Cat-fight soap Bigg Boss or Big flop?
Friday, November 24, 2006
Source & Image: SantaBanta.com
It has gossip, romance and drama, but India's prudish version of the worldwide hit reality show Big Brother has few takers on prime-time television long dominated by cat-fight soap operas.
The show went on air this month with 13 Bollywood film wannabes and has-been models, including a former Mr India, with the same format -- but much less skin and scandal -- as the international versions.
The series, Big Boss, tracks participants for over 100 days during which they are locked in a house and cut off from the outside world, with the television audience voting out one contestant each week.
The last one standing takes home Rs.5,000,000 (50 lakhs)
The first episode was watched by fewer than three percent of Hindi-language viewers among the nearly 62 million Indian households with cable television -- a paltry share compared to the 11.4 percent share notched by the top soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
According to TAM Media Research agency, the first episode of Bigg Boss ranked number 22 among prime time Hindi entertainment programmes -- mainly soaps revolving around two women scheming to woo the same man.
"These ratings are quite low, especially for a new show for which there normally is far more buzz," added Ashutosh Bhagat of media buying agency Mindshare India.
The show is seen as a bellwether for advertisers who want to reach the more than half of the 1.1 billion population who are under 25 and make up the booming market for electronic gadgets and cosmetics, said media consultant Praveen Tripathi, chief executive of Hansa Consulting.
It has gossip, romance and drama, but India's prudish version of the worldwide hit reality show Big Brother has few takers on prime-time television long dominated by cat-fight soap operas.
The show went on air this month with 13 Bollywood film wannabes and has-been models, including a former Mr India, with the same format -- but much less skin and scandal -- as the international versions.
The series, Big Boss, tracks participants for over 100 days during which they are locked in a house and cut off from the outside world, with the television audience voting out one contestant each week.
The last one standing takes home Rs.5,000,000 (50 lakhs)
The first episode was watched by fewer than three percent of Hindi-language viewers among the nearly 62 million Indian households with cable television -- a paltry share compared to the 11.4 percent share notched by the top soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
According to TAM Media Research agency, the first episode of Bigg Boss ranked number 22 among prime time Hindi entertainment programmes -- mainly soaps revolving around two women scheming to woo the same man.
"These ratings are quite low, especially for a new show for which there normally is far more buzz," added Ashutosh Bhagat of media buying agency Mindshare India.
The show is seen as a bellwether for advertisers who want to reach the more than half of the 1.1 billion population who are under 25 and make up the booming market for electronic gadgets and cosmetics, said media consultant Praveen Tripathi, chief executive of Hansa Consulting.
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