Reality Shows: Reality Blues

Reality Show is a genre of television programming which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and features ordinary people instead of professional actors. Although the genre has existed in some form or another since the early years of television, the term "reality television" is most commonly used to describe programs produced since 2000.
The origin of reality television dates back to late nineteen forties but it was on the radio but in modern sense the first would obviously be the 12-part 1973 PBS series ‘An American Family’, which showed a nuclear family going through a divorce. The same thing was presented in a different form in the UK, which followed the events that underwent in the Wilkins family of Reading in 1974.
The Indian Scenario
"Antakshari “was born on September 3, 1993 and is the oldest running format show in the country with about 600 episodes. More than a million people across the world have auditioned for it. Another success has been Sa Re Ga Ma, which also brought talented singers like Shreya Ghosal to the forefront at a very early age.
Until the late 1990’s and early 2000’s the Indian television which mainly comprised of daily soaps and a few other family dramas, following onset of increase in the viewership of music channels saw the arrival reality shows. Channel [V] took the lead by airing the talent show for their all girl band ‘Viva’. The show was an instant hit, but the band was selected from a set of participants who were auditioned. The final four were selected and trained rigourously and finally the band was out with a bash. The band’s success unfortunately didn’t last too long and now it’s nowhere to be seen. But that did not stop Channel [V], they then came with a show called ‘Super Singer’ which saw the upcoming of a talented singer, Ravindra Upadhay, he too released a private album but he is dormant not visible on the television a since quite a time now.
Set aside Channel [V], switching gears and as we move on, the Sony Entertainment Television which popularly known as Sony TV started off yet another reality show titled Indian Idol in the early 2000’s.The show which boasted well famed jury that consisted the lights of Farah Khan, Sonu Nigam and Anu Malik began with a boom song. It is presently in its third season going on. The first season was the arrival of a well nurtured and talented singer, Abhijeet Sawant who was selected among the others who were equally good. The second season had its share of controversies especially during the closing rounds. The third as said earlier is still on.
Apart from the above mentioned there are a few others, the best of the lot being Kaun Banega Crorepati or KBC as it is popularly known. It too had three seasons like its Sony TV counterpart. The first and the second seasons hosted by the BigB and the third season was hosted by Shah Rukh Khan another popular actor. Among the three the first was a tremendous success and the last did quite well to meet up with the first’s stature and in the end almost accomplished the mission.
Voting Woes: The Controversial Player
The basis for voting is totally different. Each show and each channel have a different set of voting pattern and media partners. The voting is usually telephone based. The system is at times biased on the basis of the network of the private cellular players like Airtel, Hutch etc.
The revenue that’s goes and comes in from these shows usually runs into crores of rupees and mark is dependent of the amount of participation that goes. For example, KBC2 received nearly 10 crore calls and SMS’ for the 65 episodes that were aired. Its partners in this endeavor were BSNL and Airtel. KBC beats its own record of 90 million calls in 2000, which came from 300 episodes.
A caller is charged Rs 2.40 if he called on the BSNL line and Rs 6 if he used Airtel SMS or voice-enabled service. Airtel paid 22 crores for a deal with Star Plus. Of the total 10 crore figures, SMSes accounted for 15 per cent. BSNL contributed about 7.5 crore calls, while Airtel the remaining 2.5 crore. Industry sources also said Airtel has received Rs 15-17 crore via SMS revenue. And it’s a fact that KBC and Indian Idol have made history in terms of people's participation and have been great revenue generators as well. Whereas Sony TV roped in Airtel and Sify.com as its voting and media partners respectively, the partnership was well rewarded with the amount of revenue that it generated.
The format of the show is another vital aspect in fact is the thing of the entire show. Unfortunately Indian shows are usually foreign derived or deduced. For example STAR TV’s Khulja Sim Sim was a remake of America’s, ‘Let's Make A Deal’. Here the viewer could play and participate in the show. Same with the case of Kismey Kitnaa Hain Dum, a remake of famous British hit, Night Fever. It featured a karaoke contest where viewers could sing along. The others included Big Boss remade from Britain’s Big Brother which featured the famous infamous Shilpa Shetty and JadeGoody’s racist remarks row.
It can thus, be inferred that the reality show fever that has gripped the Indian viewership as of now is the in thing of Indian Television and will go on for some while, till our Creative Directors come up with something new and out of the box.