STAR One hopes to get back into reckoning with new line-up

It started off as a way to ferret out talent for an existing programme, but soon went on to become one of the hottest properties for the channel. We are talking about ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’ (TGILC) on STAR One. This show even helped the channel attain the No.2 slot among the general entertainment channels for a few weeks.

STAR One is now hoping to emulate that act again with the second series of the popular talent hunt, 'The Great Indian Laughter Challenge Dwitiya', which will go on air from February 24 at 10 pm. This weekly show will air every Friday at the same time.

Sameer Nair, COO, STAR India is quite optimistic about repeating the success. He says, "The two shows that helped STAR One increase its reach among viewers were ‘TGILC’ and ‘Nach Baliye’."

Besides the second series of TGILC, STAR One is also hoping to strengthen its Friday line-up with three other shows. These include 'Jet Set Go', 'Maano Ya Na Maano' and 'DON', which recently went on air at 9 pm.

While ‘Jet Set Go’ a format game show hosted by Raju Shrivastav of TGILC fame will air every Friday at 8 pm starting March 10, 'Maano Ya Na Maano' hosted by Irfaan Khan and produced by Siddhartha Kak of ‘Surabhi’ fame will replace 'Darna Mana Hai' at 11 pm.

'Maano Ya Na Maano' is a show based on supernatural incidents from different parts of India. For instance, one episode deals with a place in South India, where jackals come to a mandir in the evening to eat prasad. No one knows the reason why.

STAR One is also heavily banking on a Balaji production ‘Kya Hoga Nimmo Ka’ – a daily show which will be aired from Monday to Thursday during prime time.

Deepak Segal, executive vice-president, content, STAR India, says, “We agree that we have lost viewership in the last few weeks, but we are confident of regaining our viewers with a fresh line-up of shows.”

However, industry sources attribute STAR One’s declining share of viewership mainly to the distribution problems in Mumbai, which contributes to around 25-30 per cent of the channel’s viewership. In some pockets of Mumbai, STAR One was pushed to a less used frequency band, however channel executives claim that efforts to sort out this problem has already begun.

As for TGILC Dwitiya, it will be an 18-weeks series and this time the viewers will get the opportunity to choose their favourite contestant along with the judges, Shekhar Suman and Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Nair says, "Although, the second series will be quite similar to its previous avatar, it will certainly be brighter, bigger, more exciting and funnier."

Let’s wait to see who gets the last laugh!

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