Insidus: Entertainment Inside Us

SABC 2 Reduces Muvhango And 7de Laan To 3 Days A Week

The channel has revealed plans to add to more local content to bolster their line-up…but it means trimming both 7de Laan and Muvhango to three days a week.

From 5 April 2021, 7de Laan will air Monday to Wednesday at 18:00, with its Thursday and Friday timeslot taken up by new telenovela Die Sentrum.

From August, Muvhango will air Monday to Wednesday at 21:00, with its Thursday and Friday timeslot filled by season 2 of drama series Giyani.

Merlin Naicker (Group Executive: Television) says that “the acquisition of this new local production is part of our long-term plan to invest in quality local content. Serving a diverse South African audience, it is imperative that we come with innovative and exciting content, which will not only draw the viewership, but bring in the revenue required to keep the public service broadcaster financially sustainable”.

February 2021 On Disney Junior Africa | New & Returning Seasons | Specials

PUPPY DOG PALS

Season premiere episodes
Those playful pups Bingo and Rolly bounce back onto Disney Junior this month, as season three of their adventures launches with premiere episodes of Puppy Dog Pals on weekdays from Monday 8th to Friday 19th February at 12:00.

Bingo and Rolly embark on daring and fun-filled missions at the brand new Puppy Playcare, a daycare for dogs and all kinds of pets. With their neighbour Keia, and new pal Lollie, the pups explore new places, make even more friends and prove they will do anything, be it silly or brave to help their humans... and each other!

In the first premiere episode, Welcome to Puppy Playcare (Monday 8th February at 12:00), when Bob's finishing touch for Puppy Playcare breaks, Bingo and Rolly make it their mission to find a replacement before Playcare opens!

Premiere episodes of season three of Puppy Dog Pals air on weekdays from Monday 8th to Friday 19th February at 12:00, on Disney Junior.

BLUEY

Season premiere episodes
Adorable Blue Heeler puppy Bluey also returns to Disney Junior this month, for a second season of canine capers. Premiere episodes air on weekdays from Monday 22nd February at 07:30.

Bluey is back with her sister, Bingo, turning everyday life into endless fun! When Bluey is invited to a birthday party, Bingo uses her featherwand to make getting out of the house difficult. And on Dad's day to drop the girls off at school, you can bet the Blue Heeler pups won't make it easy for him. With her boundless imagination and her sister at her side, Bluey continues to call the shots when it comes to playtime - and pretty much everything else!

In the first of this month’s episodes, Hammerbarn (Monday 22nd February at 07:30) Chilli and Bandit are keen to get a new pizza oven like their neighbours’ so they all go on a trip to Hammerbarn.
Premiere episodes of Bluey season two air on weekdays from Monday 22nd February at 07:30, on Disney Junior.

FANCY NANCY CLANCY

Premiere episodes
Fancy Nancy Clancy flounces back on to Disney Junior this month, with premiere episodes featuring her exploits as she continues to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. All it takes is a fantastique attitude to transform the plain into the exquisite! Premiere episodes of Fancy Nancy Clancy air on weekdays from 22nd February at 09:00.

In this month’s first premiere episode, Nancy Takes the Case (Monday 22nd February at 10:00) Nancy must solve a crime where the suspects are all her best friends!

Premiere episodes of Fancy Nancy Clancy air on weekdays from 22nd February at 10:00.

MICKEY MOUSE MIXED-UP ADVENTURES
Premiere episodes
Mickey Mouse and his mates are back this month, as further premiere episodes of Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures air at weekends from Saturday 27th February at 09:00.

Get mixed-up with Mickey and his pals in his new house in Hot Dog Hills! Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, Pluto and Chip 'n Dale have surprises in store. In the episode entitled Mickey’s Roommate (Saturday 27th February at 09:00) when Pete needs a place to crash, Mickey lets him stay with him. But Pete is the worst roommate ever!

Premiere episodes of Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures air at weekends from Saturday 27th February at 09:00, on Disney Junior.

Disney Junior is available on DStv

February 2021 On Disney Channel Africa | Amphibia S2 | DCOM

AMPHIBIA SEASON 2
Entertaining animated series Amphibia returns to Disney Channel this month, as season two premieres on weekdays from Monday 1st February at 15:15.

