Most-watched tv shows

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Uzalo, family meetings, and Anaconda amongst SA’s ‘most-watched TV shows’

Anaconda as the Sunday Night Movie, somehow, remains one of the most-watched shows on TV. Here’s the full list of Mzansi’s top programmes.

Most-watched tv shows

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Soapies continue to reign supreme in South Africa, as the five most-watched TV shows for the previous month raked in some monster viewing figures. Uzalo, Generations, Skeem Saam, Scandal, and Muvhango all drew millions of avid watchers – but they faced stiff competition from Cyril Ramaphosa, and a very familiar movie…

What is the most-watched TV show? Uzalo takes the cake

Uzalo clocked up an audience of over eight million for its episode on 23 February 2021. The ratings smash for SABC 1 also enjoyed an incredible 63.2% share of the entire TV audience across South Africa on that evening, making it the most-watched TV show out of the lot. Generations, with over 6.5 million viewers on the same night, comes in second.

Skeem Saam was also a huge hit on 1 February, raking in 4.9 million viewers for one episode. ETV got in on the act, with Scandal getting 5.2 million viewers on 25 February. The top five was completed by Muvhango, which had over 4.3 million people tuning in on 11 February. However, it wasn’t just soapies making a splash…

Ratings for Cyril Ramaphosa’s ‘family meetings’

Cyril Ramaphosa comes in for an honourable mention, with some of his lockdown addresses – colloquially known as ‘family meetings’ – clocking between 2.5 million to 3.5 million viewers on SABC. This does not account for the millions of other viewers who watch his speeches on the various news channels, or via a live stream online.

Essentially, we can assume that the most-watched man on TV in 2021 is indeed President Ramaphosa, such are the extraordinary times we live in. However, while we’re on the subject of family meetings, it’s time we had another honest talk.

Who is still watching Anaconda? ETV have had it as their Sunday Night Movie too often, for too long. The film may be the butt of jokes on social media, but with viewing figures like these, the flick that most of us should be able to recite line-by-line at this point will remain on the airwaves. We hope you’re proud of yourselves…

What are the most-watched TV shows in South Africa?

(Most recent data available from February 2021, provided by the BRCSA)

SABC 1

Photo: BRCSA

SABC 2

Most watched TV show South Africa
Photo: BRCSA / Twitter

SABC 3

Photo: BRCSA / Twitter

DSTV

Photo: BRCSA / Twitter

ETV

Most-watched TV shows
Photo: BRCSA / Twitter

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