SABC3 will be implenting two dramatic changes to the channel's early evening soapie line-up in October.
The first of these is a change to the daily broadcast time of
Isidingo. The show, which currently airs Mondays to Fridays at 18h30, will change time by half-an-hour and will be on at 18h00 instead.
According to the channel's acting head Ed Worster, the reason for the change is the positive response from audiences during the Cricket World Cup.
Isidingo was on at 19h30 during the tournament and was met with positive feedback from viewers, many of whom asked for the show to stay in the 19h30 timeslot.
The most likely reason for this is that the 18h30 timeslot is packed with competing South African soapies across channels:
Rhythm City on e.tv,
7de Laan on SABC2 and
Binneland on kykNET and M-Net Terrestrial.
This month SABC3 introduced a 19h30 to 20h30 timelsot of primetime hour-long shows in the
new schedule line-up so instead of changing the line-up again to introduce Isidingo at 19h30, it will be move to 18h00 instead.
It will be followed by
The Bold and the Beautiful at 18h30, to create a daily hour-long soapie block.
As resported on TVSA, Bold moves from SABC1 in October and will be replaced with new local properties in it's current 18h00 timeslot.
Another change that will be introduced with the move of Bold: the broadcast of episodes will be much closer to their original air date in the US. The episodes we currently see are a year behind the US, this will change so that the episodes we see are aired
How will it happen? The show has found a way of editing the storylines and action in such a way that we'll jump ahead without losing the plot-lines and key developments.
From the sounds of it this won't be noticeble to viewers i.e. a wedding that takes three weeks to unfold and happen might happen in a week instead.
Or one wedding between Brooke and Ridge will get the chop and we won't notice because they'll get married again soon anyway, ha!
There's no news yet on how close we'll be to the broadcast but from the sounds of it we might be only a few days apart. There are also more B&B cast visits in the pipeline.
Three of the series' actors visited South Africa in February this year and word is, more will follow. We'll keep you posted.
What's your take on the changes?