Season Greetings

The Indian Idol team is gearing up to conduct auditions for its fifth season; MTV Roadies’ seventh season took off last month with a new vigour; the third round of Splitsvilla is already on; Jhalak Dikhla Jaa wants to be back soon to capitalise on the popularity of dance competitions while preparations are on for the third season of 10 Ka Dum. All these shows have one thing in common—they enjoyed high TRPs and success during their first season. However,in their successive seasons most of these shows have registered a drop in viewers’ interest.

Danish Khan,marketing head of Sony Television,admits to the dip in the ratings of Indian Idol even though “in the current scenario,the show is holding up its own extremely well”. He attributes the wane in the audience interest to the unexpected rise in the number of reality shows on television in the recent years. “When we started off,we were one of the first reality shows. It was a novelty and was bound to do well. Now that there are so many similar shows,it’s obvious that the audience will be divided,” he says.

Khan,however,says that it’s not fair to compare TRPs of 2005 with today’s. “The whole system of calculation was different then. There were lesser players at that time,” he explains. Pankaj Saraswat,conceptualiser of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge,agrees. “If you include regional TV,there have been a total of 44 shows which are inspired by The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. This has obviously led to an overkill and fragmentation of the audience. But even if you take all that into consideration,the fourth season of the show still managed to do well and make money,” he says. Saraswat,however,has no immediate plans of producing another season of the show.

While Saraswat calls this “the law of diminishing utility”,Rupali Kadyan,producer,Contiloe Films,blames the lukewarm response to new seasons on the lack of innovation. “Maybe the show producers need to work on the concepts. The last season of Nach Baliye fell flat because the couples didn’t even behave like they were in love,which was the USP of the show. The entire season was forced,they should have stopped on a high note,” she says.

Shows like Indian Idol,The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and Jhalak Dikhla Jaa have mostly stuck to the same format since the first season. Unlike them,Roadies,Splitsvilla and 10 Ka Dum decided to introduce changes in their last seasons to up the viewers’s interest. Barring two episodes,10 Ka Dum had only celebrity guests in its second season. Roadies took the show to international ground to add some variety in the space and tasks. Splitsvilla revamped the show every season. They even changed the entire format as well as the boy-girl ratio every season. Unfortunately,this didn’t work either. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa is one programme that has regularly tried different variations of the show keeping the interest high in musical contest. And for the third season of Koffee with Karan,likely to start in June,the chat show host Karan Johar promises fresh gossip. “Everyone has new friends,new enemies. It should be interesting,” he says.

Even though the shows seem to be going downhill,what makes the channels keep pumping in the moolah? “It’s a brand-building exercise. People associate Indian Idol with Sony. The show still enjoys a large chunk of the channel viewership. So,I don’t see why we should take it off air,” Khan says. The same can be said for The Great Indian Laughter Challenge,the show that was responsible for the instant popularity of Star One. While they have taken the hint and stopped the show for the time being,it looks like other channels need a more direct message.