While many would hail Salman Khan as the star of television reality shows because of his successful stint on Colors' Bigg Boss, the Bollywood star faced tough competition from the participants of Zee TV's Dance India Dance Li'l Masters when it came to grabbing eyeballs. Both the shows averaged 4.8 million viewers for their 2014 seasons. Sony Entertainment Television's Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Amitabh Bachchan had an average of 3.5 million viewers while India's Raw Star, which aired on Star Plus, was viewed by 3.2 million viewers. Satyamev Jayate, the chat show hosted by Aamir Khan, had around 3 million viewers through the two instalments in 2014 on Star India's flagship general entertainment channel.
Bigg Boss' average season rating for the eighth edition leads the charts among peers, but there is a dip from the previous season's ratings. Bigg Boss season 7 saw an average viewership of 5.2 million, with the launch rating at 7.7 million and the finale rating at 9.6 million.
The two shows aired at different times during the year. Bigg Boss launched on September 21 while Dance India Dance Li'l Masters launched on March 1 and its last episode was on June 21. The genres for both the reality shows are also very different. Bigg Boss 8 is a format imported from Dutch production house Endemol, where a group of celebrities is put into a house and must co-exist in isolation. Dance India Dance Li'l Masters is an extension of Zee Entertainment Enterprises film and television production house Essel Vision's talent show Dance India Dance.
The 2014 edition was the third season of the show.
The audiences lapped up both the shows equally well as the average ratings for the two are neck and neck. Both the shows were seen by roughly 4.8 million viewers per episode. "While they are from different genres, they both managed to appeal to the audiences. Dance India Dance is an established franchise on television and its extension for kids has worked well. Bigg Boss has been successful since it satisfies the voyeuristic tendencies of any television viewer and has the celebrity factor in Salman and the contestants," says an executive with another broadcast network.
However, the eyeballs have cost Zee far less than they cost Colors. Industry estimates peg the cost of producing Dance India Dance Lil Masters at almost one-third of Bigg Boss. While both the properties are profitable, there is a difference in the spot rates and sponsorship rates. Exact figures are not available, but industry experts estimate that the rate of advertising on Dance India Dance Li'l Masters for a 10-second spot will be between a third and half of the rate on Bigg Boss 8. "You have to also see that the nature of Bigg Boss is that it launches and then sees a dip and then starts gaining. As the audience becomes accustomed to the participants, the ratings rise. In case of Dance India Dance Li'l Masters, the performances of the kids are the main attraction. Also Bigg Boss is aired daily and Dance India Dance Li'l Masters is a weekend show," says a media planner. Bigg Boss 8 has four more weeks left in the current instalment after the show's tenure was extended. Khan, whose commitment to the show was for three months, is no longer the host, and has passed on the mantle to choreographer-writer-director-actor Farah Khan for the remainder of the season.
