ABU DHABI // The UAE television series Khiyanat Watan Min Riwayat Ritaj has been ranked first in viewership ratings, with nearly three in four Emiratis watching the Ramadan drama, according to the Annual Gulf Ramadan Drama Poll.
The poll results showed that 72 per cent of Emiratis watched the nightly programme, which was hailed as the first national political drama in the history of television in the UAE.
The series, which translates as “Betrayal of the Homeland”, dealt with genuine and sensitive political events experienced by communities in the UAE.
The first episode broadcast after iftar on the first day of Ramadan on Abu Dhabi TV.
Within hours of its first broadcast, the programme was trending on Twitter. It had been watched by 48 million viewers across the Arab world, said Emirati actor Habib Ghuloom, one of the show’s stars who was also part of the production team.
"We always knew this would be an important work, but 48 million viewers was a staggering number to us," Mr Ghuloom told The National last month.
“This means it’s not just Emiratis watching – they would make up just one million viewers. This means that people from across the Arab world understood the importance of this work.”
Produced by Abu Dhabi Media, which owns The National, the serial was adapted from the novel Ritaj, by Emirati Hamad Al Hammadi, which goes behind the scenes of the Muslim Brotherhood. It depicts the history of the organisation and delves into the social life of its members, while showing the effect its destructive ideas have on society.
The characters in the television series were played by Emirati actors.
Ratings may have received a boost from the social media hashtags created for the show.
Actors and actresses from the series interacted with the UAE and Gulf audiences on social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
