal which may seem a bit edgy for the family and preschool friendly Boomerang.

Cartoon Network has an ongoing history with DC Animation and have positioned themselves well for the job with the likes of Power Rangers and Teen Titans GO! which would require intense supervision and superior intellect.

Cartoonito finds Boomerang or Boomerang finds Cartoonito

In Africa, WarnerMedia has picked up rights to several preschool series of which none have been credited as Cartoonito but Boomerang such as Lucas The Spider, Thomas And Friends: All Engines Go and, True And The Rainbow Kingdom.

Firstly, the U.S. only put Cartoonito on Cartoon Network and HBO Max in the hopes that it could be successful and get a large audience reach which is where Boomerang doesn't fit unlike Africa and the rest of Europe.

Boomerang in Europe already incorporate preschool content into their lineup (some of which are on Cartoonito) which has been successful so it wouldn't be a hassle to get there than it would on Cartoon Network.

Cartoonito on Boomerang vs. Boomerang on Cartoonito vs. the conclusion

Boomerang days might be numbered with WarnerMedia working on launching more family based programming on Cartoon Network and Cartoonito covering preschoolers the channel is going through an identity crisis.

Since part of the channel is preschool maybe that will be all of what Boomerang has to offer in future making it easier to swipe the branding for Cartoonito.

Boomerang in the United States is the equivalence of Boing in Africa without Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo keeping it alive so unless WarnerMedia has some alignment plans I don't see any place for the channel on their stable.

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Monday 11 October 2021

Could A Big Brother Africa Revival Be In The Works As More African Markets Start Working On A Local Adaptation Of The Popular Game Show?

Big Brother Africa originally began in 2003 on M-Net featuring contestants from across Africa living in an isolated household to compete for a cash prize. The show was cancelled after one season and picked once again in 2007 before getting cancelled after seven seasons in 2014.

Even though, the popular game show was canned the legacy lived on as Big Brother Naija for the past 5 years as they've been the forefront entertainers not only for Nigeria but the rest of Africa.

Not long ago, Liberia announced plans to launch a localised version of the game show titled Housemates Liberia through AYVTV. With plans to have this game show available in more markets just like Big Brother Naija.

With that in mind, its possible that MultiChoice might be planning to seperate versions of Big Brother Africa just the other day viewers have come across an advert for Big Brother Mzansi which is slated for South Africa in 2022.

The question remains on what affect it will inflict on Big Brother Naija. Considering that there's more than two perhaps MultiChoice in some regions will cut ties with the Nigerian counterpart to divert their focus their own version or offer Big Brother Naija on a limited basis.

Either way, it wouldn't surprise me if MultiChoice were to launch a dedicated channel for this game show titled Big Brother Africa for future as well as past seasons of the game show.

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Friday 20 August 2021

Prediction: G4 Expands Across The UK, Europe And South Africa Through Ginx Esports TV

G4 is an upcoming gaming brand from NBCUniversal which is scheduled to released by the end of the year in the United States and serves as a rival to SPI International's Gametoons and a spinoff to Sky's Ginx Esports TV.

The revived brand will feature new episodes of past series such as Attack Of The Show!, X-Play, G4TV Esports and Ninja Warrior. They'be even greenlit a new series which stars WWE superstar, Xavier Woods.

Even though, there hasn't been any indicator to a possible rollout it's very likely that it will launch under Ginx Esports TV since Sky is owned by Comcast that also manage NBCUniversal International.

It's also possible that some of the content seen on Ginx Esports TV will be scrapped for 'localised version' of G4's upcoming content seeing as both channels have original content in their respective markets.

Comcast recently partnered up with ViacomCBS International to rollout a new streaming service across Europe called SkyShowcase which will see the best of Peacock and Paramount+ rollout under one brand.

Thursday 12 August 2021

Could Nicktoons Eventually Be Discontinued In Africa?

Nicktoons has been available in Africa for almost 7 years offering repeats from ViacomCBS other kids brands such as Nickelodeon and Nick Jr alongside other programming that hasn't been viewed on any of those channels.

