And now for something completely different...

It's a brand new programming season, and cable TV has not let us down. Not only has The O.C. finally come to India (via, dizzyingly, both Star World and Zee Cafe), so has the hit reality series America's Next Top Model with host Tyra Banks to Zee Cafe, and a new season of American Idol to Star World.

The spate of reality TV, though, despite the aforementioned shows, seems to be waning; late last year we had a choice of shows such as The Apprentice, The Simple Life, Rockstar INXS, Invasion Iowa and Growing up Gotti on Star World "" now we're down to only American Idol. (Although this might be a good thing, as anyone who has seen an episode of The Simple Life or Invasion Iowa will agree).

Rather, the focus has appeared to shift from reality TV to drama; and with the end of the first season of Lost (HBO) and Desperate Housewives (Star World), there are some rather large shoes to fill. (Oddly, Star World chose to replace the Friday 10pm slot with the show Man vs Beast; we're not quite sure what the reasoning was behind that decision).

Zee Cafe and Star World have attempted to fill these shoes simultaneously and that too with the same programme: The O.C., a show about a group of people who live in the super-rich Orange County in California. The show was first aired in the United States in August 2003, on Fox, and immediately became a hit.

Zee Studio shows two shows a week, and at this rate Star World has understandably fallen behind. "We knew that Star World was going to show The O.C. as well," says a Zee representative, "so we started a couple of days ahead of them and showed two episodes a week. Most English language programming is on a shared basis, so there's bound to be overlap.

For instance, Star World is only just going to show Friends Season 10 from February, whereas we've already started showing it on Zee Cafe."

The introduction of a new reality TV show, America's Next Top Model, is attributed to "the search for new content". "We've introduced Bombay Talking and in-house programming such as Simply Style, Late Night with host Nina Manuel, and others. America's Next Top Model is just another way to add more flavour to the channel."

Zee Cafe, formerly Zee English, is an interesting mix of programming; on the same channel you have shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm (although Zee is only showing reruns at the moment), easily the quirkiest American comedy shown on Indian television, along with Star World's Arrested Development, and then in the same breath as it were, you get shows like Bombay Talking, a rather baffling soap, unintentionally hilarious in parts, that no one quite knows what to make of.

Star World, after the exit of its star programme Desperate Housewives, is relying on new seasons of American Idol and the The O.C. to keep it interesting, although we are assured that next month we will see new seasons of such delicacies as Frasier (why has this show stayed off-air for so long?) and Little Britain.

What is definitely missing from Star World is the law and police dramas which it used to air extensively; the final season of The Practice aired last year, and somehow NYPD Blue and Law and Order have disappeared also. The only show that is remotely law-related is Kevin Hill, which hangs on the rather tenuous story thread of a young attorney, rich and living the fast life, suddenly inheriting a baby niece and having to make some life changes.

We definitely need to see some change in this trend; why not bring the acclaimed series CSI (Crime Scene Investigation, there are two separate series based in Miami and New York) to India? But if all else fails, there is at least the award-winning Monk, starring Tony Shaloub, Friday nights at nine on Star World.

Another rather alarming trend is the advent of "magical" TV shows of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer variety. While not quite as bad as Buffy, Star World still airs Angel, and the steadily deteriorating Charmed (which, I staunchly believe, started out very strong. Women who are able to freeze time, 'orb' from one place to another and blow up demons? What's not to love?).

There is also Tru Calling, which just ended this week, Smallville and The Collector on Star World, as well as shows like Witchblade on Zee Cafe, which makes one think that the TV viewing population of the world has been taken over completely by 12-year-old girls.

Nonetheless, we're in for some exciting viewing over the next couple of months; even the movie channels have bucked up and are giving us Oscar-nominated movies regularly in the run-up to Oscar season. (They should really be better advertised though, what is the point of showing movies like Matchstick Men and About Schmidt if no one knows they're on?) Soon there will be absolutely no reason (or even less reason than there is now at least) to leave our couches, ever.