Idols debuted on M-Net over 10 years ago, it extended to M-Net's Mzansi Magic channel from Season 7 and the weekly Sunday night performance Spectaculars are officially more popular on Mzansi Magic than they are on M-Net.
Since Season 9 premiered in early August this year, an average of 222 665 viewers have been watching the weekly Sunday night show on M-Net.
In contrast, an average of 361 799 viewers have been watching on Mzansi Magic - an average of over 130 000 viewers more.
In addition to the higher viewership on the channel, Mzansi Magic has also seen a notable increase in audience over the season in contrast with M-Net, which hasn't.
An average of 219 344 viewers watched the premiere on M-Net on 8 August and 241 095 viewers watched it on Mzansi Magic. By last week Sunday, 20 October, viewership on Mzansi Magic had increased to 427 794 viewers whereas viewership on M-Net dropped to just under 200,000 viewers.
M-Net also isn't seeing the same dramatic surges that are happening on Mzansi Magic. On Sunday, 13 October, viewership jumped to 534 799 viewers on Mzansi Magic while it only attracted just over 200 000 viewers on M-Net. The episode featured the Top 8 singing movie themed songs and saw singer Innocent Mabushe ousted from the competition.
In a bizarre twist of reality the same trend hasn't happened when it comes to the weekly Tuesday night Results Shows. In fact, the opposite is happening with M-Net attracting the bigger audiences for these.
An average of 119 854 viewers have been watching the results on Mzansi Magic whereas an average of 149 518 viewers are watching on M-Net.
Why? One explanation could be that those who are tuning in to Mzansi Magic are more internet savvy and use websites and Twitter to see who's left instead of tuning in.
One thing both channels have in common is that they share a dramatic drop in viewership from the Sunday Spectaculars to the Results Shows - the most airtight explanation for this is that it's the direct result of the clash with soapies Scandal! and Isidingo, which air at the same 19h30 time.