For a while now, some of the channel's new content such as 44 Cats, Atchoo!, ALVINNN!!! And The Chipmunks and Ollie's Pack have seemingly been transmitted onto Nickelodeon on a exclusive basis.

Even Nick Jr. assisted the main brand by adopting Peppa Pig.

Nickelodeon even reached a point where they'd bring back series that were cancelled ages ago such as The Fairly OddParents and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and last year the South African feed went as far as including the Nick Jr. block.

Besides Nickelodeon Africa being split into two counterparts, there's also a variation in accessibility.

The South African feed of Nickelodeon (and Nick Jr) can be only be found on DStv on the top tier packages with Nicktoons available on the lower bouquets while the African feed of Nickelodeon is lower bouquets on DStv alongside several pay-tv providers with Nicktoons (and Nick Jr) targeting the top tier packages on DStv.

If you look at it those situating in South Africa have more use for Nicktoons while those who are subscribed to DStv and have access to Nickelodeon are likely ignoring Nicktoons so adding some of the content onto the channel is not only about accessibility but their way of trying to get people to watch the channel.

Since last year, ViacomCBS International started operating a Nick Global feed at times for the African Nickelodeon and Nick Jr channels just not Nicktoons.

There's reasons why Nicktoons could stay onboard and this is due to the lack of kids entertainment out there and the reason it could part ways is pay-tv operators have been religning their offering with the rise in streaming.

A year ago, Disney took away Disney XD and MultiChoice reduced their M-Net Movies channels from 6 to just 4 channels and cut two British channels with further content moving onto other channels.

Nickelodeon could have serve as a placeholder for Nicktoons with certain content being transmitted to their preschool brand, Nick Jr.

MultiChoice could look into other brands such as BBC Kids and DreamWorks Channel.

Friday 6 August 2021

Could M-Net And MultiChoice Eventually Revive Big Brother Africa As A Permanent Channel?

Big Brother is famous reality show that features contestants who live together in a specially constructed house that is isolated from the outside world. The first show which is based in Dutch began in September 1999 and since then became a major franchise with 54 adaptations around the world.

In Africa, we got to see a Pan-African version of the game show from M-Net between 2003 - 2014 before becoming a Naija exclusive by Africa Magic from 2017 and onwards through DStv.

It was recently reported that Liberia would be making its own version of the game show which will launch on DStv channel 399 not sure what's wrong with 198 which begs the question on whether M-Net plans to revive Big Brother Africa with regional adaptations if so how would they able to cram all those shows in 1 year.

My guess would be that MultiChoice and M-Net will eventually operate Big Brother as a full-time brand not just in Nigeria but the rest of Africa as well. I can see some having a joint game show of course.

From what I've gathered, this franchise is all about welcoming talent and unlike Idols SA pop-up channel. This one is not reserved for only auditions.

Last year, MultiChoice's content boss (who died of COVID-19 complications may she R.I.P.) mentioned how popular the show has become and how the viewership has grown exponentially during the pandemic.

With that in mind, a permanent feed doesn't seem far off and I know it's a lot to process but my idea for this channel is to give at least 6 month coverage perhaps reduce the duration to get more markets onto that space and to air repeats for the rest of the year and often run a second channel when the content gets bigger.

While the pop-up ran across all packages or at the ones paying more than R100 this permanent one will be available to the family package (my opinion). Not saying Access customers will lose anything but they'll have open windows when it's live or repeats could work to better save up on costs.

There's other channels on DStv airing new episodes throughout the year which would actually affect the viewership that's why mentioned repeats. It wouldn't also be the best time to deploy such antics during the December holidays since some viewers won't be invested to their TV screens.

Big Brother Africa would join fliekNET which served as a yearly pop-up before becoming a full-time channel. MultiChoice has been Afrocentric and more focused on what they have as opposed to what's still available which is the reason for Honey, Wild Earth, Moja 9.9., Novela Magic, Maisha Magic Movies, kykNET Lekker, Abol TV and Pearl Magic Prime.

