Let's Fix It is a South African reality television series produced (since Season 4) by Kaelo Media in which the host is challenged to fix people's problems.
The show has assisted in helping a diverse group of people with computers, wheelchairs, food, house-repairs, medical assistance and more.
Let's Fix It premiered on e.tv on Tuesday 29 March 2005, at 20h30. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 4 premiered on e.tv on Tuesday 29 July 2008, at 20h30. There are 26 half-hour episodes in the fourth season.
Synopsis
The Let's Fix It team follows the host (Soli Philander in Season 1, Samm Marshall in Seasons 2-3, Joel Zuma since Season 4) around as he identifies people with problems and sets about finding a solution. It is aimed at the improvement and betterment of an individual's life.
Each project presents the host with the challenge of formulating a plan, raising some of the sponsorships, drawing together the resources andmaking the project come to life.
This is done with a strict deadline in place as the host competes against the clock. The team usually has about three days to complete any given "fix", although the size of the fix determines how much time is given to it.
The time limit aspect, combined with the often daunting obstacles to performing the tasks, set the stage for a dramatic countdown to the finish, where the project must be finished and the benefit presented to the needy person.
Seasons
[Each season consists of 26 episodes, aired on Tuesdays at 20h30]
Season 1
Premiere: 29 March 2005 | Finale: 4 October 2005 | Host: Soli Philander
Season 2
Premiere: 6 June 2006 | Finale: 19 December 2006 | Host: Samm Marshall
Season 3
Premiere: 3 July 2007 | Finale: 5 February 2008 | Host: Samm Marshall
Season 4
Premiere: 29 July 2008 | Finale: 20 January 2009 | Host: Joel Zuma
Controversy
Philander left the show acrimoniously in December 2005 after a dispute with e.tv over what he called "corporate scheming" and "unethical behaviour" from the channel, after they introduced a major retail chain as sponsor of the show.
Philander claimed it turned the show into an infomercial and said he wasn't prepared to compromise his integrity by continuing as host of the show.
"We suddenly had to give food gift vouchers worth R500 from a certain chain store group to 20 destitute families in Ocean View, whereas in previous episodes the programme was able to do much better and bigger things for needy people," Philander told Afrikaans daily Die Burger, as reported in the Monday 5 December, 2005 edition of the newspaper.
"The purpose of Let's Fix It was to make people's lives easier. Now the programme is simply making e.tv and the sponsoring company look good while giving as little as possible in exchange for some shameless marketing.
"This is corporate scheming and not ethical behaviour, in my view.
"The programme is now a blatant infomercial. After the Ocean View episode I felt quite repulsed. I went home and sat and wept. I like to keep my record clean. Everywhere I go in the country people associate me with the programme, but what has happened is just not right.
"I phoned e.tv and told them that if the sponsorship stays, they should go ahead and get someone else - I can't work like this.
"We found most of the big sponsors and helpers ourselves. e.tv was hardly ever on set to help or to talk about the programme, but suddenly they signed this agreement which totally restricts our ability to help people who are really battling.
"I'm not going to look people in the eye with a guilty conscience knowing that we could actually have done more for them. It breaks my heart that e.tv has taken a fantastic programme and changed it just so that a sponsor can look good.
"I feel repulsed and refuse to associate myself with it. I'd like to give Bronwyn Keene-Young (the e.tv channel chief) R500 and see what a lovely Christmas she has with it."
The channel responded to Philander's public onslaught by saying the show was dependent on sponsorship for its continued survival.