SA TV’s soaps fine after fire at Big Brother studio

Cape Town – South African television’s three local TV soaps, who share the same studio lot as Big Brother Africa, resumed production on Wednesday after a devastating fire destroyed M-Net’s Big Brother house at Sasani Studios on Tuesday.

Isidingo on SABC3 and e.tv’s Rhythm City and Scandal! all share stage space at Sasani Studios but were not affected by the blaze which engulfed Endemol South Africa’s Big Brother Africa Hotshots house in stage 1.

Due to the fire the latest season of Big Brother Africa, which was supposed to start on Sunday, was cancelled.

Rhythm City, produced by Quizzical Pictures in stage 6, Scandal! produced by Ochre Moving Pictures in stages 3 and 7, and Isidingo produced by EndemolSA resumed production at Sasani Studios’s Highland North complex in Johannesburg called “soap city”.

“The unfortunate fire that took place at the Big Brother Africa house studio on Tuesday afternoon will not affect Rhythm City and Scandal!” the e.tv soaps told Channel24.

“Filming will continue as per normal on Wednesday and viewers can be assured that it will be business as usual for both productions”.

We are shooting,” Isidingo told Channel24. “When it happened we did evacuate until it was certain that everyone was safe, before going back to shoot”.

“Nothing was affected and the production is functioning well. Viewers can remain calm and keep watching Isidingo. We are right on schedule and the episodes will be delivered to SABC3 on time as we did prior to the fire,” said a spokesperson.

The fire is the second biggest TV studio fire in South Africa following the blaze which engulfed the SABC’s Isidingo set in June 2012.