Aditya Chatterjee
Media

ESPN's Harsha Ki Khoj to debut from Nov 25

The 15-episode series will be telecast by ESPN on Thursdays at 8.30 pm

Talent hunt is the flavour of the season for all television channels, irrespective of their genre - whether it's a general entertainment channel, a music channel, or even a sports channel such as ESPN STAR Sports.

Closeup Dream Job - Harsha Ki Khoj, the talent hunt show of ESPN STAR Sports will make its debut from November 25. This 15-episode series will be telecast by ESPN on Thursdays at 8.30 pm. In addition, the grand final and the on-air commentary rounds will be telecast live.

The first three episodes will have capsules from the six audition rounds and the ‘Jury Watch' round. The fourth and fifth episode, which will be aired on December 16 and December 23 respectively, will have jury assessment of the 20 call-ins received during the two India-Bangladesh test matches.

The sixth episode, which will be aired on December 30, will take a look at the ‘behind the scenes' of the contest. This will be followed by six episodes of studio rounds starting from January 6, 2005.

These episodes will feature four contestants each, competing on air for the title and finally, one winner will be chosen from each episode. Thus, there will be six semi-finalists from the six episodes, while another six contestants will make it to the semifinals on the basis of viewers' vote.

The show with its human interest factor and interactive viewer voting will be a participative show for viewers and will involve not just die-hard cricket or sports fans but just about anyone who tunes in to a cricket match.

The semi finals of this talent hunt will be aired in three episodes from February 17 to March 3, 2005.

In continuation with ESPN's initiative of Hindi programming to reach out to a larger section of viewers, the entire show will be both in English and Hindi.

Raymond Leslie Hume, director of cricket and Indian production, ESPN Software India, says, "The contest is a real search for a presenter and a personality, who will join the team of ESPN STAR Sports presenters and commentators, a team that includes Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Wasim Akram, Jason Dasey, John Dykes and of course, Harsha himself."

The channel will be putting the selected contestants of the 'Jury Watch' round live on air during the India-Bangladesh test series scheduled for December. The regular ESPN commentary team will help the selected contestants to bring out their best during the live competition and will also ensure that the quality of commentary on the live game is never compromised upon.

Talking about Close-up's association with the event, Sanjiv Kakkar, vice-president, oral and hair care, Hindustan Lever says, "Close-up as a brand has always been an enabler to the youth to achieve their aspirations and also spread across a brand message of confidence. And in this event, it's only the contestants with confidence who could be a winner and realise his/her dreams of a successful career, and achieve this in one of their biggest passions - cricket."

© 2004 agencyfaqs!

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