SABC2 has acquired the rights to Mo'Nique's late night talker The Mo'Nique Show, which airs on
BET in the US and on TopTV.
Hosted by comedienne and actress Mo'Nique, the show was originally scheduled to premiere on SABC2 this month but was put on hold because of the schedules being uprooted by the Cricket World Cup.
It now starts on Saturday 2 April at 21h00, replacing the repeats of
Late Night With Kgomotso.
The series features Mo'Nique chatting to celebrity guests with headline musical performances in between. It first premiered on BET in early October 2009 and proved to be a ratings success for the channel - it got renewed for a second season which started in October last year.
On BET (both in the US and on TopTV) it airs Mondays to Fridays
but on SABC2 it'll be airing weekly. Which doesn't make sense at
all.
Yet
again it's going to convey the sense that we're behind-the-times and out of touch while watching. Left behind, forgotten, the last lonely passenger to get a ticket on the bus. Needing to be satisfied with what we get because "at least we're getting it" - when we're
not.
As you know, this feeling happens with international talk shows all the time. They chat about an upcoming event on the show and by the time we see it, it's over and old news. Even when a show isn't event specific, the guests themselves aren't necessarily current anymore.
It happens even when a show airs a month or two after it's first US or UK broadcast date. Things move so quickly when it comes to interest and relevancy that news and views and guests become Yesterday almost the moment they air.
Having the show on weekly, instead of daily will accentuate this feeling to the extreme - the season's going to take
centuries to unfold instead of days.