‘Idols’ just not the same without Somizi, and it shows in the ratings

When viewers of Idols South Africa declared that they would stop watching the show if Somizi was not reinstated as a judge, they meant it and the recent Idols ratings show that they mean business. 

News24 reports that Idols ratings have plunged from over one million to just 693,000. That is almost a third of the show’s audience.

According to Broadcast Research Council (BRC) of South Africa stats from July, the show finally scored over a million viewers coming in at 1,018,607.

In terms of DStv stats, this makes Idols SA the pay-tv platform’s fourth most-watched show.

“The 693,760 viewers for Idols on Sunday, 8 August with host ProVerb means that the show abruptly plunged to the 10th most-watched show on DStv during the month,” reported News24.

As shocking as that is, this is the most viewers for an episode of the series during August. Last month’s other Idols episodes drew even smaller audiences to Mzansi Magic’s Sunday evenings.

The Idols ratings for 8 August were immediately after M-Net’s announcement that Somizi would no longer appear in the show’s episodes after that point.

The announcement came after viral audio recordings featuring Somizi’s now-estranged husband, Mohale Motaung, claimed physical abuse among a range of other accusations and revelations. 

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The choreographer and former Idols SA judge issued a statement shortly thereafter denying Motaung’s accusations and confirmed that he would be taking legal action against him. 

M-Net tried to get around the fracas by announcing that a new guest judge would join Unathi Nkayi and Randall Abrahams every week in Somizi’s absence but the star power of the guest judges has done nothing for ratings. 

Somizi’s fans have lodged various petitions in an effort to get him back on the show. At the time of writing, none of the petitions had reached their signatures target.