Bonang pulls off back-to-back 1.8-million miracle for SABC ratings

After much begging and pleading, it would seem fans of Bonang Matheba had the right recipe in mind when requesting her return to Miss South Africa.

According to an X post by entertainment commentator, Phil Mphela, the pageant brought in 1.8-million viewers this past Sunday. Broadcast on SABC3, the final pageant was preceded by the new reality show Crown Chasers. 

A publicity specialist for video entertainment at SABC confirmed the high-performing viewer numbers brought to SABC3 by Miss SA. This comes at a good time for SABC3 which has had a continuous drop in ratings and recently rebranded as S3 to realign its audience.

Proving to be a lucky charm for the pageant, Matheba has previously hosted during Zozibini Tunzi’s year when she won Miss SA and went on to take the title of Miss Universe. She also hosted for the prestigious 60th anniversary and this year’s hosting duties were during Miss SA’s 65th celebration.

Gushing over her return, Matheba said it was an honour “to grow from a judge to a host and one of the sponsors of this event”.

Matheba was able to amass the same numbers in 2020 when her mini reality series, A Very Bonang Year had over 1.8-million viewers glued to their screens.

“We are excited to announce that A Very Bonang Year reached a record-breaking 1.86-million viewership in its first episode of broadcast. This is unheard of for any broadcast platform in SA for a celebrity-driven reality show genre and at a time when SA viewers have more reality TV content to choose from,” Zandile Nkonyeni, head of PR: SABC TV Channels, said in a statement.

While it is unclear yet if she will be making a return to host the second Crown Chasers season, fans are sure to push the media mogul to rethink a fourth season of her beloved reality series, Being Bonang.