News 30/06/2002

Musical chairs for TV personalities

By Kurt Sansone

Over the next few days the die will be cast for the October television schedules with the top three stations. TVM, Super 1 TV and NET TV – are at the centre of intense negotiations to secure audience-pulling personalities.

And the changes may ruffle some political feathers.

The musical chairs, as it is being called in television circles, kicked off on Friday with the revelation that Eileen Montesin defected from Super 1 TV to PBS taking with her the popular police drama series Undercover.

Ms Montesin left Super 1 after a turbulent row with the station’s management. She also admitted having deliberately abstained from voting for her beloved Labour Party in the last local council elections after having her arm twisted to boycott Where’s Everybody?

Ms Montesin claimed that she still stood behind the Labour Party notwithstanding the Lm1.35 per hour she got for her daily show. Eileen Montesin managed the highest rating results for Super 1 and was declared by an independent survey as one of the most popular presenters on the island.

But when the music stops Super 1 is likely to snatch up popular presenter Claudette Pace, who is a free agent after the demise of Max Plus.

Contacted by MaltaToday, Ms Pace confirmed that she was holding negotiations with the three top stations. She added that a number of possibilities were being discussed and the final decision would be taken depending on who offers the best financial package. "We are trying to rope in the people who worked with us at Max Plus and therefore we are after a sound financial commitment," she explained. However, Ms Pace admitted that Super 1 has to date offered her the best package.

Sources within the Labour media expressed their concern that in the crucial months prior to the EU referendum and general election the station would have to do without Ms Montesin, who is considered to be a fundraising asset for the Labour Party. The sources added that despite being a viable commercial investment, Claudette Pace would be of little help to the party.

Despite the business-as-usual display by the Super 1 management after Ms Montesin’s departure, the cracks are showing: high-ranking party officials are strengthening their grip on the running of the station.

Only yesterday, an irate Manuel Cuschieri phoned into the weekly Saturday morning radio talk-show on Super 1, hosted by journalist Sandro Mangion to chide the presenter for not inviting the MLP’s Gozo representatives given that the discussion focussed on the Gozo Channel Company.

The woes at Super 1 are set to increase in October as it is slowly losing its reputation for being the station with the highest content of Maltese drama. After winning over Ipokriti and Undercover, PBS, the national station is set to recoup the ‘drama crown’.

On top of that, come next October, PBS is set to continue screening its star crowd puller, Xarabank. Peppi Azzopardi confirmed with this newspaper that the national station has shown renewed interest in the programme and that discussions are currently under way between Where’s Everybody? and PBS to close the deal.

NET TV is also gearing up for the October schedule and the station has set its eyes on the Bonaci family. After the clash Karl and Romina Bonaci had with Super 1, which made them move Ipokriti to PBS, the Bonaci family intend producing a sitcom on NET TV.

MaltaToday can reveal that actors are currently being contracted to star in the sitcom. However, contacted by MaltaToday, a NET TV spokesman who preferred to remain anonymous, would not add to the news admitting only that talks with the Bonaci family have been going back and forth for the past year and a half and that finally agreement was close.