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Primetime TV Viewing Figures
TVSA TAMS coverage - airing since 2006

Top Shows on TV: January 2017

Written by TVSA Team from the blog Primetime TV Viewing Figures on 09 Feb 2017
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These are the primetime adult television viewing figures for January 2017.

And they're shocking.

As you know, AFCON hijacked SABCs soapies in January and the impact on TV viewership was so extreme it's mindboggling to see.

We suspected that viewership would be dramatically impacted by the fact that Skeem Saam, Uzalo and Generations were sent packing to SABC2 and 3 during the tournament but the impact was even more extreme than we could have imagined.

All three shows disappeared from the Top 20 list for the duration of AFCON in January. They appear on SABC1's Top 20 list when they were still on the channel in early January but they didn't make SABC2 or 3's Top 20 list once they moved.

AFCON impacted on the soapies from Monday, 16 January and they're nowhere to be seen in either SABC2 or 3's Top 20 January lists. This means that they failed to reach the numbers of SABC2 and 3's 20th most popular show in the month i.e the last show on their lists.

SABC2's 20th most popular show was The Cube, which attracted 1,430,294 viewers for its highest episode, and SABC3's 20th most popular spot was taken by a Bobby Jones special with 604,220 viewers.

Neither Uzalo nor Skeem Saam nor Generations managed to beat these numbers on either of these two channels.

This means that each show plunged by these MILLIONS: (at least).

	Highest episode on SABC1 in January	Minus the 20th most popular show on SABC2/3	Equals: the plunge
Uzalo	8,116,993	1,430,294 (SABC2)	6,686,699
Generations	7,935,512	604,220 (SABC3)	7,331,292
Skeem Saam	6,238,204	1,430,294 (SABC2)	4,807,910

The Broadcast Research Council (BRC), who compile the lists, only release the numbers for the Top 20 shows on each channel so the actual viewership of each isn't available unfortunately, which means that this is the only way to tell what happened with these shows.

And all this for AFCON which didn't crack SABC1's Top 20 list by a single game.

The impact is so dramatic and mindbending that we contacted the BRC to check if the three soapies weren't included in SABC2 and 3's Top 20 for any other reason e.g. because they're signature SABC1 shows. The BRC confirmed that they haven't been purposely removed and that these lists reflect what happened on SABC2 and 3 during the month.

As you'll see, the numbers reveal other loud, exclamation mark moments like the fact that Generations viewers flocked to e.tv at 20h00 and boosted Gold Diggers to record ratings which resulted in it outperforming Rhythm City for the first time.

These are the numbers... if you can't see the listing below, then click this link to access them in a document instead: Top shows on TV: January 2017.

If you're unable to see either of the above documents, this is an overview of the Top 5 shows for each channel/broadcaster:

SABC1

Show	Viewers
Uzalo	8,116,993
Generations the Legacy	7,935,512
Skeem Saam	6,238,204
Moseto	5,129,339
Vodacom Millionaires	4,840,173

SABC2

Show	Viewers
Muvhango	6,870,919
Lotto Draw Live	6,557,525
Music	3,262,722
Keeping Score	3,179,555
Speak Out	3,104,016

SABC3

Show	Viewers
Top Billing	1,729,001
Isidingo:the Need	1,372,946
The Exes	1,144,224
Surf's up	1,098,815
Top Chef	1,086,840

e.tv

Show	Viewers
Scandal	3,949,473
Gold Diggers	3,306,110
Rhythm City	3,091,451
G.I Joe:the Rise of Cobra	3,063,387
Ride Along	2,929,638

DStv

Show	Viewers
Isibaya	1,232,253
Our Perfect Wedding	1,183,831
Saints and Sinners	888,459
Lockdown	756,310
The Queen	762,127

For further explanation on the TAMS, please see: The TAMS ratings explained.

16 Comments

Zondwa
09 Feb 2017 16:41

Oh my God... so Generations had less than 600,000 viewers? WOW!! And all 3 of these powerful shows failed to garner at least 1.5 million views whereas all of them come from nothing less than 6 million... Yho! Wow I wonder if the ~3 million viewers Gold diggers hijacked from Generations will remain loyal to the show. I doubt it though but hey.. February shall be interesting. This is probably the first time in history or at least since 1994 Generations failed to get 1 million viewers. Wow, a real SHOCKER! Isidingo's numbers are really NOT impressive since they had to only compete with news, a Mzansi Magic Show and 7deLaan, which aren't that much threatening. I thought the absence of Skeem Saam at 19:00 would leave people flocking to Isidingo or at least Rhythm City, both shows show close to no improvement.

max85
09 Feb 2017 19:11

I wa expecting Generations not to do well on sabc3,because most ppl cant get the channel in their areas .i am so shocked that most people never bothered to watch skeemsaam and uzalo on sabc 2 .its really disappointing. Wow Top Billing highest rated on 3 .Lockdown doing super well ,i am so proud of Black Brain .well done Golddiggers on the second spot .

