by Thinus Ferreira
The well of stockpiled television episodes of South Africa's most-watched prime time soaps will start to run dry from Friday.
Both public and pay-TV channels will begin to run out of available new episodes for the highest-rated shows in the country over the next couple of days and weeks because of the ongoing Covid-19 coronavirus national lockdown.
With the national shutdown in effect in South Africa that has been extended by further weeks to try and curb the spread of Covid-19, the broadcaster pantry will start to run dry from tomorrow.
That will be followed over the next few days and weeks by a cascading effect of programming changes across channels as broadcasters and pay-TV services from MultiChoice to the SABC are forced to pad their schedules with different content as new pre-recorded, locally-produced shows run out of episodes.
With the country marking record TV ratings gains during day time and prime time for South African television as families - including parents and kids - remain cloistered at home, it remains to be seen whether the massive viewership surge will hold once broadcasters are forced to schedule repeats and content viewers have already seen.
On Friday 24 April the M-Net-run channel Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) will broadcast the last new episodes of Isibaya, produced by The Bomb Shelter and the new telenovela Gomora produced by Seriti TV that have both now run out of stockpiled episodes.
M-Net schedulers are replacing these two hours on Mzansi Magic with double episodes at 19:00 of the first season of The River, produced by Tshedza Pictures, from Monday 27 April.
Both are two of the most-watched shows on pay-TV with Gomora that lured up to 1.7 million viewers in March and Isibaya 1.003 million viewers, together with The Queen from Ferguson Films that also shut down in March that was the most-watched show on DStv last month with 2.2 million viewers.
The Queen will screen the last episode of the current season at the end of the second week of May.
While first season episodes of The River is now shown on Mzansi Magic, the telenovela that is actually in its third season with first-run episodes on the other M-Net channel, 1Magic (DStv 103), is also running out of episodes.
The River that lured 1.165 million pay-TV subscribers in March to DStv will end on 8 May, replaced by Is'thunzi, produced by Rapid Blue.
The River has also been on a hiatus and production break because of the Covid-19 lockdown with no fourth season that has been confirmed says M-Net.
The Somizi & Mohale: The Union wedding reality limited series, produced by The BarLeader, that was exclusively produced for MultiChoice's streaming service Showmax will now pad the linear TV schedule and unspool on Mzansi Magic from 27 April at 20:00.
Similar to what international broadcasters are now doing, the M-Net programming team is also working to pad the Mzansi Magic schedule with repeat blocks of popular reality shows like Date My Family and Our Perfect Wedding, both produced by Connect TV. Both series about family dates and reality weddings continue to draw huge audiences.
On 1 May the Real Housewives of Johannesburg, produced by RHOSA Productions, will start on Mzansi Magic for 14 episodes until 20 May with season 1 of Madam & Mercy taking over after that.
"As M-Net local entertainment channels, we pride ourselves on our authentic local content and this lockdown period provides us with the perfect opportunity to share this. Viewers now have time to catch up on their favourite shows and we are excited to keep them entertained with a double dose of a drama series that has received recognition on the global stage," says Nomsa Philiso, director of M-Net local entertainment channels.
"M-Net
continues to enjoy healthy relations with our content suppliers and we are all
working together to ensure that our customers don't miss out on a single moment
of excellent entertainment, even when production has to take a break."
"With these changes to our line-up and a host of award-winning shows, viewers can still enjoy a riveting line-up of great entertainment to make staying at home more bearable."
SA's most-watched show out of new episodes on 8 May
On South Africa's public broadcaster, the country's most-watched prime time series, Uzalo on weekdays at 20:30 that lured over 10.29 million viewers in March will broadcast it's last new episode two weeks from now on 8 May on SABC1.
From 11 May the SABC will have to switch to repeats of old Uzalo episodes for at least a week.
The Durban-based production company Stained Glass TV remains shuttered along with others and can only resume production once the national lockdown is lifted.
"The lockdown
has put production under immense 'post lockdown' pressure,' Stained Glass TV tells TViwithThinus in response to a media enquiry.
"Pre-recorded
episodes will be on-air up until 8 May, thereafter viewers should
expect episode reruns while the production works determinedly to deliver more
episodes per week and catch up with our delivery schedule."
"Viewers can
anticipate new and exciting episodes from Monday 18 May," says the show.
This is all however contingent on production companies being allowed to open the studio doors after 30 April if the national lockdown is lifted and lifted and in heavily-affected provinces like Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.
On e.tv the free-to-air commercial broadcaster still has enough stockpiled episodes of both of its local weekday soaps - Rhythm City, produced by Quizzical Pictures and Scandal! produced by Ochre Moving Pictures - as well as telenovela Imbewu done from KwaZulu-Natal by Grapevine Productions for now to stave off repeat broadcasts during prime time.
SABC2's 7de Laan, produced by Danie Odendaal Productions, currently has enough new half-hours stockpiled to last until 25 May.
Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson, told TVwithThinus in response to a media enquiry that the public broadcaster has a sufficient TV soap content, will communicate when soaps run out of episodes and switch to repeats, and is in contact with production companies.
"The organisation has a sufficient soapie
content offering to cover the duration of the lockdown period. The organisation
has also ensured that, as part of its efforts to build resilience in its
broadcasting environment, there are measures in place to ensure business
continuity during this period and in the event of further
extensions."
"Should future repeats of popular soaps be required, this will be
communicated to the public."
"The SABC remains committed to continue to provide
an essential service of broadcasting to the millions of South Africans, who
rely solely on the corporation for information, education and entertainment."
