Marketing & Media News South Africa

Putting the (e)ntertainment back in e.tv

e.tv will be making significant programming changes intended to strengthen its entertainment line-up in prime time during the month of June - and gone is its hour long current affairs programming that set it apart from its competitors.

The half-hour current affairs block which is presently broadcast at 7.30pm, Monday to Thursday, will give way to an entertainment line-up which starts immediately after the news.

Channel director Bronwyn Keene-Young says: "As of 6 June 2005, entertainment on e.tv will start at 7.30pm, directly after the news. For the past few years, e.tv has provided a daily strip of current affairs programmes at 7.30pm each night. However, research has shown that viewers are more interested in entertainment programming after the news and
we have revised our schedule to take account of this."

Scandal, e.tv's daily newsroom drama, will move into the 7.30pm slot from Monday to Thursday. On Mondays, Scandal will be followed at 8pm by a new season of Third Watch, an award-winning drama series about a heroic group of paramedics and
firefighters who work the dangerous "third watch" in New York.

That Sport Show, hosted by Udo Carelse, moves from its current slot to 9.30pm on a Monday. Third Degree moves to 8pm on Tuesdays with the rest of the Tuesday schedule remaining unchanged.

On Wednesdays, Scandal will be followed by the real-life drama of Real TV at 8pm and WWE Wrestling at 8.30pm. A brand new Lotto gameshow will be launched in the 9.30pm slot on Wednesdays.

On Thursdays, Scandal will be followed by a movie at 8pm. On Saturdays, Count Yourself Lucky will be broadcast for the last time on 28 May and will be replaced with Nicky Greenwall's Showbiz Report in the 7.30pm slot from 11 June.

The last episode of e.tv's "behind-the-scenes" current affairs programme, Rough Cut, will be broadcast on Wednesday 25 May. Judge For Yourself with Dennis Davis will be back on our screens in a new timeslot on Sundays at 6.05 pm from July.

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