The ratings are out and there's a reason why M-Net only punted the votes and not the viewership of the eight season finale of Idols - the live finale in which Khaya Mthethwa won was way down from previous years.
The 9 million votes the show received is impressive and help with awareness and brand building through social media, but at the end of the day television is a business which needs to make money and it's viewership more than votes which are important since as a TV show its the viewership and the type of audience which sets and determined the ad rates for advertisers and sponsors.
Where the live Idols finale of previous seasons easily topped as the number one broadcast on M-Net, the eight season finale of Idols pulled a measly 0,7 AR under all adults, or roughly 210 651 viewers this year. It made it the third most watched show of the week on M-Net.
The viewership of Idols in the final weeks leading up to the finale was of course also down compared to the exact same time last year during the 7th season.
Compared to the 7th season finale of Idols which happened during the exact same week last year in 2011, and which was also shown on both M-Net and Mzansi Magic, the 8th season Idols finale was way down viewership wise. The Idols 7th season live finale was the number one show on M-Net during its week last year and pulled 448 000 viewers last year (more than double).
In this year's week of the 8th season Idols finale, more people watched Carte Blanche during the metering week on M-Net, followed by the monkey in The Hangover 2, with the Idols finale coming in in third place. Although Idols is a co-production with Mzansi Magic (DStv 161), M-Net as the premium channel commands the better ad rates since Mzansi Magic is available on the lower-tiered DStv Compact bouquet.
