Despite the fact that the
third season of the popular dramedy
Desperate Housewives is drawing to a close on M-Net as we speak, the general hype of the show was still large enough for SABC3 to cash in when they premiered the series on Monday 25 June, at 21h00.
Housewives debuted to an average 1,138,600 viewers and a 17% audience share on SABC3, which was good enough to make it the 5th most-watched drama series in South Africa in Week 26 (25 June - 1 July), the No. 1 drama on SABC3 and the 5th most-watched show overall on the channel.
It narrowly lost out to Naked Science and
The Amazing Race, but the latter is a well-established show and the former has the word "naked" in the title. Science or not - it's a no-brainer.
Housewives was the top drama series on the channel in that week, however, beating fellow SABC3 dramas
CSI,
Heroes,
Everwood and
Jozi H.
The channel will be delighted with the premiere of Housewives, as decent drama ratings have been hard to find these days.
SABC3 viewers are bound to get hooked on the show, which means the channel will have a ratings winner for at least the next three or four years.
Its challenge will be to draw viewers away from SABC2's soapie
Muvhango, which - in comparison to the Housewives debut - pulled 2,740,300 viewers and a 37% audience share on the same night at the same time - more than double the viewing figures for Housewives.
Its other timeslot competitors on Monday 25 June were MTN Soccerzone (SABC1; 1,814,000; 29%) and
The Sopranos (e.tv; 810,500; 13%).
TVSA has compiled the Top 10 Shows per channel viewing figures for Week 26, as well as the Top 5 shows in a number of genres across all channels, using the TAMS Ratings provided by SAARF (The South African Advertising Research Council).
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To find out how TVSA calculates the viewership figures, go here:
The Primetime TV Viewing Figures ExplainedFor previous weeks, go here:
Primetime TV Viewing FiguresFor the full Week 26 listings, go here:
Week 26: 25 June - 1 July