Do you have a daytime job or any kind of life during the day? If yes, then good! You are not missing anything on TV at all! There is absolutely nothing there!!! Nix. Zilch. Nada. Zero.
For years, the audience of daytime TV was considered to be stay-at-home wives and mothers...as well as the domestic helper who would binge on soap operas on the madam's TV when she wasn't home. However, with the high rise in freelance workers and 'work from home' professionals, daytime viewers are no longer just the broke, uneducated and down to their luck individuals. In fact there is a number of college students and graduates who work 'flexible' hours that add to the older audience which makes a larger portion of daytime viewers.
Even so, at this point, it does not matter who is watching or how many people are watching because there is absolutely nothing to see on TV during the day. Soapie repeats, non-stop infomercials, foreign syndicated programs that are 3 seasons behind and re-runs of old shows from the 90s is the utter trash that you will get if you even attempt to turn your TV on during the day. I swear, if it is not enough to drive you to madness, it will sure have you questioning your entire purpose of existence...which is still craziness, really.
While international television has worked to create all round programing that is fit to cater for audiences of anytime of the day or night, African TV seems to have lacked behind. Mornings get a great headstart with magazine and news shows such as "Good morning Africa", "Espresso", "Morning Live" and "Sunrise", then it is pretty much downhill from there. We are taken through repeats from the previous night, old shows and lousy children's programming. You would swear that 'Clientele" and co.' own these TV stations. DSTV channels seldom make or syndicate any new daytime shows yet prime time has shows coming and going willy-nilly, which makes one wonder why channels have opted to neglect daytime slots.
SABC 1's "Shift" and etv's "Great Expectations" are currently the only African talk shows airing during the day when American daytime TV boasts of numerous such shows ranging from "The View" to "Jerry Springer" to "Maury", "Dr. Oz", "Dr. Phil", "Wendy Williams", "Steve Wilkos", "Jeremy Kyle", "The Doctors", "Ellen DeGeneres", "Rachel Ray", "Anderson", "The Talk", "The Chew", "The Real", "Steve Harvey", and "Live with Kelly and Michael", among others. As a matter of fact, daytime talk show hosts, make up a significant part of the US celebrity population. When the clock hits 3pm, which is very much close to primetime, that is when things starts looking up on our screens. We have youth shows like "YoTV Live", "Hectic Nine Nine", "Craz-e" as well as SABC 3's magazine show, "Afternoon Express". It is not much for the more mature viewer, but is way better than the nonsense we have to suffer through all day long.
It is time that we see channels on the DSTV platform create more interesting shows for the daytime viewer and give us more variety. US daytime television has managed to run original shows in different genres: court shows, serials, game shows, magazine shows, news programs, talk shows, and daytime series. With an obviously present audience and the need to compete globally, it is time that African television starts exploring their options and extending their territories. The maybe we can stop watching the same show 5 times a week (original airing, repeat, repeat on sister channel, weekend omnibus, etc). And maybe we can also get to see new faces come on TV instead of the same old, same old. Until then, we will be stuck binging on international series and movies until prime time comes.
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