BREAKING. Oprah Winfrey's Lance Armstrong interview on TLC in South Africa pulls in huge viewership numbers for his doping confession.

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South African viewers and pay-TV subscribers tuned in in their hundreds of thousands for Friday and Saturday's exclusive sit-down interview over two days of the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong with Oprah Winfrey on TLC which led to a massive ratings spike as the viewership surged for the channel.

Oprah Winfrey is putting the TLC channel (DStv 172 / TopTV 453) on the TV map in South Africa like nothing else before in its two year history in the country and got hundreds of thousands of local pay-TV subscribers to click to the channel in unison with their remote controls this past Friday and Saturday in South Africa as well as across the Africa continent.

ALSO READ: TLC for TLC: How Discovery's reshaping of TLC in South Africa with compelling content is lifting its profile - and luring viewers.

Although combined viewership figures for the rest of Africa and other African countries and territories where TLC is shown on pay-TV line-ups are not available, the TV exclusive of Oprah's Next Chapter which Discovery Networks International (DNI) secured, clearly paid-off big time in luring viewers across the continent to tune in and keeping them spellbound with the cyclist's televised admission of doping.

 The talk show queen's interview with Lance Armstrong this past Thursday and Friday lured a massive combined TV audience in excess of 342 275 viewers aged 15 and older in South Africa on MultiChoice's DStv platform alone, according to viewership figures from The South African Audience Research Foundation (Saarf). Saarf measures and compiles TV ratings in South Africa.

The Lance Armstrong confession on Oprah's Next Chapter drew a massive 220 405 viewers aged 15 and older (the currency of viewers who matter most to advertisers in South Africa) on Friday 18 January to TLC for part one of the interview. "On average 0.7% of adults aged 15+ who watched television on 18 January watched the Oprah and Lance Armstrong TV exclusive on TLC," says Saarf.

According to Saarf data, part two of the Lance Armstrong interview pulled in 121 870 viewers on TLC on Saturday 19 January in the 19:30 timeslot in South Africa. It more than doubled the viewership from the 55 981 viewers who watched the repeat episode of part one on Saturday just before part two began.

It's interesting to note that the 220 405 viewers of the first part of the two-parter interview (and the combined 342 275) is much higher than the 200 000 viewers aged 15 and older who watched the Oprah special in September 2012 - also exclusive to TLC.

The September special which took viewers inside her private school for girls at Henley-on-Klip was already a massive ratings-grabber for TLC in South Africa where the special was shown before it was broadcast in America.

Meanwhile DNI has scheduled the next American reality sensation, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo to start on TLC on 6 March at 21:10 which will in all likelihood lead to further ratings growth for the channel as curious viewers tune in.

(The estimated total viewership of the Oprah Lance Armstrong TV special is likely even higher in South Africa given that the viewership of the TLC channel on TopTV is not counted in, since TopTV's channels are not yet tracked and rated individually in this country. Several repeat slots of the episodes on TLC are also not factored into this total which would also make the viewership slightly higher.)

O MY! Utterly compelling Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah Winfrey on TLC makes for absolutely riveting television.

Part one of Oprah Winfrey's grilling interview with the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in Oprah's Next Chapter on TLC (DStv 172 / TLC 453) will continue with part two tomorrow evening (Saturday 19 January) at 19:30 (South African time) and it looks like it might even be more compelling, must-see television than tonight's first part.

At the end of the first part this evening the teaser on TLC teased Oprah Winfrey asking questions of Lance Armstrong about how his children feel about having defended as cheating dad, what he said to his Livestrong Foundation, what his mother thinks of her cheating son, and why he decided to come forward and do this interview with Oprah Winfrey now.

The episode of Oprah's Next Chapter on TLC which Discovery Networks International (DNI) grabbed for the channel made for absolutely riveting television: Lance Armstrong squirming as if he doesn't know exactly how to answer and Oprah Winfrey asking very direct, very straight-forward fact-based questions.

What revelations, questions and answers might the second hour of this worldwide interview and the year's first must-see piece of television hold?

The first hour and a half was astounding and both Oprah Winfrey and Lance Armstrong made (television) history. Saturday's second half on TLC will most likely be more of the same.

'How I got the interview': Oprah Winfrey reveals how she snagged the highly-anticipated interview with Lance Armstrong.

George Burns/OWN

Oprah Winfrey just revealed how she got the highly-anticipated and highly sought-after interview with the disgraced cyclist and drug cheat Lance Armstrong which South African viewers will also be able to see on TLC (DStv 172 / TopTV 453) on Friday 18 January at 19:30 (South African time) as part of her new talk show Oprah's Next Chapter.

Oprah Winfrey calls it "the biggest interview I've ever done" and revealed that she in fact snagged the Lance Armstrong interview at the end of last year during the December holiday while she was vacationing at her home in Hawaii and while some of the girls from her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa was visiting and actually staying with her.

South Africans who can't wait for Friday evening to see Oprah's Next Chapter will also be able to watch the first of what is now going to be a two-part episode online at oprah.com at 04:00 in the morning (South African time) on Friday 18 January when it will be streamed online simultaneously as it is being shown on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network in America. 

Part two, a brand-new additional episode, will be streamed on Saturday 19 January also at 04:00 (South African time). Oprah Winfrey decided on Tuesday to expand her interview with Lance Armstrong to two episodes on television following a marathon interview recording session on Monday at Lance Armstrong's home in Austin, Texas which lasted more than two and a half hours. 

George Burns/OWN

Discovery Networks International (DNI) has not yet indicated how today's decision regarding the expansion to two episodes for Lance Armstrong of Oprah's Next Chapter will now impact TLC's programming schedule further for South Africa beyond Friday evening's first installment, but it is highly likely that the schedule will be updated to also accommodate the second episode.

