The second phase of the SABC1 Live Talent Search was met with a wave of interest from South Africa’s excited youth who flocked to the auditions venues in their thousands.
The first auditions were held in Johannesburg on Saturday 18 February at the famed Baseline, and saw over 3,000 hopefuls waiting in queues well beyond 10pm.
According to SABC1 publicity manager Vukile Madlala they have had a successful turn out and the outcomes were positive. “The power and relevance of the SABC1 brand with our audiences was proven beyond doubt through the large numbers of youth in attendance. We saw a lot of hopefuls who wanted to be Bonang, but there were also a number of male candidates who displayed refreshing originality.’
The Durban auditions followed on Monday 20 February and registered in excess of 1,000 aspiring presenters who went through the process which also went on beyond 10pm.
The judging panel at the Bat Centre consisted of Bonang Matheba, Sjula Dlamini (producer), Dichaba Phalatse (SABC1) and Andile Mncube. They were ably assisted on the day by well-known and successful national icons from the region Zakes Bantwini and Generations’ Khethiwe Ngcobo.
The next stop in the talent search will be in Bloemfontein on Saturday 25 February followed by Mpumalanga on Monday 27 February.
So far the Judging Panel has shortlisted 165 promising hopefuls who will later be joined by their peers from the outstanding regions which include Port Elizabeth on 3 March and Cape Town on 5 March.
The six participating regions will produce the Top 24 (four aspirants per region) who will be taken through a rigorous internal judging process by a panel of judges. This selection process must culminate in the Top 4 candidates.
The Top 4 will receive call-ups to Johannesburg and will be introduced nationally on the Live show, were they will each be given ample chance to showcase their unique presenting skills and to impress the sometimes hard-to-please SABC1 viewers. At this stage voting lines would be opened up for viewers to have an input in choosing their preferred candidates.
The final phase of the SABC1’s Live Talent Search 2012 will see the two winners (one male and one female) announced publicly at the end of March, to join the Live team as official show presenters.
