26-year old Capetonian waiter Denzil Thompson has been ditched from the SABC1 reality show
Class Act. He was announced as a
Top 10 finalist on Saturday night's episode (27 March) and is now no longer part of it.
He's been replaced with Durban-based theatre actor Lungelo Gwala:
The reason: after Denzil was selected it was discovered that he has an exclusivity contract with a competing brand to Amstel - the sponsor of Class Act and the advert the winner will appear in.
Denzil's existing contract stipulates that he could only appear in the competing brand's adverts and the contract runs across the same time as the show. If he stayed on the show, he would be breaching it.
This was one of the requirements for the show, which happens in the acting industry too: an actor can't have an exclusivity contract with a similar brand while doing an ad for another.
The result: Denzil has returned home to drink other beer and Lungelo is now in Jozi preparing for this Saturday's show. Following the news about Denzil, the three judges and director
Tim Greene relooked at the short list and cast him.
The new Top 10: