Most watched TV programmes: Reality hooks the urban viewer

Three reality shows figure in the top 5 most watched TV programmes; KBC tops the charts but draws flak on social media

After the relatively weak showing of Big Boss 10, the buzz among television networks was that Indian audiences were finally tiring of their obsession with reality shows. The ratings for the recent crop of reality shows seem to challenge that view, as three shows figure in the top five (urban) and one in the top five (urban plus rural) most watched television programmes. Raj Nayak, COO at Viacom 18 says, “While other channels did reality shows on and off, now everyone has upped the ante on this genre.”

Even as reality shows grab eyeballs in the television watching universe, there is an increasing fallout of these shows on the digital space too. Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), for instance, is raising the heat on social media as it has riled up a large section of viewers with the quality and tone of its questions. Reality show viewers also throng the digital spaces to get behind the scenes of their favourite shows, actors and extra footage. Nayak says that Colors has been producing at least one reality show every quarter thereby fulfilling the expectations of our GEC audience. “We have been consistent over the last seven years,” he adds. 

For Sony Entertainment Television (SET), the flagship Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), KBC has been a shot in the arm. Launched in August, it has managed to keep the channel from completely falling off the charts at a time when it has lost popular shows. It has had to pull out one of its prime-time fiction shows and temporarily suspend its popular comedy show, KBC helped fill the gaping holes in its viewership calendar and also keep advertisers at bay. 

For Colors, the show Fear Factor: Khatron ke Khiladi (KKK) is in its eighth season and many believe that apart from its regular adventure-thrills promise, the show has gained because of it being shot in exotic Spain. And Amul Sa re ga ma pa Little Champs has been among Zee TV’s staple favourites for a while now, hooking audiences with its talent hunt format and celebrity judges. Nayak says, “The challenge with format shows are we need to keep reinventing every season. This year the combination of Rohit Shetty along with differentiated stunts and a new location like Spain has helped in giving KKK a big boost.”

Colors has had different hosts since the first season which aired in 2008. While some like Akshay Kumar (season 1, 2 and 4) returned for multiple seasons, others like Priyanka Chopra and Arjun Kapoor (season 3 and 7 respectively) hosted the show for one season each. This is Shetty’s third outing. 

According to a report by BARC India on the urban market male and female audiences in the 22-40 age group form the biggest chunk of viewership in the prime and late prime time slots on television. This is when reality shows are aired. Among urban viewers, the report said, maximum viewership is garnered by the GECs during prime time. This is what pushes networks to charge high ad rates for prime time slots on their GECs and thereby it makes it doubly important to get the programming mix right for the given time slots.

For SET, this was proving to be an issue when one of its weekday prime time fiction shows, Pehredar Piya Ki, found itself out in the cold following public outrage over its storyline. Around the same time, the channel had to stop airing its popular comedy chat show (The Kapil Sharma Show) because it says the man helming the show, Kapil Sharma took ill, causing production of fresh episodes to halt, and forcing the channel to air re-runs of the show in that time slot instead. The show is set to return once Sharma is back on his feet, but uncertainty around its future continues. 

“Kapil has taken a break due to his deteriorating health. Once he is physically fit, the show will be back. We have multiple shows as a back-up in both reality/comedy space as well as big-ticket fiction shows, but we are hoping to get Kapil fit soonest,” says Danish Khan, EVP and business head, SET.
 

However, the return of Amitabh Bachchan anchored KBC, the game show, which was brought back to television after a break of three years seems to have helped the channel. He has had the audiences hooked with his banter with participants. But while the ratings have soared on TV, audience reaction on social media has been mixed. A barrage of tweets have called out the host and title sponsor of the show, Jio, for its biased questioning that glorifies the prime minister and present government’s policies. While many believe that this is par for the TRP course, a few think it will hurt the show, its host and the network in the long run as it destroys the credibility of the format.