Delicious melting pot of characters
AFTER three successful seasons on BBC Lifestyle, Come Dine With Me SA moves to free-to-air channel, SABC3. Of course, the news has attracted a lot of interest. Rapid Blue’s managing director, Kee-Leen Irvine, helps to satisfy curiosity on the popular cooking reality series, which sees four dinner guests host and rate each other. Coupled with the sardonic humour of Dave Lamb as narrator, viewers couldn’t get enough of the cattiness and drama of the series.
As for SABC3 revisiting the show for a fourth instalment, Irvine says, “Come Dine With Me has become one of South Africa’s best-loved shows. Having developed such a loyal fan base, I’m absolutely thrilled that it’s back on air and I have no doubt that the audience will lap it up.”
Rapid Blue has always ensured that it got all the right ingredients for the show: personalities that differ but complement each other at the same time.
A powerhouse executive producer, she adds, “The thing about Come Dine with Me is that it’s not really a cooking show. It’s a delicious melting pot of diverse characters sweating under the pressure of hosting an evening of great food and fabulous entertainment, all under the scrutiny of their fellow contestants. The combination of eclectic personalities, their varying degrees of culinary expertise and their competitive nature, makes for compelling and often jaw-dropping entertainment.”
So what is she looking for this time around?
“Cooking up a great season of Come Dine with Me requires contestants with colourful personalities, a degree of competence in the kitchen and an absolute love of entertaining. We want fantastic hosts, ready to push the boat out with their entertaining skills.”
Revisiting her highlights from past seasons of the show, she says, “Wow, every season presented a veritable feast of what I call our little “national treasures” who set the Twittersphere abuzz every week. It was fantastic to see the response Come Dine With Me got from all across South Africa. We literally trended on Twitter within the first few seconds of every episode.
“I loved the fact that we won a SAFTA (South African Film and Television Awards), going up against giants like Masterchef SA and it’s been such a feather in our cap that our South African version has travelled across the world and proved more popular than the British series in countries such as Poland and even Australia.”
There a few characters that remain etched in her memory. She laughs, “Come Dine With Me brought some fantastically colourful characters to the table. Who could forget Aubrey from Camps Bay, who rested for a living, mad Trish from PE, with her fantasy dress-up room, Jill with her “naughty” drawer, Mariska who tripped and fell with a plate of food and Puleng, the Queen of Dainfern, who became a reality star, to name just a few.”
Will there be any new elements this season?
She offers, “I always say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Come Dine With Me is an incredibly successful format that dishes up fresh entertainment every week in terms of its diverse and interesting mix of characters.”
Irvine is also kept busy with the 8th season of SA’s Got Talent and, hopefully, a new season of Shark Tank.
“We are also in the early stages of writing for the second season of our ground-breaking local drama, Is’thunzi, for Mzansi Magic,” she adds.
For those confident personalities who believe they have what it takes to be the host or hostess with the mostest, get those entry submissions in by February 26 (they’re available on the channel’s website). The 13-episode show is slated for a July release.