'Days Of Our Lives': Could The Sand In The Hourglass Be Heading To A New Era In South Africa?

NBC’s long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives will be leaving broadcast television after 57 years to stream exclusively on Peacock, the network announced on Wednesday. The change means that fans who previously have been able to watch the show for free on broadcast will now have to pay for a streaming service to learn what happens next in the show’s fictional town of Salem.

“With a large percentage of the Days of Our Lives audience already watching digitally, this move enables us to build the show’s loyal fanbase on streaming while simultaneously bolstering the network daytime offering with an urgent, live programming opportunity for partners and consumers,” Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said in a press release.

Earlier in the year, Days Of Our Lives was swept out of e.tv's primetime offering as eMedia tries to boost their original offering with eMedia Investments expected to invest R100 million in their streaming endeavours which has seen success as the company was able to obtain half a million registrations and record breaking ratings.

Of course, Days Of Our Lives' absence still haunts a lot of consumers as they've been following the soap for half a century when it began on the free-to-air SABC 3 channel which was known at the time as CCV channel and after the SABC's controversial COO at the time Hlaudi Motsoeneng put up a ban for international series forcing the drama to air close to midnight. 

As seen earlier in the year, the sand in the hourglass for e.tv has come to an end after almost 5 years of broadcast which has some feeling agitated over an outlet to this ongoing soap opera.

Peacock overseas decided to move Days away from cable as the ratings have been slipping on a year to year basis as direct-to-consumer becomes a top priority for international brands like The Walt Disney Company.

Before this news came into affect, Vodacom's defunct streaming service supplied Bold And The Beautiful another ongoing soap opera and rival to Days Of Our Lives after it was swept out of SABC's lineup due to the corrupt bold man thereafter MultiChoice's DStv as AMC International opt to not supply EVA channel which was the home of Bold on cable.

As it is a lot of long format or in other terms old timers like The Simpsons moved from cable to streaming for consumers in South Africa as The Walt Disney Company retracted the FOX channel as they plan to become a digital exclusive platform like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Now Days Of Our Lives being a digital exclusive doesn't seem far fetched and on Peacock although not available in the region as yet wouldn't be far fetched a stretch as well seeing as Days Of Our Lives: Beyond Salem which is a spinoff to be the soap can be viewed on the platform.

Peacock on top of being a streaming service is owned by NBCUniversal the same people that own Days Of Our Lives and now the chances of it suffering the franchise getting swept on this platform is close to zero but questions amount to how this service will eventually rollout in South Africa

As it is, Peacock is just another Showmax holds a lot of third party content, limited original content and is not knowledgeable by a lot of consumers as seen with Netflix and Disney+. In some regions, the platform was able to fold under Paramount+ which is expected in Africa by early next year but that doesn't guarantee it will supply Peacock.

Peacock is a very complicated case as outlined there's not much to offer on the table that you would dump a hamburger for a salad while others found comfort on Paramount+ (also known to some as SkyShowcase). Others got it as standalone as seen overseas while others found comfort in a local provider to which I nominate Showmax.

Say what you want about their owners MultiChoice but NBCUniversal has a tight relationship to the company as they supply the only alternative to M-Net on the DStv platform as others were retracted due to content or management changes. On top of that, the movie offering on Studio Universal can come in handy when you're avoiding cartoons.

Programming Alert: Fatmagul Swept Off eVOD's Kuiertyd Section

eVOD has been making adjustments to their offering for several months now which is common for most beginners as the platform expands its offering and consumer base with the likes of Microblast TV, 360 Sport and the existing content packaged onto their eMedia's stations.

Fatmagul, one of eMedia's very few English dubbed shows on top of being the first and loved show by audiences of the brand. As seen in those past months, the popular Turkish series was slotted with other dramas in the Afrikaans section of eVOD despite not being Afrikaans itself.

It led to a lot of speculation on what would become of non Afrikaans dubbed Turkish shows but taking these recent adjustments to account it's safe to say where it's fate might like should eMedia opt to rectify that mistake.

At launch, eMedia had a slot for their Korean and Bollywood offering some of which have been viewed on eExtra and with these adjustments the slot had expanded to International Dramas where you get more out of the usual two like Johnny Vs. Amber, Madiba and Tainted Love Leke.

Fatmagul would fit perfectly in that section as opposed to Afrikaans section which carries a lot of limitations but I'm not judging its presence there but most who do browse that section would expect 100% Afrikaans when you can't expect the same from Mzansi Magic.

