M-Net's ploy of converting
Binnelanders from a weekly one-hour drama to a daily half-hour soapie has proven a major success for the channel.
A smart strategic move to hook a faithful Binnelanders following before the closure of Open Time on 1 April seems to have paid major dividends, as the show has gained over 30 percent more viewers in two months.
In January - when Binnelanders was still airing once weekly - it had an audience of roughly 289,000 viewers.
By Week 11 (12-18 March) the daily show was averaging 420,700 viewers, reaching more than 500,000 viewers at its peak on Monday 12 March.
The aim was to give Binnelanders the increased exposure offered by the generous
Egoli lead-in, and to establish a loyal following which would hopefully stick with the show once Open Time ended.
They certainly succeeded in gaining significantly more viewers for the show - although we have yet to see the first TAMS data post-Open Time.
In January Binnelanders was the 10th most-watched show on M-Net - in Week 11 it was up to 6th, although it would have been higher had a popular movie (Stealth) not stolen its thunder that week.
Binnelanders is currently ranked the 8th-best South African show in the TVSA Ratings, as rated by readers of this website.
TVSA has compiled the Top 10 Shows per channel viewing figures for Week 11, 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).
For the full listings, go here:
Week 11: 12-18 MarchOther Interesting NotesSABC1Controversial Xhosa mini-series uMthunzi we Ntaba premiered on Thursday 15 March at 21h00 and instantly became the 4th most-watched show on the channel in Week 11, with 3,280,700 viewers on average and a 48% audience share.
The
backlash to the show's controversial subject matter of male initiation in the Xhosa culture was instant and massive, prompting the SABC to shelve the show after only the second episode.
It will be interesting to see the viewership for Week 12...
SABC2The second season of the sitcom Going Up Again, starring Rex Garner and Joe Mafela, premiered on Sunday 18 March at 19h00.
An average 1,871,900 viewers tuned in for the premiere, giving the show a 25% audience share and making it the 3rd most-watched show on SABC2 in Week 11.
Twenty-six episodes of the show were shot in 2006 but only 13 aired last year, under the title Going Up. The show went on hiatus and returned this year as Going Up Again, starting with the 14th episode from Season 1.
SABC3The 2007 Cricket World Cup began in March and has since dominated the SABC3 primetime viewing. Although the cricket averages around 887,700 viewers over the course of Week 11, South Africa's opening game - against the Netherlands - was watched by an average of well over 1.3-million viewers.
In that game Herschelle Gibbs became the first ODI cricketer in history to hit six sixes off an over, and numerous other records were set by South Africa.
On that night
Generations on SABC1 took a hit of 500,000 viewers, who presumably helped boost SABC3's viewership for that night.
e.tvThe improvisational comedy show
Whose Line Is It Anyway? began a new season on e.tv in late February, but the show has clearly lost its appeal for South African viewers.
On Wednesday 14 March at 20h00 only 540,300 viewers tuned in to watch the show, which is wel below the average for shows airing on e.tv at 20h00.
By way of comparison, these are the viewing figures for all of e.tv's shows in that timeslot:
Monday: Fear Factor South Africa (1,408,800 viewers)
Tuesday: 3rd Degree (964,900)
Wednesday: Whose Line Is It Anyway? (540,300)
Thursday: Life Without Dick (1,042,100)
Friday: No Mercy (1,312,300)
M-NetCon adventure
Prison Break continued to perform strongly in its second week, going from 6th-most-watched show on M-Net in Week 10 to 4th most-watched show the following week.
The second episode of Prison Break II aired on Tuesday 13 March at 20h30, gaining 58,000 viewers from the week before. The show averaged 482,400 viewers and after
Carte Blanche was the 2nd most-watched show on the channel outside of Open Time.
The third season of
Lost, however, is not faring as well. The new season premiered one day after the new season of Prison Break, but in Week 11 the show only averaged 270,200 viewers in its 20h00 timeslot.
Prison Break has a much tougher timeslot than Lost as well - its competitors are Family Bonds (the most popular comedy in SA), the News in Sotho/Tswana/Sepedi, the Cricket World Cup and e.tv's
Forgive & Forget, which averages well over a million viewers.
Lost on the other hand has Generations (an admittedly huge adversary), the sitcom Wild Card on SABC2, the Cricket World Cup and the underperforming Whose Line Is It Anyway? on e.tv.
Could it be that South African viewers are not that turned on by Lost?
Other factors to consider are that Lost is in its third season while Prison Break is starting a fresh new second season in a completely new setting; and Prison Break's second season is non-stop action whereas Lost has picked up where it left off: with plenty of mystery but very few answers.
We'll keep a close eye on both shows.
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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 11 listings, go here:
Week 11: 12-18 March