The people's cries have finally been heard and the national broadcaster SABC is allegedly taking extreme measures to rectify the situation. SABC 1's Uzalo is skating on thin ice with the broadcaster after losing more than 2.6 million viewers in a short space of time. On social media, viewers' complaints about the poor storyline has been falling on deaf ears but now, the SABC is taking steps to solve the matter.
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Sunday World is reporting that the SABC instructed Uzalo's team to go back to the drawing board and come with a more interesting storyline or face getting the chop. Their dwindling viewership came as a shock to the top management of the SABC, as Uzalo is known as the most viewed telenovela in the country after breaking their own record in April when they achieved a stunning 11.4 million viewers.
According to the publication, last month Uzalo's viewership dropped dramatically to a very low 8.8 million viewers. These figures were taken from the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa.
In a bid to save the telenovela, SABC has put the drama series on 'notice' and told Stained Glass Productions, to change their storyline and be more creative. Another shocker is that the actors on the show are reportedly getting paid very low salaries.
SABC believes there is a direct correlation between the low salaries and the poor performance by the actors. An executive from the SABC told Sunday World that instead of taking drastic measures of canning the telenovela, they will try to remedy the situation.
“Yes, there are issues with Uzalo because of its dwindling numbers and the complaints we received from viewers who said the storyline was now boring. We urged the producers to come up with creative storylines to rescue the soapie because it was important to the SABC. Another thing we emphasized was that actors need to be paid decent salaries for their work,” said the executive to the publication.
Apparently the actors are worried about the future of the telenovela and their jobs but the producers assured them that they will not be jobless. “We are aware that actors are panicking, thinking that they are about to lose their jobs, but the SABC wants a strong Uzalo that’s able to retain its top spot with creative and topical storylines,” a board member told the publication.
Read more: Cast Reacts To Rhythm City Being Canned
Sunday World is reporting that the SABC instructed Uzalo's team to go back to the drawing board and come with a more interesting storyline or face getting the chop. Their dwindling viewership came as a shock to the top management of the SABC, as Uzalo is known as the most viewed telenovela in the country after breaking their own record in April when they achieved a stunning 11.4 million viewers.
According to the publication, last month Uzalo's viewership dropped dramatically to a very low 8.8 million viewers. These figures were taken from the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa.
In a bid to save the telenovela, SABC has put the drama series on 'notice' and told Stained Glass Productions, to change their storyline and be more creative. Another shocker is that the actors on the show are reportedly getting paid very low salaries.
SABC believes there is a direct correlation between the low salaries and the poor performance by the actors. An executive from the SABC told Sunday World that instead of taking drastic measures of canning the telenovela, they will try to remedy the situation.
“Yes, there are issues with Uzalo because of its dwindling numbers and the complaints we received from viewers who said the storyline was now boring. We urged the producers to come up with creative storylines to rescue the soapie because it was important to the SABC. Another thing we emphasized was that actors need to be paid decent salaries for their work,” said the executive to the publication.
Apparently the actors are worried about the future of the telenovela and their jobs but the producers assured them that they will not be jobless. “We are aware that actors are panicking, thinking that they are about to lose their jobs, but the SABC wants a strong Uzalo that’s able to retain its top spot with creative and topical storylines,” a board member told the publication.
“In fact, all we did was to ask that they be remunerated well for their acting because we learnt that some actors were paid next to nothing while their characters had grown to be loved by the viewers,“ they added.
Just last week, Rhythm City viewers were shocked to learn that their favourite drama series will be coming to an end. According to the channel, decommissioning the soapie is purely a business decision and part of a greater business strategy.
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Picture credit: zalebs.com
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Picture credit: zalebs.com