Amphibia chronicles the comedic adventures of 13-year-old Anne Boonchuy, who is magically transported to the world of Amphibia, a wild marshland full of talking frog-people called Plantars. In this second season Anne and the Plantars decide to leave the cosy confines of Wartwood for the distant city of Newtopia, to unlock the mysteries of the music box. On the way they’ll visit exotic new locations, uncover hidden secrets, and experience unexpected reunions as they continue to search for a way to get Anne home. In this month’s first premiere episodes, Handy Anne/Fort in the Road (Monday 1st February at 15:15) the Plantars are ready to hit the road when Anne decides to secure the farm. On the road Sprig longs for adventure but Hop Pop’s road rules threaten to spoil his fun.

Premiere episodes of Amphibia season two air from Monday 1st February at 15:15.

DISNEY CHANNEL FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIES

Disney Channel’s Friday treat for film fans continues throughout February with some great entertainment to celebrate the start of each weekend. There’s a marvellous movie every Friday at 17:00, repeated on Saturday at 10:40.

The fun starts with Princess Protection Program on Friday 5th February, followed by Camp Rock (Friday 12th February), Let It Shine (Friday 19th February), and Zapped (Friday 26th February), all at 17:00.

In Princess Protection Program on (Friday 5th February at 17:00) Carter is a small-town girl and couldn't be more different from Rosalinda, a South American princess from the country of Costa Luna. The girls are thrown together after Carter's father, an agent in the covert Princess Protection Program, rescues Rosalinda from a military takeover. It's now up to the two to devise a plan to take down Costa Luna's dictator and return Rosalinda to her rule.

Viewers can see these great Disney movies on Fridays throughout February 2021 at 17:00, repeated on the following Saturday at 10:40, on Disney Channel.

Disney Channel is available on DStv

TNT Africa Muscles Up With Exciting Channel Refresh For 2021

As of 1 February, TNT Africa, home of the best contemporary and Hollywood blockbusters, will be revealing its 2021 channel refresh packed with an exciting slate of tailor-made shows and content that will keep African audiences glued to their screens. With this move, the channel aims to emphasise its commitment to delivering relevant and exciting programming to African fans!

As part of the refresh, TNT Africa will debut AEW DYNAMITE, the weekly flagship show from All Elite Wresting, the new professional wrestling league that is taking the world by storm. The launch kicks off on Friday, 5 February, at 13h20 (CAT) with the first five episodes of the new season. Then, every Friday night, during prime time at 20h00 (CAT), the channel will premiere the recent high-octane matches, two days after the US premiere, and after that repeated twice throughout the week. AEW offers an alternative to mainstream wrestling with a roster of world-class talent offering TNT Africa viewers a spectacular weekly wrestling programme jam-packed with action and the unexpected.

TNT Africa’s exciting content line up and brand-new, refreshed look are a perfect fit for the channel’s move towards being more powerful and modern. This is aligned with the global look of the channel - that people from all over the globe can recognise.

TNT Africa will continue to launch their exclusive, brand-new, TNT Original Movies on the channel on the first Thursday of every month. These include a wide range of mainstream entertainment genres, featuring renowned, and rising international stars! The month of February will kick off with, Straight Up, a romantic movie from writer, director and star James Sweeney.

As part of the fresh, entertainment-filled offering, TNT has an exciting line-up of the very best action-driven, pulse-raising slate, mixed with romantic gems and hilarious comedies including titles like Splash and the Best Man Holiday to experience the accidental side of love on Valentine’s Day; great channel premiers such as Crank High Voltage and Point Break in February’s Adrenaline Rush stunt; Malcolm X and Just Cause will help us fight for our rights on Human Rights Day; and in April you can celebrate the Oscars with Academy Award-winning titles such as E.T and Gladiator.

“TNT is excited to usher in a new era in entertainment that is attuned to our audience needs and appetite. Despite how far we’ve come, we remain steadfastly dedicated to giving our African audience premium content, and the launch of AEW DYNAMITE and the channel refresh bear testament of this,” says Guillermo Farré, Head of the WarnerMedia General Entertainment channels across France, Iberia and Africa.

