Pay television broadcaster M-Net has announced that it is has secured the rights to “Terra Nova”, an incredible international television series from Fox Broadcasting Company.

The company has reasserted its lead in the industry by bringing the series to South Africa. The show has exceptionally high scores oversees, which is understandable considering that heavyweight producer Steven Spielberg is behind the programme.

It also features a great cast and cost, on average, $4 million an episode. The series, which was filmed along Australia’s Gold Coast, will arrive on South African screens early next year.

Jason O’Mara from “Band of Brothers” was the first actor cast in the show, and South Africans will also know him from “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Men in Trees” and “The Closer”.

M-Net’s head of international acquisitions Tracey Gilchrist said that the channel was “thrilled” to secure the rights for the series.

SA..

Cape Town – Letshego Moshoeu and Hykie Berg are the final two survivors in the current season of Survivor South Africa.

After winning the final immunity challenge by hanging on a wooden pole for two hours and 57 minutes, Moshoeu, the only “pleb” left in the game, secured her place in the final.

Moshoeu then had to decide whether she would take actor Hykie Berg or actress Bonnie Henna with her to the Survivor South Africa: Maldives finale.

The 26-year-old biokineticist chose to Hykie Berg to accompany her to the finale, making Bonnie Henna the 10th member of the jury.

Berg looked at Moshoeu with surprise when host Nico Panagio read out the result.

Earlier in Thursday’s episode, musician MXO was the 14th person voted off the island and he became the ninth member of the jury.

Letshego and Hykie will now proceed on a countrywide tour to greet fans before attending the live finale which takes place in Johannesburg on Thursday May 26.

Viewers have an opportunity to influence the outcome of the game by voting for their favourite. Viewers can vote by smsing the name of their chosen contestant – Hykie or Letshego – to 37177. The viewers’ vote will count as the 11th vote of the jury.

The 90-minute finale will air live on M-Net on May 26 at 19:30.

Lead actors from Cuando seas mia

Nigerian Soap operas/drama productions, rocked our TV screens back in the days (especially in the 80’s), which transcended into the 90’s from “Cock Crow at Dawn, Village Headmaster, Mirror in the Sun, Behind the Clouds, Ripples, Mind Bending, to Supple Blues , Checkmate, Fortunes, amongst others. Foreign comedies as well dominantly from the USA and Britain gave Nigerians a worth while fun time viewing experience, such as “Jeffersons, Good Times, Sanford and Sons, Different Strokes, Mixed Blessings, Mind your language, Doctor in the House, Rising Dam, Some Mothers do have them, Rent A Ghost,” amongst others. Unfortunately, they stopped the broadcast of these programmes and Nigerians had to be content with the stream of   local productions that were flung in our faces.

However, “The Rich Also Cry” back in the late 80’s set the precedent for a plethora of Latin American telenovelas (dominantly from Mexico) and in some cases Venezuela, to flood our screens. It was the first Telenovela that ruled the Nigerian airwaves back in the days. Following the viewership hit recorded, “Secrets of the Sand”, “No One But You”, “Lady of the Rose”, “Maria de los Angeles”, took successive turns in entertaining Nigerians with the latin American flavoured stories. Unfortunately, somewhere along the 90’s, the broadcast of the Telenovelas came to an abrupt halt, closing the book of the Latin American epoch of thrilling, exciting, cliff hanger moments, and intricate plots. Nigerians especially those living in Lagos state (The Hub of the Entertainment Industry) had to make do with other foreign genres other than drama, broadcast straight into our living rooms especially from God’s own country.

However, the revival of telenovelas  on our screens returned with a big bang in 2005 with “Cuando Seas Mia(when you are mine)” with 238 episodes on TELEVISTA starring Paloma/Elena Olivares( Silvia Navarro), Diego Sanchez Serrano (Sergio Basanez), broadcast on Af?… Culled and complete reading at http://televistaonline.tv/

45-year-old former street sweeper James Bhemgee has won the SA’s Got Talent television contest, which secures him a prize of R250,000

A tenor, Bhemjee beat fellow Capetonian vocalist and policewoman, Madalene Abrahams (32) who came second, with The Limited Drum Corps coming third — making it a 1,2,3  for Cape Town.

And as Judge Shado Twala said “Cape Town’s Got Talent”.

Facebook fans dubbed Bhemjee “South Africa’s own Susan Boyle, only better”, from the very first audition months ago. (Boyle was the singing sensation who captured the world’s imagination when she won Britain’s Got Talent two years ago).

Bhemjee, who sang Gira Con Me by Josh Groban, was first “discovered” on the streets of Cape Town by a woman who overheard him singing whilst he was working as a street sweeper. Impressed, she paid for Bhemgee to have vocal lessons and until now he’s been performing with the group the Cape Flats Tenors.

