Motswako logo from yesteryear.SABC2 is in urgent need of Motswako: The Fix. The talk show's ratings have plummeted by as much as a million viewers for some episodes since it's move from it's Monday night / 21h30 timeslot.
The show first moved to Wednesdays at 18h00 on Wednesday, 8 May this year and viewership plunged immediately.
As reported on TVSA at the time, the ratings dropped by half when it shifted to the new time. The penultimate Monday night episode banked an average of over 1.9 million viewers and the first Wednesday night episode attracted an average of just over 900 000 viewers.
The sudden decline could have been attributed to audiences not knowing it had moved and needing to get into a habit of watching it at the new time. If this was the case, the numbers would have increased over time but months have passed and it hasn't happened.
On Wednesday, 25 September (the most recent
figures published on TVSA) the show attracted a mere 857,000 viewers. Not even the end of repeats and the introduction of a new host have been able to improve it.
New host Mapaseka Mokwele
replaced Penny Lebyane on 14 August and it's had little-to-no impact.
This is what the average viewership looked in August and September, after Mapaseka's debut (provided by
SAARF):
| Wednesday, 14 August 2013 (Marginal increase) |
1,071,000 |
| Wednesday, 21 August 2013 (Return to under a million) |
949,000 |
| Wednesday, 28 August 2013 |
949,000 |
| Wednesday, 4 September 2013 |
979,000 |
| Wednesday, 11 September 2013 (Quick spike) |
1 286,000 |
| Wednesday, 18 September 2013 (Return to under a million) |
918,000 |
| Wednesday, 25 September 2013 |
857,000 |
When SABC2 announced the news that the show would be switching times, the channel stated that it was to increase the show's viewership which regularly reached well over 1.5 million viewers. Clearly it's
not going to happen.