On Tuesday last week, I was in a shop close to my humble residence in Kabwata where I found a sizeable number of people indoors facing the television set as opposed to the shopkeeper.
My neck automatically twisted to a common direction to see what had attracted people who were literally standing watching TV long after being served.
It was an enthralling interview of two Kabwata aspiring members of Parliament namely renowned Zambia’s reggae star Maiko Zulu and Clement Tembo on Prime Television hosted by one Cornelius Mwiche.
This programme drew my attention as it was unique and interesting at the same time knowing the kind of guests it featured.
These are two individuals seemingly set to dislodge the incumbent Given Lubinda who at one point told this platform that he was aware of the competition but was not yet sure if he was going to be part of it again or not.
According to Mr Lubinda, who apparently did not make part of the panel, such a challenge was interesting and very healthy in the democratic dispensation and the upholding of democratic tenets in the country.
“This is what we need in a democratic country, Kabwata is not for Given Lubinda it is for the people and they decide who they feel would represent them well,” Mr Lubinda said.
Out of the few minutes I watched this programme, I was able to see that the two youthful hopefuls in the race to Manda Hill, made interesting viewing.
From the people who were glued to the TV, it clearly showed that there was more than what met the eye in this typical race that most television stations have not brought to the fore.
If people with bread, sugar and milk in their hands could fail to walk out of a home shop because of a debate between Maiko Zulu and Clement Tembo, this surely shows that the programme was excellent and well appreciated.
This platform would, therefore, like to commend Prime TV for creating such an innovative idea that has won my accolade.
This programme would have been even more interesting had the anchor made efforts of calling the incumbent Given Lubinda to be part of the panel.
Anyway, it was an effort well-thought-out and executed which also deserves commendation by all who appreciate good viewing.
What Prime TV now needs to do is get into deep research of their guests, cast the nets even wider in the same circles. This would turn out to be very good viewing!
There is another professional aspect that I have seen this young TV uphold: Branding Prime TV has maintained their branded microphone windshields.
That is also very good. At some point, ZNBC also has branded microphone windshields but as for today they are less in the picture.
Now, on Wednesday night, I decided to go to bed early around 21:00 hours, but just when I started enjoying the sweetness of my sleep and dreams, the phone rang.
It was Topsy Sikalinda on the line who asked me to tune to channel 276 on DStv which happens to be ZNBC TV2.
The man was furious that ZNBC TV2 was showing last week’s edition of BBC’s Focus on Africa while on the screen it was showing live and breaking news.
There was a story on the military coup that happened more than a week ago and was broadcast by several TV stations including ZNBC itself.
“Why are they showing us something so old which we have watched several times and there is even some developing news coming from the same as we speak but see what is on the screen, Live and breaking news? This is disappointing,” he said.
Disappointing indeed especially with the fact that CGs were deceptively reading live and breaking news unless the words ‘breaking news’ have now changed meaning.
Still in the corridors of ZNBC, I found myself watching a programme called “The Platform” for the first time though facts are that it has been there for some time now.
For me, and most viewers, they had less or no knowledge about the development and this clearly showed that it had less impact.
Something worth watching would surely spark interest and talking points among viewers but for ‘The Platform’ I just had to meet it by a mere coincidence.
The particular episode that hinged on “the provision of decent accommodation by Habitat for Humanity, Zambia” was anchored by Pennipher Nyirenda.
The concept of the programme is very rich and interesting but its execution is very poor and boring at the same time!
I watched the whole programme, not that it was interesting but that it was shocking to see such a brilliant concept shattered.
Those who watched it would agree that the only people who enjoyed watching it were the ones involved in the production, not an independent viewer as there was nothing striking about it.
The presenter asked the same question to about four people which to me made no sense and would have scrapped it off had I been given to edit the script of her questions.
The question was: “Tell me, why you think decent accommodation is important?”… Wow! Where on earth has decent accommodation been less important? That is a childish question!
At the beginning of the programme, I thought I would be taken into a journey of the previous slapdash accommodation of the beneficiaries.
Apart from that,  I expected to see visual challenges and the moving reaction of the beneficiaries upon getting the information that they were finally chosen.
Who wouldn’t shout, cry, jump or ululate upon getting such a major gift which she or he never dreamt of having?
These are the important pictures that are deficient in the programme as they continued repeating the same boring footage.
As I said, the concept is very rich such that I even crave to produce and direct as it would surely be one of the must -watch programmes of the week!
I will end here today but next week, depending on how I will wake up, I might give ZNBC free consultancy through this platform on how to rebrand the programme.
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