Runner up, Constable Madalene Abrahams, sang her way into second place with a near perfect performance of Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You. By day a policewoman, the transformation into glamorous diva for the show left the audience speechless.

Third placed Limited Drum Corps had to borrow drums for their show-stopping performance.

The three judges had no say in the final – it was purely based on public votes.

But they did have a lot to say about Bhemjee’s win: “You are so humble but blessed with a stunning talent,” said Ian von Memerty.

“You are natural and proved there is no need to show off,” commented Randall Abrahams; while Shado Twala told him that he could “perform anywhere in the world”

Source; Sowetan

SOUTH Africa’s most popular TV music show has lost yet another presenter.

SABC1′s Live co-host and insert producer Phila Mazibuko appeared on the show for the last time on Friday.

T’bo Touch also left recently.

Sources close to the show say this comes after numerous complaints from SABC1 viewers that Mazibuko was not eloquent enough and lowered the standard of the show.

But Mazibuko denied this.

“I don’t know about that,” he said.

Station publicity manager Vukile Madlala said Mazibuko left the show because he was going to present the channel’s newest youth lifestyle show called Mzansi Insider. He said details of the show would be made public soon.

Madlala said: “Our audience should look forward to a series of exciting changes in the channel’s programme offering.

“In March we announced proposed changes on Live. we promised that further developments on the show would be communicated when they are confirmed.

“We started with the Live Talent Search, followed by the exiting T’bo Touch and the coming on board of Minenhle Dlamini. And now the announcement about Phila.

Our audience should look forward to a series of further exciting changes.”

THE exodus continues on Generations. The latest cast member who is leaving is Delisile Malinga, aka Sarah.

A source close to the show said that the producers were getting rid of Malinga because they were fed up with her attitude and mediocre acting skills.

“She was becoming more and more of a prima donna and came late on set. When the producers asked her about her attitude she became arrogant.

“This is strange because it’s not as if she has the most attractive of roles,” the source said.

Associate producer Pulane Boesak denied that Generations was fed up with her. But she did confirm that “she is going to disappear from the screen eventually”.

“Her character will go through ups and downs and she will eventually fade away. We are not firing her.”

When asked about her looming departure an angry Malinga said that nobody told her they were planning to axe her.

“I’m shocked! Where did you get that from?

“This is news to me. Nobody told me that they had problems with me. I do not know what to say,” said Malinga, who plays the role of a maid.

Malinga worked her way up from being a translator in the scriptwriting department of Generations
She later worked as a scriptwriter on SABC1′s Khumbul’ekhaya. She also appeared in Emzini Wezinsizwa and in a stage play with Duma Ndlovu, who then gave her some screen time on Muvhango.

She got her role as Sarah after a friend at Generations told her that they would need someone to play Ntombi’s nanny.

Before she could find out about the auditions the creative director called to ask her to audition.

GENERATIONS is losing heart-throb Siyabonga Twala, aka Paul Mashaba.

Twala, right, will be gone by December. And the soapie’s followers will be distraught since this comes hard on the heels of the departure of Connie Ferguson (Karabo Moroka).

Ferguson, an original cast member who has been on the show for 16 years, is leaving next month.

Twala joined the cast in 2007.

He is said to be leaving because he is not happy with the direction the writers are taking with his character.

Generations associate producer Pulane Boesak confirmed that Twala resigned but denied that he was unhappy about the plot.

She said Twala was moving to KwaZulu-Natal to pursue other business interests. This would make it impossible for them to continue working together.

“He approached the producers and told them that he wanted to move to KwaZulu-Natal. He will always be part of the Generations family and the doors will always be open for him if he wants to come back.”

Boesak said Paul Mashaba would not be killed off.

Born and raised in Umlazi township in Durban, Twala began stage acting in 1989. In 1996, he made his screen debut in made-for-TV movie Born Free: A New Adventure. He also acted as Mfaniseni in SABC1′s Emzini Wezintsizwa, a popular comedy about life in hostels.

But it wasn’t until 2005 that he landed the leading role of newspaper publisher Vusi Zwane on e.tv’s Scandal! that his star shone. The following year he rocked the theatre with his role inThe Suitcase.

In October 2007 he won the Golden Horn for Best Actor in a TV Soapie at the second annual South African Film and Television Academy Awards (Saftas) for his role in Scandal!

Twala is yet to comment on where he stands

Wyclef

Wyclef Jean’s presidential ambition was dashed by the Haitian electoral council, which ruled yesterday that the hip-hop star who formally registered to run earlier this month does not possess the required 5 year residency requirement.

The 40-year-old singer, who waited for news of the decision at a hotel in Port-au-Prince, has a Haitian passport but had lived in the US for more than 30 years.

