RATINGS ANALYSIS. Oprah! Idols! Three Talk! More on Isidingo's ratings resurgence, Bold's decline, and SABC1's unimpressive 18:00 timeslot.

Here's my latest viewership analysis and South African TV ratings intelligence nobody else can or will give you. TV with Thinus has some must-know show - and no-show - rating performances for you:

I can 100% guarantee - without a word from the channel - that Idols will be back for an 8th season on M-Net. Why? It's basically the only local reality show with enduring viewership strength. That tedious Idols winners announcement last Tuesday cracked a 1,7 AR for the pay broadcaster - making it the number one show for the week on M-Net. And on a school night no less.

The first season of The X Factor USA also immediately started performing for M-Net with a 0,8 AR - if M-Net gets the chance or has the moola to do a local version of The X Factor SA, its very clear that a local version has strong potential to perform well too.

Isidingo's timeslot change from 18:30 to 19:30 has had an immediate dramatic impact on viewership for the show and SABC3 - up from generally 5,5 AR's to a sudden 6,7 AR, vaulting Isidingo to the new number one show on SABC3 and an insta-gain of thousands of viewers for the weekday soap.

Less good? The demise of The Oprah Winfrey Show that will remain in 100% repeat mode and no new episodes until the show disappears in its new early midday slot on SABC3. Oprah immediately fell out of the top ranking on SABC3 from October.

Now the good and the bad: Three Talk has showed up for the first time on the list of SABC3's top 10 shows, coming in in 10th position. That's good. Not so good is that it's at a lower AR than what Oprah mustered. Three Talk pulls a 3,8 AR which means that SABC3 is overall actually getting less total viewers per week than previously, because the combined viewership of the top shows are at a lower level.

Meanwhile on SABC1 where Bold and the Beautiful don't appear anywhere near top-rated show levels anymore and it doesn't appear as if the dime-a-dozen ''local magazine shows'' that trash-pack the 10:00 timeslot isn close to actually being popular.
They just don't feature on SABC1's list of top 10 shows. Maybe Mzansi-not-so-sure might want to bring in some differentiation to the very similarly themed shows or rethink the timeslot. Luckily for the channel Generations, Zone 14 and Intsika still towers far over anything else on SABC1 viewership wise (and over all of South African television for that matter).

On SABC2 Muvhango still outranks any Rugby World Cup 2011 match broadcasts or coverage on SABC2. And here's something else nobody will tell you: While e.tv's Rhythm City has long ago surpassed SABC2's 7de Laan in total viewers, e.tv's second primetime soap Scandal! is now also passing 7de Laan in total viewers. There's (new) massive soaps in South Africa and they're not on the SABC - which you wouldn't say if you look at the ragtag gossip glossies since their editorial decisions on who to feature isn't based by actually looking and analysing from week to week what their readers are actually watching.