Concern
is growing over the once popular SABC2 soap 7de Laan that's continuing
its shocking ratings slide after ongoing tampering and retooling, unending cast
changes and a misguided timeslot change have all been taking a heavy toll on
the damaged weekday soap.
7de Laan, once
alternating with the Venda soap Muvhango as the most watched show on the SABC2
schedule and one of the most watched shows on South African television has
continued to fall out of viewer favour after seemingly just too many ongoing
changes.
The Danie
Odendaal Productions produced weekday soap dropped another massive 269 527
viewers in just one month from June to July (to 1.81 million viewers).
While shows
gain and lose some viewers marginally from month to month, veteran TV shows
like 7de Laan are
mostly stable: ratings rises and viewership declines do happen, but are very
gradual.
That
is why advertisers love soaps – with a stable built-in audience, they deliver
consistent ratings.
Advertisers
buy airtime in these repetitive shows because they’re guaranteed a certain volume
exposure for their brands to a largely set target audience that doesn’t show
dips and spikes over time, but 7de Laan
is no longer delivering the numbers advertisers are promised.
To put into
perspective what has happened with 7de Laan: The plunge of over a
quarter of a million viewers who used to watch SABC2 but abandoned 7de Laan in just
one month represents a drop-off of 18.52% in the show's audience share from
just one month to the next – and that is massive.
While viewers
are fickle and it's easy for any TV to lose viewers, it's incredibly hard to
get them back.
Misguided timeslot move
Adding to the
show's latest handicap is that SABC2 executives abruptly moved the long-running
soap in July from its 18:30 berth to the 19:00 timeslot.
Meanwhile the
show that replaced it in the 18:30 timeslot, Election Debate, ironically
completely tanked in the ratings, not showing up as one of the top 20 most
watched shows on the SABC2 July schedule.
That means
that a very large number of viewers simply tuned out and away from SABC2 during
the timeslot, and that a lot less viewers came back to SABC2 and 7de Laan at 19:00.
Exactly two
years ago in August 2014, SABC2 executives ordered wide-ranging production
changes to be implemented to the Afrikaans soap to make it more multicultural
and to try and lift stagnant ratings. It included several set alterations and
changes.
In June 2015
the show also dropped its iconic Soweto String Quartet theme song for a
forgetable new ditty, with viewers who vocally complained that their howling
dogs familiar with the tune, no longer made a noise reminding them to watch the
show.
Changing face
Meanwhile a
massive number of ongoing 7de
Laan cast exits have
seen the disappearance of longtime familiar faces and it is literally changing
the face of the soap – gone are the people who felt like friends and who
viewers have come to know and tune in to see.
The departures
of Heino Schmitt, Werner Coetser and Zane Meas have seen Diaan Lawrenson, Jo da Silva and Christo Davids follow them out the door.
Meanwhile Melanie du Bois, Corné Crous and Masego Sehoole's were essentially fired – their contracts were not
renewed by the soap, while Anelisa
Phewa quit when he was not
allowed to be on the soap and also be a film and TV lecturer at AFDA.
In March after
the walk-on starlet Enhle Mbali
Mlotshwa left the soap she slammed 7de Laan for alleged on-set racism and claimed that she suffered racial abuse working on the show
with the SABC that ordered an investigation.
With 7de Laan literally
not looking the same anymore – from its theme song, sets, different faces and
the loss of a lot of familiar ones – its transition the past few months,
coupled with a dramatic timeslot change, has made it harder, not easier, for
viewers to find and stay tuned in to the soap.