Wyclef’s candidacy is among the 15 reject by the electoral council that accepted 15 others.

The singer, who accepted the council’s decision, but says he does not agree with it, issued a statement urging his supporters to follow his lead in accepting it.

“We must all honour the memories of those we have lost – whether in the earthquake, or at any time – by responding peacefully and responsibly to this disappointment,” he said.

“I want to assure my countrymen that I will continue to work for Haiti’s renewal. Although the board has determined that I am not a resident of Haiti, home is where the heart is – and my heart has and will always be in Haiti.”

The country is still recovering from January’s earthquake, which killed an estimated 230,000 people and left more than one million homeless.

The former Fugees frontman had met with the Haitian President Rene Preval on Thursday, on the heels of allegations that he had received death threats.

Wyclef had hinged his acceptance on his appointment as a roving ambassador for Haiti in 2007, which he believed exempted him from the residency requirement.

Since officially announcing his intentions Wyclef’s bid has been criticised by his ex-Fugees bandmate Pras Michel.

He said: “I want to make it unequivocally clear I love Wyclef to def [sic] but he’s not [qualified] to be the leader of the new Haiti.

“Wyclef’s patriotism for Haiti is unwavering but still isn’t suited to prez [sic] of new Haiti!”

Haiti’s presidential elections are due to take place on 28 November.

Meryl.

Namibia’s Meryl has been having a blast, if I say so myself which might be alright and dokey as there aren’t enough women for all eight men in the Big Brother Africa all star House.  24-year-old Meryl from Namibia is jumping from one man to another.

Just three days in the house, Meryl has bonded with Nigeria’s Uti, 27, Munya, 24, from Zimbabwe, and Ghana’s 35-year-old Sammy B.

There are only six women in this season’s Big Brother Africa All Stars reality show.

In the previous four seasons, Biggie had an equal number of men and women.

At 1am, Meryl cried her eyes out while resting her head on Uti’s lap. Uti had his arms wrapped around her.

She has already declared she’s got the hots for Uti, Munya and Hannington, 24, from Uganda. Malawi’s Code, 34, took up his guitar and started serenading his house-mates, who sang and danced.

Tatiana looked deep into Code’s eyes as he played the guitar and maybe, just maybe, Code has stolen her heart with his music.

Just before 10am yesterday, Meryl treated Sammy B to a free lap dance.

Wearing a yellow vest and a blue and black kanga, she shook her booty in Sammy B’s face. Blindfolded, he could not help but smile as he kissed and caressed her booty. He groaned in excitement and had a smile on his face long after the dance had ended.

Two hours later, Meryl’s claws were on Munya, giving him a back massage before taking a shower with him. She gently rubbed body lotion on his back. Munya was in seventh heaven.

Before Meryl happened, Munya was in the arms of Angolan Tatiana, 29, sharing quality time as they got all sweaty while exercising.

All the house mates are up for eviction on Sunday.

Dora Akunyili

Nigeria’s Minister of information recently accused former CBN governor of assault and sending thugs after her at Dora Akunyili’s Sister’s burial in Anambra. Read the statement below:

I came down to my village to join my family, relations and well wishers to pay my last respect to my late sister Gloria but unknown to me, my family and invited guests, a large number of thugs loyal to Prof. Charles Soludo were carefully organized to disrupt my participation in my sister’s burial ceremony. I have never seen the number of thugs I saw on Friday in any event. The thugs were also instructed to embarrass my invited guests. As you may be aware, Prof. Charles Soludo is marrying my late elder sister’s daughter Nonye. So we are in-laws, but since he lost the last gubernatorial election in Anambra State, Prof. Soludo has singled me out as the source of his failure to win the election, and he convinced my sister to believe that I was the cause of his failure. All efforts by people to make him understand that I alone cannot make him Governor have failed. So he brought that anger, grudge and frustration to the burial of his mother in-law who is also my elder sister. All arrangements made by me and my other siblings to receive guests at Isuofia, where my late sister was residing (which is also Soludo’s village) were vandalized by Soludo’s hired thugs. They followed this up with text messages of blackmail to my guests, friends and well wishers. When the environment in Isuofia became too insecure, tense and hostile, I quietly relocated to my father’s compound at Nanka which is few kilometres away just to avoid trouble. But Soludo’s thugs also trailed us to my own village Nanka to commence trouble but the security agents quietly dismissed them.

I want to remark that my late sister Gloria was a very peaceful, Godly and well brought up woman. While she was alive, I enjoyed her love and friendship as a sister no matter what Soludo and his hired thugs think. Because of this, even in death, I will do nothing to dishonour her because what Soludo and his thugs has done is to dishonour her but God has taken control. I therefore wish to thank all my invited guest for their understanding and the church for their prayers and co-operation.