Jam
09 Feb 2017 21:29

Funny enough BAFANA BAFANA our national team was not on the competition!! mxm this thing is not Fair, how could they and why did they use one of our most populer channel SABC1 for this crazy and non making sence AFCO while they know that BAFANA BAFANA is not even on the competition.. they should have used another channel not SABC1.

spongy
09 Feb 2017 21:30

So millions of South Africans finally got the chance to experience what a quality local show is like, well done Gold Diggers, it's unfortunate this is the final season though.. gonna vote a lot for it for the SAFTAs

deziclesthagawd
09 Feb 2017 23:43

Mzansi Magic kept me entertained at 20:00 during AFCON so I guess I'll never experience Gold Diggers. Lockdown is doing well. What a stellar production.

Show-Time
12 Feb 2017 22:24

SABC 3 kept me watching Generations every weekday at 19:30. And it was great that it followed my other favourite show, Isidingo. So Gold Diggers couldn't even go past Scandal despite enjoying such a considerable amount of time without competition? Let's hope it wont go the way of ashes to ashes, lol. I didn't know the excuse has been, people weren't aware that it existed, as if it's a new show. Fairytale is over though, the people's soapie is back where it belongs. I hear Lock down is writing Gen's orbituary at 8. You've got to love Gen's twitter critics... they make more hashtags than the show's viewership figures.

fratpack9
13 Feb 2017 03:19

Generations failed to reach 1 million viewers on SABC3 during Afcon? Gawd. This is bad. This got me thinking on what's the problem with SABC3? I mean if a powerful show such as Generations: the legacy fails to pull a mere million viewers, could the problem be with the be with the channel? I mean, this is Generations we are talking about here. The truth is, I never saw any show on SABC3 pulling over 3 million viewers ratings. This makes me ask the question about how many people have access to view SABC3 apart from paying viewers e.g dstv, top TV, open view etc... Is SABC3 accessible as much as SABC1? Im asking this question because I remember how bad it was trying to fix the tv Ariel (lol the TV anthena) so we could watch shows on SABC 3, before we got Dstv. If the problem with SABC3 is accessibility then could we agree when I say that SABC3 shows - Top billing, isidingo and the exe's are doing well in terms of ratings? But if SABC3 is as accessible to people like Sabc1 then, the problem definitely lies with the channel, bosses or the marketing of SABC3.

Goku
13 Feb 2017 14:40

well I can not say I'm suprised bout SABC 1 soapies they wouldn't survive on mzansi magic especially generation.

TVSA Team
15 Feb 2017 12:38

>>Is SABC3 accessible as much as SABC1?<<

No, it has a much smaller reach when it comes to accessibility. The exact numbers of people who can access each channel aren't available yet - according to the Broadcast Research Council there's a new measurement tool that's being introduced that will measure this.

For now though, the only representation of the reach is how many people actually tune in to each channel. This is an example we used in an article before AFCON:

In week 46 of 2016 (14 November - 20 November) this is how many viewers tuned in to each channel:

SABC 1 = 11,789,589 viewers
SABC 2 = 5,489,809 viewers
SABC 3 = 2,384,917 viewers

>>Wow Top Billing highest rated on 3<<

Yes, it was a Homes episode that highlighted the flashiest homes that were featured on the show in 2016.
e.g. Tokyo Sewale’s home in Riverside and Beks Ndlovo’s home in Zimbabwe.

max85
15 Feb 2017 14:12

So basically mostly people who have dstv are there ones that can reach sabc3.by this explanation isidingo is doing well then .i dont see people who watch sabc 1 &2 being interested in what sabc 3 can offer .

Goku
15 Feb 2017 19:55

tjo thank you tvsa Isidingo is more than good

deziclesthagawd
15 Feb 2017 23:30

Isidingo is a mess and a very confused soapie with no direction. Ever. I know plenty of real life people who've stopped watching it a long time ago. Also I don't think SABC 3's reach is that small.

max85
16 Feb 2017 06:34

I have gone back to watching Rhythm city at 7pm .isidingo is not interesting to me at the moment.

Show-Time
16 Feb 2017 12:44

A factor that TVSA failed to consider is that Generations played twice or three times at 22:30 on SABC 3 due to CRICKET.

Show-Time
16 Feb 2017 12:49

Nobody I know speaks or watches Isidingo, like 7 or 8 years ago. So I don't believe it's good.

Ingenuity
17 Feb 2017 08:24

I agree with deziclesthagawd; I also don't think SABC3's reach is that small. People just don't watch SABC 3, I guess people didn't realise that their soapies would be on SABC 2. I used to watch Isidingo religiously, as the years went by it stopped being that good. SABC3's reach has been blamed on the small numbers but what is the excuse for the low numbers when the shows were on SABC2?

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