Despite reality shows commanding low television ratings as compared to fictions shows, they are nonetheless important, since they create awareness for the channel through media coverage, according to the participants at a session on reality shows, part of the Ficci Frames convention. The participants also observed that non-fiction shows are interesting without engineering any false emotions.
For instance, the latest reality show Rahul Dulhania Le Jaayega, a reality show on NDTV Imagine, managed to garner a TVR (television rating points) of 5.6 points in the concluding episode in the week-ended March 6 as against Star Plus’s Yeh Rishta Kya Kelhata Hai’s 7.6% points , according to data released by TAM, a media audit agency. Also, among the dozen reality shows on air, Rahul Dulhaniya Le Jaayega was the only reality show which made it to the top ten list.
Sanjay Reddy, senior vice-president at Sun TV Network said, “Reality shows last for 3-4 seasons, and sometimes it is difficult to break even with these shows. They are high on investments and low on returns but current viewership trends suggest that reality shows are an important genre in the Hindi entertainment space.” A single episode of a reality show, hosted by a celebrity, could cost upto Rs 1.5 crore while an episode of a fiction show can be produced for about Rs 18-20 lakh.
Explaining how the definition of reality show has changed with the passage of time, Big Synergy Media Ltd CMD Siddhartha Basu said reality television in India was modest before, Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) changed the rules of the game. Basu has introduced several successful reality formats on Indian television such as KBC, Sach Ka Saamna and Aap Ki Kachehri. He added that in the pre-KBC era, reality shows was limited to quiz programmes, chat shows, music-based countdown shows or game shows. Basu compared the reality show Bigg Boss with a fiction show Uttaran, both on Colors. While the average TVR of Bigg Boss was only 2.75; for Uttaran, the average TVR was 6.