The second season of sitcom City Ses'la premiered on SABC1 on Tuesday 29 August at 20h30 and attracted more than 2.6-million viewers, making it the top comedy in South Africa in Week 36 (28 August - 3 September).
It was also the fourth most-watched show on SABC1 in that week, as well as the fourth most-watched show across all channels.
The only shows that attracted more viewers in Week 36 were the usual suspects:
Generations (3.5-million),
Zone 14 (2.9-million) and
Tsha Tsha (2.7-million).
Week 35's top comedy -
Everybody Hates Chris - dropped to third in Week 36, behind City Ses'la and another SABC1 comedy,
That's So Raven.
City Ses'la is derived from the Xhosa phrase "Sithi ses'la", meaning "We have arrived!"
The half-hour sitcom is set in South Africa's latest lifestyle trend - "loft living" - and follows the lives of six 20-somethings from completely different backgrounds, living and loving together in Jozi.
TVSA has compiled the Top 10 Shows per channel viewing figures for Week 36, 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 36: 28 August - 3 September
Other Interesting Notes
SABC1
If you have a show you want folks to watch, make sure you get SABC1 to air it at 20h30 on any given week night. Shows that air in that timeslot, from Monday to Friday, are:
Monday: Zone 14
Tuesday: City Ses'la (which replaced Soul City)
Wednesday:
Mzansi
Thursday:
Zola 7
Friday: Tsha Tsha
There would appear to be no common thread - three are dramas, one is a comedy and one is a reality show.
But there is very definitely a common thread - all of those shows are preceded by the biggest show in South Africa, Generations, which airs every week night at 20h00.
Zone 14, Mzansi and Tsha Tsha regularly trade places as the top three most-watched dramas in the country, City Ses'la recently premiered as the top comedy and Zola 7 is the most-watched reality show.
All of them are driven by the massive following of Generations, which for the whole month of August averaged 3,428,400 viewers.
Which proves how valuable it is to have a popular lead-in show.
SABC2
The second home Tri-Nations rugby match against New Zealand - which the Springboks nailbitingly won 21-20 in Rustenburg on Saturday 2 September - was aired as a delayed broadcast on SABC2, at 18h00.
864,600 viewers tuned in for the delayed broadcast, despite the fact that the match was already over and had been broadcast live on M-Net and Supersport from 15h00.
Although we don't know what viewership Supersport pulled we do know that M-Net's broadcast of the same game was watched by 247,040 viewers, which means well over a million viewers tuned in to watch the game in total.
Yet three times as many viewers watched the game delayed than watched it live, highlighting the nonsensical monopoly Supersport has on the game.
SABC3
Documentary series
Healing Power Of Nature continues a slow but steady march up the ratings, and in Week 36 was the third most-watched show on SABC3, beaten only by channel stalwarts
Days Of Our Lives and
Isidingo.
The series consists of 13 stories which are filmed in locations across Southern Africa, considering many different groups of people and individuals, all of whom are using their contact with South Africa's wilderness and its wildlife to help preserve it for future generations – and to heal themselves in the process.
Healing Power Of Nature is currently rated as the 5th-best local show by TVSA readers, with an aggregate rating of 81.
e.tv
After the fun and games of Rush Hour 1 and 2, which were the top-watched shows on e.tv in Weeks 34 and 35, things returned to normal for the channel in Week 36, with
WWE Smackdown! retaking its pride of place as the top show on the channel.
The two Jackie Chan movies were the most-watched movies on any channel for the month of August, which proves ... heck, we don't know what it proves.
Jackie's the Man? Clearly South Africans think so.
M-Net
Survivor South Africa: Panama premiered on Sunday 3 September in the 18h00 timeslot, and did indeed crack more than a million viewers as the channel
claimed it did.
The premiere was watched by an average over the hour of 1,019,040 viewers in the adults 18-49 group. The total number of viewers on average was 1,273,668.
At its peak (the last 15 minutes of the show) 1,127,120 adult viewers tuned in, no doubt to watch the first Tribal Council.
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To find out how TVSA calculates the viewership figures, go here:
The Primetime TV Viewing Figures Explained
For previous weeks, go here:
Primetime TV Viewing Figures
For the full Week 36 listings, go here:
Week 36: 28 August - 3 September