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Cape Town – Someone call Olivia Pope quick for this fast-growing public relations fiasco: SABC3 has been ordered to change the title of the American drama Scandal – which SABC3 decided to keep Scandal – to the The Fixer, after broadcasting the first two episodes of the show as Scandal.
The Shonda Rhimes drama on SABC3 which started on M-Net a year and a half ago, has just been forced to change its title in South Africa to The Fixer as well.
SABC3's forced name-change comes just a week after SABC3 proudly proclaimed that the TV channel will be staying with the original title of Scandal in which Kerry Washington plays a PR and crisis control executive. e.tv has a weekday soap entitled Scandal!.
Although SABC3 promoted, advertised, and placed the show as The Fixer on the SABC3 schedule and in print adverts, it suddenly started showing the drama as Scandal.
Last week SABC3 in a press statement, and SABC3's channel head Aisha Mohamed specifically asked about the show's title, told Channel24 that it makes more sense to keep the original title, that Scandal is what the show is known as internationally, and that the decision was taken to keep Scandal as Scandal for South Africa.
Now Scandal is suddenly back to The Fixer for SABC3 too, after M-Net had to change Scandal to The Fixer in 2012.
It is not yet clear whether e.tv ordered SABC3 to change Scandal to The Fixer or whether Disney Media Distribution, responsible for selling Scandal worldwide, mandated the change.