Instead of redirecting shows (as eMedia will never advertise changes) rather just keep Fatmagul where its currently seen and duplicate it onto sections of the platform and see how far it gets from there.

Cartoon Network Is In Shambles, Is A Recovery Plan Underway?

On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to make some shocking announcement that will have the media to its core as if there wasn't enough of it following the cancellation of original content through TNT, The CW and likely HBO Max.

WarnerMedia has been in trouble for a while which was part of the reason this merger with Discovery Inc. came to the equation. There's been a lot of mismanagement with some of their brands and it seems if the cat is finally getting out of the bag for one of their channels, Cartoon Network.

Cartoon Network has been a top priority for me as a kid as I didn't have much alternatives at the time. I remember when I would just leave my TV on and watch classics like Time Squad, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Megas XLR, Sheep In The Big City and The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy.

Cartoon Network was my sanctuary but over the years that had changed trust me when I say the brand hasn't stopped being a top priority for me as I struggle to find the same essence on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel not that they don't have anything interesting but the channel was like a new addition to the family

Through puberty that all changed as they had all the options at their fingertips like Mighty Magiswords, Steven Universe, OK K.O. Let's Be Heroes, Victor And Valentino, Infinity Train and Adventure Time but struggled to balance all these shows out.

Treat it like high school, there was that subject everyone loved (Teen Titans GO!), that subject you'd consider a liability (Mao Mao: Heroes Of Pure Heart) and those that are there for some logical reason (The Amazing World Of Gumball or D.C. Superhero Girls).

As the pupil tries to juggle life sees their expectations go down the drainage pipe which was the case for Cartoon Network. I don't remember the last time I watched Cartoon Network as I'd rather what's on the channel but from what I remembered last 3 shows made up their whole schedule.

Believe or not, this led to most of their efforts such as Summer Camp Island to go off unnoticed. Oh sure, there's not much homework going onto the table but why should it matter as it is part of the syllabus.

Point is this led to a decline in viewers and if it wasn't for Redraw Your World who knows where the channel could have ended up. As the brand starts rebuilding a new identity a lot happens behind the scene.

Most of the homework goes missing or is shelved or on the verge of being shelved. On top of the missing homework, the child now studies less subjects as the school experience a shortage in staff which just leads to further cutbacks.

As of this moment, Cartoon Network only has 3 current original series Teen Titans GO!, Craig Of The Creek and We Baby Bears everything else from Victor And Valentino to Elliot From Earth is either cancelled or going through hiatus.

As it is the channel has greenlit several shows like My Adventures With Superman, Batman: Caped Crusader and Invincible Fight Girl but as seen with the recent management of Warner Bros. Discovery the SCOOB sequel had been canned as things were wrapping up while Infinity Train is seen on a rival brand, Netflix.

Just as the channel starts to regain consciousness, it's put back in the ICU is there any hope for the time will tell.

Conspiracy Theory: The Real Reason CBS Reality Remains In The UK

In the summer of 2019, AMC International and Paramount made a loss of £8,024,000 before tax £4,000 and a year later amidst the pandemic witnessed a small increase in an impairment charge of £8,643,000 with net assets worth £4,069,000.

Earlier in the month, CBS Reality remained onboard their stable while other CBS brands like CBS Justice, CBS Drama and Horror Channel were axed for Legend, Reality Xtra and Horror Xtra as rumours swirl about the dismemberment of their partnership.

As seen in their financial records in the summer of 2020, AMC International is in a loss making position with a net current liabilities of £7,178,641 (2019: £7,162,843) and negative equity of £7,178641 (2019: £905,317) with Paramount offering funding until for the rest of 2021 and discussing future prospects by the end of 2022.

Taking that to account, the name change could have something to do with the reported losses and the changes could spell the dismemberment of Paramount and AMC International after 10 years.

CBS Reality as mentioned is the only channel to not have been affected by the change but what if the reason behind that wasn't Warner Bros. Discovery's Really channel which has a similar coat of paint to the Reality portion of the name but something bigger.

Reality Xtra which is seen as a spin-off to CBS Reality even though that's not the case with the programming was once the name used on the main channel. Is it possible that CBS Reality will close and merge onto Reality Xtra? If so why not do it sooner?

