For a Few Laughs

For those who grew up in the ’90s,Kevin Arnold,Jerry Seinfeld and Eric Forman are familiar names. And so are the shows they were a part of — The Wonder Years,Seinfeld and That 70s Show respectively. Comedy Central’s programming for India has given them a new lease of life. “Comedy works best on repeat,” Palia points out.

The channel has a fair mix of both American and British comedies. While shows like Allo Allo and Coupling are popular names from British television,That 70s Show,South Park,The Wonder Years and Seinfeld are popular American shows. While many have complained the repeats of old shows,Palia confirms that they finalised the programming after much research. “When we decided to launch the channel in India,we conducted a survey where we found out that most people faked about having liked a particular show. So many people who claimed to have liked Seinfeld or Goodness Gracious Me,did not even recognise the show’s clip when we showed it to them.”

Apart from these familiar shows which will perhaps help the channel bring in viewers,Comedy Central is showcasing new shows,such as Happily Divorced and Fawlty Towers,which haven’t been aired in India so far. “We also have newer seasons of South Park and Saturday Night Live,” says Palia,who believes it is a healthy mix of both new and old. The growing popularity of the channel is also testimony to the fact that Indians are now taking to niche channels. The channel’s performance over the last two weeks have pushed it up to the top-three slot among other English channels. “Comedy is a broad genre,which cuts across age,gender,race and so on. The genre is also universally appealing,” says Renuka Pai,a pharmacologist and a regular viewer of the channel.

Comedy Central now plans to introduce at least 18 shows a month. “We want to have a clear demarcation between weekday and weekend programmes. We will not be showing repeats of shows from weekdays over the weekend,” confirms Palia.