Love’s in the air, along with all the drama
Wedding fever is hitting TV screens – and it’s not all focused on the big day
NATHAN ADANS
SOUTH Africans love a good wedding, but they love a bad one even more. There’s no need to elaborate on the popularity of wedding shows; all you need to say is Our Perfect Wedding and you’ve substantiated a wedding hit on the small screen.
There’s a lot more mileage in the reality TV clock than being witness to the big day and the drama of the nuptials. In order to maximise the entertainment value, many shows are turning the cameras on the time before and after the bride and groom walk down the aisle.
Save our Marriage on SABC is one example. Billed as a “reality marriage coaching show”, five couples go on a journey to reconnect and save their union.
We first see the couples in their natural habitats – home. From there, they are moved to a retreat where, under the spotlight, there is therapy and advice on hand to help them reconnect.
If you like relationship drama then the show is worth your time.
Saving our Marriage is on SABC on Wednesdays at 7.30 pm.
Lifetime (on DStv channel 131) is dusting the bridal bouquets and veils as it prepares for its themed Wedding Week next month.
It kicks off on Monday, September 9, and in the sevenday viewing-fest you can catch,
Four Weddings, Bridezilla and what the channel calls “the highly anticipated premiere” of Marrying Millions.
It’s noteworthy that even one of South Africa’s biggest hip hop artist, AKA, is getting in on the wedding action.
Lifetime has roped him in on the wedding fever as part of a new local special called 2 Weddings & a Superstar.
AKA will surprise and then serenade two bridal couples on the most important day of their lives in the one-off show.
Although he is a bachelor, AKA says: “I have made some music and drawn some inspiration in terms of the style in some of the songs that
I’ve made, that are kind of tailormade for weddings.
“It’s a cool experience for me to be able to enhance somebody’s big day in this way. Hopefully, for our couples, their weddings are going to be something they will remember in a really positive light for the rest of their lives.”
2 Weddings & a Superstar airs on Lifetime on September 9 at 8pm.
I have saved the best for last because it’s one of my favourite shows, Married At First Sight. It has all the elements you’d want from a good reality showdown.
Two strangers meet for the first time at the alter, after being screened by a panel of experts who have deduced that they’d be the perfect match.
Their nuptials are legally binding and after the big day and the honeymoon, the happy (or often not-so-happy couple) are thrown back into their daily grind and need to find their feet. It has twists and turns like no other show.
Truth be told, the Australian