by Thinus Ferreira
The long-in-the-tooth Venda-soap Muvhango on SABC2 and the latest season of Idols on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) were the two biggest viewership losers in August for the second month in a row as Idols shed another 81 000 DStv subscribers since the previous month and close to a quarter of a million viewers compared to a year ago, while Muvhango lost another 140 000 viewers since July.
The 18th season of Idols on Mzansi Magic, produced by [SIC] Entertainment, remains in freefall since its ratings plummeted at the start of season 17 in 2021 following controversy around judge Somizi Mhlongo.
After the season 18 Idols debut on Mzansi Magic only racked up 743 516 viewers during July - already far lower than last year - it dropped to just 661 756 in August, shedding another 81 760 DStv subscribers no longer watching.
For the first live show of the Top 12 contestants on 28 August, Idols plunged even further in the ratings race, losing a whopping further 172 150 viewers to just 489 608.
In 2021 Idols still grabbed 709 655 viewers for its first live performance episode, which was already much lower than in previous years, meaning that Idols has lost almost a quarter of a million viewers for the start of the live performance episodes compared to a year ago.
The Idols audience share has meanwhile also plunged from 8.4 to 5.7.
A more narrow-audience reality show that's also much cheaper to produce like The Real Housewives of Cape Town and which is not aimed at a broad DStv audience like Idols, now in fact outperforms Idols, with The Real Housewives of Cape Town clocking in at 618 994 DStv subscribers.
The other big August ratings loss-leader is SABC2's Venda soap Muvhango, produced by Word of Mouth Productions, again plunging to just 1.58 million viewers in the month, down again from July's 1.72 million viewers which was itself a massive ratings drop.
e.tv making inroads on SABC1
On SABC1 Uzalo edged up to 6.56 million from 5.93 million viewers in July, making it the channel and South Africa's most-watched TV show.
Generations - The Legacy on SABC2 hauled 5.546 million viewers, up from 4.79 million in July as the channel and the country's second-most watched TV show.
e.tv's Scandal! is South Africa's third-most watched TV show for the month, slightly down from July's 5.93 million to 5.542 million viewers, followed by House of Zwide climbing from 4.91 million to 5.142 million viewers as fourth most-watched show.
SABC1's Skeem Saam is in fifth place, slightly down from 4.5 million to 4.3 million viewers in August.
The Zulu TV news bulletin on SABC1 keeps rising and increased from 2.477 million to 2.64 million viewers while the Xhosa TV news bulletin increased from 2.472 million to 2.61 million viewers. The Siswati TV news bulletin also increased from 1.76 million to 1.81 million viewers.
Selimathunzi was slightly down from 2.21 million to 2.027 million viewers.
Jessica Fletcher and uBettina
SABC2's overall channel ratings profile continues to look disastrous and like how SABC3 started to look years ago.
Besides the ongoing sagging of Muvhango, which meant that SABC2 never had more than 1.5 million viewers during August, the Afrikaans soap 7de Laan climbed slightly from 945 543 to 992 234 viewers in August as SABC2's second most-watched show.
The Afrikaans TV news bulletin was also slightly up from 629 895 to 704 272 viewers while the Setswana TV news bulletin slumped from 896 109 to 668 961 viewers. uBettina Wethu is a flop in primetime with 545 056 viewers, while Morning Live lured a brilliant 486 205 viewers to wake up and watch the early morning timeslot in August.
The umpteenth repeat of the Angela Lansbury-fronted Murder, She Wrote picked up viewers, increasing from 449 326 to 514 203 for the afternoon 14:00-timeslot.
Marsupials to S3's rescue
SABC3 was again slightly off at the top luring 625 650 viewers at most during August, down from July's 682 739 with The Wonders of Marsupials in the Sunday evening natural history slot as the top viewership grabber on the channel that continues to struggle.
The English TV news bulletin edged up slightly from 563 514 to 566 757 as SABC3's second most-watched programme for the month.
The channel's local telenovela, The Estate, remains a non-starter in its third season during primetime on SABC3 with almost nobody watching - 329 173 viewers watched the omnibus on Saturday afternoons rather than during original airings in the week.
e.tv on the up and up
On e.tv Imbewu reached 3 million viewers for the first time in August again with 3 059 307 viewers and a 29.9 audience share, since it was moved to the 21:00-timeslot in April.
There will likely also be more Is'phindiselo with the eVOD Original that got scheduled on Sunday nights for a linear airing reaching its highest viewership of 1.981 million viewers since its April premiere.
The cancelled Durban Gen edged up from 2.55 million to 2.74 million viewers, while The Black Door grew slightly from 2.58 million to 2.7 million viewers as it toned down the sex and nudity scenes. The e.tv News bulletin at 20:00 rose from 1.77 million to 1.9 million viewers.
The Afrikaans-dubbed Turkish telenovela Droomverlore remained steady at 1.57 million viewers compared to 1.58 million in July.
Uyajola 9/9 grows, Miss SA pageant disappoints
Gomora on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) remained the most-watched show on DStv in August with 1.12 million DStv subscribers tuning in, slightly up from the 1.1 million viewers the month before.
The tabloid show Uyajola 9/9 on Moja Love (DStv 157) surged to the second position for the month with 985 124 DStv subscribers watching, followed by the cancelled The Queen in third place with 754 539 viewers, slightly up from 737 092 in July.
The cancelled DiepCity on Mzansi Magic pulled 616 646 viewers in August, up from 606 030 in July, with The River grabbing 639 015 DStv subscribers.
The Miss South Africa 2022 pageant lured a disappointing 478 540 viewers on 13 August, with X-Repo on Moja Love pulling 548 976 viewers during the month.