CBS Reality has a lot of decent and mature content compared to MTV and E! on top of various cable providers so maybe they're fulfilling agreements with some suppliers before axing the channel with content moving over to Reality Xtra.

Why Openview Has Been Excluded From Delayed SABC Channel Expansion?

eMedia Investments and the SABC finalised their deal for 3 additional channels one of which were SABC Sport alongside 19 radio stations in 2021. As consumers wait over a year for the two channels which are set to carry a lot of existing content there's been some speculation one of which was cleared up is SABC Education.

SABC Education is a DTT channel currently seen on TelkomOne and soon on the likes of DStv and StarSat is based on the educational division formed by the SABC which is home to shows like Takalani Sesame, Matric Reloaded, Ispani, Uzalo, Geleza Nathi and 90 Plain Street.

The channel has remained active as of May 2020 and used as a catch-up channel to programs currently viewed on SABC 1-3 with plans to roll out the brand onto more platforms still underway.

As seen through several consumers on the Openview platform is SABC 1-3, SABC Sport alongside the 19 radio stations but SABC Education doesn't form part of the bouquet with SABC News being exclusive to DStv and DTT consumers.

So the question would have to be is eMedia Investments waiting on SABC Education like DStv?

Probably not as MultiChoice is waiting on two other channels to roll out on the DStv platform and SABC Education alongside SABC Sport and the 19 radio stations did form part of TelkomOne's initial offering when it launched in October 2020.

There could be a number of reasons SABC Education won't form part of the offering. The first has to do with costs, second would have to do with their rivalry perhaps they don't want to invest too much and last may have to do with the existing educational offering on Openview being DBE TV and Mindset.

The Controversial History Of WWE's Most Prestigious Wrestlers, The Fabulous Moolah

The Fabulous Moolah was born Mary Ellison in 1923. Born and raised in the American south, by the 1930s Ellison was attending local wrestling shows with her fatherb seeing the polarizing women of the time; Mar Young, Mildred Burke, and Cecilia Blevins. From this point on Ellison was hooked on the sport and wanted to be a star. The story that follows is one of success and triumph, but also a tale of dark secrets, drugs, and deceit. Fabulous Moolah ran the women’s wrestling world for 30 plus years, and it wasn’t always a world of glitz and glam. The wrestler Moolah and the promoter, booker, and trainer Moolah have two very different, but equally dark histories.

Mary Ellison Becomes The Fabulous Moolah

During the early part of Moolah’s career, she was under the tutelage of Mildred Burke and her husband Billy Wolfe. Burke and Wolfe were, at the time, the premier bookers and promoters for almost all of women’s wrestling. The Burke/Wolfe playbook also asked for their contracted talent to engage in sexual favors with other promoters for preferential bookings, on top of an already huge booking percentage of all payouts. Ellison refused to participate in these practices, causing tension between her and Wolfe.

By the mid-50s Moolah and her husband Buddy Lee were using their own versions of Burke’s practices and had started booking and promoting their own women wrestlers, and booking them against their rivals. After Burke and Wolfe’s retirement, Moolah would have a stranglehold on the world of women’s professional wrestling. The same woman who broke barriers, like being the first woman to wrestle at the historic Madison Square Garden Arena, was now building walls to prevent the growth of the sport.

The Fabulous Moolah Becomes A Promoter And Booker

During this part of Moolah’s career, she would feed and house her trainees and wrestlers. Some women Moolah booked and trained told stories of the property being locked down by a certain point, and if you weren’t home in time, you would be left out until morning. These were not provided accommodations either. Moolah was collecting rent from the women who stayed there, living two and three people in a single room efficiency style cabin, charging upwards of $1,200 a month for their rooms in the 1970s. With inflation that equates to about $9,100 if charged today.

The financial strain didn’t end there. With Moolah and Lee handling all the women’s promoting and booking, women’s wrestling went through the Fabulous Moolah, so if a woman was booked to wrestle, she was also collecting a 25% booking fee of their payout whether they were “one of her girls” or not.

That means, “Moolah’s Girls” were also paying the 25% on top of their already outlandish rent. This, mixed with the allegations of forced sex, drug use, prostitution and theft, left the wrestling world buzzing when women started coming forward. The training schedules, the booking schedule, and the expectations Moolah had for the women wrestlers was also extreme. Princess Victoria was a superstar trained and booked by Moolah, who experienced a tragic career ending injury. Victoria aas quoted as saying that she was thrown out with almost nothing to her name, but would refute the allegations of Moolah being a pimp.

