Second bite of the big time

Come Dine with Me SA, the inelegant but endearing comedy-reality cooking show, will return to TV in September - with an extra dollop of cackles.

BBC Worldwide announced yesterday that a third season of the SA Film and Television Awards-winning show is on its way - with Port Elizabeth joining Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban as a shooting location.

Of course, it's no Masterchef - the premise was never about finding the next Nigella Lawson, Wolfgang Puck or Gordon Ramsay. It's all but following four strangers who visit each other's homes for dinner parties while trying to outwit each other, often with disastrous results.

But it appears the people of the windy city fancy themselves as either capable cooks or, more likely, loonier than their counterparts from the other three cities.

The vice-president of commissioning at BBC Worldwide, Tracy Forsyth, suggested the corporation had succumbed to pressure to widen the net.

She told The Times yesterday: "Rapid Blue [the local production company] had received many queries from wannabe contestants from PE previously, and had much success casting other shows from there, so it seemed like an obvious choice. This new location [also] gives South Africans a chance to be better represented."

She added that "just as it grew in number of locations, it grew in viewership".

Forsyth said the second season was even more successful than the first, making the upcoming season, which will begin filming in August, a no-brainer.

Applications for prospective contestants have opened and close on May 22.

Auditions will take place between May and July.