Update: Catch repeats of weekly matches Sunday at 10am CAT and Wednesday at 3pm CAT

What To Expect On Media24's New Pan-African Lifestyle Channel For DStv (UPDATED)

In November 2020, MultiChoice unveiled a new lifestyle channel for DStv customers called Honey. The channel is owned by Media24 the brains behind the Afrikaans lifestyle channel, VIA.

Honey is set to launch February 12 for DStv Compact, Compact+ and Premium customers.

It looks like the channel with only start with 5 programs however there's more content in the pipeline from various companies including Zambia's Media 365 Productions, South Africa's Media Club Productions and Nigeria's Rucksack Productionz.

The following shows will be available on the channel at launch:

African Farming (South Africa)
Genre: Lifestyle
A show that highlights successful black farmers in South Africa, and educates new entrants to agriculture.

Hoot, Cook, Go (Nigeria)
Genre: Cooking
Three teams have an hour to prepare a meal that shows who they are, When they hear the hooter, it's time to go off the next setting. A ton of exploration of Africa's diverse food culture and relationships.

Love Swap Africa (Nigeria)
Genre: Romance
Two couples who don't know each other meet up: While making a healthy meal, they swap partners for an intimate view of each other's relationships. The kitchen gets hot - and we aren't talking about the oven.

Pastor's Wives
Genre: Reality
We meet the women who keep it together in well-known religious households. This reality show reveals all the opulence, difficulties and drama that you are wondering about.

Yes! Ndio! Beeni!: Kenya
Genre: Reality
A top team of event planners help a man propose to the love of his life.

Other programs which have yet to be confirmed, please note this is note the complete list:

MEDIA CLUB PRODUCTIONS
Untitled wedding show
The show will uncover the story behind the love story through the eyes of the couple as well as their family and friends.

MEDIA 365 PRODUCTIONS (ZAMBIA)
The Perfect Plate (title is subjected to change)
Mother and Daughter-In-Law have to prepare a meal for man of the household.

Ehe! It's A Match: Zambia

One person gets a chance to introduce their two single friends to each other. While the host plays chef and Cupid.

Matchmaking (title is subjected to change)
In this one, random people go on a blind date to find their perfect match.

Untitled home show
In this show, people will be giving your house or flat a makeover.

Untitled food program
Make a meal in 1 hour and also judge your contestants food.

Untitled wedding show
In this show, someone is trying to purpose marriage on someone else.

Husband Vs. Father (title is subjected to change)
Men put their cooking skills to use.

Email regarding content: honey@mediaclubproductions.co.za (South Africa), production@media365.co.zm (Zambia), info@rucksackproductionz.com (Nigeria), info@nusu-nusu.com (Kenya) and info@burntonion.co.za (South Africa)

Predictions: The Rest Of 2021 Through Early 2022 On Telemundo Africa With A Dash Of EVA

During the festive season, Telemundo hit the rewind button leaving El Final Del Paraiso (The End Of Paradise) to do all the labour kind of like what EVA is doing Bold And The Beautiful.

Next month, Telemundo will be introducing a new Colombian telenovela, Laws Of The Heart/La Ley Del Corazon (that's sure to keep viewers busy for about 8 months) alongside the second season of Close Enemies.

In March, Betty In New York comes to a close and it's rumored that a new telenovela 100 Días Para Enamorarnos (starring David Chocarro and Erick Elías) replaces the show from 22nd of that month from 8pm CAT/7pm WAT/9pm EAT.

New and returning telenovela for 2021/2 include Anonima (Anonymous), La Suerte De Loli (The Luck Of Loli/Loli's Luck), Buscando A Frida (Looking For Frida), Operación Pacífico 2 (Operation Pacific 2), Falsa Identidad 2 (False Identity S2), Café Con Aroma De Mujer (Coffee With A Woman's Fragrance), El Chema and La Reina Del Sur 2 (Queen Of The South 2). The brand will obviously unveil more titles later in the year.

Well-known repeats for 2021/2 include Marido En Alquier (Husband For Hire), Tierra De Reyes (A Passion For Revenge), Un Poquito Tuyo (Almost Yours), La Doña (Iron Rose), Reina De Corazones (Queen Of Hearts), Vuelve Temprano (The Son I Never Knew), La Querida Del Centauro (Prisoners Of Love) and Pasion Prohibida (Forbidden Passion). Yep, a hundred more familiar titles within two years.

