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Carte Blanche drops award-winning intro

Cape Town – Carte Blanche viewers “have the right to see it all” – just not the iconic and award-winning opening theme which the weekly M-Net magazine show dumped – a move that is angering viewers.

The award-winning investigative TV show has gotten rid of its iconic theme and music, angering viewers who are also upset at the lack of an introduction and overview to know what stories will be covered during the hour.

The weekly investigative magazine show has done away with its traditional music and opening theme in favour of a so-called “cold open”. It also no longer gives viewers a regular introduction and now tells viewers immediately who was voted out of Survivor South Africa: Champions.

This has led viewers to wonder about the changes to the long running Sunday evening show produced by Combined Artistic Productions and which remains the most watched programme on the M-Net schedule.

Award-winning theme dropped

The refreshed Carte Blanche intro theme – now gone – won a gold for best title sequence design at the PromaxBDA Africa 2013 Awards at the end of last year.

The iconic intro theme of Dave Pollecutt was redone in September 2013 to celebrate its 25th anniversary with a beautiful orchestral rendition by Robert Michael Brinkworth and imaging from Masters and Savant Worldwide.

"When you heard Carte Blanche you knew you had to run and sit for event television that everybody in South Africa's watching together. Now there is nothing to tell you the ads are over and Carte Blanche started. There's no music to know the show has started," viewers say.

M-Net monitoring viewers’ response to the ‘transition’

M-Net, in answer to a media enquiry says "M-Net is renowned for bringing its viewers television content in fresh, exciting ways and has changed the transition from Survivor South Africa to Carte Blanche on a Sunday night by implementing a technique that is currently used successfully by some overseas broadcasters.

"This seamless transition from one show to another usually increases viewership because it gives viewers content from the second programme, from the word go.

"The line-up for the evening's Carte Blanche show is still there, but a little later,” M-Net tells Channel24.

“We are currently monitoring viewers' response to this transition and, if necessary, we will make adjustments to ensure that M-Net remains to be viewers' number one channel on a Sunday night".

"We have already noted that our viewers are missing the Carte Blanche theme music and it might return in a different guise very soon," says M-Net.

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