by Thinus Ferreira
The latest season of Survivor South Africa on M-Net (DStv 101) was a ratings dud with a much lower viewership during the season, and the viewership of the Survivor SA: Return of the Outcasts finale last week which plunged a shocking 62% from the season 8 finale a year ago.
The finale of Survivor SA: Return of the Outcasts on M-Net on Thursday 25 August pulled only 38 988 DStv subscribers to tune in to the linear TV broadcast conclusion of the season.
It means that the Afrokaans-produced reality competition series shed close to two-thirds of the overall audience which the series pulled for the season finale of Survivor SA: Immunity Island a year ago on 16 September 2021 when it still drew 102 290 viewers to the 19:30-timeslot.
According to the ratings supplied by the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA), the season finale of Survivor SA: Return of the Outcasts lost a shocking 63 302 linear TV viewers compared to the finale of Survivor SA: Immunity Island.
It's not just the finale of the latest local season of the Banijay-format show that had lacklustre ratings, with the show's viewership that tanked right from the get-go.
Survivor SA's viewership crumbled this season with M-Net's disastrous scheduling move to both a much earlier timeslot at 18:00, as well as stacking four episodes weekly.
It gave Survivor SA a much smaller potential audience not yet home or not ready to watch TV for an hour.
Many DStv subscribers also quickly fell behind and couldn't keep up with the stacking of episodes for a serialised show with viewers reluctant to watch a new episode before having watched everything to date.
Other viewers abandoned the show when they got the vote result as a spoiler before they had watched it, and with just 24 hours before yet a new episodes arrived - similar to a sport match's score, it is something that decreases the desire to watch the actual match content.
The drop in ratings is exactly what TVwithThinus predicted would happen with Survivor SA months ago.
For its debut the viewership of Survivor SA: Return of the Outcasts also plummeted, losing 43% of its total viewers, with only 43 306 DStv subscribers who tuned in for the start on 18 July on M-Net according to the BRCSA, compared to the 75 770 viewers who watched the start of the previous season.
