These are the primetime adult television viewing figures for May 2022.
If you can't see the listing below, then click this link to access them in a document instead:
Top Shows on TV: May 2022.
Special notes
A month of darkness
The relentless, violent loadshedding that reached Stage 4 in May ripped through the country's TV shows like a tsunami.
As you can see, ratings plunged for these shows:
| Show |
April |
May |
Viewership loss |
| Uzalo |
6,471,686 |
5,783,736 |
687,950 |
| Generations |
5,566,826 |
4,637,861 |
928,965 |
| Scandal |
5,274,616 |
4,820,110 |
454,506 |
| House of Zwide |
4,589,276 |
4,520,246 |
69,030 |
| Muvhango |
3,285,619 |
2,408,898 |
876,721 |
| Imbewu |
2,860,068 |
2,328,412 |
531,656 |
| The Black Door |
2,449,977 |
2,232,013 |
217,964 |
| Gomora |
1,278,247 |
1,127,879 |
150,368 |
| The Queen |
1,077,302 |
752,068 |
325,234 |
The only explanation for these jaw dropping declines is the loadshedding.
And Imbewu's been battered the most overall, hit by a combination of loadshedding and moving time to 21h00 to accommodate The Black Door at 21h30.
Imbewu lost its No. 3 spot to Durban Gen, with a nose dive of
1,114,357 viewers between
March - when it was still on at 21h30 - and now.
Producers Word of Mouth, Videovision and Luyks Productions must be seething while screaming: "Give us our timeslot back!"
But wait, there's more
The bizarre aspect to this month's TAMS is that there are shows that weren't negatively impacted by the loadshedding: 7de Laan (18h00), Skeem Saam (18h30) and Durban Gen (18h30).
Viewership for each of these increased minimally, with 7de Laan recording the biggest rise for its most watched episode:
| Show |
April |
May |
Viewership increase |
| Skeem Saam |
4,096,548 |
4,132,873 |
36,325 |
| Durban Gen |
2,753 425 |
2,824,098 |
70,673 |
| 7de Laan |
897,739 |
1,040,016 |
142,277 |
The only conclusion we can reach is that it's because they're all earlier than the shows that were impacted and therefore indicate that people's nights and habits change dramatically after 19h00 when there's loadshedding.
Also, loadshedding started at 17h00 on some nights so more households might have had electricty earlier in the night before their loadshedding times kicked in.
If you have any other explanations please share!
If you can't see the documents above, here's an overview of the Top 5 shows per channel/broadcaster:
SABC1
| Show |
Viewers |
| Uzalo |
5,783,736 |
| Generations: The Legacy |
4,637,861 |
| Skeem Saam |
4,132,873 |
| Xhosa News |
2,691,071 |
| Zulu News |
2,520,180 |
SABC2
| Show |
Viewers |
| Muvhango |
2,408,898 |
| 7De Laan |
1,040,016 |
| Giyani |
952,721 |
| Hlala Kwabafileyo |
872,793 |
| Kwa Mamazala |
644,923 |
,
SABC3
| Show |
Viewers |
| Serengeti |
518,197 |
| Britain's Got Talent:the Champions |
514,182 |
| The Proposal |
468,281 |
| News |
437,313 |
| Abduction |
429,981 |
e.tv
| Show |
Viewers |
| Scandal |
4,820,110 |
| House of Zwide |
4,520,246 |
| Mama Jack |
3,121,462 |
| Durban Gen |
2,824,098 |
| Imbewu |
2,328,412 |
,
DStv
| Show |
Viewers |
| Gomora |
1,127,879 |
| The Queen |
752,068 |
| The River |
703,778 |
| Our Perfect Wedding |
608,597 |
| Diep City |
581,207 |
*We've adjusted the Top 5 to ensure each show is only listed once instead of twice as is the case in the Broadcast Research Council documents.
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.