These are the primetime adult television viewing figures for April 2022.
If you can't see the listing below, then click this link to access them in a document instead:
Top Shows on TV: April 2022.
Special Notes
Audiences are not turned on
Interesting to see that there's not a huge amount of ooh-la-la for e.tv's risqué The Black Door. Quite the opposite.
We imagined the 21h30 ratings would shoot up with viewers tuning in to see the seldom seen sex and nudity on South African TV but that didn't happen - viewers fled!
The 21h30 timeslot on e.tv lost a whopping 1-million viewers between March and April when The Black Door replaced Imbewu in the channel's
new primetime schedule.
Viewership for Imbewu's most watched episode in March was
3,442,796 viewers in contrast with The Black Door, which had a viewership of 2,449,977 viewers for its most watched episode on 14 April, three nights after its premiere.
Audience Share in the timeslot shrank from 42.6% in March to 35.1% in April.
To be fair and clear, Imbewu's top episode in April happened on 4 April, while it was still on at 21h30, and it attracted a lower-than-usual rating of 2,860,068 viewers, but then it never had the opportunity to reach its usual top episode viewership of over 3-million viewers because it changed time to 21h00.
Ultimately and in a nutshell: The Black Door attracted fewer viewers than Durban Gen,
which has just been cancelled.
Why did viewers flee? Some theories:
Out of fear.
A feeling of "Whoa, that's too much information after the long day I've had."
Not interested in the world of prostitution.
Are interested in the world of prositution but not in the perspective portrayed on the show.
Too violent.
Unable to watch with other members of the family.
Enjoyed watching Imbewu at 21h30.
People
are actually turned on - they start watching but then get hornballs and turn off their TVs to get "otherwise engaged".
A fashion hit and not a miss for House of Zwide
In contrast with the above, House of Zwide attracted its highest viewership since its premiere in
July 2021. It debuted with 4,241,023 viewers and attracted 4,589,276 viewers this month.
Big Brother gets a bit bigger
After losing 25% of its audience for the poor quality Sunday night shows, Big Brother's ratings increased for the finale with 752,573 viewers, equalling the Idols 17 penultimate episode and thereby having a higher viewership than the Idols 17 finale.
This is still over 400,000 fewer viewers than the timeslot used to attract during Idols' heyday.
If you can't see the documents above, here's an overview of the Top 5 shows per channel/broadcaster:
SABC1
| Show |
Viewers |
| Uzalo |
6,471,686 |
| Generations: The Legacy |
5,566,826 |
| Skeem Saam |
4,096,548 |
| The Estate |
3,904,719 |
| Zulu News |
2,625,221 |
SABC2
| Show |
Viewers |
| Muvhango |
3,285,619 |
| Hlala Kwabafileyo |
1,066,447 |
| Giyani |
987,098 |
| 7De Laan |
897,739 |
| Presidential Address |
872,141 |
,
SABC3
| Show |
Viewers |
| Titanic |
793,301 |
| Ice Age Continental Drift |
630,920 |
| Life of Pi |
563,017 |
| Ice Age:Dawn of the Dinosaurs |
561,932 |
| Serengeti |
559,490 |
e.tv
| Show |
Viewers |
| Scandal |
5,274,616 |
| House of Zwide |
4,589,276 |
| Mr Bones 2:Back From the Past |
3,238,200 |
| Imbewu |
2,860,068 |
| Durban Gen |
2,753,425 |
DStv
| Show |
Viewers |
| Gomora |
1,278,247 |
| The Queen |
1,077,302 |
| Umbuso |
1,062,406 |
| Our Perfect Wedding |
925,150 |
| Date My Family |
861,816 |
Please note: these ratings don't include viewership from DStv Catch Up, YouTube, Viu or eVOD. They only reflect the viewership of people who watched on the day, at the time of broadcast.
For an explanation of the TAMS, please see:
The TAMS Ratings Explained.