Now it's runner-up EVA, has been on life support since last year. Their media page went from promoting repeats to hyping about their only new show on there which is Bold from CBS. They even went as far as deleting comments regarding repeats from the little viewers they have left.

Since it's launch, EVA has been overshadowed from the likes of Telemundo even when the repeats were piling up on that channel a lot of viewers didn't see the brand as tough competition of course EVA+ has been getting recognition perhaps due to accessibility.

If this channel shuts down, it wouldn't be a complete loss as fans of Spanish telenovelas can tune into Telemundo and TLNovelas.

Now the problem would be that viewers won't get the exact content. EVA has got Caracol Television (Colombia), TV Azteca (Mexico) and Telefe (Argentina) while the stars there will be incorporated onto Mexico's TLNovelas America's Telemundo.

Since 2017, Telemundo has supplied content from those other regions and it's grown over the years. What sets it back is those shows have to share a timeslot with their own programming.

TLNovelas is kind of a mystery when it comes to the basis of foreign programming for now I'd expect them to continue airing their own content.

In short, for more EVA or something similar to EVA tune into Telemundo (DStv and GOtv) and TLNovelas (DStv and StarTimes).

e.tv Acquired Broadcasting Rights To Winx Club Season 8

The show has been on hiatus for 4 years. During that time they managed to spawned a second animated series titled World Of Winx with its first live-action series titled Fate: The Winx Saga currently in development all of which are Netflix exclusives.

During that time, Nickelodeon's Nicktoons and e.tv's eToonz broadcasted reruns of the last 3 seasons. As of 2020, only eToonz has been airing reruns of the show.

Now e.tv will be airing the eight season of Winx Club which seems strange as SABC 1 broadcasted the first four seasons while e.tv shoved the last 3 seasons at the time on eToonz but when I did further research it turned out that this season is catered for preschoolers so it's pretty much a hit miss for the adolescence.

eToonz, is a children's channel catered for kids aged 2-12 and operated by eMedia Investments. Ever since e.tv discontinued their live-action series for Craze back in 2019 the lineup changed constantly. It went from more reruns and leftovers (preschoolers and adolescents) to just reruns and less leftovers (preschoolers) to just reruns.

This change could have something to do with the pandemic which led to a shut down of several channels and change in viewing experience. Perhaps e.tv kids block Craze pulls more viewers than eToonz. After its the least talked about, advertised and watched channel from eMedia Investments portfolio. On the bright side, e.tv can't repeat most of the shows there so eToonz is your go to amusement park for that.

On the first episode of Winx Club season 8 titled Night Of The Stars'. The Winx travel through all the galaxies of the Magical Universe until they arrive in Lumenia, the most brilliant of all stars. A great mystery involving an old acquaintance of the Winx is endangering the brightness of all the stars. A new magic will help the Winx figure out who's behind it.

Catch Winx Club every Tuesday at 15:30 from February 2nd

Rumored: e.tv and Timeless Dizi Channel Acquired Broadcasting Rights To Kuzgun

Its been speculated that both e.tv and Timeless Dizi Channel (English) have acquired broadcasting rights to a romance and action drama series, Kuzgun from Star TV (not the Indian one).

The series could have aired on Timeless Dizi Channel (Turkish) which is currently available on StarTimes (Starsat). Yes, both StarTimes and MultiChoice have seperate versions of the channel except it looks like the one on StarTimes is often ghosted.

Kuzgun, follows the titular character's family life when it changes completely as a result of the caliper held against his father, who is a police. Kuzgun will fall into a bondage, pain, anger, and struggle that will last 20 years. Baris Arduç, Burcu Biricik and Hatice Aslan take up the lead roles.

The series ran for 2 seasons during the course of 2019. It managed to achieve a rating of 7.7/10 on IDMB and considered favourable amongst females.

Both e.tv and TDC offer a selection of telenovelas. If you want to view them in English get DStv, if you want to view them in the original language with English subtitles get StarTimes (Starsat) and if you want to watch it freely in Afrikaans get Openview.

Read Also:
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