Thursday 29 July 2021

How Warner Bros. Discovery Might Help With The Rollout Of HBO Max?

Not long ago, WarnerMedia and Discovery announced they'd merge to form a new company which would bring Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and TLC as well as HBO, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim under one stable known simply as Warner Bros. Discovery.

These companies also have their streaming services like HBO Max and Discovery+ in the United States and around the world.

Now some countries like the UK, viewers have to wait till 2025 to get HBO Max due to a pending contract agreement with Sky. HBO also has an agreement with M-Net and Showmax so should it launch in the UK chances are Africa would have to wait for these contracts to expire.

As mentioned earlier, WarnerMedia and Discovery are merging this new company could form another streaming service which offers the best of Discovery+ and HBO Max specifically in markets like the UK. By the time, HBO Max rolls out in the UK and possibly Africa people would have already been downloading all their content through torrent sites.

This platform could be called Warner TV+

Thursday 15 July 2021

Why eMedia Investments Stopped Distributing Turkish Dramas In English?

Kuiertyd was introduced in October 2018 on eExtra offering a mix of reality, lifestyle and drama series from kykNET as well as some Turkish dramas which was the reason for the Afrikaans block's success.

The first dubbed Turkish show Gebroke Harte (Paramparca) pulled almost half a million viewers following its debut on eExtra. From what I remember these dramas didn't get this much attention when they were available in English.

So pretty much eMedia Investments is the reason Afrikaans folks are giving dubbed programming a chance. From what I remembered most would either 7de Laan or binge watch Devious Maids or Game Of Thrones.

Besides distributing international content, eMedia Investments has catalogue of original programming ranging from Imbewu, Rhythm City and Scandal.

If you look at these dramas none of them are in Afrikaans so dubbing these Turkish dramas is sort of their way of making up for the times wasted and eMedia doesn't have any of its own Afrikaans reality shows so they borrowed from kykNET.

Why go after Turkish? Character I presume they wanted individuals Afrikaans folks can idolize and relate to, second being these shows are time consumers with all the plot twists and lastly accessibility as not a lot of platforms harper these type of shows.

e.tv had tried getting local content onto other channels back in 2013 all of which were black based before it didn't work out so eExtra is targeting an audience SABC 2 has been very distant with.

It looks like eExtra and possibly eMedia will invest more time in Kuiertyd soaps than Telemundo and Azteca soaps as their streaming service seemingly has these shows absent perhaps due to international content rights so maybe it will be obtainable later.

Wednesday 7 July 2021

Is An eBella Revival On eMedia Investments Still On The Cards And Could It Replace Something Like Star Life On Openview?

eBella was a short-lived female-focused channel which was produced by eMedia Investments offering reality, lifestyle and telenovelas.

The actual reason for it's discontinuation is still unknown but from what sources mentioned before eMedia had considered launching a seperate reality channel and telenovela channel.

Now these old rumors seem very likely as several stations on eMedia have undergone some lineup changes especially with Kuiertyd on eExtra.

The only thing safe on eExtra is the local repeats from e.tv and for some reason the Indian dramas but why the Indie though.

Could it be possible that maybe one of the current Indian channels on Openview will be booted soon, in this case Star Life?

eExtra always had Indian dramas through eBella and this was before Star Life was conceived. During that time, viewers still noticed a presence in Turkish (English), Latin American and Mexican telenovelas now that has been occupied by more Indian and Kuiertyd soaps.

Both of which retain a 28.6% share in the schedule. The only difference is there's no similar offering for Kuiertyd like there is for Indie dramas. That wasn't the case before as the offering in that area was much smaller at the time.

Even if Star Life was kicked to the curb there's chances that viewers will be redirected to eExtra as it boosts their viewership particularly for these type of series.

eMedia Investments has signed an agreement with SABC and they're still waiting on two entertainment channels they were promised more info about in June so they'll likely use those channels to cover up for the loss and possibly rollout an additional channel, in this case an eBella type channel.

You know how e.tv airs repeats of Kuiertyd dramas in the mornings well this eBella type channel repeats the Indian dramas at night and feature some other programming.

