eNCA has announced the end of late-night satirical news show ‘Late Nite News’ hosted by comedian Loyiso Gola.
The 24-hour news channel, which airs on DStv 403, says it plans to continue with news satire, but in a different format.
In a report, eNCA says that after several months of negotiations with DiPrente, the company which produces Late Night News, the two parties could not reach commercial terms or agree to a new format change.
Late Nite News last aired in April.
REPORT BY eNCA
“We have been negotiating with the LNN team since March. We wanted them to explore the option of short-format satirical inserts on a more regular basis rather than a weekly show. Regrettably they declined to revise the format,” says eNCA managing director, Patrick Conroy.
eNCA says it hoped the business relationship would continue. Both parties had spent a great deal of time on funding and syndication options for the next season, but regrettably these did not work out.
The company received an e-mail from DiPrente stating: “We see great value in the current format and wish to continue to produce a 24-minute satirical news show indefinitely. We are not interested in producing a shorter format show.”
Conroy says it therefore made little sense to bring back the show for one more season after such a long break, particularly if it then had to find new partners for a satirical offering afterwards.
Late Night News has twice been nominated for an International Emmy Award and was the first satirical news show in South Africa to achieve a mass following. The show also aired on e.tv.
eNCA thanked the cast of Late Night News for their brave work in the satirical comedy genre.
“Everyone is disappointed we could not reach an agreement. We took the brave step to introduce this form of comedy in mainstream media when nobody else would touch satire on TV. LNN has been a valuable part of our national conversation. We are forever indebted to them for their ground- breaking contribution” says Conroy.
eNCA says this is not the end of satire on the channel and it plans to seek out new partners in future.
It did not rule out working with DiPrente on other projects.