I just watched CBS This Morning, one of America's morning shows, on which Oprah Winfrey appeared Tuesday morning to discuss the upcoming interview. She explained how it came about that she got the interview multiple media outlets have been pursuing the past few months.

"How I got the interview? I had sent him an email a couple of months ago, just hoping that he would talk to me," Oprah Winfrey explained. "He emailed back and said he wasn't ready to talk but that he would be in Hawaii for the holidays and he knew that I had a place in Hawaii and maybe we could get together for lunch. 'Okay, like that's going to happen,' I thought," she said.

"So, during the holidays I emailed and said 'What about that lunch?' He said he can't do it on these days, because he had his kids. Meanwhile I had a bunch of my kids - girls from my school in South Africa with me. So I stayed over an extra two days in order to accommodate his schedule."

"He came to visit me in Maui. He lives on another island, and so he flew over. I had guests in the house so I cleared out the house and said 'Go to the beach, go to the beach, now! And stay there for at least four hours!' "

"So I had nobody in the house, including people who are usually there for help and even the people who usually do the lawn. I removed all those people. Also I had a person go to the airport to pick him up who doesn't normally pick me up at the airport so that he wouldn't be recognised as being connected to me," said Oprah Winfrey.

"Lance comes to me and says, 'Where is everybody?' and I say "I've sent everybody away' and he goes: 'But you didn't clear the road. There was a biker on the road who recognised me."

Biggest interview

"In terms of my career it's certainly the biggest interview I've done in terms of its exposure," said Oprah Winfrey. "Of course back in 1993 I did Michael Jackson Live Around the World, this is going to be live streamed around the world."

"Because it's going to be around the world - and I believe it should be around the world because so many people want to hear what he has to say - the number of people who will have exposure to it makes it the biggest interview I've ever done," said Oprah Winfrey.

"I would say that for all the people who are wondering does he actually go there and answers, I think that you will come to understand that he brought it. He really did."

Oprah Winfrey expands the upcoming 90 minute interview with Lance Armstrong to two episodes.

George Burns/OWN

Oprah Winfrey's highly-anticipated 90 minute interview with the disgraced cyclist and drug cheat Lance Armstrong in which he admits to doping, is expanding to two episodes after Oprah Winfrey's interview which was recorded yesterday at Lance Armstrong's home in Austin, Texas, ran over two and a half hours long.

Discovery Networks International issued me this image taken during the interview which was conducted on Monday and which will be shown on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network as part of her new talk show Oprah's Next Chapter.

South African viewers will be able to watch the cheating Lance Armstrong's interview online at oprah.com with what will now be part one (90 minutes) on Friday 18 January streamed live at 04:00 in the morning (South African time) at the same time as the first episode goes out in America, followed by part two on Saturday 19 January at 04:00 in the morning (South African time).

South African viewers will also be able to tune in to TLC (DStv 172 / TopTV 453) on Friday 18 January at 19:30 (South African time) to watch the Lance Armstrong interview on Oprah's Next Chapter on television for 90 minutes. There is now word yet from TLC on whether part two will be shown in South Africa on Saturday 19 January at 19:30.

I just watched Oprah Winfrey's interview on America's morning show CBS This Morning on which Oprah Winfrey today discussed the upcoming Lance Armstrong interview. She revealed that the interview is being extended to two episodes due to the length of the interview.

"I'm not going to cut down the two and a half hours," said Oprah Winfrey. "As a matter of fact we have decided, literally on the plane last night on the way back, that we are actually going to go for two nights because it is impossible to cut 80 minutes out."

"As you all know, a 90 minute interview on television is really only 65 minutes. So we felt that to leave over half of this on the cutting room floor after millions of people have been waiting for years for many of these answers, would not be the right thing to do," said Oprah Winfrey.

I asked today whether this means two episodes - a part one and a part two - of Oprah's Next Chapter for South African viewers on TLC, but have not yet received a response. OWN has already confirmed that there will now be two simultaneous live streaming events over two consecutive days.

The latest adjusted TLC programme schedule for South Africa currently only indicates the one (first) 90 minute interview special and it's several repeats, although the addition of the "first" episode to the schedule was only made today. It's highly likely that the second episode which Oprah Winfrey only decided to extend the interview to today, will be officially added to the TLC schedule on Wednesday.

BREAKING. Oprah Winfrey's interview with Lance Armstrong to be shown on TLC in South Africa on 18 January as well as worldwide.

South African viewers are now going to see Oprah Winfrey's upcoming interview with the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong on television in South Africa on Friday 18 January on TLC (DStv 172 / TopTV 453) - Discovery Networks just picked up the special episode of Oprah's Next Chapter which it will be showing in South Africa and worldwide.

Discovery has just decided to pick up the episode for worldwide distribution similar to December's interview Oprah Winfrey did with Justin Bieber for Oprah's Next Chapter which was shown on Discovery's TLC channel.

Oprah's Next Chapter, Oprah Winfrey's new highly-rated new weekly talk show which started a year ago, is not currently being shown as a fixed series on any South African broadcaster.

It's not clear on which TV channel Discovery will be showing the 90 minute special interview (which will also be streamed simultaneously on oprah.com on 17 January at the same time as the episode is shown in America), but it looks as if it will be The Discovery Channel on MultiChoice's DStv platform where South Africans will be able to see this highly-anticipated interview.
UPDATE Monday 14 January 09:00 - I was just told the interview will be on the TLC channel; no timeslot yet.

Lance Armstrong is widely anticipated to admit to Oprah Winfrey on television that allegations of doping during his cycling career is true.

The moment I have more information about this I will bring it to you, I have asked Discovery and I'm awaiting a response on the specific channel for South Africa and the time.