“Moolah was not a pimp and she hated drugs. She did steal from all of her girls including me, but she was the only way to keep wrestling back then, so it was Moolah or almost nothing. […] I think [The WrestleMania Battle Royal] should have stayed named after Moolah, no matter how crooked she was, she is and was a very important part of women’s wrestling and if they are going to do her like this, then Snickers better reevaluate their sponsorship on all sports after the many arrests made for multiple different things in sports.”

“My neck was broken in the ring and I was basically thrown out with no medical attention and very little to my name. I am now fully disabled sometimes having to use a wheelchair due to the lack of medical attention. I have had multiple concussions and have donated my brain for a future lawsuit to prove that we wrestlers have been misused by the WWE for many many years. […] I want nothing to do with the WWE and will not, even if invited to allow my name to be in their so-called Hall of Fame.”

The Fabulous Moolah Was Part Of The Original "Screwjob"

Moolah’s wrestling career inside the ring was just as cloudy as her booking and training reputation. During the early parts of her career, Moolah had a reign with the Women’s Wrestling World Championship that would rival Sammartino. Her initial reign lasting 10 years was ended, but she quickly and suspiciously picked the title back up almost a month later.

Then in the 1980s came the Rock and Wrestling connection. Along with that came a new and electric following for professional wrestling. With this following came a new star named Wendi Richter. Richter would go on to dethrone the reigning queen of wrestling. After 28 years of dominating the sport, with two generations coming and going, Richter was now the world champion.

After the match, during house shows, there were more rumors surfacing of Moolah intentionally trying to hurt Wendi in matches. Then, one night on the card, there was no Moolah, but instead Wendi was wrestling the “Spider Lady.” Through politics and the inner workings of WWE, Moolah would participate in the match under a masked disguise. This was the original WWE screwjob. After a small package rollup, the referee counted three despite a clear kick out by Richter. Richter left wrestling that night, and ultimately never returned, after giving her everything.

Whether or not fans believe the accusations, one thing is for sure. If it were not for the Fabulous Moolah, women’s wrestling would not be where it is. Changing the names of battle royals or memorials won’t answer the bigger question, however. What cost did it take to get us here?

Credits: The Sportster

Learn More About Zee World And Zee One's New Local Talk Show What Women Want With Revati Priya

Revati Priya, a young female entrepreneur that strongly stands for assisting women grow and take their businesses to newer heights, thus taking me to found a company called “What Women Want with Revati Priya”.

At What Women Want we offer a host of services ranging from Graphic Design, Digital and Print marketing, Social Media marketing and management, TV Production via our TV Show “What Women Want” and Photography and Videography, all offered at super affordable rates.

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As a young proactive, detail-orientated and self-motivated female entrepreneur my aim is to assist businesses with growing via digital platforms and growing their women empowerment sector by hosting annual events, networking sessions, development and strategy programs to assist ladies in achieving their goals and dreams.

As dedicated hands-on team player possessing strong interpersonal expertise I build positive, sustainable relationships with internal and external stakeholders and communicate confidently and engagingly at all levels. I can add immense value to any organisation taking full entrepreneurial ownership in growing the brand via all sorts of marketing and taking the women of the organisation to newer levels.

What Women Want airs Fridays at 17:30 on Zee One and almost 24 hours later on Saturday at 12:00 on Zee World.

Fatmagul Finds Its Place On eVOD

Fatmagul aired in 2018 on the now defunct eBella channel owned by eMedia Investments on the Openview and DStv platform. The series followed the story of a young woman from a coastal town who seeks revenge on a group of men who violated her while under the influence of drugs.

Fatmagul was one of the first Turkish shows to air on eMedia's stable and since its success brought shows like The Girl Named Feriha, Matter Of Respect and Black Money Love. These were one of the first few shows to be dubbed in English.

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We knew Fatmagul was a success but by the looks of Kuiertyd you can tell that these series pulled more viewers than most of the content found on eExtra and at the time most of their content were just rebroadcast from the DStv platform.

Aside from viewership, the other reason could have been accessibility as there's not a lot of alternatives to these shows aside from kykNET and Timeless Dizi Channel which followed after Kuiertyd.

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Fatmagul made history as it's the first Turkish series to be added in the Afrikaans section of eMedia's eVOD streaming service hinting at reruns on ePlesier and by the looks of it more repeats of these shows as it's eExtra's Anaconda but timeless from my perspective.