In the end, it seems possible that maybe e.tv will be distancing themselves or limiting the number of soaps from Latin America and Mexico due to their new streaming service eVOD which seemingly reveals only Turkish dramas with other programming on eExtra missing from the lineup.

Thursday 17 June 2021

What If A Modernized SABC Encore Launched As The Two Channels On OpenView?

SABC and eMedia Investments reached an agreement back in March that would grant OpenView customers access to SABC's 19 radio stations alongside 3 additional channels one of which being a sports channel.

It was stated at the time that SABC Sport alongside the 19 radio stations would roll out in the month of April with the other two being carrying content from SABC archives alongside new programming being unveiled within the next 3 months being April to June likely to crossover onto July.

SABC Education was suspected to be the first one but it was stated the two would be entertainment channels besides that OpenView already has 2 other educational channels that often air the same programs.

The second rumored channel was the Encore channel formerly available on DStv but the idea from SABC was to also give these new channels some fresh content so I derived it into SABC 4 and SABC 5 channels the broadcaster initially plotted to launch before downsizing to just three channels.

Perhaps, SABC Encore a channel SABC hoped to continue on another platform could be the mysterious brand for OpenView except it won't actually return but split into two parts.

The name SABC 4 and 5 could be a better way to "label' these Encore channels.

SABC 4 would be home to all the local dramas and soapies currently seen on SABC 1-3 such as Yizo Yizo, Soul Buddy, Velaphi and Intersections while as SABC 5 will bring in factual, religious and lifestyle entertainment such as Motswako, 50/50, Voetspore and Psalted.

SABC is currently in a TV licence brawl with MultiChoice and is scheduled to also launch a streaming service later in the year with eMedia Investments launching theirs in the month of July.

Read Also:

- SABC Education's status on both DStv and StarSat

- House Of Zwide coming soon to e.tv

- e.tv to become another SABC

- Nickelodeon returns to e.tv

- Analogue TV is going off air soon, be sure to get a decoder when purchasing a TV set

- BritBox to launch in South Africa

- Is an SABC 4 and SABC 5 channel on the way?

- Details on SABC's kids brand (not SABC Education)

- Current status of TV licence

- Linear channels switch to 7 day viewing, Will SABC and e.tv viewers be able to cope

Friday 14 May 2021

Prediction: Linear Channels Switch To 7 Day Viewing

This format has adapted mainly with telenovela/soapies and kids channels such as Telemundo, Zee World, Star Life, Novela Magic, Toonami and JimJam where a program airs new episodes every single day including weekends.

Now imagine if this format where to take a toll on all linear channels. Not only would it reduce repeats but it would mean viewers would get more fresh content within a year.

Streaming services such as Netflix dump full seasons of programs on their platform in a single day. Perhaps streaming is the main factor to this viewing.

Remember the days when you had to watch programs at a particular time and sometimes you miss out now you have options to record and watch later.

This brings us back to the 7 day viewing, as much as it may be a hassle to catch-up on so many shows in so little time, viewers actually got what they wanted which is reduction in repetition.

Repetition will never be cancelled I mean you're still charged if you watch the same program on Netflix.

Let's take a premium channel like M-Net for starters where their viewers aren't kids that can tolerate repeats more than adults and aren't hubs dedicated only to soapies.

When a show ends completely on M-Net, they barely rehash past seasons and hardly bring back old shows.

This format on M-Net would mean viewers would continue to get new shows perhaps even adapt to a different offering while as feeling nostalgic even if that means welcoming old programs from the early 2000s.

7 day viewing has its benefits but if I had to look from another angle it could lead to a reduction in channels since you'd be bringing more content which means more money goes in so if M-Net where to adapt to that you'd need to wonder how long it will be till a channel like M-Net City would cease to exist.

Not implying that it would be those channels perhaps even channels from ViacomCBS, Discovery Inc and AMC International would be up for discussion.

Not everything would be 7 day viewing if you look at the title of this article I never put "all" to linear implying that certain channels due to their position or offering would be excluded from this format.

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