It's presence on eVOD raises a lot of questions, Anaconda was gone from e.tv for nearly a decade after the excessive load on repeats and came back with its sequel. Is it possible that Fatmagul alongside several shows will take a break only to return in Afrikaans?

Honestly, it's under the Afrikaans section on eVOD despite being aired in English but if TLC can air weddings and MTV focus on Teen Moms. Why stop Fatmagul from airing in that slot if viewers who watch the show won't mind viewing them without that flaw.

SpongeBob Learns How To Speaks Zulu With Nicktoons

Nickelodeon is about to make history again as they become the first international brand for children in South Africa as SpongeBob SquarePants has just learnt another language, Zulu.

SpongeBob SquarePants follows the adventures of a yellow sea sponge of the same name who enjoys being a cook at Krusty Krab, lives in the Pacific Ocean. He embarks on various adventures with his friends at Bikini Bottom.

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Since its inception in 1999, the series has become a top ranked show for children accumulating every Nickelodeon KCA it could grab its hands on. It also accumulated several video games, feature films and shortly after creator Stephen Hillenberg's passing spinoffs.

You can kind of get why SpongeBob would be their first pick. Despite being the eldest in their stable, it has managed to live longer and remain relevant than most shows on the channel that live on through memes used on The Rise And Fall Of Nickelodeon (TRAFON)

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Aside from SpongeBob, Paramount also supplies an Ethiopian dubbed Nick Jr. alongside a Portuguese dubbed Nickelodeon channel for viewers in some parts of Africa with its focus within South Africa continuously expanding following the launch of NickMusic last year.

Nicktoons will telecast the first Zulu episode to SpongeBob SquarePants from the 14th of July at 17:30.

Development Hell: The Pending The Third Season To Star Life's The Evil Eye

The Evil Eye was the first and one of the few attempts Africa got to supernatural on Star Life alongside A Magical Love Story which came amidst a pandemic with the second season was also filmed in such a climate.

Since its abrupt end, some viewers can't stop boasting about the show that it got to a point where they advertised fake repeats and even listed Bengali adaptation Nojor (pictured above) as The Evil Eye season 3.

Ever since A Magical Love Story ended, there hasn't been a site of venomous snake or anything supernatural on Star Life even on Zee World as regional stations are the closest to viewing them dubbed while others are distributed in their original language with subtitles.

 

Amidst the phasing out of these shows sources state that Star Life picked up Bold And Beautiful and The Evil Doom which were scheduled for a late 2021 to mid 2022 release which never came to pass.

Joining that trio was the fake third season of The Evil Eye which is now considered a new season but supposedly on a new Indian entertainment channel that was set to replace Star Life.

This supposed channel was said to focus on Bengali which is similar to Hindi in an attempt to "differentiate" the offering from StarPlus but hey some of the content from Bengali are remakes to the Hindi content and vice versa.

 

The thing about this was Disney Star the owners of these brands already operated a Bengali channel Star Jalsha which is niche I mean every market has their niche. In South Africa, it is Tsonga, Sepedi and Siswati as Zulu, Afrikaans and Ndebele dominate the region.

The question would have to be why trade one group for another if the plan was to replace wouldn't it be better to source areas like Telegu, Tamil and Malayalam as they also reside in the Bollywood community under the Disney Star.

Zee TV had every chance to launch such a channel but instead opted for reruns channel, Zee One.

10PM Will Never Be The Same Again As The Professionals Returns To e.tv

It's been 3 months since e.tv's viewers got much international shows from the channel as the brand boosts their local portfolio with the likes of The Black Door and Isono leaving 10pm as the only source for such content but as seen in the past months the quality has dropped.

I mean they've got decent programs in that slot at the moment L.A's Finest and The Blacklist but no one seems to care that much about them not even the channel as the content airs back to back and you're used to seeing fold one sheet over another but that's not the case.

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Questions have risen over the fate of 10pm slot as there hasn't much variety in a while and after 6 months we finally got some confirmation from the channel.

Apparently, the 2020 action series Professionals which was the last international series at 8:30pm in April before local dramas took over will replace L.A's Finest from 11 July.

Through a briefing, eMedia had mentioned that they've scrapped shows like S.W.A.T., New Amsterdam and Seal Team. Is it possible that some of this content will just resurface on a limited basis or could the channel be seeking more short form series for the 10pm timeslot.